Ottoman. Hence the ataghan and pipe set round with 

 jewels ; hence the tespih or rosary, composed of ninety-nine 

 precious stones, which sometimes costs a fortune. When 

 a man would be thought great, it is very natural for 

 him to have recourse to what Lord Shaftesbury calls the 

 essence of imposture, gravity; and the religion, over which 

 the Turk is continually brooding, tends to produce the same 

 effect. This sense of his dignity, conspiring with the torpor 

 which seizes all things beneath the gloom of despotism, 

 renders him indolent and inactive. Pride however is a 

 lonely and melancholy affection, and the haughty Musul- 

 man is often'obliged to fly to wine to recruit his flagging 

 spirits; for, although the use of that beverage is forbidden 

 by the Koran, yet it has been for a long time connived at, 

 and taverns are now as common in Constantinople as in 

 any town in Europe. The Turk is not, however, a social 

 votary of Bacchus, he is a solitary toper, whose only object 

 is to get intoxicated. This is the most ominous feature in 

 the character of the Turk; he feels no pleasure but in ex- 

 cessive and unnatural excitement. The same languor ex- 

 plains why he so often appears to be a coward ; he is a 

 lion if roused, but his spirits are often sunk, and he feels 

 like a despot who has got no slaves to fear him. 



In a country where the relative value of money is en- 

 hanced by the contempt in which human life is held, where 

 there is no safety without power, nor power without wealth, 

 avarice is a natural vice. Every one who has ambition 

 unites to it the passion of accumulation ; and it is quite in- 

 credible what immense sums have been heaped together 

 in a short time by public officers and the slaves of the 

 seraglio. The treasures of Bechir, the Kislar Aga, who 

 was put to death by Mustapha III. to appease the popular 

 clamours, amounted to nearly four millions sterling, and 

 similar instances occur every day ; but, under a rapacious 

 despotism it is not sufficient to possess treasures, they must 

 also be concealed ; hence the frequent mention of hidden 

 treasures in Turkish history. It was a hidden treasure 

 which made the fortune of Ali Pasha of Janina; defeated 

 in one of his early engagements, and to all appearances 

 totally ruined, he sought shelter in some dilapidated build- 



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