CHAPTER III 



THE sultan's stables 



Anxious as we were to get off to the desert 

 there were enough things in Constantinople to 

 keep us interested for several days, and chief 

 among them were the Selamlik, the only time 

 in those days when the outsider could get a 

 glimpse of His Imperial Majesty and a visit 

 to the royal stables. Of the Selamlik I shall 

 tell at length in another chapter, for it deserves 

 a chapter to itself. At the time we were in 

 Constantinople it was not entirely easy for for- 

 eigners to witness the ceremony, but permis- 

 sion to visit the Imperial stud was easily ob- 

 tained through ]Mr. Gargiulo. ^Ir. Gargiulo 

 was with General Grant on the latter's visit to 

 the Royal stables, when the Sultan offered him 

 a stallion, which the General at that time re- 

 fused. Later, when in France he saw what use 

 France had made of the Arab blood, he wrote 

 saving he would take the one offered. Mr. 



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