156 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



to their barracks. A noble appearance they presented. 

 The horses were first-rate, and the men fine strapping 

 fellows, who looked as if they could do the State some 

 service. We stood at the comer of a street past which 

 they were marching, and had a good view of them. 

 It was a very strong regiment, with a full complement 

 of a thousand men. Their uniform was of the new 

 school that is to say, after the European model. The 

 specimens of the regular infantry that are to be seen 

 at Smyrna and Constantinople, give but an unfavour- 

 able idea of the Turkish troops of the line. It be- 

 comes them little to be cross-belted after our fashion ; 

 and they seem to be sulky under the constraint of 

 their accoutrements. But these horsemen rode by in 

 gallant style, showing, as occasion arose, excellent 

 horsemanship, and gathering perhaps some vivacity 

 from the noble animals, whose curvetings demanded a 

 vigilant eye and firm seat. After all, cavalry seems 

 to be their natural strength, as it has been ever since 

 the days when they rode wild in the plains of the 

 Selinga. The natural genius of the people may be 

 sufficiently understood by a comparison of the gallant- 

 looking, serviceable dragoons, with the sluggish fellows 

 who carry the musket. They seem to be no more the 

 stuff whereof infantry is to be composed, than they 

 are the stuff of which sailors are to be composed. At 

 this latter transmutation many efforts have recently 

 been made, and a good deal certainly effected, so far 

 as regards the mechanical duties of the sailor. All 



