APPENDIX. 359 



religion I found tlie reason for the acknowledged bravery of the 

 Turks in connection with, the Koran teaching that every one of 

 the faithful who falls in battle is translated at once to Paradise, 

 where he has any number of beautiful "houris" at disposal to 

 wait upon him and gratify every passion. Is it any wonder that 

 these men fight like demons for the defence or spread of their re- 

 ligion ? In my opinio^, it is by no means certain that Eussia 

 woidd get the best of a contest with Turkey at this time, at least 

 until Turkey's resources had become exhausted, and hunger and 

 disease had become Russian allies. 



It is said, however, that the Turks have never expected to 

 permanently remain in Europe, that they have always believed 

 they would sooner or later be expelled, and for many years 

 the Turks of Constantinople have buried most of their dead on the 

 Asiatic side of the Bosphorus on that accoimt. 



Constantinople itself has the most beautiful situation that can 

 be imagined either for commerce or residence, occupying the 

 sloping sides of the Bosphorus — a salt water river, so to speak, 

 connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmora ; it is fairly 

 divided into two parts by the " Golden Horn," an inlet or bay 

 which sweeps up between- Pera and Constantinople proper, Pera 

 being the residence of most of the foreign population and occu- 

 pying about the same relation to Constantinople that Brooklyn 

 does to New York. 



Approaching the city from the Sea of Marmora, it presents a 

 most beautiful appearance, its great mosques occupying the prin- 

 cipal points of vantage, with their graceful minarets towering 

 high in the air. Little steamers are darting here and there on 

 their way to Scutari (the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus), or the 

 various little villages along its shores ; the light and graceful " ca- 

 iques " (a species of row-boat) are plying hither and thither, and 

 altogether, the scene is one long to be remembered. A walk 

 through the city, however, dispels the illusion. The streets are 

 narrow, crooked, and dirty, in many places fairly paved with 

 mongrel dogs, which belong to nobody, and lie around under the 

 feet of passers-by with the utmost unconcern, while in almost every 

 quarter one is greeted with odors which are anything but pleas- 

 ant. The Turkish and Circassian women that one sees, as a rule, 



