TURKEY IN EUROPE; §9? 



3. husband they wear a particular head dress, and leave off all finery 

 for twelve months. 



Tne Greeks, who compose a large portion of the inhabitants of 

 Turkey in Europe, are gay, witty, and cunning. They exercise vari- 

 ous trades, and appiy themselves to maritime affairs. They delight 

 in music and dancing. Tne rich are well informed, supple, and very 

 intriguing. They study languages, and make every exertion to be em- 

 pio>ed as physicians, drug-mans, or interpreters, or as agents by the 

 Turks who hold the first places of the empire. The ancient families 

 court the honour of furnishing the first drogman to the Porte, and of 

 being appointed hospedars, or sovereigns, ol Wallachia or Moldavia, 

 notwithstanding the danger attached to those eminent places. They 

 are at the same time in general, timid, superstitious, and exact obser- 

 vers of fasts and lents. Their priests are very numerous, and affect 

 austerity of manners. Tne superior clergy are well informed, and 

 tolerably rich: the other ecclesiastics are poor, and very ignorant. 



Cities, chief towns, edifices.. ..Constantinople, the capital of 

 this great empire, is situated on the European side of the Bosphorus, 

 It was built upon the ruins of the ancient Byzantium, by the Roman 

 emperor Constantine the Great, as a more inviting situation than 

 Rome, for the seat of empire. It became afterwards the capital of 

 the Greek empire ; and having escaped the destructive rage of the 

 barbarous nations, it was the greatest as well as the most beautiful 

 city in Europe ; and the only one, during the Gothic ages, in which 

 there remained any traces ot the ancient elegance in manners and arts. 

 While it remained in the possession of the Greek emperors, it was 

 the only mart in Europe for the commodities of the East Indies. It 

 derived great advantages from its being the rendezvous of the cru- 

 saders : and being then in the meridian of its glory, the European 

 writers in the ages of the crusades, speak of it with astonishment. 

 Constantinople is at this day one of the finest cities in the world, by 

 its situation and its pore. Tne prospect from it is noble. The most 

 regular part is the Besestin, inclosed with walls and gates, where the 

 merchants have their shops excellently ranged. In another part of 

 the city is the Hippodrome, an oblong square of 400 paces by 100, 

 whe re they exercise on horseback. The Meidan, or parade, is a large 

 spacious square, the general resort of all ranks. On the opposite 

 side of the port are lour towns, but considered as a part of the su- 

 burbs, their distance being so small, a person may easily be heard on 

 the other side They are named Pera, Galata, Scutari, and Tophana. 

 In Pera the foreign ambassadors and all the Franks or strangers 

 reside, not being permitted to live in the city. Galata, also, is mostly 

 inhabited by Franks or Jews, and is a place of great trade. The 

 seraglio abounds with antiquities The tomb of Constantine the Great 

 is still preserved. The mosque of St. Sophia, once a Christian church, 

 is thought in some respects to exceed, in grandeur and architec- 

 ture, St. Peter's at Rome. The city is built in a triangular form, 

 with the seraglio standing on a point of one of the angles, from whence 

 there is a prospect of the delightful coast of Lesser Asia, which is 

 not to be equalled. When we speak of the seraglio, we do not mean 

 the apartments in which the grand seignor's women are confined, as 

 is commonly imagined, but the whole inclosure of the Ottoman palace, 

 which might well suffice for a moderate town. The wall which sur- 

 rounds the seraglio is thirty feet high, having battlements, embra- 

 sures, and towers, in the style of ancient fortifications. There are in 



