EUROPEAN TURKEY. 



711 



passed through a bazar, where the men did not set the dogs upon him, the boys peh him with 

 stones, die women spit upon him, and all curse him and call him cajfre. 



No people have such indifference to shedding blood ; the streets of Constantinople show 

 many dead bodies, and others are often seen floating in the Bosphorus. At the massacre of 

 the Janissaries, when 20,000 were enclosed in their quarters and killed, and when the report 

 of the cannon shook the air at Pera, it was as quiet there as if the firing was only to celebrate 

 a victory. No man was disturbed, or omitted his usual business. A late traveler with some 

 friends, came, unawares, across a road, over which a company of artillery were exercising at a 

 target. They were seen by the Turks, but the firing was continued, and the balls passed near 

 to the travelers. A Turk regards the life of a dog more than that of a man. This is from 

 respect to Quithmer, the dog of the seven sleepers, whom they believe slipped into Paradise, 

 where he now presides over letters missive, and a Mussulman writes Quithmer on the corner 

 of his letter, after cutting a piece from it, to show the imperfection of all human works. The 

 Turks are generally armed, and this, in a country where passion is checked by so few restraints 

 of law, leads to many murders. Any person of a different creed holds his life on the forbear 

 ance of a Turk. 



The perfidy of the Turks is manifested in their public, as well as private relations. An 

 officer, whose death is determined upon, is sent to his government, with every demonstration of 

 favor, but an executioner is despatched with a party, to kill him on the way, or on his arrival. 

 Sometimes the executioner goes alone, and when, after a long course of dissimulation, he is at 

 last admitted to the presence of his suspicious victitTi,he stabs him in the divan, and takes from 

 his bosom the Sultan's finnan or order, to shield him from the vengeance of the attendants. 

 Sometimes, however, the wary officer searches all suspected visiters, and, on finding the 

 order, sends back to the Sultan his messenger's head. Several of these messengers have been 

 sent to the Pacha of Egypt, but none have ever returned. Dr. Madden saw, in the course 

 of his short practice, many cases of poisoning ; a most formidable number, if taken as a pro- 

 portion to the whole people, and the best proof of general perfidy and treachery. 



It is evident, that all national character is the result of circumstances, but chiefly of civil and 

 religious institutions ; and to judge from the result, these are nowhere worse than in Turkey. 

 But in describing the Turks by their faults, it should not be forgotten, that they have one na- 

 tional virtue truly singular. Byron's description of an individual has a wider application. 

 " One virtue, and a thousand crimes," was not a personal peculiarity of the corsair ; it is 

 almost a national trait, for the Turks are distinguished for honesty. Their words are security 

 as good as bonds in other countries. Children are sent to make purchases at shops and are sel- 

 dom wronged ; the shops are secured in the master's absence with a string. It has been said, 

 however, that the honesty of the Turks is not the offspring of justice, a princi])le for which they 

 have no reverence in the other relations of life. A late traveler supposes it to be a consequence 

 of the contempt in which the Greeks were held, who were so fraudulent in their dealings, that 

 the Turks would take an opposite course from spite, and form a character for honesty on the 

 foundation of a bad motive. This, however, is to consider it too curiously ; and the Turks 

 should be allowed the full credit of national honesty in their commercial dealings, though rapa- 

 cious and unjust in their political and oflicial. 



The gravity of the Turks is in some degree a consequence of indolence ; and late traveler:; 

 represent them as cheerful in their private circle ; Dr. Madden often heard peals of laugh- 

 ter at night from the women's apartments. A Turkish house is a castle of indolence, images 

 of rest, of " quiet and of sleep profound," invade the mind at the threshold. The murmur 

 of fountains soothes the ear, some simple and monotonous tune is sounded for hours to compose 

 the master, the pipe is never from his hand, and he is seldom so happy as when all these means 

 have placed him in a state of reverie, in which, without being asleep, he can yet live without the 

 labor of thought, careless of the future, and forgetful of the present and the past. In all the 

 household arrangements and decorations, the gratification of the senses is more studied than 

 that of the imagination. There are no pictures, statues, or incitements to thought ; everything 

 tends to repose. 



The Turks are said to be encamped in Europe, to show the insecurity of the tenure by 

 which they hold their conquest, and their reluctance to follow any European customs. The 

 barber pushes the razor from him in shaving, the carpenter draws the saw towards him, and sits 

 while at work, the mason is seated while laying stones, the scribe writes from right to left, and 



