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TURKEY IN ASIA. 



The inanner of building resembles that of European Turkey. The houses are square, with 

 courts, and flat roofs, which are often occupied for the sake of fresh air, and the cities have 



Top of an Eastern House. 



many domes and minarets. Fountains are found in the cities, generally. Many of the wan- 

 dering pastoral tribes live in tents. The food is generally plain and simple, and the general 

 population temperate and abstemious. Coffee is almost a necessary of life, and many tribes 

 live almost entirely from the produce of flocks and herds. The Koords eat a bread made of 

 acorns. The most common spirituous liquor is arrack, and it is often drunk to intoxication. Few 

 people are addicted to opium. The diseases are of almost every kind that are common in 

 Europe. In sandy districts, ophthalmia is common, and the plague commits ravages in cities. 

 The science of medicine is in a low state, and any person who assumes the character of a 

 Frank physician, may find much employment. The traveling is generally on horseback, for 

 there are few vehicles or regular roads. There are a few miserable post-horses furnished by 

 contract, or rather by tribute, on the routes of the chief cities, even as far as from Constantino 

 pie to Bagdad, but these are not to be had by travelers, unless they put themselves under the 

 care of a Tartar courier, who goes with despatches. For a certain sum, the courier takes 

 them, and furnishes horses and provisions, while the travelers find only their own saddles, bri- 

 dles, portmanteaus, whips, and leathern bottles for water. This is the most expeditious mode 

 of traveling ; the caravans are safer, but when in motion, they go but three miles an hour, and 

 they are subject to many delays. 



12. Antiquities. The site of ancient Troy is the foundation of many a learned controversy. 

 One of the chief attractions of the Troad is the " sepulchre of Ajax," a tumulus, surmounted 

 by a shrine. The ruins of several temples cover a considerable space with fragments of granite 

 and marble. The tomb of Ilus is a high, conical tumulus, of a remarkable size. Other im- 

 mense tumuU bear, somewhat doubtfully, the names of Hector, Priam, and Paris. Near Alex- 

 andria Troas, which is full of antiquities, is a granite column, nearly 38 feet long, and 5 feet 3 

 inches in diameter. The enormous masses of the aqueduct of Herodes Atticus, the walls 

 of the city, and the fragments of many buildings, remain. Asia Minor has numberless ruins of 

 architectural magnificence ; they consist in temples, theatres, arches, walls, tombs, and cities ; 

 but our limits will not permit us to describe them. 



The remains of the ancient cities of Babylon and Nineveh are extensive, but indistinct ; 

 those of the latter are on the Tigris, opposite Mosul, and those of the former, on the Euphra- 

 tes, near Bagdad. About 12 miles from Bagdad, is a heap of brickwork, 126 feet high, and 

 of the diameter of 100 feet. It is called Nimrod's Palace. This tower rises on a wide heap 

 of rubbish. The principal ruins of Babylon are immense mounds of brick, which seem undi 



