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The Turks are very different from other Mussulnien 
in their public conduct at the periods of Ramadan 
and Easter. I have already said that they do not illu- 
minate their streets during the nights of Ramadan, 
and they have no horse races, sham fights, nor pub- 
lic games during Easter, as is the case in other coun- 
tries subject to Islamism. All the demonstrations of 
public joy are confined to walking gravely from one 
place to another, paying visits, eating as much as they 
can, and firing cannon and mortars belonging to the 
port, at different hours of the day. 
I visited the great dep6ts of drinkable water at 
Constantinople, which comes by the north-west of 
the city, from the canton of Belgrade, a village almost 
entirely inhabited by Greeks, as are all the surround- 
ing villages. 
There are three great walls in three different places 
in this canton, which closing up the passage between 
one mountain and another, form dykes which contain 
the rain water. These dykes are known by the name 
of bents. The largest bent is nearly three leagues 
from Constantinople. It is about 170 feet long, and 
15 feet thick at the upper part, with a great slope 
which greatly augments the thickness of the wall at the 
bottom. It is formed of hewn stone, and is in good 
condition. The rains had not yet begun to fall, con- 
sequently the dyke was nearly dry, there being only 
a small stream which ran through the middle of it. 
At a short distance from this bent there is another 
constructed by the Sultana Valide, mother of Selim 
the third. The wall, which embraces almost as much 
space as the former, is established upon a better plan, 
b ecause it presents an angle leaning against two strong 
masses on the side next the water, but the slope is 
