142 
A CPtUSADE IN THE EAST. 
touching the romantic soil of Stamboul was of yashmacks , 
and dark flashing eyes, and forms of angelic contour. For 
a while I thought seriously of shutting my eyes the very 
first petticoat I should descry fluttering in the breeze ; hut 
eyes are indispensable where the hamil are continually bring¬ 
ing their battering rams to hear on one’s head. At last a 
bevy of chattering damsels loomed up in the distance hearing 
down toward me. Good gracious, what voices ! The croak¬ 
ing of ravens would have been music to the coarse masculine 
sounds that distracted my ear. It was the most barbarous 
gobbling of gutturals I have ever heard. Black eyes there 
were, to he sure, black enough all round, even underneath; 
which was rather a dirty sort of blackness. The yashmacks 
dropped accidentally, as they generally do when the observer 
is a Frank, and there are no Turks near. Every vestige of 
enchantment vanished in a moment. There was not a single 
passable face in the crowd. The features were coarse and 
sensual; the teeth disgustingly dark ; the costume slovenly 
and unbecoming. As if conscience-smitten, after having ex¬ 
posed so much beauty to infidel eyes, they hastily drew the 
covering over their mouths, leaving the upper part of the face 
partially visible, and altogether denuding the breast. After 
they had passed I turned to enjoy a different view, in the faint 
hope of discovering some compensating attraction. The case 
was now still worse. As they drew up their loose cloaks, and 
gathered around them* sundry highly-colored and tawdry rags 
of drapery, the names of which it is impossible to remember, 
their bare legs glistened underneath, buried over the ankle in 
yellow slip-shod boots and slippers; and they waddled over 
the rough stones very much like a parcel of ducks, making 
such awkward attempts at progress that it was quite distress¬ 
ing to see them. Surely the Turkish boots for females must 
have been devised by some clever fellow, who had in view 
the impossibility of their running away in them. 
It would be unfair, perhaps, to judge of the whole sex from 
these specimens; so I reserved my final judgment until I 
should see something more of Turkish beauty. Since then I 
have seen every variety that can be seen beyond the sacred 
