12 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
lias created symbolic phrases for expressing the 
secret sentiments of the heart. This language 
is most generally used by the Turkish and Greek 
women in the Levant, and by the African fe¬ 
males on the coast of Barbary. 
Castellan, in his “ Letters on Greece,” men¬ 
tions that when he was passing through the 
lovely valley of Bujukderu on the Bosphorus, 
his attention was attracted by a little country 
pleasure-house, surrounded by a neat-garden. 
Beneath one of the grated windows stood a young 
Turk, who, after playing a light prelude on the 
tambur, a sort of mandoline, sang a love-song, 
in which the following verse occurred :— 
The nightingale wanders from flower to flower, 
Seeking the rose, his heart’s only prize;* 
Thus did my love change every hour, 
Until I saw thee, light of my eyes ! 
No sooner was the song ended than a small 
white hand opened the lattice of the window, 
and dropped a bunch of flowers. The young 
Turk picked up the nosegay, and appeared to 
* Alluding to the love of the nightingale for the rose, 
which is a favourite theme of the Oriental poets. The 
nightingale, a bird of passage in the East, as with us, 
appears at the season when the rose begins to blow 
