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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 
read in it some secret message. He pressed it 
to his bosom, then fastened it in his turban, and, 
after making some signs towards the window, he 
withdrew. The young gallant appeared from 
his dress to be nothing more than a poor water- 
* 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. 
