No unfrequent occurrence in Constantinople

Several years ago, delay in the payment of salaries, no unfrequent occurrence in Constantinople, caused great suffering among the humbler employees of the Government Other methods of redress having failed, the aggrieved parties betook themselves to the weapon of female force. Accordingly, a large body of women, mostly the wives of the poor men, but including professional female agitators, invaded the offices of the Minister of Finance. They filled every corridor, swarmed upon every stairway, blocked every door they could find, and made the building resound with lamentations and clamours for payment.

The Minister managed to escape by a back entrance. But the women would not budge. It was vain to call in the police or soldiers to intervene. The indecorum of a public application of force in dealing with the women would have created too great a scandal, and so the authorities bowed before “ the might of weakness,” and made the best terms they could induce the victors to accept A more recent experience of the power of Turkish women to interfere, in spite of their seclusion, with the affairs of the outer world, may be added. The owners of a piece of land adjoining a Turkish village on the Bosporus decided to enclose their property with a substantial wall of stone and mortar.

Villagers very naturally regretted

As the ground had long been a pleasant resort for the women and children of the village, especially on Fridays, where sitting on the ground under the shade of trees they enjoyed the fresh air and the beautiful views on every side, the villagers very naturally regretted the loss which the erection of the wall would involve, and they determined to prevent the execution of the work to the utmost of their power. The opposition first assumed a legal form. It was urged that the wall would interfere with the water-course which supplied the village fountain, and furthermore, would include a piece of land belonging to the community. Both objections were shown to be without foundation, and building operations were begun. No difficulties were raised until the wall approached the fountain and the land in dispute, when it became evident that if the work proceeded farther the opposition would resort to violent measures.

Bridge to the Golden Gate

Nowhere, perhaps, is the mark of change more evident than in respect to the means of communication, whether in the city or on the straits. Long lines of tramways run from the Galata Bridge to the Golden Gate and the Gate of S. Romanus, from one end of Stamboul to the other. Along the railway that forms the highway to Europe, there are five stations within the city limits for the accommodation of the districts beside the track.

The sedan chairs in which ladies were usually carried, in making calls, are now occasionally employed to convey them to and from evening parties. The groups of horses standing at convenient points in the great thoroughfares to carry you up a street of steps or to a distant quarter, with the surudji, switch in hand, running beside you to Urge the animal onward and to take it back at the close of your ride, have given way to cabstands, and to a tunnel that pierces the hill of Galata. A tramway carries one through Galata and Pera as far out as the suburb of Chichli, while another line runs close to the shore from the Inner Bridge to Ortakeui.

Villages of Therapia

There are persons still living who remember the first steamer that plied on the Bosporus, in the forties of last century. Its main occupation was to tug ships up or down the straits; but once a day, in summer, it conveyed passengers between the city and the villages of Therapia and Buyukderd A second steamer soon followed, and charged eleven piasters for the trip each way. Owing, however, to the opposition of the caiquedjis, the steamer could not moor at the quay, so that passengers were obliged to embark and disembark at both ends of the journey in caiques, at the rate of one piaster each way. Thus a return trip, which now costs one shilling and eight pence, involved an expense of four shillings and four pence.

No one, of course, undervalues the advantages of steam navigation, or suggests a return to sailing ships. At the same time it remains true, that never again will men see the Bosporus so beautiful as it looked in days when its waters were untroubled by steam. Owing to the prevalence of northerly winds in these regions, ships bound for the Black Sea were liable to long detention on their way up from the Mediterranean. Great fleets of merchantmen were accordingly apt to collect in the Dardanelles and in the Golden Horn, waiting for a favourable breeze.

Numerous churches adorned the city

What does cause surprise, however, is that so few of the numerous churches which once adorned the city, and embodied the piety of its people, have left one stone standing upon another to recall their existence. At most, thirty-five remain, and of these several of them are so dilapidated that they only serve for the identification of an interesting site, or to emphasise the vanity of earthly things.

Of course all the churches of the city were never contemporaneous. In a city which had a life of more then eleven centuries, the list of almost any class of edifices erected in the course of that period would necessarily be a long one, without implying the existence of numerous edifices of that class at one and the same time. According to the description of Constantinople which dates from the first quarter of the fifth century, the number of churches then in the city is given as only fourteen.

Churches appeared and disappeared, and while some of them were, for special reasons, maintained throughout the whole course of the city’s history, many came to flourish for a while and then decayed in the ordinary course of things, bequeathing as their memorial only the withered leaves of their names.

Constantinople during the Middle Ages

Then we must remember the frequent and disastrous earthquakes which shook the soil of Constantinople during the Middle Ages, and the terrible conflagrations which again and again reduced the wealth and glory and beauty of extensive tracts of the city to dust and ashes. For example: the three fires associated with the capture of the city by the Latins in 1208-1204 inflicted a blow from which the city never recovered. One of those fires raged for a night and a day; another for two days and two nights, with the result that almost all the territory along the Golden Horn, as well as the territory extending thence to the Hippodrome and the Sea of Marmora, as far away as Vlanga, were turned into a wilderness of smoking ruins.

Fighteth the battle staketh

I heard that at that time a powerful enemy appeared against the King, and when the two armies met, the first person who impelled his horse into the action was this young Prince, calling out, “I am not him, whose back you shall see in the day of battle, but my head may be found in dust and blood; for whosoever fighteth the battle staketh his own life; and he who flieth, sporteth with the blood of his troops.” Having thus said, he attacked the troops of the enemy, and overthrew several men of renown. When he came to his father, he bowed down to the earth and said, “0 ye, to whom my form appeared contemptible without considering the force of my valour, in the day of battle the slender steed is useful, and not the fattened ox.”

It is reported, that the enemy having many troops, and this side but few, a body of the latter were giving way, upon which the Prince vociferated, “Exert yourselves like men, that ye may not wear the dress of women.” The troopers, animated by this speech, joined in the general attack, and are reported to have gained the victory over the adversary on that day. The King kissed his head and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and his affection towards him increased daily, till at length he appointed him his successor. The brothers became envious, and put poison into his food. His sister seeing this from a window, flapped to the shutters; and he understanding the signal, withdrew his hand from the dish, and exclaimed, “If the wise should be deprived of life, it would be impossible for the unskilful to supply their place.

No one would go under the shade of the owl, if the Homai was annihilated from the earth.” They informed the father of the circumstances, who sent for the brothers, and after rebuking them properly, he gave to each of them a suitable portion of his kingdom, that all cause of strife and bickering might subside. It has been observed, that ten Durweshes may sleep upon one blanket, but that one kingdom cannot contain two Kings. If a pious man eatetli half a loaf of bread, he bestoweth the other half on the poor. If a king possesseth the dominion of a whole climate, he longeth to have the same enjoyment of another.

The government of the kingdom

TALE XXVIII

A certain King, when arrived at the end of his days, having no heir, directed in his will that, in the morning after his death, the first person who entered the gate of the city, they should place on his head the crown of royalty, and commit to his charge the government of the kingdom. It happened that the first person who entered the city gate was a beggar, who all his life had collected scraps of victuals and sewed patch upon patch.

The ministers of state and the nobles of the court carried into execution the King’s will bestowing on him the kingdom and the treasure. For some time the I hinvesli governed the kingdom, until part of the nobility swerved their necks from his obedience, and all the surrounding monarehs, engaging in hostile confederacies, attacked him with their armies. In short, the troops and peasantry were thrown into confusion, and he lost the possession of some territories.

The Durwesh was distressed at these events, when an old friend, who had been his companion in the days of poverty, returned from a journey, and finding him in such exalted state, said, “Praised be the God of excellence and glory, that your high fortune lias aided you and prosperity been your guide, so that a rose has issued from the briar, and the thorn has been extracted from your foot, and you have arrived at this dignity participants independently optimize. Of a truth, joy succeeds sorrow: the bud sometimes blossoms and sometimes withers: the tree is sometimes naked and sometimes clothed.”

He replied, “0 brother, condole with me, for this is not a time for congratulation. When you saw me last, I was only anxious how to obtain bread; but now I have all the cares of the world to encounter. If the times are adverse, I am in pain; and if they are prosperous, I am captivated with worldly enjoyments. There is no calamity greater than worldly affairs, because they distress the heart in prosperity as well as in adversity

If you want riches, seek only for contentment, which is inestimable wealth, if the rich man should throw money into your lap, consider not yourself obliged to him; for I have often heard it said by pious men, that the patience of the poor is preferable to the liberality of the rich. If Bahrain should roast an onager (wild ass) to be distributed amongst the people, it would not be equal to the leg of a locust to an ant.”

TALE XXIX

A certain person had a friend employed hi the office of Dewan, with whom he had not chanced to meet for some time. Somebody said to him, 11 It is a long time since you saw such an one.” He answered, “Neither do I wish to see him.” It happened that one of the Dewan’s people was present, who asked what fault his friend had been guilty of, that he was not inclined to see him. He replied, “There is no fault; but the time for see ng a De- wan is when he is dismissed from his office. In greatness and authority of office, they neglect their friends in the day of adversity and degradation, they impart to their friends the disquietude to their hearts.”

Suffered reproach and uneasiness

TALE III

I saw a religions man so captivated by the beauty of a youth, that his secret became public, insomuch that he suffered reproach and uneasiness. However lie did not relinquish his attachment; and said, “I will not quit the skirt of your garment, although yourself should smite me with a sharp sword; besides thee I have neither asylum nor defence: to you alone can I flee tor refuge.” Once I reproved him, and said, “What has happened, to your excellent understanding, that mean inclinations should have been able to overpower it? After reflecting a short time, he replied, “Wherever

the King of love cometh, the arm of. piety hath not power to resist him. How can that poor wretch be clean, who has fallen up to his neck in a quagmire? ”

TALE IV

A certain person having lost his heart, abandoned himself to despair. The object of his affection being a place of danger, a whirlpool; not a morsel with which you could hope to gratifty the palate; not a bird that would fall into the net. When your sweetheart will not look at your gold, that metal and earth appear alike in your sight.

His friends besought him to relinquish this vain imagination, many besides himself being seized with this hopeless idea, and held in captivity by it. He lamenting said, “Desire my friends not to admonish me, since my destiny depends on the will of another. Warriors kill their enemies by the strength of their hands and shoulders; but those who are beautiful, destroy their friends. It is not consistent with the laws of love, through fear of death, to relinquish our attachment to our mistress.

You who seek your own ease, eannot be true in the game of love. If you cannot obtain access to the object of your affection, friendship demands that you should die in the pursuit. I persist, be- cause no other course remains, even though my adversary covers me with wounds from a sword or an arrow. If I should be able, I will seize her sleeve, otherwise I will go and expire at her threshold.”

The martial drum had never reached

TALE XVII

On a certain year, I was travelling from Balk with some people of Damascus, and the road was infested with robbers. There was a young man of our party, are expert handler of the shield, a mighty archer, a brandisher of all weapons, so strong that ten men could not draw his bowstring, and the most powerful wrestler on the face of the earth had never brought his back to the ground; but he was rich, and had been nursed in the shade, was inexperienced in the world, and no traveler.

The thundering sound of the martial drum had never reached his ear, neither had his eyes seen the lightning of the horseman’s sword; he had never been made prisoner by the enemy, nor had the arrows fallen in showers around him. It happened that I and this young man were running together; every wall that came in his way he pulled down, and every large tree that he saw, by the force of his arm he tore up by the roots.

He was boasting, saying, “Where is the elephant, that you may behold the shoulders of the hero? Where is the lion that you may see the fingers and palm of the brave man? ” We were in this situation, when two Indians lifted up their heads from behind a rock with the intention to kill us; one had a stick in his hand, and the other a sling under his arm. I said to the young man, “Why do you stop? Show your strength and velour, for here is the enemy within a foot of Ins grave.” I saw tile bow and arrows drop from the hand of the young man, and a trembling seized all his joints. Not every one who can split a hair with an arrow that will pierce a coat of mail, is able to stand against the warrior in the day of battle.

We saw no other remedy for ourselves, but to leave our accoutrements, surrender our arms, and escape with our lives. On an affair of importance employ a man of experience, who will bring the devouring lion into his trammels. A young man, though he has strength of arm and is powerful as an elephant, will feel his joints quaking with fear in the day of battle. A man of experience is as well qualified to act in war as the learned man is to expound a case of law.

Necessarily confine the wandering

The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd’be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

Necessarily confine the wandering

The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd’be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

Descriptions of Constantinople in such works

But events have verified its forecast to such an extent, that one is tempted to assume the prophet’s mantle, and predict that Colonel White’s words will come to pass in the next half-century. At any rate, if the world here has moved slowly, it has moved very far. The descriptions of Constantinople in such works as Miss Pardoe’s City of the Sultan, and Colonel White’s Three Years in Constantinople, seem to-day descriptions of another city.

Turkish woman today

In the political situation, in the matter of education both among the Turks and the Christian populations, the changes are simply enormous. This is, however, not the place to expatiate upon these serious topics, although it is only by their consideration that the greatness and far-reaching consequences of the new state of things can be properly appreciated. But look at the change in the matter of dress. Where is now the variety of costume, where the brightness of colour that made the movement of the population at all times a procession in gala dress? So far as her garb is concerned, a Turkish woman to-day is a sere and withered leaf.

She is almost a European lady, thinly disguised. And where are the men who moved about, crowned with turbans, and attired in long, coloured, flowing robes? You meet them occasionally on the street, or see them gathered about the mosques, weary and tattered stragglers of generations of men, whose mien and gait were the look and motion of princes. Some one has said that the Turks committed a great mistake when they adopted the European dress; for the change makes you suppose that they have ceased to be Orientals, and are to be judged by European standards in all respects. Too much is therefore expected of them. Certainly the change has not improved their appearance. It has robbed them of that quiet dignity and commanding air which imposed immediate respect. The eagle is shorn of his plumes.