fpot to verify the facts, a fum of money given by the pacha would almoft always be fufficient for obtaining a favourable report; but were the latter displaced, or even were his head cut off, the fucceffor would not, on that account, put the fortrefs into better condition; he would at first make a few unimportant repairs, and would interrupt them as foon as he had taken the means fit for enfuring his impunity. "All the coin of Turkey, if we except Cairo, is ftruck at Conftantinople, and yields for the moment a confiderable revenue to the Grand Signior; because he has adulterated it to fuch a degree that it has not half of the value of that of the fultans his predeceffors, and because he has caused it to be circulated for a value equal to that which it had before. Foreign coin has, indeed, greatly increased; but it is not yet at the price at which it ought to arrive, because the balance of trade is to the advantage of this empire. This is not the cafe with India, as I fhall fay in another place, where Turkey has fcarcely any thing to furnish. None but old coin is received there, and that of Venice, Hungary, and Spain, is ftill preferred, as moft pure." Vol. i. p. 21. "The richest private individuals of the empire do not come hither to spend their income in effeminacy and idlenefs, or diffipate their fortunes in the hazards of play, in the pleasures of love, or in the luxury of the table. The agas or lords remain on their eftates, in order to preserve them, defend them, and make the most of them. The pachas cannot quit their government without an order of the fovereign. The molhas and the cadis exercise justice in the towns whither they have received orders to repair: both the one and the other come to intrigue at Conftantinople only when they are displaced. Moft frequently they avoid even the too fevere looks of the government: they have established agents, men of bufinefs who intrigue for them, who exculpate them with money, who level difficulties with money, and who procure them advancement with money. Here all dignities are fold to the highest bidder; all employments are put up to auction; no lucrative place is obtained without a present more or lefs confiderable. "There is a clafs of men who have no other profeffion than that of lending, at an exorbitant interest, to the ambitious who could not obtain places without this means; to the extortioners who wish to cause their crimes to be forgotten and to maintain themselves in their places, to those whom a powerful enemy would wish to destroy, and to thofe, in fhort, who want, by a great and fpeedy facrifice, to redeem their head threatened by the fword of the law or by the will of the Sultan.”Vol. i. p. 25. "THE ceremony began by fome prayers, during which all the friarsgave each other the kifs of peace or fraternity. The novices, or those who appeared to us of an inferior rank, fimply kiffed the hand of the fuperior and of the chiefs of the order, with the greatest refpe&t. The latter were placed towards the wall, on a line a little curved; behi-A them were fufpended various iron inftruments, fit for piercing the different parts of the body, and taking hold of burning coals, in order to put them into the mouth or on the tongue; fome were intended to be made red hot in the fire, and to be afterwards applied, as we were told, to different parts of the body. Facing these chiefs, towards the middle of the hall, the derviles were placed, on a curved line, in a humble pofture, kneeling, fitting on their heels, according to the oriental custom. After a few minutes fpent in prayer, to thefe laft was given a great tabour, in the inside of which were one, two, or three ftrings, fimilar to our thick violin or bafs ftrings. One alone of thefe tabours had five or fix little copper wires. In front of these musicians was placed a brafier, for the purpose of heating the inftruments from time to time, and giving to the fkin_the fuitable tenfion. The fuperior beat time, and regulated the movement of the inftruments with cymbals: two others ftruck on two little kettle-drums. This mufic accompanied canticles in honour of Mahomet, which all the friars fang in unifon. "During this monotonous and tirefome conc rt, we were from time to time electrified by the fight of the friar who came and prefented himself to the fuperior, as if ftruck by the omnipotence of the Divinity: he fell by de grees grees into convulfions: his body then grew ftiff, and appeared in the fate of one dead. He funk into the arms of the friars in waiting, who tried to reftore him to life by touching his face, his dress, and principally his arms and thighs. With fome, this was a fimple ccftafy: the return to life was effected in a flow and gradual manner; with others, the state of death appeared complete. The friars in waiting extended them on the floor, and made the greateft efforts to reftore them to life. Independently of touching them repeatedly, they spoke to them several times in their car; and, when all common means were exhaufted, the chief approached in order to exercise his omnipotence. He fpread his hand over the face of the dead perfon, who fuddenly came to himself, and got up with the greatest nimbleness, aflifted by a dervife in waiting. This fight, prefented all the time that the ceremony lafted, became more frequent towards the end, during the howlings of thefe fanatics. "For half an hour the mufic had fatigued our ears, and the convulfiona ries had afflicted our hearts, when two men, naked to the waift, came to oceupy the fcene for feven or eight minutes. They were each armed with two irons, upwards of a foot long, pointed at one of the extremities, and terminated at the other by a wooden ball covered all round with little chains, the laft link of which was in the form of a very sharp nail. Thefe men made different movements backward and forward with force and celerity, and appeared to thrust the points of thefe two irons into their belly; but they took care every time to put their thumb on the points. However, the quickness of the motions, directed fometimes on one fide, and fometimes on the other, the noise and the play of the little chains-every thing prevented their cunning from being diftinctly perceived. These two men at length pretended to thrust the inftruments into their ears, their forehead, and their eyes; but then their precaution appeared greater, their motion was not fo quick, and a dervife fuddenly wrapped them up in a cloak; he laid them on the floor, where they remained for fome minutes like dead perfons. They then got up again, at the fame time rubbing their face and body with their hands, and they appeared as if refuscitated and cured of their wounds. They went and refumed their place and their tabour. "We were told that fometimes the ceremony is more diverfified, that these fanatics put burning coals into their mouth, and that they apply their tongue to hot iron: we eafily believed it, on feeing fufpended against the wall the inftruments fit for executing fimilar fooleries. "When this mufic ceafed, almost all the dervifes placed themselves in a circle, and pronounced the word Allab (God), at the fame time following the tone at first flow, then quick, which was given by two of them, who had placed themselves in the middle, and who were, during this time, finging canticles in honour of Mahomet and his descendants. The former shook their heads, fometimes forward, fometimes fideways or circularly, with more or less rapidity, according to the fong. At other times they toffed about their body, fometimes to the right, fometimes to the left, and sometimes backward and forward, till they had exhaufted themfelves with fatigue, and were quite bathed with sweat. They took breath for a moment, and then began again, conftantly pronouncing the word Allah, or only venting a cry fimilar to that of heb or bei, which appeared to iffue from the bottom of the ftomach. The fhort intervals which occurred between these howlings, were filled by the finging of the two friars, who, as we have faid, were feated in the middle of these howlers. We remarked that there was among the chiefs more referve, more calmness, lefs difpofition to fanaticism; those among them who from time to time mixed with the howlers, fpared their lungs, and did not fatigue their body." Vol. i. p. 52. CUSTOM OF THE ORIENTALS. "THE Orientals, more fimple than ourfelves in their household furniture, are not acquainted with the luxury of beds. They have in their house a certain number of very light mattreffes, of wool or cotton, which they spread on the floor or on the fofas at bed-time, and on which they pafs the night. The women take off their trinkets, and lay afide their finery; the men trip themselves of their habit of ceremony, change their turban, and lie down in their clothes, as well as the women. They cover themfelves with quilted coverlids, to which the rich add a cotton fheet, which they commonly do not change till it is very dirty, or almost worn out. "The next morning thefe mattreffes and coverlids are taken away; they are fhut up in closets, and the bedchamber again becomes the drawing-room and eating parlour. Among the poor Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, the whole family almost always fleep in the fame room; but, among the Muffulmans, the apartment of the men is always separate from that of the wo men. "As the ufe of chairs and tables is equally, unknown to the Orientals, fofas are the principal and almoft the only articles of furniture of their apartments: thefe are generally put on three fides of the room, on that of the windows and on two of the other fides: they are immediately placed on the floor, or raised a few inches, half a foot and even a foot, by means of a little eminence formed of fome planks. They are covered with beautiful printed calicoes, ftuffs of filk, velvet, or eloth, and ornamented with cotton, filk, filver, or gold fringe. There are large cushions for the back, throughout the length of the fofa, trimmed with fringe and covered with the fame ftuffs. Car. pets and mats are placed in the middle of the room. There remains a part of the floor, opposite to the entrancedoor, which is lower by five or fix inches, and which ferves as a passage for going to the lateral chambers. "The fofa ferves as a feat during the day, and as a bed during the night: there it is that the Orientals pass the day, fquatted, with their legs croffed, and that, at night, they place their mattreffes for fleeping. Frequently, in order not to wear the fofa too much, they remain on the carpet or on the mat, and, at night, for want of other mattreffes, they fleep on the fofa, after having taken off the cover by which it is ornamented. "It may be conceived that this manner of living on the floor, on carpets or mats which cannot be fwept, and which are neglected to be beaten or fhaken, in wooden houses, in a hot climate, among a people who are fcarcely acquainted with the use of linen, who keep on their garments during the night, and do not take them off in general till they are worn out, fleas, bugs, and all the vermin which adhere to the dirty and negligent man, must be extremely numerous; this too was what made us fuffer most in the courfe of our travels, because it was impoffible for us to fecure ourselves against those infects when we were obliged to lie down in a place which was infefted by them. "It was not enough for the fleas and bugs to prevent us from fleeping; we were, befides, lighted by a lamp which was burning before the image of the Virgin, as is the practice night and day in all the Greek houfes of the Levant. We durft not extinguish it: wc. fhould have afflicted too much the worthy prieft at whofe house we had ftopped, and who had received us with the greatest politenefs." Vol. i. p. 64 USE OF THE TANDOUR AND OF PELISSES-FIRES. "IF we.except the palaces of the ambaffadors and a few merchants' houfes, the inhabitants of Conftantinople have no chimnies in the apartments which they occupy: they warm themfelves by means of a brafier in copper or baked earth, called mangal, which they place within reach of their fofas: but in the houfes of fome Muf fulmans, and in almost all thofe of the Greeks and Armenians, this brafier is placed under a round or fquare table, covered with feveral carpets, one of which, wadded and quilted, in printed calico, hangs down to the floor in every direction, and retains the heat under the table: in this cafe a little charcoal is put into the brafier, and it is cover. ed with ashes, in order to temper the heat. A ftuffed bench, placed all round, allows feveral perfons to fit down, to ftretch out their legs towards the mangal, and to receive the heat up to their middle. This table, called tandour, appears to have a Greek origin, if we confider that its use is more common among the Greeksthan among the Turks, and that it is no longer to be found in the interior of Afia Minor, where the colds are more fharp and more piercing than at Conftantinople.. "Whenever it is a little cold, tle women feldem quit their tandour, there it is that they pais their day, that they work, work, that they receive their female friends, that they cause their meals to be ferved up. In the evening, it is on the tandour that they play at cards *, at chefs, or at draughts. It is round the tandour that they affemble to carry on converfation, communicate the news to each other, liften to fome tragical story, fome tale of a ghoft, or the prowefs of fome pacha in rebellion against the Porte. "The Europeans willingly habituate themselves to this custom, because it brings the two fexes together, and because the ftrict eye of a mother, or the jealous looks of a husband, cannot remark the figns of intelligence nor prevent the expreffive touches which the tandour favours. If ever the use of chimnies could be introduced at Conftantinople, we are perfuaded that the Greek women would oppofe it with all their might; and certainly they would find in their perfuafive eloquence, good reafons in favour of the gentle, moderate, and more economical heat in the tandour. "In a city where the houses are of wood and ill built, where the windows are numerous and badly fhut, where the wind and exterior air come into every room, not only through the doors and windows, but through the walls and partitions, neither the mangal nor the tandour could fufficiently fecure the inhabitants from the cold: they require to be warmly clothed: Ruffia and Poland afforded them the warmeft clothing that man can wear, and the caftom of furs was adopted by the inhabitants of the capital, whence it fpread in a moment over the most diftant provinces. The peliffe is become every where the aliment of luxury, the indication of opulence, the reward of fervices, a prefling want to all. In countries where the cold is never feit, as in Egypt and Arabia, as well as in the moft northern cities of Turkey, fuch as Conftantinople, Adrianople, and Belgrade, this cuftom is general, not only among rich perfons and thofe who enjoy a moderate fortune, but likewife among the indigent. "The rich man wears at the fame time two or three furs during the winter; he changes them in all feafons, and, during the fummer, he is ftill feen dreffed in the ferge of Angora, lined with petit gris, or gray fquirrel fkin. If the inhabitant of the country-places cannot procure a fine and foreign fkin, he at least uses those which fall in his way: the hare, the jackal, the lamb, the fheep, all are acceptable to him; he fecures himself from the cold, and he imitates the inhabitants of the cities. "The women have likewife furs of all feafons: the black fox, the sable for winter, the gray squirrel for autumn and spring, the ermine for fummer: the greater part have in their closets ten or twelve furred gowns, the deareft of which fometimes exceeds fifteen or twenty thousand livres. "It is not furprising that fires fhould be frequent in Conftantinople, when there is continually fire, during the winter, on wood-floors, within reach of fofas, mats, and carpets. The fmalleft negligence, children playing, or a few fparks to which no attention has been paid, frequently set on fire thofe combuftible substances; and fhould a perfon then happen to be asleep or abfent from his house, the fire communicates by degrees from the furniture to the floor; if it be long before it is perceived, it foon breaks out with violence, fpreads with rapidity, gains the neighbouring houses, and fometimes even confumes a confiderable portion of the city. From the palace of the ambassador and from the elevated places of Pera, we were, more than once, witneffes of the violence of fire, of the quicknefs with which it fpread, and of the terrible effect which it produced. "This fight, beautiful and awful as it is, ftrikes with horror the man of feeling who wishes to contemplate it, because it prefents the image of unfor tunate beings, who, in those frightful moments, are ftruggling with death; of those who, feized with terror, are endeavouring to efcape with their va luable effects; of thofe, in fhort, who are ftriving, in the midst of the flames, to carry off children or old men that are dear to them. "When a fire breaks out, whether by day or by night, all the inhabitants of the city are foon warned to have an eye to their own fafety, or to give affistance to the unfortunate perfons "con * "Cards are known only to the Greeks and Armenians who frequent the Europeans." cerning cerning whom they take an intereft. The guard of every quarter parades the streets, trailing on the pavement fticks fhod with iron, and crying from time to time in a melancholy and mournful voice: There's a fire! Two enormous drums, placed the one on a lofty tower about the middle of Conftantinople, and the other on that of Galata, likewife apprize the inhabitants of a fire having broken out. In thefe circumftances, it is the duty of the commander of the janizaries to run immediately with a numerous guard to the place where the fire has been discovered: the Grand Vifir muft also repair thither in person, and if the fire be not extinguished immediately, the Sultan never fails to come, and to cause money to be distributed in order to excite the pumpers, the porters, the guard, and the paffengers, to work with ardour. But when the fire has måde fome progress, and especially when it is rendered more active by the wind, no hope can be entertained of extinguishing it but by endeavouring to circumfcribe it: in order to effect this, the nearest houses which are still untouched are demolished as quickly as poffible: the materials are removed before the fire has reached them, and those which cannot be taken away are laid under water. "The damages occafioned by fire are foon repaired: a few days after the conflagration, are seen on all fides houses rifing fimilar to those which the fire has confumed: the imperfections presented by narrow ftreets, ill laid out, are exactly preferved; nor is any change made in the order and diftribution of the apartments. The Muffulman comes thither to refume, if he can, his former occupations, and live there, as before, without regret and without forefight." Vol. i. p. 149. (To be concluded in our next.) CII. Storch's Picture of Petersburg. (Concluded from p. 550.) FOREIGNERS AT PETERSBURG CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE GERMANS. "THE-foreigners living in St. Pe terfburg compofe about a feventh part of the whole population. It is very poffible that the fame proportion VOL. V.-No. LIII. may likewise hold good in other capitals, but furely it is no where fo ftriking as here. This is partly because by far the greater portion of the foreigners belong to the politer claffes, and therefore in them are very confpicuous; partly too because no where are fo many languages in ufe, and becaufe the foreigners fpeak their own among themfelves and with the Ruffians. The foreigners fettled at London, Paris, Rome, &c. being only of the lower orders of people, abfolutely cannot fubfift without knowing the language of the country, and accommodating themfelves to the prevailing manners and customs. Hence it arifes, that their number, even where it is very great, is not only not ftriking, but remains entirely unobferved. Here the cafe is exactly the reverse. A German, for example, who arrives here as a foreigner, can live at a German hotel, fupply himfelf with neceffaries from German tradefmen, hire German fervants, read German newspapers and other periodical publications, frequent German churches, fend his children to German schools, contract German acquaintances of all ranks and conditions up to the very throne, and partake in all the enjoyments of fociety, without understanding the language of the country. He may all his life long carry on bufinefs or exercife his profeffion, keep houfe, nay, even hold public offices and be employed in the weighty affairs of government, without speaking any other than his mother tongue. All this is fo unexampled, that it forms a peculiar feature in the general characteristic of Petersburg.' P. 560. "Among the foreigners, the Germans are the moft obfervable, not lefs from their great numbers, which would do honour to the population of a confiderable town, than by the connexion in which they live with the Ruilians, and the influence they have upon them." Here are Germans of all claffes, and in each of them, the mercantile excepted, they far exceed the other foreigners. As they are more attached to the nation than the latter, and acquire the language frequently in great perfection, they, of all the established foreign inhabitants, have the greateft pretenfions to civil offices and military ftations. In fact, there is fcarcely a fingle department of importance in which there are not Germans filling 4 F fome |