Eothen; Or, Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East

men still shone in the light of day. Yet, whenever I chose to look southward, I saw the Ottoman's fortress-austere, and darkly impending high over the vale o

here was not, perhaps, one who had ever gone down to look upon the stranger race dwelling under the walls of that opposite castle. It is the plague, and the dread of the plague, that divide the one people from the other. All coming and going stands forbidden by the terrors of the yellow flag. If you dare to break the laws of the quarantine, y

ment, and here awaited us a "compromised" [1] officer of the Austrian Government, who lives in a st

received civilities during our short stay in the place, came down to say their farewell at the river's side; and now, as we stood with them at the distance of three or four yards from the "compromised" officer, they asked if we were perfectly certain that we had wound up all our affairs in Christendom, and whether we had no parting requests to make. We repeated the caution to our servants, and took anxious thought lest by any possibility we might be cut off from some cherished object of affection:-were they quite sure that nothing had been forgotten-that there was no fragrant dre

ve, and there was no living thing that we could yet see, except one great hovering bird of the

shore, I heard, and saw myself now first surrounded by men of Asiatic blood. I have since ridden through the land of the Osmanlees, from the Servian border to the Golden Horn-from the Gulf of Satalieh to the tomb of Achilles; but never have I seen such ultra-Turkish looking fellows as those who received me on the banks of t

ls, and a yataghan (or cutlass), with a dagger or two of various shapes and sizes; most of these arms were inlaid with silver, and highly burnished, so that they contrasted shiningly with the decayed grandeur of the garments to which they were attached (this carefulness of his arms is a point of honour with the Osmanlee, who never allows his bright yataghan to suffer from his own adversity); then the long drooping mustachios, and the ample folds of the once white turbans, that lowered over the piercing eyes, and the haggard features of the men, gave them an air of gloomy pride, and that appearance of trying to be disdainful under difficulties, which I have since seen so o

retched to the full, as if they were dead; storks, or cranes, sitting fearless upon the low roofs, look gravely down upon you; the still air that you breathe is loaded with the scent of citron, and pomegranate rinds scorched by the sun, or (as you approach the bazaar) with the dry, dead perfume of strange spices. You long for some signs of life, and tread the ground more heavily, as though you would wake the sleepers with the hee

corpses upon the cool stones. We went through courts, ascended steps, passed along a corridor, and walked into an airy, whitewashed room, with an European clock at one end of it, and Moostapha

t were bare, and they passed through no door, but only by the yielding folds of a purder). Soon the coffee-bearers appeared, every man carrying separately his tiny cup in a small metal stand; and presently to each of us there came a pipe-bearer, who first rested the bowl of the tchibouque at a measured distance on the floor, and then, on this axis, wheeled round the long cheer

e hour before I had been wanting my bill, and

hat most of the men in authority have risen from their humble station by the arts of the courtier, and they preserve in their high estate those gentle powers of fascination to which they owe their success. Yet unless you can contrive to learn a little of the language, you will be rather bored by your visits of ceremony; the intervention of the interpreter, or dragoman as he is called, is fatal to the spirit of conversation. I think I should mislead you if I were to attempt to give the substance of any particular conversation with Orientals. A traveller may write and say that "the Pasha of

me; most blessed among hours i

eller).-The Pasha pay

ents in return, and say I'm delight

left his enemies to breathe for a moment, and has crossed the broad waters in strict disguise, with a small but eternally faithful retinue of follo

, and that I am to be a magistrate for the county of Bedfordshire, only I've not qualified, and that I should have been a deputy-lieutenant if it had not been for the extraordinary conduct of Lord Mountpromise, and

n [is s

don? is there aught that I can grant him

h of Mudcombe-this head-purveyor of Goldborough-this possible policeman of

the ends of the earth, and the catalogue of his glo

ler).-The Pasha congrat

present state of the Ottoman Empire. Tell him the Houses of Parliament have met, and that there has

nforms your Highness that in England the talking houses have met, and that the integrity of

s!-whiz! whiz! all by steam!-wonderful chair! wonderful houses! wond

that whizzing? he does not mean to say, does he, that our

y; but he says the English t

; tell the Pasha (he'll be struck with that) that whenever we have any disturbances to put down, even at two

or the Indians rebel against the English, whole armies of soldiers, and brigades of artillery, are dropped into a mighty chasm called Euston Square, and in the

comprehends locomotives. The armies of the English ride upon the vapours of boiling caldrons

iced Ottoman gentleman as to the prospects of our English commerce and

ver the whole earth; and by the side of their swords the blades of Damascus are blades of grass. All India is but an item in the ledg

ts the cutlery of England, an

hat we have got something in England besides that. These foreigners are always fancying that we have nothing but ships, and railways, and East India Companies; do just tell the Pasha that our rural districts deserve his attention, and that even within the last two hundred years there has been an evident improvement in the culture of the turnip, and if he does

ons of newspapers, and the Greeks they are weavers of lies, but the English and the Osmanlees are brothers together in righteousness; for the Osmanlees believe in one only God, and cleave to the Koran, and destroy idols, so do the English worship one God, and

Pasha complime

m greatly obliged to him for his hospitality, and still more for his

his prosperous journey. May the saddle beneath him glide down to the gates of the happy city, like a boat swimming on the third river of Paradise. May he sleep the sleep of a

wishes your Excellen

s the