ENVIRONS OF SMYRNA.

45

of the country is thickly dotted with the olive and the almond, the mulberry and the fig-tree. Smyrna is particularly celebrated for an exquisitely flavoured and seedless grape, and for the superior quality of its figs.

It is also one of the claimants for the birth-place of Homer, the blind old bard, whose fame was purely posthumous! The Grecian virgins scattered garlands throughout the seven islands of Greece, upon the turf, beneath which were supposed to lie the remains of him, who wandered in penury and obscurity through life, or only sang passages of his divine poem at the festive board of his contemporaries. We were shown his cave-but I will no longer trust myself to speak of him, whom

"I feel, but want the power to paint."

We also visited Diana's bath, whence Acteon's hounds, like many a human ingrate after them, pursued and tore the hand that had caressed them.

Meeting with an acquaintance of one of the party, he invited us to his country-seat at Bournabat, which is the summer resort of the Franks, and a great place of attraction without the walls of Smyrna.

Mounted upon diminutive donkeys with enormous ears, in the course of the ride everybody's stirrups broke away, and everybody's pack-saddle turned so easily, that each one found it difficult to preserve his seat. Steering with a halter, our only bridle, we scoured along the road and soon entered upon a plain covered with rich plantations of olives and figs, with many nectarine and almond trees in full bloom, and villas, here and there, embowered in orange groves,the flatness of the landscape relieved by clustering spires of the dark cypress, their tall stems expanding high in air, in graceful and luxuriant foliage.

We alighted before an elegant villa, and entering a porte-cochere, passed along an avenue bordered with fra

46

A TURKISH GARDEN.

grant shrubs and a variety of flowers, with orange-groves on each side, and up a lofty flight of steps into the main building, which was beautifully furnished in the European style. After a while, we were conducted through the garden, upon walks of variegated pebbles, set in diamond figures. We were thence led to a small kiosk, or summerhouse, where pipes were brought by female servants of decided Grecian features. A queen-like old lady, dressed in a blue silk sack, trimmed with rich fur, and wearing upon her head a braided turban interwreathed with natural flowers and silver ornaments, was introduced to us by our kind entertainer as his mother. Presently, a silver salver was brought, with small dishes of the same material upon it, containing conserves of various kinds. Taking it from the servant, the superb old lady handed it to each of us in turn, not omitting her son. This is one of the customs of the East which so peculiarly differ from Here man is indeed the sole monarch of creabut his degradation of the female sex recoils fearfully upon himself.

our own.

tion;

After wandering about beneath the shade of the orange and the cypress, admiring the night-blooming cereus, and inhaling the fragrance of the rose and the jasmine, and examining the old-time Persian water-wheel and artificial mode of irrigation, we entered a saloon where an oriental collation of fruits and cream had been prepared for us. Although the month of February, the climate was that of summer.

Returning, we trotted merrily along the rich alluvial plain, carpeted with the young grain just springing from the earth. Near Smyrna, we observed a fig-tree thickly hung with shreds of cloth, of every hue and texture. It is a common practice among ignorant Muslims, who believe that a piece of a sick person's garment suspended

A TURKISH JANISSARY.

47

from a tree near the tomb of a Santon or Mahommedan saint, will promote the recovery of the wearer.

Emerging from the gloom of a dense cypress grove, which overshadows thousands of Muslim tombstones, we came upon the caravan bridge, which spans the Meles with its single arch. It was the same we had before seen, but at a different hour and under a different aspect. On the banks, below the bridge, were hundreds of camels reposing for the night. The setting sun shone upon the red and blue and yellow saddle-cloths, while the picturesque costumes of the Mukris or camel-drivers, grouped listlessly about, relieved the dun colour of the caravan with a pleasing effect. It was a rich, golden, oriental sunset, worthy of the pencil of a Claude Lorraine.

Returning through the city, the same strange scenes presented themselves as on our first arrival. The variety of costume; the filthy, unpaved lanes for streets, and the necessity of giving way before the onward tramp of a line of loaded camels or a mud-bespattering donkey. We were much assisted, however, by the consuls' janissary, who did his best to clear the way before us. Consuls and other foreign officials in Turkey are allowed, as guards, a certain number of janissaries or kavashes, recognized and appointed for that purpose by the Turkish government. This janissary is always heavily armed, and possessing much authority, is very cavalier in his treatment of the common people. He is ever a Turk, and with his long, silver-mounted baton, preceding the consul or his guests, is the very picture of solemn self-sufficiency.

CHAPTER IV.

SMYRNA TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

FRIDAY, Feb. 18. At 5, P. M., embarked in the Austrian steamer "Prince Metternich," for Constantinople. When fairly under way, her decks presented as motley an assemblage as I ever beheld. Abaft, on the larboard side, near the helmsman, were two groups of females, consisting of five Asiatics and two Africans. All, mistresses and slaves (for they bore that relation to each other), had the upper and the lower parts of their faces concealed by the "yashmak," a thin, white muslin veil, so arranged as to leave only the eyes and the upper part of the nose exposed to view. Their bodies were enveloped in the "ferejeh," a narrow-skirted cloak, of a thin worsted material, with a cape extending down behind, the full length and breadth of the body; five of them were yellow, and two a dingy purple, the colour irrespective

of mistress or slave.

One of the groups consisted of an Armenian family, and on this occasion their dress, in no particular, varied from that of the Turks. It is said, however, that in the capital the Turkish female may be distinguished by the red or yellow ferejeh, and the invariable yellow boot or slipper. In this group there was little distinction in the quality of dress, and there seemed to be very little reserve in the demeanour of the whites towards the blacks. Certainly the latter conceal their faces as studiously as their mistresses. They were all seated upon rugs, placed on boards elevated a few inches above the deck, and were busied

DEPARTURE FROM SMYRNA.

49

making preparations to pass the night in the positions they occupied.

In advance of them, extending to the break of the quarter-deck, were various groups of the most respectable class of male passengers; and beyond them, on both sides. of the deck, for two-thirds the length of the ship, was clustered a heterogeneous assemblage of lower grade, consisting, like that on the quarter-deck, of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Syrians. Many wore the turban either white or variously coloured, except the despised Jew, whose brows were enveloped in sable. But most of them had on the crimson tarbouch, with a long blue or black silken tassel pendent from the crown. Their underdress was wholly concealed by the universal "Grego," a long, heavy, brown woollen coat, with a hood, and ornamented with scarlet cord and facings.

With their feet drawn beneath them, they were squatted, like tailors (those who have them), upon rugs, with their baggage piled around them, and each with the stem of a chibouque, or a narghile, in his mouth.

There is no bar for the sale of intoxicating liquors on board. All is orderly and quiet, and there is neither quarrelling nor loud discussion. In sobriety, at least, the Turk is a fit model for imitation.

We swept with great rapidity up the beautiful Gulf of Smyrna, and early in the night entered the channel of Mitylene, between the Island of Mitylene (the ancient Lesbos) and the main. This large and fertile island, placed at the mouth of the Adramatic Gulf, derived its ancient name from one of its kings, who reigned before the Deucalion flood. It is the birth-place of Sappho, and was considered by the ancients the seventh in the Egean Sea. First governed by its own kings, and then by a democracy, it has been subject to the Persians, the