sation of all that we think of as most depraved; and, when she commanded her followers to seise Nicon and Phineus, her lover flung away his sword, and fled from the palace to his native mountains, while the guards pointed through the open door-way to the sky, from which (they exclaimed), amid the skirts of the receding tempest, the original of the heavenly form in the picture looked at them with a sad and awful aspect that plucked the weapons from their grasp. None of them, however, had courage to arrest Mycale. With a sneer of defiance, she walked through their array, and was no more seen. NEW TRAVELS IN TURKEY, by Mr. R. TRAVELS ΤΟ AND FROM CONSTANTI NOPLE, by Captain Charles Colville CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1828, by Mr. C. With a shudder, he crept to the corridor, and looked into the garden; and he beheld the queen, surrounded by those cypresses and cedars which were less black than the atmosphere, triumphing in a phrensied dance beneath the drowning rain, and her black hair, writhing features, and fierce gestures, illumined at intervals by the glare of lightening. Sometimes her song went forth in screams, accompanying the loudest fury of the whirlwind, and she stretched her hands, and bared her throbbing bosom to the blast and the dim torrent of waters. Anon she stooped like some agile beast of prey, and plucked from the drenched sod various plants of necromantic virtue; and again she started into a whirling dance, mut tered threats, and shook her uplifted hand as if against him. He shrank away in horror, and through all the night the sounds of the tempest bore to his ears the accents of the terrible enchantress. His terror ended in stupefaction; and, when he unclosed his eyes, wild yells were still ringing around him. But, after a moment's pause, he discovered that these were the expressions of his father's insanity, and not of the vengeance of Mycale. The king approached his chamber, and he heard his own name mingled with the curses and ejaculations which broke from the lips of the madman. In another instant the door was burst open, and Nicon hurried into the chamber with a dagger in his hand, and his limbs were dropping blood from wounds which he had himself inflicted. He was rush--The czar, they say, is an ambitious ing to the couch on which his son had sunk, when his eye was caught by the picture of Cleone. The lamp was still burning beside it in the darkness. The maniac knew the form of his daughter, and the dagger fell from his grasp. He looked intently on the lovely and innocent maiden; and, when his son approached him, he had fallen on his knees before her, and had clasped his forehead with his hands. His senses returned to him; and, ere long, the boy whom he had come to murder, was pressed by his embrace, and their tears were mingled. Mycalé now entered the room, followed by her guards, and by the savage warrior, her minion and their commander. The first objects that met her eyes, were the picture of Cleonè, and the father and son supporting each other beside it. The change that came over her form and features rendered her a horrible reali SUCH is the interest now excited by the affairs of Turkey, that three works have been recently produced on the present state and circumstances of that country. The half-savage Mahmoud is now an admired character; his politic conduct, and the patriotic courage of the infidel barbarians whom he oppresses, are warmly applauded; and the English, in general, seem to wish success to his arms. prince, whose success in the war would render him too powerful for the peace of Europe; but we have no strong apprehensions on that head; and, although we consider the aggressor in a war as guilty of an atrocious crime against society, there is some palliation of his delinquency when he attacks such tribes as can scarcely be ranked above wild beasts. A lively account is given by Mr. Madden of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of Constantinople, of both sexes. Beginning with the females, he says, "A Turkish lady of fashion is wooed by an invisible lover; in the progress of the courtship, a hyacinth is occasionally dropped in her path, by an unknown hand, and the female attendant at the bath does the office of a Mercury, and talks of a certain effendi demanding a lady's love, as a nightingale aspiring to : the affections of a rose! A clove, wrapped up in an embroidered handkerchief, is the least token of condescension the nightingale can expect; but a written billet-doux is an implement of love which the gentle rose is unable to manufacture. The father of the lady at length is solicited for her hand, and he orders her to give it, and to love, honor, and obey her husband in short, they are married by proxy before the cadi, and the light of her lord's countenance first beams on her in the nuptial chamber. This change in her condition is one which every spinster envies: if she be the only wife, she reigns in the harem over a host of slaves; if there be two or three more, she shares with them the delights of domestic sway. Every week, at least, she is blessed with a periodical return of her husband's love; he enters the harem at noonday, and at sunset, after the fatigue of sauntering from one bazaar to another, and from the public divan to the private chambers, he performs his evening ablutions. One obsequious lady fetches a phial of rose-water to perfume his beard, another bears a looking-glass with a mother-of-pearl handle, another carries an embroidered napkin; and supper is brought in by a host of slaves and servants; for in most harems the ordinary attendants have access to the women's apartments. The women stand before him while he eats, and, when he finishes, a number of additional dishes are brought in for the ladies, whose breeding consists in eating with the finger and thumb only, and in not devouring indecorously the sweetmeats, of which they are exceedingly fond. When supper is removed, and the servants disappear, there are few harems where small bottles of rosoglio are not produced; and of this liqueur, I have seen the ladies take so many as three or four little glasses in the course of ten minutes. A female slave generally presents the pipe on one knee; and sometimes a wife brings the coffee, and kisses the hand of her lord at the same time; this ceremony every wife goes through in the morning, none daring to sit down in his presence but such as have the honor of being mothers: but, in the evening, there is very little etiquette, and very little truth in the assertion of Pouqueville, that "the Turks retire to their harems without relaxing the least particle of their gravity." The reverse of this statement is near the truth; the orgies of the evening, in most harems, are conducted with all the levity of licentiousness, and the gravity of the Moslems totally disappears: their roars of laughter are to be heard in the adjoin. ing houses; and, in my opinion, the gravity of the Turk during the day is only the exhaustion of his spirits from previous excitement. I have seen him reclining on the divan, smoking his long chibouque, one of his wives (generally the favorite) shampooing his feet with her soft fingers, and performing this oper ation for hours together. This is accounted one of the greatest luxuries of the harem; and an opium-eater assured me, the most delightful of his reveries was imagining himself shampooed by the dark-eyed houris of Paradise.-The wo men vie with each other in eliciting the smiles of their common lord; one shows the rich silk she has been embroidering for his vest, another plays an instrument resembling a spinnet, and another displays her elegant form in the voluptuous mazes of the dance. No handkerchief is thrown, but a smile is sufficient to speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul;' and from that moment to the period when another favorite supplants the former, she is salaamed with additional respect by the slaves, and treated with greater honor by all the harem. When she goes to the bath, she is to be distinguished by the importance of her air; the waddling of her gait attests her quality; she disposes her white robe over her fair arms so as to present the largest possible surface en face, and God help the unlucky Christian who crosses her path! I have had the honor of being insulted by ladies of rank far more frequently than by any other women. The fanaticism of females is in a ratio with their quality, and hence it is from them, chiefly, a Frank passenger has to expect such gentle maledictions as, 6 May the plague fall on your house! May the foul birds defile your beardless chin! May she who would marry you be childless!' "When a lady visits her female friends, notice is previously sent of her intention, that the men may have time to get out of the way; the moment she enters the harem she takes off her veil, receiving a thousand salaams, smokes a pipe or two, and is regaled with fruit, sweetmeats, and sugar. The conversation commonly turns on dress; she discusses various topics connected with silks and scandal, narrates how a fair neighbour was suspected of embroidering a silk purse for a stranger, of lifting her veil in the street, and conversing with a man; every gentle listener expresses her horror at such depravity, and appears quite delighted when she is told that the husband happily interposed, and consigned the naughty woman to a watery grave. I was once present at such a conversation, and was astonished to hear the women applaud the spirit of the man, instead of compassionating the fate of the unfortunate victim of jealousy. Such a fashionable lady as I have been describing has little cause to complain of the seclusion of the harem. She rides in her gilded coach, drawn by a team of oxen. She sails in her gay caique along the lovely shores of the Bosphorus; slave as she is called to the caprices of a tyrant, she reigns in the harem, her empire over the household is unlimited, her influence over her husband is unbounded. A true picture is given of the Turkish gentry."A Constantinople man of quality is a slow-paced biped, of a grave aspect, and a haughty carriage; he assumes an indolent air and shuffling gait; the former is nonchalance, the latter bon ton. He wears his turban over his right eye, sports a nosegay in his bosom, and is generally to be distinguished from the million by the magnitude of his pantaloons. He sits for hours smoking his chibouque, wrapped up in a reverie, the delight of which avowedly consists in the absence of thought. He has been educated in the imperial seraglio; he has risen to honors from the depths of infamy; and, after serving his youth in slavery, he is preferred to some office in the state, or is advanced to the government of some distant province; in middle age he can perhaps read and write, and repeat every favorite chapter of the Koran; but this is all his knowlege, and he turns it to the account of plunder. From sentiment and custom he hates a Christian, but then the Christian abhors a Jew, the Jew abominates a Greek, the Greek contemns a Copt, the Copt abjures an Armenian, the missionary pities each, and Heaven bears with all! He believes no less firmly than the Christian rayah in the truth of his creed, and that no other leads to Paradise. His fanaticism is fundamentally the same as the superstition of the Greek and the bigotry of the Armenian, and is only modified in its external forms by the diversity of religious rites. In his domestic relations, he differs little from the Christian; his bosom is agitated by the same passions, his actions are swayed by the same motives, his understanding is warped by the same prejudices, he has the same kindly feelings in his family, he loves his little children with the same affection, regards his wife with no less deference, treats his domestics with at least as much humanity, shows to his aged parents the same respect, and follows at their bier with the same bitterness of heart. It is not because his turban differs from a hat, or his caftan from a surtout, that he is either vile or virtuous; it is not because Ramadhan is different from Lent, that his manners or his morals are either corrupt or pure. His inherent hostility to Christianity is the first principle of his law; and the perfidy it is supposed to enjoin is the most prominent feature in his character: I say supposed to enjoin, for, though the Koran inculcates, passim, the extermination of Christians in open warfare, it nowhere approves the treachery and inhumanity of which the priesthood make a merit. But persecution is one of the amiable weaknesses of all theologians, and it would be a folly to stigmatise the church of Christ with the charge of intolerance, because Calvin, moderate as he was, pursued a theological opponent even to death. The most striking qualities of the Moslem are his profound ignorance, his insuperable arrogance, his habitual indolence, and the perfidy which directs his policy in the divan, and regulates his ferocity in the fieid. The defects in his character are those of the nation; they are the growth of sudden greatness-the intoxication of prosperity enjoyed without reason or restraint. Before conquest and plunder had exalted the nation on the ruin of other realms, the Turk was brave in the field, faithful to his friend, and generous to his foe. It was then unusual to commend the cup of poison with a smile, and to beckon to the murderer, with the oath of friendship on the lips; but treachery is now an accomplishment in Turkey; and I have seen so much of it for some time past, that, if my soul were not in some sort attuned to horrors, I should wish myself in Christendom, with no other excitement than the simple murders of a Sunday newspaper. "The grandee relaxes from the fatigues of dignity pretty often; he perambulates with an amber rosary dangling from his wrist; he looks neither to the right nor to the left the corpse of a rayah attracts not his attention; the head of a slaughtered Greek he passes by unnoticed; he causes the trembling Jew to retire at his approach; he only shuffles the unwary Frank who goes along-it is too troublesome to kick him! he reaches the coffeehouse before noon; an abject Christian salaams him to the earth, spreads the newest mat for the effendi, presents the richest cup, and cringes by his side to kiss the hem of his garment, or, at least, his hand. The coffee, peradventure, is not good: the effendi storms, the poor Armenian trembles; he swears by his father's beard he made the very best; in all probability he gets the cup at his head, and a score of maledictions, not on himself, but on his mother. A friend of the effendi enters, and a most interesting - conversation is carried on by monosyllables at half-hour intervals. The grandee exhibits an English penknife; his friend examines it, back and blade, smokes another pipe, and exclaims, God is great.' Pistols are next produced; their value is an eternal theme, and no other discussion takes place till a grave old priest begins to expatiate on the temper of his sword. A learned ulema, a theologian and a lawyer (for here chicanery and religion go hand in hand), at length talks of astronomy and politics, how the sun shines in the east and the west, and every where; how he beams on a land of Mussulmans; how all the sovereigns of Europe pay tribute to the sultan; and how the giaours of England are greater people than the infidels of France, because they make better penknives and finer pistols; how the dey of Algiers made a prisoner of the English admiral, and, after destroying his fleet, consented to release him, on condition of paying an annual tribute; and how the Christian ambassadors came, like dogs, to the footstool of the sultan, to feed on his imperial bounty. After this edifying piece of history, the effendi takes his leave, with the pious ejaculation of Mash-Allah! how wonderful is God! the waiter bows him out, overpowered with gratitude for the third part of an English farthing, and the proud effendi returns to his harem." Several instances are given of the low state of the medical art in Turkey, and VOL. X of the stupid ignorance of the pretended physicians. Passing over these, we insert a case in which the most cruel treachery was practised on an invalid pasha."I was sent for to the house of a grandee, where a consultation was to be held. I found the patient lying in the middle of a large room, on a mattress spread on the carpet; for the fourposted beds' of Don Juan have no existence in Turkey, and both gentlemen and ladies repose on their mattresses thrown on the carpet of the divan, in their daily habiliments, none of which they doff at night. A host of doctors, Jews, Greeks, Italians, and Moslems, thronged round the sick man, and among them were jumbled his friends, slaves, and followers; the latter gave their opinion as well as the doctors, and, in short, took an active share in the consultation. But he who took upon himself to broach the case to the faculty, was a Turkish priest, who administered to the diseases both of soul and body. As soon as he had made a most ridiculous speech, all the servants, and even many of the doctors, applauded the discourse. There was no time allowed for discussion; the same priest took care to see the doctors fee'd forthwith; each of us got four Spanish dollars, and left the unfortunate sick man to his fate; but going out, when I expressed my astonishment to one of the faculty (an old Armenian), about the exhibition of this new remedy, he looked around him cautiously, and whispered in my ear the word 'poison!' On farther inquiry, I found that the bulk of the patient's property was invested in a mosque. In spite of the remonstrance of my drogueman, I gave an attendant to understand, his master would die if he took the medicine. The poor man died, however: I heard of the event about a month afterwards." # Captain Frankland's work is a light airy performance, not well written, but certainly amusing. He is too partial to the sultan, whose personal character and magnanimous efforts, he says, may do much; but we hope and trust that his efforts, which are rather desperate than magnanimous, will not avert his ruin or his humiliation. "Where the sultan's horse has trodden, there grows no grass," is (says the captain) a Turkish proverb, and a fatal truth. Where-ever the Turk has trodden, devastation and ruin mark 3 G his steps; civilisation and the arts have fled, and made room for barbarism and the silence of the desert and the tomb." Why, then, do not the subjects of this empire rouse themselves to an assertion of their undoubted rights, and endeavour to shake off the most degrading and ignominious yoke that ever insulted mankind? The following is an entertaining specimen of the captain's mode of writing and * style of remark." While I was employed in sketching, a young Turkish female, followed by a black slave and some children, came up to me, and, after looking a long while over my shoulder and talking to me, placed herself quite in front of me, and unveiled herself. I hardly dared to take any notice of this manœuvre, knowing that it is not customary in the East to speak to females in public. She, however, seemed to wish me to make a drawing of her, and signed to me to do so. I looked steadfastly at her for some time, and began to draw upon a spare piece of paper the outline of her figure. She was so pretty that I could not refrain from kissing the end of my pencil and blowing the kiss to her, as one does to children. Upon seeing this, she colored up to her forehead, made a sign as if she would draw a sword, and then a motion with her hand, as though she said, 'if you dare do such a thing, I would have your head cut off.' She was likewise very lavish of her epithets, some of which I have learn ed were not very complimentary. I now began to be apprehensive of the consequences of my indiscretion, and thought it best to continue my sketch of Scutari, and to take no notice of her anger. She waited some time, then went behind me, looked over my shoulder, and seeing that I had ceased to make her portrait, patted me caressingly on the back, spoke softly, and then resumed her place in front of me, hoping that I should finish her likeness; but, while this little coquetry was passing between us, some Turks made their appearance, and she took the alarm, and walked hastily away, looking_very significantly as she departed. The Turks passed on, and presently came some young girls, who, after looking at my drawings, tipped my hat off my head and spat in my face. I could not bear such uncivil treatment as this, and rose and drove them off, while they began to arm themselves with stones and earth, and to throw at me with all their might. I do not know how this scene would have ended, had not some effendi Turks passed by, who, seeing how the matter stood, rebuked the women, and drove them away. I was employed in wiping my face, arranging my clothes, and picking up my hat, when some Greek ladies, who had likewise been spectators of my distress, came up, and consoled me by saying in Italian, Ah, signore! son cattiva gente, gente barbara, canaglia; non turbatevi, signore, son maladetta gente, senza fede.' Upon another occasion, I was witnessing, with great pleasure, the evolutions of some Turkish horsemen who were exercising. Suddenly I found myself assailed by a shower of stones, and, looking upwards toward the hill upon which the sultan's kiosk stands, the wall before which was crowded with Turkish females, I perceived two men who were amusing themselves at my expense, and pelting me as fast as they could. It was in vain that I shifted my ground; the more moderation I displayed, the more they pelted me; at length I thought of my arms, and, brandishing a pistol in the air, I pointed it at my opponents. It was not my intention to fire my weapon, but I thought that its display might be productive of a good effect: and so indeed it was; for, upon the sight of its glittering steel barrel, my two assailants ran away laughing. When I related this circumstance afterwards, in conversation at the embassy, I was informed, that if I thought I could identify either of the men who had insulted me, his excellency would have them punished; and that the sultan was determined to protect Franks in the most effectual manner: indeed, by disarming the populace of the capital, his highness has taken the first step toward this measure, as the Turks are now no longer so prone as they were to insult Europeans, now that they feel they possess no loaded pistol, or sharp atagan, ready to assert their superiority." We must now take notice of Mr. Macfarlane's publication. He is apparently an intelligent man, and, amidst occasional marks of negligence, makes pertinent and just observations. In reviewing the work of Dr. Walsh, we noticed the character and conduct of Mahmoud;-his unfeeling character and his violent conduct. Mr. Macfarlane |