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if jurifprudence profeffes the implicit direction of the koràn, but more attention is paid to the multekah, or fonhet, containing the traditional injunctions; after all, the intereft or caprice of the judge biaffes the decifion.

"The rank of Turkish lawyers is the mufti, or deputy to the fultan; as kalife or oracle of the law, the kadilefcars of Roumily and Anadoly; fupreme in their diftin&t diftricts, mollahs, mufelims, and kadies. These hold their mekemehs, or halls of justice, where they try criminals and hear caufes, in which oral teftimony always pre vails against written evidence.. Three MSS. of the Koran, the Evangelifts, and the Pentateuch, are kept by the kadies, who adminifter oaths upon them, according to the religion of the perfon to be fworn. Faife witneffes are easily procured; they frequent certain coffee-houses, where thefe infamous tranfactions are arranged. If one of these wretches be too often detected, or has forfeited the interefted connivance of the judge, he is given over to the punishment of the law. Mounted on an afs, with his arms and legs tied, and his face toward the tail, he is led through the streets and bazars, where he is infulted with every groffiefs, and if a Turk, fares very ill.

"It is truly remarkable, in fo great a population, that criminal caufes do not occur more frequent ly. Murders are feldom heard of, and happen amongft the foldiers oftener than other defcriptions of people; they are certainly prevent ed by the prohibition of wearing arms in the capital. If the mur derer efcape juftice for twenty-four hours, he is not amenable to the law; at least, has a good chance of evading its vengeance. Robberies

are not frequent, excepting in the great roads through diftant provinces, where they are always punished with impalement. There is no place of public execution; and when a criminal is condemned, he is led down the nearest street by the executioner, who is provided with a large nail and cord, which he places over the door of any fhop where he is not paid for forbearance. The body is raised a few inches only above the ground, and must be left untouched for three days. In inftances of decapitation, the more honourable punishment, it is expofed as long in the street, with the head under the arm, if a musulman, but if a rayah between the legs. So horrid a fpectacle excites no emotion in the mind of a Turk, for it is certain, that by no nation, be it as favage as it may, is the life of a man fo lightly regarded as by them. This is a difgufting, but true sketch of their laws and execu tive juftice.

"Perfonal combat, unknown to the ancients, but fo universal in modern Europe fince the days of chivalry, is not practifed amongst the Turks, nor is affaffination, the difgrace of many nations, in any degree frequent. Connections with women, the great cause of inveterate quarrels, are fo arranged as to render interference with each other almoft impofible. Before marriage they are not feen by their lovers, and after only by their huf bands and near relatives. There is likewife an inviolable point of honour between men refpecting their harèms, and an avowed libertine would be banished from focie ty. Poifon, fecretly given, is the punishment he would probably incur.

"To another occafion of perfonal provocation they are aqually Strangers

ftrangers. Gaming is prohibited by the Mohammedan law, and as chefs is their favourite amufement, their fingular proficiency is a proof that the love of gain may not be the only inducement to excel. Wagers, or anticipating the chances of any trial of skill or common event, they confider as unlawful.

"To the abfence of thefe powerful incitements to anger, and to their national fuavity of manners as confined to themfelves, may be attributed much focial harmony, though with fewer examples of difinterested friendship than amongst us. The Turk fhews inLolence or morofenefs to those only whom his prejudices exclude from intercourfe.

"The Rammezan, or Turkish Lent, lafts for one complete moon, and takes every month in the year, in rotation. No inftitution can be more strictly or more generally obferved; it enjoins perfect abftinence from fun-rife to fun-fet, from every kind of aliment, even from water. Mohammed did not foresee that coffee and tobacco would become the chief luxury of his followers, and various were the opinions refpecting the legality of taking them in Rammezan; which were finally determined in the negative. Thefe are indeed days of penance to the labourer and mechanic, but to the opulent only a pleafing variety, for they fleep all day, and in the evening feaft and make merry; as if they exulted in cheating the prophet. The only fhow of mortif cation is a prohibition from enter ing the harem during the twelve hours of fafting. Every night of this feafon is fome appointed feast amongst the officers of the court.

"Nor are the inferior orders deprived of their share of relaxation; for the fhops of cooks and confec

tioners, and the coffee-houses, are unusually decorated and frequented. There are exhibitions of low humour, and the kara-guze, or puppet-how, reprefented by Chinese fhades.

"For the graver fort, most coffee-houses retain a raccontatore, or profeffed ftory-teller, who entertains a very attentive audience for many hours. They relate eastern tales, or farcaftic anecdotes of the times, and are fometimes engaged by government to treat on politics, and to reconcile the people to any recent measure of the fultan or vifier. Their manner is very animated, and their recitation accompanied by much gefticulation. They have the fineffe, when they perceive the audience numerous, and deeply engaged, to defer the fequel of their tory. The nightly illuminations of every minareh in the city, efpecially thofe of the imperial mofques, produce a very fingular and fplen did effect. Within each of these, the vast concaves of the domes are lighted up by fome hundred lamps of coloured glafs; and externally cords are thrown across from one minareh to another, and the lamps fantastically difpofed in letters and figures. I was not more agreeably furprised by any thing I faw in Conftantinople, than the whole appearance of the first night in Ram

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cular fwing, made by fixing a wheel on a high poft, from which hang many poles, with feats attached to them. I have feen feveral of thefe bearded children taking this amufement with great glee, and contrafted with the gravity of their habits 'nothing could be more ridiculous. The Greeks have an uni verfal license, dance through the ftreets to very rude mufic, and are in the zenith of their vivacity; but the feftivity of the Armenians, a faturnine race, feems to confift chiefly in being intoxicated, and jumping with the prepofterous activity of an elephant. In the Campo de' Morti, near Pera, fo called from being the cemetery of the Franks and Armenians, many of thefe droll fcenes may be then contemplated by an inveftigator of the precife traits of character which difcriminate the mafs of all nations.

"The Turks have fumptuary laws, and habits peculiar to profeffions. By the turban differing in fize and flape every man is known; and fo numerous are thefe diftinctions, that a dragoman, long converfant with Conftantinople, told me he knew not half of them. The Emirs, real or pretended defcendants from the prophet, are diftinguifhed by the green muflin, the others wear white round a cap of cloth, and the head is univerfally very clofely haven. In the turbans of the oulemah there is a

greater profufion of muflin, from ten to twenty yards, which are proportionably larger, as the wigs of profeffional men were formerly. The military, as the janiffaries, boftandjis, and topjis, wear caps of the moft uncouth hape and fashion, fuch as defy defcription. The rayahs are known by a head-dress called a kalpac, made of lamb-fkin,

and inimitably ugly, differing entirely from a turban; and fome. times a famour or black fur cap, which is principally worn by dragomen and phyficians. In other refpects they are dreffed as the Turks. Yellow flippers, or boots, are indulged only to thofe under ambaffadorial protection, and are an envied diftinction. When the prefent fultan came to the throne, he iffued an edict that no unlicenfed rayah fhould appear publicly in yellow flippers. At that time he took great pleasure in walking the ftreets in difguife; when meeting an ill-ftarred Jew dreffed contrary to law, he ordered his head to be inftantly ftruck off. This was his first act of severity, which created moft unfavourable conjectures, not altogether confirmed by his fubfe quent reign.

"The Turks of better rank, and the regular citizens, wear what is called the long drefs, with outer robes of fine cloth, fhalloon, or pellices, which are in general ufe for the greater part of the year, and commonly of the most coftly furs. They are feldom feen without a tefpi in their hands; it is a firing of ninety beads correfponding with the names of the deity, which they carry as much for amufement as devotion. Hamid Ali, a late vifier, wore one of pearl, fo perfect as to be valued at 3000l. fterling.

"The common people, especially thofe belonging to any military corps, have a jacket richly ornamented with gold or filk twift, trowfers of cloth, which clofe to the middle of the leg, the other part of which is bare, and red flippers. Their great pride is to flick into their girdles a pair of large horfe piftols, a yataghan or long knife, a hanjiar or dagger, all pro

fufely

fufely inlaid with filver in a grotefque talte, which, with pouches for ammunition and tobacco, are extremely incommodious and feveral pounds weight. With thefe weapons they frequently do mifchief, often from childinefs, fometimes from intention. Such are feen in every town in the empire, excepting the capital, who glory in their privilege, as no rayah is permitted to carry arms.

"By the laws of Ifiamifm the Turks are forbidden veffels and utenfils of gold or filver, and are directed to great fimplicity in every habit of life. This injunction does not extend to women, whofe pride confifts in the number and coftliness of their trinkets. The chief luxury of the men is displayed in the number of their attendants, and their horfes with fuperb caparifons, often of embroidered velvet, and plates of filver emboffed and gilt. No rich man appears in public, but on borleback with a train of footmen, in any part of Conftantinople, the number of whom is unnecellarily great, and much of his income is expended in their daily maintenance, and new clothes at the feaft of Deyràm. Their wages are inconfiderable. No dometic performs more than one office; this ferves the coffee, and that hands the napkin, but no emergency can command any other fervice.

"The horfes of the Arab, or Tourcoman breed, are eminently beautiful, and are taught to prance under the perfect manêge of the rider however infirm. Great expence likewife is lavifhed on the boats, which are elegant in a high degree, carved, gilded,, and lined with rich culions. They coft from a hundred to a thoufand piaftres each. The rank of the owner is afcertained by the number of

oars, and in dexterity or civility no watermen exceed the Turks.

"Coaches are not in ufe, excepting that the clumfy, nondefcript vehicles, which convey the ladies of great harèms, can be fo called. In his pipe an opulent man is extremely fumptuous; the head must be of pale amber, the ftick of jafinine wood, with the bark preferved, and the bowl of a delicate red clay, manufactured at Burgàs, in Rome. lia, and highly ornamented. According to the dignity of the smoker is the length of his pipe, often fix or seven feet, when it is carried by two of his fervants from place to place with much ceremony; and the bowl is fupported by wheels, as an aid to fupreme indolence. In the fummer, for greater coolness, the ftem of the pipe is covered with cotton or muflin, and moistened with water. This fovereign recreation is not confined to the men; the ladies, efpecially thofe advanced in life, partake of it largely, and, as a delicacy, they mix the tobacco with frankincenfe, mufk, or aloes wood. The fultan alone abftains from etiquette; as kalife, or reprefentative of the prophet, he declines deciding, by his own practice, upon the propriety of any cuftom, about which the law is not fpecific and declaratory,

"Notwithstanding their grave exterior, which might prepoffefs foreigners with an idea of concealing as much ftupidity as fenfe, and apparently fo ungenial with mirth or vivacity, the Turks, in fuperior life, of both fexes, indulge a vein of farcaftic humour, and are not behind more polifhed nations in the delicacy or severity of their repartees. Moft gentlemen of the feraglio, or capital, have been educated in their feminaries of learning, and are converfant with oriental literature. Many of them

quote

quote the Perfian poets as happily, and refer to the Arabic philofophers with as complete erudition, as we can do to the Greek or Roman. The Leilat u alf leilah,' or Arabian Nights, first introduced into Europe by Monfieur Petit de la Croix, are familiarly known by them, as well as the fables and allegories of Pipay and Lokman, from which fources they store their minds as well with fentiment as expreffion. To excel in colloquial facility and elegance, is the first ambition of every cheliby, or man of breeding.

“A man of rank, remarkably unpleafing in his countenance and figure, was married, according to cuftom, without having firft feen her unveiled, to a lady whofe pretenfions to personal attraction did not exceed his own. On the moraing after their marriage the demanded of him, to whom of his friends the might fhew her face with freedom.Shew it,' faid he, to all the world, but hide it from me.' 'Patience,' rejoined the lady. I have none,' returned the bridegroom. Ah!' faid the, 'I think you must have had a gond

"I repeat a fpecimen of Turk-fhare; for you have carried that ifh wit, related to me as having been occafioned by a recent circumftance.

abominable great nose about with you all your life-time.'

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PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS at BUDE.

[From TowNSON'S TRAVELS in HUNGARY, &c.] HERE are two theatres. originally a church, and was applied by the emperor Jofeph to this purpofe, is a very good one; that in Peft is finall, and with wretched scenery and wretched decorations. The pieces are generally played in German, but within thefe few years fome have been given in the Hun. garian language.

bulls would have disputed the

"On Sundays and great feftivals, the public is entertained as at Vienna with the Hetze. The proprietors have two very fine wildbulls. The day I was a fi ectator of this polite and humane amufement one was turned out on the arena, and at the fame time an Hungarian ox: this attacked the former, but was immediately thrown down: but our English

vantage: an Hungarian ox, and a Bos ferus, are very unequally matched. Then came a Raube bear; this is a bear that has been kept without food for several days, and ren dered favage by hunger: on another bear being let out a battle enfued: the latter was fo much inferior in fize that the contest did not laf long: the Raube bear kept the other, which feemed no way ferocious, down with his paws, and ftrangled him, by feizing him by the throat, and then carried him into his den. The great difparity in fize and ftrength rendered this a moft difagreeable fight. The white Greenland bear afforded more enj tertainment. In the middle of the arena there was a small pool of

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