CHAPTER XXVI.
Repetition—The Esplanade—The Kiosk and the Pavilion—A Short Cut—Dense Crowd—A Friend at Court—Curious Coup d’Œil—The Arena—The Orchestra—First Act of the Comedy—Disgusting Exhibition—The Birth of the Ballet—Dancing Boys—Second Act of the Drama—Insult to the Turkish Women—The Provost Marshal—Yusuf Pasha, the Traitor—Clemency of the Sultan—Forbearance of an Oriental Mob—Renewal of the Ballet—Last Act of the Drama—Theatrical Decorations—Watch-dogs and Chinese—Procession of the Trades—Frank Merchants—Thieves and Judges—Bedouin Tumblers—Fondness of the Pashas for Dancing—The Wise Men of the East.
It were worse than idle to follow the daily progress of the Fêtes. It were but to weary the reader with repetitions, or to delude him with fictions; for the same actors being engaged during the whole of the festival, only varied their exhibitions sufficiently to emancipate themselves from the reproach of actual repetition. So monotonous, indeed, did I find the second representation I was induced to witness, that I never ventured upon a third.
I have already mentioned that the Esplanade of the Grand Armoury had been selected as one of the spots upon which the sports were to take place; but I learnt from an individual who had possessed himself of the important secret, that the principal performers were to exhibit on a piece of land situated between the palace walls, and the kiosk in which the Pashas did the honours to the dinner-guests of the Sultan, after the termination of their repast; while a garden Pavilion, whose windows opened upon this space, was to be tenanted by his Sublime Highness, his Imperial daughters, the Sultana, their mother, and half a dozen of the most favoured ladies of the harem, who, from the painted lattices, could look forth upon the scene.
This arrangement sufficiently attested the superiority of the situation; and, accordingly, avoiding the crowd of the Champs des Morts, and the thronged descent into the valley, we drove across the hills beyond the Military College; and then, skirting the height above Dolma Batchè, suddenly descended almost under the walls of the Palace. But the chosen spot was surrounded by guards, and the crowd were clustered densely in their rear; so densely, indeed, that the arabadjhe declared our further progress to be altogether impracticable.
From this dilemma we were fortunately extricated by an officer of Achmet Pasha’s household; who, perceiving the difficulty, hastened to remove it, which he effected in no very gentle manner by striking the individuals who impeded our passage right and left with the flat of his sword, until he established us immediately behind the line of military.
The performances had not yet commenced, and I had consequently time to contemplate the animated scene before me. On my right was the kiosk, whose wide casements were crowded with Pashas; on my left the Garden Pavilion, which had the honour of screening from the gaze of the vulgar the Brother of the Sun and his train of attendant beauties; behind me rose the hill whose summit was covered with the tents of the Imperial suite, and whose rise was occupied by a crowd of Turkish females; and before me stretched the Bosphorus. A small opening, leading down from the arena towards the shore, was occupied by a detachment of military: and beneath the windows of the kiosk, mats had been spread for about a hundred women, who were comfortably established under the long shadows of the building.
At the other extremity of the circle, thirteen Jews, seated crescent-wise, were playing upon tambourines; while as many more, squatted in their rear, were each beating upon a sort of coarse drum, whose only attribute was noise; and the time to be observed by the musicians was regulated by an individual, with a venerable white beard and a staff of office. This head-splitting orchestra continued to accompany the whole performance, with very slight intervals of rest; and was quite in keeping with the remainder of the exhibition.
Not the slightest effort had been made to level the piece of land thus converted into a temporary theatre, and which was stony and uneven to a degree that must have disconcerted any individuals less philosophical than those who were to exhibit their histrionic and terpsichorean talents before the Ottoman Emperor and his August Court. In fact, the whole of the scenic preparations were conducted in so primitive a manner that you saw at once no deceit was intended, and that, if you suffered yourself to be led away by the incidents of the drama, you would not be deluded thereto by any effort of the actors.
The first arrival upon the scene was that of four ragged personages, apparently intended to represent the street porters who ply for hire about the quays and markets; and these interesting individuals sustained a long and animated conversation, setting forth the dull condition of the Queen of Cities, in which neither feast nor festival had been held since the Baïram. Their lamentations at length attracted the attention of a fifth loiterer of the same class, who, joining the group, gave a new tone to the subject by announcing the approaching marriage of the High and Peerless Princess Mihirmàh—the daughter of His Sublime Highness Mahmoud the Powerful, the Emperor of the East, and Conqueror of the World!
The intelligence was received with enthusiasm, and the new comer was encouraged to proceed with his narration; in which he accordingly set forth not only the beauties and virtues of the Imperial Bride, and the high and endearing qualities of her affianced husband, but also gave a catalogue raisonné of all the sports and ceremonies which were to be observed on the happy occasion of her nuptials; and it is only fair to believe that he did so with some address, as a murmur of admiration ran through the crowd who were devouring his discourse.
After asserting that the whole universe had been taxed to produce novelties worthy of the illustrious event, he proposed to exhibit to his companions an ingenious machine that had been imported from Europe, and which was to be exhibited by a friend of his own. Hereupon, a sort of buffoon was introduced, attended by two men, who fixed a swing with a lattice seat between two slight wooden frames, which they were obliged to support during the remainder of the scene.
One by one, the respectable worthies whom I have attempted to describe were seated in the swing, and rocked gently backwards and forwards by the proprietor of the show; and during this time an old Jew, with a long white beard and tattered garments, followed by a deformed and hideous dwarf, joined himself to the party, but at a sufficient distance to indicate that he was conscious of his unworthiness to intrude upon their notice.
A mischievous whim suddenly prompted the hilarious Mussulmauns to make the quailing dwarf a party in their pastime, and they accordingly placed him in the swing, and amused themselves for a time with his abortive attempts to escape; but, wearying of the jest, they agreed to replace him by his master; and, despite the prayers and terror of the hoary Jew, they compelled him to occupy the crazy seat, which, failing beneath his weight, precipitated him to the ground, where, falling upon his head, he remained apparently lifeless.
At this period of the performance, half a score of the members of the orchestra left their places, and walked demurely out of the ring, in order to swell the crowd which shortly afterwards advanced to raise the body of the murdered man, and convey him away to burial.
Nothing can be conceived more disgusting than the scene that followed; all the actors being actually Jews, selected from the very dregs of the people, and compelled to exhibit the degradation of their social state for the amusement of their task-masters. A wretched bier, borne by four men, was brought forward, on which the supposed corpse was flung with a haste and indecency betokening strong alarm; and it was about to disappear with its loathsome freight, when its passage was obstructed by a party of police, who, occupying the centre of the path along which it was passing, and remaining erect on its approach, were supposed to awaken in the bosoms of the bearers one of the strongest superstitions of the Jews of Turkey; who, when they are carrying a body to the grave that is met by a Christian or a Mahommedan who refuses to bend down and pass under the bier, consider the corpse so contaminated by the contact as to be without the pale of salvation; and, setting down the body under this impression on the spot where the encounter has taken place, they abandon it to the tender mercies of the local authorities.
This wretched and revolting superstition was enacted by the degraded wretches who were hired on the present occasion to expose the abjectness of their people, with all the painful exactness which could delude the spectator into the belief that he beheld a scene of actual and unpremeditated horror. A distracted wife tore off her turban, and plucked out handfuls of her dishevelled hair; the body was rolled over into the dust: a scuffle ensued between the Jewish rabble and the armed kavasses, in which a few blows were given that appeared to fall more heavily than was altogether necessary to the effect of the scene; and the Jew, recovering from his trance amid the shouting and yelling of the combatants, was borne off in triumph by his tribe, with a wild chorus that terminated the first act of the drama!
At intervals, the disgust which this hateful exhibition tended to excite in my bosom was relieved by the arrival of some tardy Pasha, attended by a train of domestics; who, entering the arena by the passage to which I have already alluded as opening from the shoreward side of the enclosure, guided his richly caparisoned steed, whose housings were bright with gems and embroidery, through the motley throng of actors; while his diamond star glittered in the sunshine, and his gold-wrought sword-belt and jewelled weapon-hilt flashed back the light that glanced upon them.
My pen wearies of its office, as I pursue the detail of the morning’s performance; but I compel myself to the task, in order to convey to my readers an accurate idea of the Turkish drama—for this coarse, revolting, and aimless exhibition, whose description I have commenced, is the highest effort that the histrionic art has yet made in Turkey; and I am bound to add that the effect which it produced upon the spectators was one of unequivocal gratification.
The retreat of the Jewish party was succeeded by the arrival of a group of ballet dancers, consisting of about a score of youths from fourteen to twenty years of age, dressed in a rich costume of satin, fringed and ribbed with gold, varying in colour, according to the fancy of the wearer. They all wore their own long hair, curled in ringlets, and floating about their shoulders; and their appearance was so extremely disagreeable, notwithstanding the splendour of their costume, that I was surprised to learn that they all belonged to the Sultan, or to different wealthy Pashas, who take so much delight in seeing them dance as to keep several constantly in their pay.
As I had been assured that the whole of the exhibition remained precisely similar to the scenic amusements of the ancient Romans, I contemplated it with more patience than I should otherwise have been able to exert: for I soon discovered that the dancing was quite upon a par with the dramatic portion of the entertainment. If that upon which I now looked were indeed the germ whence sprang the most graceful and the most elegant of all the movements of which the human form is susceptible—if this were indeed the birth of the Ballet—then is it a fair child that may truly blush for its parentage: for the exhibition was coarse, monotonous, and wearisome, nor did it possess one redeeming attribute. An unceasing circuit of the enclosure—a wreathing of arms and handkerchiefs—an affected inclination of the head first to the one side, and then to the other—a beating of feet upon the earth, and a succession of prostrations before the Pashas, appeared to be the extent of talent of which the dancers were capable; and the only variation that I was able to discover was an increase of speed, which rendered the heavy movements of the exhibitors only the more conspicuous. The very appearance, moreover, of this party of petticoated and long-haired youths was revolting to my English ideas: and, despite the acclamations with which they were liberally greeted, I felt glad when they made their parting obeisance, and gave place to the second series of performers.
A Turk, fèzed and coated, next entered upon the scene—a sort of Oriental Jacques, melancholy and gentlemanlike, who told a tale of blighted love, and consequent sadness; at whose termination he was accosted by the buffoon, who in his turn delivered a panegyric on the loveliness of the veiled beauties of Stamboul, which however failed in its effect upon the slighted suitor; who, with sundry contortions, and wringings of the hands, professed his inability ever to love again.
The buffoon, resolved, as it appeared, to make trial of his constancy; or outraged at the affectation of so anti-Turkish a display of sensibility, shortly withdrew; and returned accompanied by three of the Ballet dancers, disguised as females, and wearing the yashmac and the feridjhe. Of course, curiosity succeeded to indifference, and passion to curiosity; and a scene of love-making ensued, that consisted of attempts to induce the ladies to unveil; experiments with the swing, which occasionally broke down to the great amusement of the spectators; and energetic asseverations on the one part and the other.
During the scene, the principal dancer, who personated the attractive fair-one, displayed considerable talent in his part; the feridjhe was thrown aside; and those Franks who were present, and who could not necessarily hope to gain even a glimpse of a Turkish female in the costume of the harem, had here an excellent opportunity of forming an idea of their appearance; and not only of their appearance, but of their manners also, for the resemblance was perfect; and, to render the ridicule still more complete, the dress was that of the last Palace adoption—the antery and trowsers, wedded to the wadded silk jacket and gigot sleeves!
In the course of the performance, he danced the dance of the harem, with a degree of skill that few of the female dancers ever attain; and which elicited great applause from the audience; and, had the exhibition ended here, it would have been rather absurd than revolting; but the jealous Musselmauns, who veil the casements of their harems with lattices, and the faces of their women with yashmacs, sat not only quietly but admiringly by, while all, and probably more than all, the secrets of the interior were laid bare, and caricatured for the amusement of the vulgar. There could not have been a high-minded Turkish woman present, who did not blush at least as deeply for her husband as for herself; and not a pure-hearted female of any nation, who did not feel more contempt for the instigators of the insult than for its objects.
Not one of the least extraordinary portions of the day’s performances was enacted by a young Pasha, recently promoted to that distinguished rank, with the additional titles of General, and Provost-Marshal of the Ottoman armies. This very heavy and coarse-looking individual, who was formerly Commandant of the Military College in its days of neglect and utter uselessness, is the son of Yusuf Pasha, the treacherous Chief who sold Varna to the Russians, and escaped into the Northern States, where he remained secure, until the kind-hearted Nicholas had wrung his pardon from the betrayed Sultan; who in his plenitude of mercy not only forgave the crime of his false servant, but rewarded his affected penitence with the Pashalik of Belgrade, which he now enjoys.
Mustapha Pasha, his son, figured on the occasion of the Fêtes with a diamond star upon his breast, and grasping a whip bound with gold wire, and furnished with a long lash, which he laid about the heads and shoulders of the mob with a most lavish hand, whenever they advanced an inch or two beyond their allotted boundary. I confess that I could not help smiling as I pictured to myself the reception which His Highness Mustapha Pasha, General of Brigade, and Provost Marshal of the Ottoman Armies, would have received from a sturdy English mob, when they felt his long whip among them! I suspect that his labours would have been brief, and his office not altogether a safe one.
Could I have disengaged my carriage from the crowd, I should at once have retired, perfectly satisfied with the specimen I had obtained of the Turkish taste in theatricals; but the arabas were standing four deep, and pressed upon from behind by a dense mob; and I was consequently compelled to remain a patient spectator of the whole performance. Intrigues with Greek serving-men, domestic quarrels ending in blows, and similarly well-conceived incidents, filled up the canvass, until the end of the second act, when a fresh set of ballet dancers, amounting to nearly one hundred, and clad in the beautiful old Greek dress, entered, and made their bow to the Pashas.
During their performance, which was similar to that of the first party, although less gracefully executed, a new feature was added to the exhibition. An attempt at side scenes was evident, though I confess that for the first few minutes I was at a loss to imagine the intention of the very primitive machinery that was introduced. A couple of frames, similar to those on which linen is dried in England, were placed on a line about twenty feet apart, while, in the centre, a low railing of about six feet in length divided the distance. A poor old wretch, with a rope about his neck, was then tied to each frame, and made to squat down upon his hands and knees, to represent a watch-dog; and some green almonds were scattered about him for his food.
These miserable individuals, whose hired and voluntary degradation made me heart-sick, were both of them old men, whose beards were grey, and whose age should have exempted them from such an office as their necessities had induced them to fulfil. Beside these were placed two youths dressed as Chinese, with long braids hanging down their backs, and feather fans in their hands; not very unlike the figures which adorn the old china in the cabinet of an antiquary. Next came forward a procession composed of all the trades of Constantinople, from the Jew who vends fried fish at the corners of the streets, to the Frank merchant, who, when he closes his office, becomes one of the “Exclusives” of Pera.
Of course, the Frank was very roughly handled. His hat was struck off, and made a football for all the ragamuffins by whom he was surrounded; and the comments which were uttered alike upon his costume and his country were by no means courteous or conciliatory. But it could scarcely be expected that more delicacy would be observed towards a Frank than had been shown to the women of the country; and, this specimen of bad taste apart, the procession was the best point of the performance; as the individuals who composed it appeared to have been principally “taken in the fact,” and forced upon the scene; thus affording faithful rather than flattering representations of their several callings.
When the procession moved off, the serious business of the drama was resumed; the three females re-entered on the scene, accompanied by their mother, and a Greek serving-man, laden with their parasols and essence-bottles; and followed by two thieves, who concealed themselves behind the Chinese statues, for such I found that the two quaint figures who had so quietly walked to their places were intended to represent. After a vast deal of absurd grimace and buffoonery, rugs were spread in front of the low railing, and the four females and the Greek servant seated themselves, to listen to a tale told by the old woman.
While they were thus engaged, the melancholy Jacques of the previous act stole upon their privacy, when an absurd exhibition of screaming and fainting took place; during which the two thieves contrived, without any attempt at self-concealment, to possess themselves of the cachemires and handkerchiefs of the ladies, and, moving a few paces apart, they began to divide the spoil; when the buffoon, in his turn, prowling about the neighbourhood, discovered the theft, and, raising a hue and cry, at which the dogs were let loose by the party, hastened during the confusion to seize upon the booty of the robbers. The outcry attracted the attention of the Cadi, who entered, accompanied by his attendants, to ascertain the cause of the tumult; when the ladies, with tears and shrieks, declared the amount of their losses, and demanded justice.
Of course the good taste which had made a jest of the feelings of their allies, and the morals of their women, would not permit the Turkish comedians to spare their judges; and accordingly the Cadi was a huge caricature of humanity, with spectacles as large as saucers, and a beard of sheep skin. A hurried trial ensued, in which, while the Cadi was ogling the females, the buffoon was making himself merry at the expense of the Cadi; the executioner with his bastinado, and the clerk with his ink-horn and parchment, were both forthcoming; and the drama ended by the capture of the thieves, and the restoration of the stolen property!
A confused dance, accompanied by the wild, shrill chanting of the dancers, which I can compare to nothing but the orgies of a troop of Bacchantes, succeeded the departure of the actors, and the whole arena appeared in motion. The drums and tambourines gave out their loudest discord; gold and silver glittered in the sunshine; arms were tossed in the air; the long tresses of the performers floated on the wind; and I was delighted when the appearance of a troop of Bedouin Arabs, summoned to Stamboul expressly for the occasion, possessed themselves of the open space to exhibit their feats of strength and address. They were magnificently attired in coloured satins, and formed a very curious group; but their accomplishments would scarcely have secured for them an engagement in a respectable English booth. It was altogether pitiable.
When I at length contrived to escape from the crowd, I left a party of the dancing boys performing their evolutions in the Kiosk of the Pashas. Their Highnesses had not yet had a surfeit of the senseless pastime; and the youths were reaping a golden harvest.
The days are gone by in which people were wont to talk of the “Wise Men of the East.”
CHAPTER XXVII.
Succession of Banquets—The Chèïk Islam and the Clergy—Sectarian Prejudices—The Military Staff—The Naval Chiefs—The Imperial Household—The Pashas—The Grand Vizier—Magnificent Procession—Night Scene on the Bosphorus—The Palace of the Seraskier Pasha—Palace of Azmè Sultane—Midnight Serenade—Pretty Truants—The Shore of Asia—Ambassadorial Banquet—War Dance—Beautiful Effects of Light.
One of the most characteristic features of the marriage festivities was the succession of banquets given by the Sultan to the different high personages, belonging to, or connected with, his Empire.
The first day was sacred to the Clergy, and the procession was a most interesting one. At its head walked the Chèïk Islam, with the golden circlet about his brow, and his graceful robes of white cachemire falling around him in heavy folds; a party of the principal Imams followed. Then came the High Chief of the Turning Dervishes, with his lofty hat of white felt folded about with a shawl of the sacred green, and shrouded in his ample mantle. Other sects of Dervishes succeeded; and after them came Hadjis from the Holy Shrine of Mahomet—Emirs with their voluminous white turbans—and Fakirs from the far East. A short space behind advanced the Greek Patriarch, with his jewelled crown, and robes of embroidered satin; supported by a group of prelates. Following close upon his steps, next moved forward the Armenian Archbishop, similarly attended, and gorgeously attired; and as he advanced, he made way for the Jewish Hahām-bachi, or Grand Rabbi, with his flowing beard and inlaid crosier; a throng of Rabbis were in his train; and altogether the scene was one of a most interesting character.
On the arrival of these holy men at the banquetting tent, a delicate difficulty presented itself. The heads of the Greek and Armenian churches resolutely refused to sit at table with, or to eat from the same dish as, their Israelitish companion; while the Jew, on his side, declared the utter impossibility of his partaking of the same food as that eaten by his Christian brethren. The stately Chèïk Islam, meanwhile, was sitting by in uninterested silence; wondering, in the tolerance of his own heart and creed, why men serving the same God should not “dip with each other in the dish.”
The difficulty was at length surmounted; for, as the Jewish law did not permit the Hahām-bachi to partake of flesh that had not been slaughtered by one of his own tribe, there was nothing left for him but a dinner of cheese and salad, which was accordingly spread on a side-table; while the scrupulous Christian prelates, who had refused the companionship of the representative of the ancient religion, seated themselves quietly on either side of the High Priest of Mahomet, and made an excellent dinner. The honours were done by four of the principal Pashas; and, at the close of the repast, the party adjourned to the kiosk to which I have already made reference, in order to enjoy the flight of the rockets, and the fairy wonders of the illuminated Bosphorus.
To the church succeeded the army; and on the morrow Achmet Pasha, and the principal Officers of the Staff, were the invited guests.
The magnificent shipping in the harbour next gave up its chiefs; and again Achmet Pasha, as temporary High Admiral, headed the board.
On the fourth day, all the members of the Imperial Household were feasted in their turn; and, on the fifth, came the princely train of Pashas.
The Grand Vèzer rode first on a magnificent white Arabian, whose housings were wrought with gold and seed-pearl. His bridle-rein was richly worked with coloured silks; and his golden stirrups were finely chased. His sword-hilt blazed with diamonds: and the brilliant order that he wore upon his breast burnt in the sunlight; fifteen servants on foot surrounded his horse.
He was followed by the four newly-elected Vèzirs: the Oumouri-Mulkiènaziri, or Minister of the Interior; the Oumouri-Karidjiè-Naziri, or Minister of the Exterior; the Minister of Military Finance: and the Lord High Comptroller of the Mint; by the Seraskier Pasha, the Generallissimo of the Imperial Armies, the Grand Master of the Artillery, and a crowd of out-dwelling Pashas, who had been summoned by the Sultan to assist at the festival.
I never witnessed a more magnificent or profuse display of diamonds, and embroidery; of proud steeds, and glittering parade. The crowd of running footmen—the trampling of impatient chargers—the clashing of jewelled weapons against the gilded stirrups—the noise, the hurry, and the glare, baffle all description; and when at length the princely train had disappeared within the tent, and the grooms were leading away the splendid animals, who, freed from the control of a rider, were rearing and prancing among the crowd, I felt like one suddenly awakened from a gorgeous dream, and had only a severe headache left, to convince me that I had really been a spectator of the splendid scene.
In the evening, well furred and cloaked, we descended to the pier of Topphannè; and having secured one of the large caïques that ply to the islands, we stepped on board; and, rowing out into the middle of the channel, contemplated at our ease the wonders which surrounded us. From the centre of the stream, the whole mass of waters appeared to be girdled with fire; the shore was wrapt in darkness, and the edifices of light seemed to lift themselves almost to the clouds. I can conceive nothing finer of its kind; and we continued almost motionless where we had first paused, our caïque heaving gently upon the bosom of the blue waters; until a large flight of rockets gave us a momentary view of the surrounding shores; but, above all, of the surface of the channel.
If I had been surprised at the density of the crowd on shore, I was tenfold more so at the floating throng which had almost choked up the passage of the Bosphorus. Every light and manageable craft that could be made available, was astir that night, from the caïque of the Pasha, to the little, round, tub-like boat of the Archipelagon trader; while the countless white yashmacs of the women gleamed out in the light of the rockets like a dense ridge of surf, as you approached nearer to the edge of the shore; a circumstance which was readily accounted for by the fact that no Turkish female is allowed to walk the streets after eight o’clock at night, and that this was consequently their only method of witnessing the illuminations.
Having contemplated the general effect from a distance, we with some difficulty made our way through the caïques which were closely wedged together opposite the Palace of Dolma Batchè, just in time to escape one of the magnificent explosions produced by the Greek fires, that were blazing up out of the water in every direction, and which burst not five yards from our boat.
Of all the illuminations, that of the Seraskier Pasha, taken individually, was by far the most brilliant. The whole façade of the palace was one blaze of light; and, in lieu of the oil by which the lamps were filled in every other instance, he had fed the flame with some ardent spirit, which gave to it the fitful tint and the flashing brilliancy of diamonds. A magnificent screen in arabesques, on the opposite coast, at the small summer palace of Scutari, was the next most attractive object of the Bosphorus. But it is only as a whole that such a pageant should be judged; and all those who looked upon the one which I have attempted to describe, will doubtlessly concede that it was a spectacle of beauty which has probably never been exceeded.
We made our way slowly, but without much difficulty, along the European shore, until we reached the Palace of Azmè Sultane; but for a while after we had gained that point all further progress was impossible. There must have been many hundred caïques wedged together in front of her terrace, and not less than fifty of them contained musicians. We had intended to disembark at the palace steps, and to pay a visit to Nazip Hanoum, but were obliged to abandon the idea, as we became instantly aware that the thing was impracticable. We therefore remained quietly in our boat, under the bright light of the magnificent screen upon whose surface coloured lamps were intermixed with orange boughs and exotic flowers. The terrace was crowded; and I saw more than one light and fairy figure, that even the feridjhe failed wholly to conceal, which looked as though its owner should rather have been peering through the slender lattices, than from beneath the shade of a yashmac; but the occasion was so rife with excitement, and the voices from the caïques were so enticing, that doubtlessly more than one fair Dilaram and Leyla played truant that evening after the prescribed hour.
Having at length contrived to make our way through this crowd of worshippers, for such they must have been, we left the Palace far behind us in a few minutes, and escaped from the noise and even danger which were the present characteristics of its vicinity. Our sturdy boatmen, bending to their oars, soon brought us opposite to the dwelling of the bride, whose whole extent was bright with festooned fires; but my spirit had begun to weary with the perpetual glare, and I rejoiced when we struck out once more into the middle of the channel, and running under the shore of Asia, whose infrequent lights at this point of the stream rather relieved than pained the eye, left far behind us the clamorous merriment of the crowd. We had the moon high above us; the pale and placid moon, which had for many nights been mocked by a radiance more dazzling than her own; while the myriad stars that were twinkling their silver eyes as if in wonder at the scene beneath them, were reflected in the clear water as in a mirror. It was a heavenly night; and as we glided slowly along under the Asian mountains, the song of a hundred nightingales came to us from the groves and gardens of the coast.
The transition was extraordinary; and, after the excitement, the hurry, and the exertion of the previous day, the quiet of the hour fell upon me like a happy dream; and I remember that I shed tears as I lay back upon my cushions, and looked upwards to the calm moon, and listened to the thrilling melody of the midnight woods, and felt the soft wind fanning the hair upon my brow; but they were tears in which there was no bitterness; an outpouring of the wearied spirit that relieved its weight; and when we once more became entangled in the floating crowd, and dashed forward into the blinding light of the fire-girt Palaces, the heart-laugh which went ringing over the ripple might sometimes have been traced to me.
The mere worldling will sneer at this admission; but those whose misfortune it is to feel deeply will understand the seeming inconsistency.
The sixth day was fixed upon for the Ambassadorial Banquet, where the representatives of the Mighty Ones of the Earth were to feast together at the board of the Brother of the Sun, and Emperor of the World. A table, well-appointed in the European style, had been prepared; and the banquetting tent was neatly fitted up with draperies and mirrors.
In the evening a new and distinct feature was added to the entertainments, by the introduction in the outer court of the Palace of a raised platform, on which a score of performers, clad in half armour, attempted a species of war-dance to the light of a dozen bonfires, which flashed and faded by turns; now revealing the glittering costume of the struggling and straggling combatants, and now enveloping them in a cloud of dense black smoke, as impenetrable as the waves of Erebus. The whole thing was a failure; and the only charm attendant on the exhibition, was the singular transition of light and shade that played over the surface of the painted palace, and which produced effects almost magical; now touching the lofty portal with a golden gleam, and then fading away into a faint green, caught from the leafy boughs which fed the fires.
The Turks are decidedly not a dancing nation.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Monotonous Entertainments—Bridal Preparations—Common Interest—Appearance of the Surrounding Country—Ride to Arnautkeui—Sight-loving Ladies—Glances and Greetings—Pictorial Grouping—The Procession—The Trousseau—A Steeple-Chase.
Thus far all had been monotonous from its constant repetition; the same dramas had been enacted, the same lamps had been lighted, and the same banquets had been prepared; but the seventh day was the eve of the Imperial marriage, on which the trousseau of the bride was to be borne in state from the Palace of Dolma Batchè, to her own glittering Seraï on the Bosphorus. The period was arrived when her slaves, on withdrawing her from the bath, were to braid her long tresses with threads of gold, and strings of pearl, and to stain the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet with henna.
At an early hour the streets of Pera were crowded with arabas and saddle-horses; and my own eager little chesnut was neighing out his impatience under my window before eight o’clock. It was a glorious morning, bright and sunny, without a cloud; and, as I sprang into my saddle, I felt that this was a day on which the Fates had resolved to weave a white thread into the web of my existence.
All the three hundred thousand persons said to have been collected in Constantinople on the occasion of the Imperial marriage, must have been beside our path that morning! I never before beheld such a gathering of human beings. There had been divided interests during the previous days of festival: different points of attraction, which had wrenched asunder the mighty mass of mortality, and fashioned it into divers portions; but on the present occasion, men’s minds were all bent upon one object; and this community of purpose had collected them together in one vast multitude.
The road was guarded by armed sentinels; and about an arrow’s flight from the Military College, on the line from Dolma Batchè to the Palace of the Princess, a handsome tent had been pitched for the Ambassadors, which was already thronged. Every rising ground was occupied as far as the eye could reach; and the outline of the road along which the procession was to pass, was marked by clusters of females, seated so closely together that from a short distance they appeared to form one compact body. Behind these were ranged lines of arabas, filled with Turkish, Greek, and Armenian ladies; while on the open space beyond, horsemen galloped to and fro; pedestrians, who had been too tardy to secure advantageous places, straggled from spot to spot, in the hope of establishing themselves among some knot of friends; and water-venders, with their long-necked earthen jars and crystal goblets, passed from one party to another, disposing, at an usurious interest, of their tempting merchandize.
As there was no sign of the procession when we reached the Ambassadorial tent, we resolved to canter on to Arnautkeui, and amuse ourselves by a survey of the wayside groups; and a most interesting ride it was. As the Turkish women generally, on any occasion which takes them from their homes at an early hour, profit by the circumstance to remain in the open air all day, none of our party were surprised at the well-organized arrangements that were making on all sides. The whole line of road from Dolma Batchè to the kiosk above the Palace of Arnautkeui was edged with spectators; and wherever a tree afforded the means of doing so, shawls and rugs had been stretched against the sun, producing a very cheerful and pretty effect. The number of Turkish females collected together on this occasion may be imagined when I state that a friend of mine, on whose veracity I have the most perfect reliance, assured me that he knew it to be a fact, that several of these sight-loving ladies had actually sold the tiles off the roofs of their houses, in order to raise money enough to enable them to hire an araba for the last two days of the Festival!
Nor was this all; for a still more startling fact came to my knowledge from so authentic a source that I state it without hesitation. A Turkish female in a respectable station of society, having in vain importuned her husband for the means of witnessing the festivities in a manner suited to her rank, and receiving for an answer the assurance that he was unable to comply with her request; finding that she had no hope of success save through her own ingenuity, set herself to work to devise some expedient by which she might raise the necessary sum; and having taken into her confidence a favourite slave who was to accompany her in the event of any fortunate discovery, it was at length decided between them that she should sell her son, a fine little boy of about five years of age. No sooner said than done; she adjusted her yashmac and feridjhe, took her child by the hand, and, followed by her attendant, proceeded to the house of a slave merchant, where the bargain was soon made, and the sum of three thousand piastres given in exchange for the little Musselmaun!
The astonishment of the husband may be conceived, when on the morrow he saw his wife seated in an araba in the midst of a bevy of her fair friends, without being able to discover how she had contrived to secure a carriage at so expensive a period. He demanded an explanation in vain; and it was not until he inquired for his child, and detected a mysterious confusion in the manner of his wife, that a suspicion of the fact flashed upon him. He insisted on hearing the truth; and when he at length learnt it, he hurried like a madman to the slave-merchant, and demanded back his boy; but the dealer in human beings had no expensive sympathies; and he only answered the agonized intreaties of the father, by asserting his willingness to deliver up the child when the money which he had given for him was repaid. The wretched parent had it not to give; and finding that his misery produced no effect upon the slave-merchant, he hurried in his anguish to the Seraskier, who, having heard the tale, summoned to his presence the mother, the child, and the merchant; and after having ascertained that the fact was precisely as it had been stated to him, he expressed to the former his horror of the unnatural deed of which she had been guilty, and received for answer that she had acted under the firm conviction that her husband had merely refused to supply her with money from an impulse of avarice; and that, being devoted to his child, he would immediately purchase him back. The apology, poor as it was, was admitted; and the Seraskier, finding that the father really did not possess the means of recovering his boy, generously paid the price of his liberty, and restored him to his parents; only cautioning the mother not to attempt a second sale of the same description, as, in the event of such an occurrence, she should herself be her child’s ransom.
Hear this, ye Englishwomen, who have been accustomed to believe that the Turkish females are always under lock and key—Hear this: and then imagine to what a pitch they carry their love of dissipation and expense.
Not the least amusing part of the ride was the multitude of recognitions and salutations consequent upon our progress through the crowd. Here a veiled lady greeted us from her gilded araba; and there a laughing Greek saluted us from beneath his wayside tent. On one side, we were joined by a rival party of mounted Franks; and on the other we were beckoned aside by some pretty friend, who was seated under the shade of a cluster of overhanging branches.
Had there been nothing further to anticipate, the mere sight of the great congregation of human beings collected together that morning, would of itself have been a highly interesting spectacle.
Probably in no other country upon earth can you encounter such groups as you do in Turkey; they always appear as though they had been arranged by an artist; and I find myself on every occasion just about to describe them, when I remember that I have already done so more than once; and am compelled, however reluctantly, to forego the inclination.
Having reached the crest of the hill above Arnautkeui, we turned our horses’ heads once more towards Dolma Batchè; and had almost reached the Palace when the sound of a military band came cheerfully on the wind, and we were obliged to gallop off, in order to secure an elevated station whence we could conveniently witness the passage of the procession.
We were fortunate enough to possess ourselves of a spot of ground that overhung the road, along which we reined up our horses in line, and awaited the arrival of the pageant.
The Band led the way, playing the Sultan’s Grand March upon their wind instruments, and the military followed in good order; it was a squadron of the élite of the Turkish Army, the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, whose several troops are distinguished by the different colour of their horses. I counted four negro officers as they passed us.
The Troops were succeeded by fifty Field Officers, the General Staff of the Empire, well mounted and attended; and they, in their turn, gave place to twenty Great Officers of the Imperial Household. With these individuals commenced the interest and Orientalism of the spectacle; the flashing diamonds upon their breasts and hands, and the glittering housings of their horses, relieving the monotonous slowness with which they progressed. This splendid train was followed by fourteen led mules, laden with packages, covered with the gold and silver stuffs of Broussa, and secured upon the animals with cords of silk. The packages contained the velvet and satin mattresses intended for the harem of the Princess, and all the minor articles necessary to her household; which are supplied by the Sultan, even to the feather-brush that beats aside the flies from the dinner-table.
Next came twelve beautiful white mules, magnificently housed, and led by pages dressed in a scarlet uniform: a present to the Princess from her Imperial Father.
Nine carriages of silver net-work, roofed and draperied with coloured silk, each drawn by four bay horses, followed next in line; and through the transparent lattices glittered the costly sofa-furniture of tissue and embroidery; the velvet cushions, and the golden fringes which were to adorn the saloons of the bridal Palace.
After these came three open droskys, with pages running at the bridle-rein of the superb leaders, who seemed impatient of the pace at which they travelled, and scattered the foam from their mouths as they champed their embossed bits; and these were overlaid with cloths of crimson velvet fringed with gold, on which was displayed a collection of richly-chased silver plate.
Then followed five other carriages, drawn like the foregoing by four stately horses, containing trunks covered with coloured velvets and gold and silver stuffs, and clamped and hinged with wrought silver, laden with the linen of the Imperial Bride.
Next came forward what, at the first glance, seen as it was through the cloud of dust raised by the carriages, seemed to be a moving tulip-bed, extending far as the eye could reach. Nor was the illusion an overstrained one; for this portion of the procession proved to be a train of one hundred and fifty men, each attended by a page, and bearing upon his head a basket of wicker-work, covered with gold tissue, and surmounted by a raised dome of coloured gauze, decorated with bunches of artificial flowers. Beneath these transparent screens might be seen the toilette of the young Princess; her golden ewers, and jewel-studded basins—her diamond-covered essence-boxes, and gemmed water-vases—her glittering porcelain, her emerald-mounted hair-brushes—and all the costly gauds which litter so magnificently the chambers of the great. Golden cages, filled with stuffed birds—inlaid caskets, heavy with perfumes—musical instruments, rich with laboured gold and jewels—salvers, upheaped with gold coins—and ten thousand brilliant toys, if not without a name, yet almost without a use, followed in their turn; and then came pyramids of sweetmeats, glittering like fruits which had suddenly been hardened into gems; and trays of shawls, each one a fortune in itself, enveloped separately in wrappers of coloured gauze, tied with long loops of ribbon.
But the most gorgeous display was yet to come; embroidered handkerchiefs whose gold and silver threads were mingled with silks of many hues, and whose texture was almost as impalpable as the gossamer—jackets of velvet worked on the sleeves and breasts with precious stones—trowsers sprinkled with stars of gold and silver—anteries of white silk, wrought with coloured jewels—robes of satin powdered with seed-pearl—slippers as diminutive as that of Cinderella, fringed with floss silk, and powdered with rubies; and finally, sixteen bearers, balancing upon their heads cages of silver wire, resting on cushions of crimson velvet, whereon were displayed the bridal diamonds. The sunshine was flashing on them as they passed us, and at times it was impossible to look upon them.
It seemed as though the trees of the Seraï must have dropped diamonds, to supply the profusion of the Imperial Father. It is impossible to describe them—the diadems and bracelets, the necklaces and wreaths, the rings and clasps: suffice it that every female article of dress or ornament, for which this costly stone could be made available, was here in its magnificence; and assuredly the gifts of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon must have sunk into insignificance before the bridal trousseau of the Princess Mihirmàh—“The Glory of the Moon!”
Forty mounted negroes appointed to her household followed, like demons of darkness, on the footsteps of the flashing treasure which I have just described; and I can safely declare that I never beheld so hideous an assemblage of human beings. The diamonds were quite secure, I should imagine, from all depredators, under the charge of these frightful guardians—these gnomes, gloating over the produce of the “dark gold mines,” where no light could intrude in which they might mirror their own ugliness; and His Sublime Highness, or rather his Master of the Ceremonies, appeared to have been of the same opinion; for although a guard preceded the procession, none followed it; and the termination of the pageant came so abruptly upon me after its greatest splendour, that I felt as though some accident had detained the remaining actors in the show, and that something more must follow; but as, after the lapse of a moment, I discovered that all was really over, there was nothing for it but a steeple chase “over bank, bush, and briar,” in order to get once more in advance of the procession, and thus secure a second view.
On this we accordingly determined; and after a gallop over ploughed fields, and a few leaps over sundry intervening fences and ditches, we found ourselves on the height above Arnautkeui, just as the gorgeous train was beginning to descend the hill.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Bridal Day—Ceremony of Acceptance—The Crowd—The Kislar Agha and the Court Astrologer—Order of the Procession—The Russian Coach—The Pasha and the Attachés—The Seraskier—Wives of the Pashas—The Sultan and the Georgian Slave.
The morrow was the bridal day, when the fortunate Saïd Pasha was to receive his Imperial Bride beneath his own roof, and to look upon her for the first time. As yet he had not had even a glimpse of her through her yashmac, their only interview having taken place on his arrival from the Dardanelles, when he had been summoned to the palace to throw himself at her feet, and to return thanks for the honour she was about to confer upon him. This interview, if such indeed a meeting may be termed in which one of the parties only has a sight of the other, is one of the ceremonies à la rigeur in the Imperial marriages of the East.
The bridegroom elect is led into a room, at whose upper extremity a door stands ajar; and behind this sits the lady splendidly habited, and surrounded by a train of slaves. A small portion of her embroidered antery is suffered to pass the opening of the door; and a side lattice, veiled with thin gauze, enables her to take a view of her suitor as he approaches; which he does slowly, and upon his knees, the whole length of the apartment. On arriving near the “Door of Light” that conceals the Princess, he thrice bows his forehead to the earth, ere he ventures to implore a ratification of his hopes. The officious Kislar Agha replies for the bride; and after a second prostration, the Pasha returns thanks “in a neat speech;” and with the permission of the same personage, he then raises to his lips the hem of the Imperial garment, and retires in the same humble posture in which he entered.
The on dit at the Palace whispered the disappointment of the bride on the present occasion, that the choice of her Imperial father had not fallen on Mustapha Pasha of Adrianople, whom she had once seen by accident, and by whose personal beauty she had been much attracted. It is, nevertheless, possible that this glimpse of her destined bridegroom reconciled her to her destiny; for, as it is the appearance only to which Turkish females generally attach any importance in their husbands, the young Pasha of the Dardanelles could safely compete with all his rivals, being really a very handsome and intelligent-looking person.
Had I not known that such a thing was altogether impossible, I should have said, when I pulled up my panting horse on the height above the palace, that the same groups occupied the same spots where I had seen them on the previous day. The scene did not appear to have altered in a single feature. I saw the same smiling faces, and received the same kindly greetings; laughed at the same dirty, stupid-looking sentinels, and bought a cool draught from the same water-vender for a twenty para piece; and, altogether, I had some difficulty in persuading myself that I had really talked politics with a hot-headed Englishman, theology with a Greek Papas, and nonsense with a Sardinian Secretary, and moreover had slept through a long night, since I last stood upon that sunny hill, and looked far and wide upon the same wilderness of human beings.
The procession of the preceding day had been announced to start from Dolma Batchè at eight o’clock, but the mid-day muezzin had been called from the minarets, ere the first trumpeter issued from the portal. Profiting, therefore, by our experience, we partook of a quiet breakfast on the present occasion, ere we sped to the scene of action; and we had judged rightly in so doing, for we were yet considerably in advance of the bridal train. Nevertheless, it is certain that the baggage-mules and the treasure-carriages required more time to prepare them for the journey than the Imperial Bride, and her attendant train of ladies; for the Kislar Agha was yet girding on his sword with all the quiet precision of a man who has no cause for haste, when a negro of the Seraï rushed into the apartment, and startled him with the intelligence that her Highness was not only ready to start, but actually in the Great Saloon of the Harem, waiting for him to precede her to her carriage. At this announcement the portly personage suffered his weapon to fall from his hands; and tossing his arms above his head, he filled the apartment with his outcries.
“Who has done this? Who has insidiously counselled this haste? Where is the traitor who would destroy the Imperial Daughter of our noble Sultan? (May his beard be white!) It yet wants ten minutes of the time appointed by the astrologer—the lucky moment is not come—and until it arrives, she shall not set her foot without the palace, were it ten times her bridal day.”
At length, however, the auspicious moment really did arrive, when the Kislar Agha was himself the first to hasten the departure of the Princess. The procession was the very triumph of mystery. All the high-born beauties of Stamboul were to pass us by, and we were only to imagine the loveliness on which we were to have no opportunity of looking. The Sultan’s Band opened the march, and executed with great precision a piece of martial music, composed for the occasion by their talented leader Donizetti; a regiment of cavalry followed, and was succeeded in its turn by a gorgeous train of Pashas, among whom rode the bridegroom; and then came the European carriage of the Sultan, drawn by four bay horses, each led by a page in a scarlet and gold uniform. This was succeeded by the Imperial State Coach, of silver gilt, the raised cornice above the roof inlaid with cornelians, agates, and jaspers, the magnificent gift of the Emperor of Russia to his Turkish ally—the gilded lattices, through which gleamed the jealous curtains of rose-coloured silk, were closely shut; and the Imperial Bride was the sole tenant of the costly vehicle. This carriage, which was drawn by six stately horses from the personal stud of the Autocrat, was followed by that in which the Princess had been accustomed to drive on state occasions; the windows were thrown back, and the curtains undrawn—it was empty. Next came the Sultana-Mother, the Princess Salihè, and the younger sister of the bride, a sweet-looking girl of eleven or twelve years of age, who sat beside her veiled relatives in a heavy head-dress of black velvet, overcharged with diamonds; but whose fair young face laughed out in loveliness beneath the hideous disfigurement. These were succeeded by a second Russian carriage, drawn by four horses similar to those in the State Coach, an offering of Russian policy to Achmet Pasha, whose Buyuk Hanoum was within, attended by three female slaves.
The train amounted in all to forty-seven carriages and four; many of them tenanted by five and even six individuals, whose coquettishly arranged yashmacs afforded at times something more than a glimpse of their fair faces; a fact of which the negro guard appeared so well aware, that on some suggestion from one of them to a Pasha, who rode immediately in front of the Imperial carriage, on the second apparition of our party by the wayside, (which, soit dit en passant, must have been sufficiently attractive to the veiled beauties, being principally composed of attachés to the different embassies), His Excellency addressed himself to me in very tolerable French, and told me that, although I was individually at liberty to accompany the procession to the Palace-gates if I wished to do so, he must request that the gentlemen would not attempt to advance further. But the prohibition was more readily uttered than obeyed; and we only just waited for a first glimpse of the fifty negroes who formed the rear-guard, ere we were off again, as fast as our generous horses would carry us.
And well should we have been repaid when we pulled up mid-way of the steep descent leading to the Palace, had it only been by the spectacle of the wily old Seraskier, who rode beside the window of the State Coach, in a state of admirably got-up agitation; first shouting to the troop of attendants who hung on to the wheels, like a man in the last agony; and then modulating his voice to the extremest gentleness of which it was susceptible, to implore of the Imperial Bride not to imagine that there existed the slightest danger; half the fuss that he was making meanwhile, being more than sufficient to satisfy her that she was on the eve of being hurled over the precipice.
On her arrival in the Court of the Palace, Saïd Pasha, on his knees beside the carriage, received her in his arms, and carried her into the Great Saloon of the Harem; the ladies of the Court, who had the entrée, followed in succession; the golden gates were closed: and the excluded had nothing more to do than to shake the dust from their garments—and truly it was about an inch thick—to swallow a glass of iced lemonade in the saddle, and to gallop back, under a burning sun, to their respective homes.
Each Pasha, on the occasion of an Imperial marriage, sends on a stated day his Buyuk Hanoum, or principal wife, to the Palace, attended by two slaves, to congratulate the Princess on her approaching nuptials; and these are the ladies who subsequently form the reception circle at her new home. At the visit of felicitation, when the Sultan receives them on the part of his august daughter, they are presented by the munificent sovereign with an antery, jacket, and trowsers of rich stuff, a pair of embroidered slippers, and a diamond ring; the same articles, but fitted in value to their station, being bestowed also on their attendants. In this magnificent costume they are expected to appear on the bridal day; and on their departure from the Presence, they place their own gifts in the hands of the Kislar Agha, which are always of the extremest richness that the means of the Pasha will permit.
An amusing anecdote is connected with this ceremony, which, being authentic, I may as well relate. The Imperial Presentation negatives the necessity of yashmacs, and thus Sultan Mahmoud enjoys the exclusive privilege of forming a judgment on the taste of his Pashas. On the marriage of the Princess Salihè, the Reiss Effendi forwarded to the Imperial Presence the mother of his sons, a lady to whom nature had not originally been lavish of her gifts, and who had subsequently lost an eye during an attack of plague. His Sublime Highness was observed to fidget upon his sofa as the presentation took place, but the Buyuk Hanoum was received with all the honours due to the exalted rank of her husband, and departed laden with the rich gifts of Imperial generosity.
On the morrow, however, a caïque impelled by three rowers, and freighted with a closely veiled female under the guard of a party of the negroes of the Seraï, pushed off from the Palace of Dolma Batchè, and ran alongside the terrace of that of the minister; when the lady was landed, and, on being conducted into the presence of the Reiss Effendi, her veil was withdrawn, and she proved to be a lovely Georgian slave of about sixteen years of age, in all the first burst of her young beauty—a present to the noble from his Imperial Master, accompanied by a command, that should another occasion occur in which the wives of the Pashas were required to appear before the Sultan, the Reiss Effendi would cause the dark-eyed Georgian to act as the representative of a lady, whose age and infirmities must render all court ceremonials extremely irksome to her feelings.
Of course, the lovely slave was one of the bridal train of the Princess Mihirmàh!