[310] Probably, as Covel was a Cambridge man, he alludes to the same lady as Mr. Pepys speaks of as Mr. Sanchy’s mistress: “And there found Mr. Sanchy and Mrs. Mary Archer, sister to the fair Betty whom I did admire at Cambridge.”
[311] The terrible earthquake at Ragusa is stated by Von Hammer as occurring in 1668. Five thousand persons perished in it; the harbour was destroyed; “water, fire, air, and earth were mingled in a terrible combat, the result of which was the ruin of Ragusa” (Von Hammer). The Turks took advantage of the position, increased the taxes, and utterly crushed the place. In 1678, one Ragusan Ambassador was put to death, another put in prison, and 200,000 crowns demanded from the inhabitants.
[312] Amurath III died 1595.
[313] Arab. suffah is deriv. of our word “sofa”.
[314] The Grand Vizier, Achmet Kiuprili, died towards the close of the year 1676.
[315] Sophister, a Cambridge term. Second year’s men are called junior sophs.; third year’s men, senior sophs.
[316] Weales. A weal is a mark or stripe. “Thy sacred body was stripped of thy garments and wealed with bloody stripes.” (Bp. Hall, Contempl., bk. iv.)
[317] Count Kindsberg was Ambassador at this time from Germany to the Porte. He had a very difficult diplomatic game to play: firstly, to remonstrate with the Sultan for the tyrannies of the Pashas at the towns of Wardein, Erlau, and Debreczin; and, secondly, to counteract the influence of the French Ambassador, M. de Nointel, as France and Germany were at war at this time. Count Kindsberg died in the following year of the plague, or, as some said, of poison administered to him by one of the officers of the Janissaries.
[318] Walter de Leslie, Lord of Pettau and Neustadt, and Field Marshal of the German Empire, was Ambassador to the Porte in 1665. His embassy was noted for the pomp displayed and for the magnificence of his presents to the Sultan.
[319] Prince Mustapha came to the throne in 1695, after his two uncles, Solyman II and Achmet II. His reign was singularly unfortunate, and he was deposed and imprisoned in 1703.
[320] The Mouteferrika was the quartermaster.
[321] French doliman, derived from this Turkish cloak, a light overcoat with straight sleeves, buckled by a girdle.
[322] Kadi.
[324] The origin of the diminutive Sir Tom Thumb is, like that of the Teutonic myth, Jack the Giant-killer, to be found in the earliest annals of our race. An old ballad, written in 1630, commences thus:—
Probably the Tom Thumb alluded to by Dr. Covel is the one who, in 1588, fought a duel on Salisbury Plain with a noted giant.
[325] Sir Bevis, who conquered the giant Ascapart, and kept him as his slave, was the hero of one of the most favourite old legends.
Mr. Pepys alludes to the figure of him over the gate: “At Southampton ... Bevis’s picture is on one of the gates.”
[326] Cop = lump.
[327] I.e., watermen.
[328] Rebi is Turkish for spring. Rebi-u-l-evvel = the first (evvel) of spring, i.e., the 3rd month. Rebi-u-l-akhir = the last (akhir) of spring, i.e., the 4th month.
[329] Hunched = pushed. “Then Jack’s friends began to hunch and push one another.” (Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, ch. xiii.)
[330] Achmet Kiuprili was the real ruler of Turkey from 1661 to his death in 1676. He defeated Sobieski on several occasions, besides winning Crete for the Turks.
[331] Beetled = projecting.
[332] Vide Knolles’ Hist. of Ottoman Turks.
[333] Spon and Wheeler say, vol. i, p. 242:—“Sultan Mahomet IV, who now reigns, has so keen a passion for the chase, that for long he has made it his occupation. It is for this reason that for seven or eight years he has made his residence at Adrianople, for the environs are most suitable to give him the pleasure that he loves.” Mohamed IV was also of a decidedly literary turn of mind.
[334] Defterdar, High Treasurer.
[335] Muezin, the call to prayer from the minaret.
[336] Shawn or hautboy.
[337] I.e., metal-plated.
[338] Pollux (iv, 60) describes the Pandoura as used by the Assyrians, consisting only of three chords.
[339] Hornified = hardened.
[340] Steales = stales, handles or sticks of a rake, etc.
[341] Quintal.
[342] Menage, here, means manage, control.
[343] Slubber is a variant of slabber, to do a thing carelessly. “Slubber not business for my sake.” (Shakes., Mer. of Ven., ii, 8.)
[344] Fr. for sausage.
[345] Stoups = a vessel or receptacle; cf. Holy-water stoup.
[346] The chief eunuch, who looks after the harem.
[347] Petards = metal boxes, loaded with powder.
[349] The Chiabeghi is the grand master of the court attached to an ambassador.
[350] Chief of the Chiaus.
[351] Spahis, a division of the Turkish army, consisting of light horsemen, generally chosen from the upper classes.
[353] Turkish word for shoes; Mod. Greek παπούτσια.
[354] Old English form of Spanish chapin. “Your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chioppine.” (Shakespeare.)
[355] Turkish vekil = a deputy.
[356] Chief eunuch.
[357] Flags.
[358] Holy man or dervish.
[359] Bedlam, contracted from Bethlehem, because the hospital of St. Mary Bethlehem was used for lunatics, and anyone escaped or let out of this establishment was known as Tom of Bedlam.
[360] Reis Effendi = Minister of Foreign Affairs.
[362] I.e., henna.
[363] Circular seat behind.
[365] St. Theodore the Guardian, and St. Theodore the General. In the Greek Church hagiology, St. Theodore, with varied epithets, is always the healer of diseases.
[366] Votive offerings.
[367] The ancient Hebrus.
[368] Pricked = dotted on a plan.
[369] Demirtash, lit. Turkish iron-stone. Demir in Central Asia becomes Timur. Cf. Timur, the great conqueror.
[370] Cheflick is Turkish for a country house or farm.
[371] Afterwards Sir Dudley North, and Ambassador to the Porte. (Vide Introduction.)
[372] Crop-sick = sick with repletion.
[373] The Præficæ were hired mourners who sang the naenia, or death-wails. The custom is still prevalent in Greece, the hired mourners being called moirologistæ.
[374] The Maritza.
[375] Washing in sacred streams on this day is still frequent in Greece.
[376] The Virgin Mary.
[377] Ak-bonar is ten miles north of Adrianople, in the Tondja.
[378] Two miles S.W. of Adrianople, on the Arda.
[379] Dr. Peter Heylyn, the theologian and historian, who died in 1662, was noted for his captious criticisms. He wrote a life of Archbishop Laud, which Mr. Pepys thus criticises:—“It is a shrewd book, but that which I believe will do the Bishops in general no great good, but hurt, it pleads so much for Popery.”
[380] Ilderim is Turkish for a thunderbolt.
[381] The Tondja.
[382] Michel, the celebrated Waivode of Moldavia, aroused great animosity against the Ottoman rule in the Danubian districts at the close of the sixteenth century. In 1598 he became reconciled to the Porte, and invested also with the Governorship of Wallachia; but he was assassinated in 1601.
[383] Ianboli is now a town of six thousand inhabitants, on the left bank of the Tondja, on the frontier of Roumelia.
[384] Pilau.
[385] I.e., Village of Bosnians, three miles south of Adrianople, on the Maritza.
[386] Capital of Eastern Roumelia.
[387] If this refers to Sofia in Bulgaria, Dr. Covel’s geography is rather astray. No maps give a Sta. Sofia near the source of the Arda.
[388] Dr. Covel here probably refers to the tribulus terrestris, a caltrap, which is supposed to be the tribulus translated “thistle” in Matt. vii, 16, and Heb. vi, 8. It grows in quantities in the East, and is also known as “the Turkey plant”. It is very prickly, and the fruit is used medicinally.
[389] Turkish eshek = a donkey.
[390] Orta-cui, lit. “middle village”, is twenty miles S.W. of Adrianople, on a hill three miles from the Arda.
[391] The oke then equalled half-a-pound. (Ricaut.)
[392] Compasse = compost, in agriculture. The term for a mixture of earthy substances suitable for manure.
[393] Rhodope, now called Despotodagh, lies almost due west of Adrianople.
[394] The Hemus range corresponds to the modern Balkans.
[395] A branch of the Arda rises at Dari-Dere in the Rhodope range, about that distance from Ortacui.
[396] Clenched = clinched, or clincher-built, lap-jointed work—a mode of building in which the lower edge of each plank overlaps the next one below it.
[397] Ροκάνι, mod. Gk., is literally a carpenter’s plane.
[398] These threshing-machines are still used amongst the tribes in Asia Minor: a board of pine-wood set with flint stones at the bottom, fixed along the grain of the wood. Cf. Isaiah xli, 15: “The new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.”
[399] These palmaria, or wooden reaping-gloves, are still common in the highlands of Asia Minor.
[400] Refers to the old form of magic of sticking with pins or knives a figure made to represent an enemy.
[401] Marquis de Nointel. (Vide Introduction.)
[402] Wafer given in return for a coin.
[403] The sea-horse.
[404] Huff = blow or puff. “The said winde within the earth, able to huffe up the ground.” (P. Holland, Plinie, bk. ii, ch. 85.)
[405] Βρουκολακες. A common superstition still all over Greece is that dead men return as ghosts, and suck the blood of the living.
[406] Evil spirits called Karakongilas, or Kalkagari, are still believed, in remote parts of Greece, to haunt the world and play all kinds of pranks between Christmas and Epiphany.
[407] Pishkesh is Turkish for a present.
[408] The Nischardji-baschi is equivalent to the Secretary of State.
[409] Firman.
[412] Afterwards Sir Dudley.
[413] Muckender is derived from Spanish mocador, French mouchoir. ‘You knew her little, and when her apron was but a muckender.’ (Dr. Corbett’s Marriage, 1658.)
[414] Finicalness = foppishness. “Gray’s finicalness about expressions was excessive.” (Hall, Mod. Engl., p. 123.)
[415] Mammock = to tear in pieces.
[416] Dolmades is a common Greek dish now.
[417] Gobbet (cf. Old French gober, to devour greedily) here means made into mouthfuls. “Down comes a kite powdering upon them, and gobbets up both together.” (L’Estrange.)
[418] Slip slop = feeble composition.
[419] Ploy, abbreviated form of “employ”. “Twa unlucky red-coats were up for black-fishing or some siccun ploy.” (Scott, Waverley, ch. lxiv.)
[420] Finjan is Turkish for a cup.
[421] In Feb. 1674 the Imperialists carried off the Prince of Furstenberg, a plenipotentiary accredited to the Court at Cologne. This outrage broke off negotiations between France and Germany.
[422] Deriv. Persian martaban, a glazed vessel.
[423] Taback is a Turkish word for “plate”.
[424] Hunch = to shove with the elbow. “Then Jack’s friends began to hunch and push one another.” Arbuthnot’s Hist. of John Bull, ch. xiii.
[425] Usually written Haïda in conjunction with the word ghit, “go away”.
[426] Cloak.
[427] The Grand Vizier, Kiuprili, died a few months later.
[428] Vani Effendi was a celebrated preacher in the Court of Mahomed IV, and is said even to have brought the Emperor to tears. As in other parts of Europe, fanatical preaching was rife at this time, and in Turkey we find also Sabatai Sevi, who tried to make himself out to be the Messiah, and whose followers exist to this day. Vani attacked him furiously, and tried to convert the Jews to Mahommedanism. He was very instrumental in putting down the use of wine, and before the standard of the Turkish army he prayed with fanatical enthusiasm.
[429] Brusa, in Bithynia.
[430] Van, in Kourdistan.
[431] Araf is the Mohammedan form of Purgatory.
[432] Adam, Turkish for “a man”.
[433] Maurocordato, the dragoman to Ahmed Kiuprili and the Ottoman Government, was a distinguished member of this Greek family in Scio. His mother was the daughter of a rich cattle merchant, Skarlato by name, and by this name he is perhaps better known. He studied medicine at Padua, and was Court physician as well as dragoman. He was employed on many important diplomatic missions, and signed the Peace of Carlowitz between the Porte and Austria.
[434] Turenne. Louis XIV’s campaign in 1676 resulted in the desolation of the Palatinate, and Turenne’s victories continued till the peace of Nimeguen, 1678.
[435] Doubtless the small village of Missinli, about three miles north of Karesteran. (Austrian Staff Map, 1829.)
[436] Form of word showing derivation coronetta, Ital., a little corona.
[437] Sta. Glyceria’s Day is 10th of May. She suffered martyrdom at Trajanopolis, in Thrace, under Sabinus, A.D. 140, for publicly reproving the President at the sacrifices. She converted her gaoler, Laodicus.
[438] Sir Peter Wych was Ambassador to the Porte in 1632. Covel’s date seems wrong.
[439] The Imbat is a wind which blows every day in summer time.
[440] Bithynia.
[441] I.e., Nicæa.
[442] Whifler = a fickle person, a trifler.
[443] Spon and Wheeler, the authors of an excellent work on the Levant.
[444] Basilidians = the followers of Basilides, the founder of one of the semi-Christian sects commonly called Gnostics, which sprang up in the early part of the second century, A.D.
[445] Panagiotes was a Cypriote Greek, a linguist, astronomer, and mathematician, who, in his position as dragoman to the Grand Vizier Kiuprili, did more for the maintenance of Greek freedom than anyone else, and was the founder of the Phanariote league.
[446] For particulars of Sir Edward Barton and his death, see Introduction.
[447] Kara-Mustapha, who succeeded Ahmed Kiuprili as Grand Vizier, was son-in-law of Sultan Mahomed IV. His career was most disastrous. He was defeated before Vienna, and eventually put to death, having done more towards the downfall of the Turkish Empire than anyone in its history.
[448] Lemnos was only regained from the Venetians in 1657, twenty years before Covel’s visit.
[449] The curious headgear of the women of Chios is still worn in the remoter villages.