V. DIFFICULTIES OF LANGUAGE. To render European scientific terms, they are obliged to coin new words, or to introduce some Arabic word, moulding it into a new form or meaning. For scientific purposes they have indeed to make almost an entirely new language; and when this is made, it is found to be unintelligible to the students. I was told that a young man might learn French, so as to be able to read scientific books in the original, in a very little more time than was necessary to him for acquiring this new Turkish language of science. Then, again, people complained that this last language was neither complete nor fixed; that many ideas, and even simple things, could not be expressed in it; that very often the translators were obliged to retain French or Latin terms; that the new word-makers did not proceed upon any uniform system or principle, and that the terminology of one was not that of another. In mathematics, and, I believe, to a certain extent, in chemistry, the learned katibs could get over the ground pretty well with the help of Arabic; but then the students had to learn this Arabic. In all other sciences the difficulty was exceedingly great. The Arabic characters used by the Turks, because the Koran is written in them, are not at all suited to the genius of the Turkish language. The Armenian characters suit it far better, and the Armenians, who always correspond in Turkish, and of whom exceedingly few know anything of their own ancient tongue, use their own ancient letters. I was sitting one morning with a very great Pasha, when his secretary brought in the draught of a letter-a simple letter of business, and consisting of not more than six lines. The Pasha glanced his eyes over it, said it was full of errors, and called for pen and ink that he might correct it. He soon gave up the task in despair, threw the paper on the ground, and told the secretary that it must be re-written. In the excitement of the moment he told me what I take to be the only truths I heard from his lips. He said that the Arabic character was perplexing, and very ill suited to the Turkish language; that there was hardly a Turk in the empire that could write his own language correctly, and that serious misunderstandings were constantly occurring in government correspondence. I afterwards heard that another very great Pasha always sent some trusty servant to explain, vivâ voce, the contents of his letter or despatch. I have seen Turks of literary reputation spend half an hour in making out the meaning of two or three lines of MS. The Court Turkish is interlarded with Arabic and Persian terms, of which the common people know nothing; and it is considered the perfection of style to render every sentence as difficult as possible. Even of the Turks who have been to school, there is not one in a thousand that can read off a paper written by a courtly scribe. Thus the pasha of a province is often left in almost total ignorance of the meaning of the instructions or despatches he receives from headquarters. I believe that that great man, Mustapha Nouree, Pasha of Brusa, could neither read nor write. Not many of the Pashas can do either. VI. TURKISH LADIES. It would be a great mistake to consider them merely as the inmates of the harem, or as recluses or caged birds. In 1848, if the Sultan's own women were caged, none others were. His married sisters, as well as his mother, were constantly abroad. The women of the pashas and other high employés were more out of doors (in the daytime) than our fashionable and most stirring ladies during the London season: they were to be seen every day, when the weather was fine, on the Bosphorus, in the Golden Horn, in the bazaars, on the great square, near the Seraskier's Tower, and in the streets; they were incessantly going and coming, shopping and paying visits; they were greater gadabouts than the belles of Paris in the old and gay time. The younger and handsomer of them took care that their yashmacs should not conceal their faces. The gauze worn by these dames of highest fashion was as transparent as the famed textile of old Cos, and it was drawn across only the chin and forehead. The bosom was exposed, as I have already mentioned. From some of the handsomest and greatest, one not unfrequently heard language which a nymph or matron of Billingsgate would not use. The poor Turks of the capital, who had got somewhat accustomed to the spectacle, thought little of it, or said it was Tanzimaut or Kismet. But the Osmanlees from the interior, or from the Asiatic provinces, were struck all of a heap. Not one of these Asiatics, if he returned soon to his native district, but would report that the Prophet's beard was defiled in the Holy City, that the Osmanlees of Stamboul were all turning ghiaours, and their women-worse! We saw one old Asiatic take his beard in his hand, toss his nose in the air, and turn away from the sight, muttering curses. VII.-AMUSEMENTS OF THE SULTANAS. Mr..... the Consul of ... was walking one afternoon in that most lovely valley of the Bosphorus called the "Sweet Waters of Asia." Near an imperial kiosk, in the midst of the valley, he saw, dancing or posture-making on the fresh greensward, some half-dozen of itinerant dancinggirls, of the lowest and most abandoned kind. Their performance was so revolting, so barbarously obscene, that he was about to quit the spot, when the Sultan's two married sisters drove or rumbled up in a cochee (followed by numerous and well-known attendants), and, alighting at the kiosk, joined some other ladies who had been witnessing the exhibition from the windows of that building. After this august arrival, and a short rest, the vile posture-makers went to their work again. Shouts of laughter, and showers of small coin, came out of the windows; the more indecent the movements or combination of movements, the louder was the laughter; and when the performance reached its utmost climax, the ladies in the kiosk applauded with voice and hand, and then threw out more money. VIII.-SHOORAHS, OR COUNCILS. Here is a list of the Brusa Council: TURKS 1. MUSTAPHA NOUREE PASHA, Governor. 4. THE MUFTI, Judge for Matters of Religion. 5. THE SHEIK SAFFETUI EFFENDI, Chief of a Religious Institution. 6. HADJI ALI EFFENDI, Manager of Vakouf Property. 7. HADJI MULKTAR, Notable. 8. ARIF EFFENDI, Notable, and first Katib, or Clerk of the Mekhemeh, or Turkish Law Court. 9. HADJI OMER EFFENDI, Notable. RAYAHS 10. CABAKJI OGLOU MATTIOS, Notable of the Eutychian Armenians, and Banker and Factotum to the Pasha. 11. MICHELACKI VASSITERI, Notable of the Greek Community. 12. THE RABBI of the Jews. 13. SANDALJI OGLOU AGOB, Notable of the Catholic Armenian Community. Of the Council of Nicomedia I have spoken elsewhere. A little anecdote will convey a good idea of the Council at Kutayah. We were staying with the Greek bishop of the place, who was, ex-officio, a member of the Shoorah, but he was never summoned to attend, and was too prudent to intrude without being called. No rayah ever went thither. One morning a Turk waited upon him from the sub-governor, and told him that he must put his seal to a document, as a member of the Council. Although he spoke Turkish fluently, the poor bishop could not read a single word of it. "For all that I know to the contrary," said he, "this may be an order to cut off my own head, or something to commit me with the Pasha of Brusa; but be it what it may, I must put my seal to it!" And so he did. He had many annoyances, but he considered the Council the greatest of all. In Europe, up at Adrianople, the Pasha rarely summoned the Council, and never allowed the rayah members to take part in its deliberations. They had nothing to do but to seal now and then, as the bishop did at Kutayah. Yet how much ink and paper have been consumed by the Pera journalists in applauding these Shoorahs, and in attempting to persuade Christendom that the rayahs now enjoy equal privileges with the Turks! IX. PERSECUTION AND MASSACRE OF ALBANIAN Scopia, the native country of these persecuted Albanians, lies close upon the frontiers of Christian Servia, and has some little traffic and communication with the Austrian dominions. It is very mountainous, and altogether pastoral. Every man in it was a shepherd or a herdsman, tending his own flocks and herds, or those of his father; for every head of a family was a proprietor, and there were no hired |