The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

AUGUST 5, 1854.

Sittraturt.

Constantinople of To-day. Translated from
the French of Theophile Gautier. London :
Bogue.
THE features of a great capital are so various,
and can be represented so differently from
separate points of view, that an intelligent
traveller has always something novel to say of
cities with which we are most familiar from
personal knowledge or description. The
freshest mind sees most ; the eye of a child is
quicker than that of the most learned man ;
and hence ignorance, if it be curious and
observant, may better qualify a traveller for
recording his impressions than long acquaint-
&nee with the scenes and things to be
described. What Frenchman, says M. Gautier,
would observe that in France a gentleman
gives his arm to a lady ; yet this peculiarity
would excite as much amazement in the
celestial empire as it causes among us to see
two Chinese gentlemen rub noses together
according to their mode of salutation.
Our author resided in Constantinople
seventy-two days, and visited its every street
and corner. The time, he admits, is much
too short to study the character and manners
of a nation, but it is long enough to seize the
picturesque physiognomy of a city, and he
thought of accomplishing no more. In fact,
he conceives that the life of the Turk is so
walled-up,—that religious prejudices and old
habits are so opposed to all attempts to pene-
trate its mysteries,—that years might pass
before the stranger could know more than he
can gather from what passes under his view in
the 2treets. Genuine Osmanli conceal their
sentiments under an impassive exterior as
they hide their homes by dead walls and
jealously guarded doors. There may be wealth
and beauty within, but the outside is formal or
forbidding. The reserve which in the domi-
nant race proceeds from choice is imitated by
the subjugated people from fear. There is
now less necessity for the concealment of
opulence than formerly ; but customs survive
the instincts which gave them birth Well-to-
do Jews still affect squalid poverty ; and even
Greeks, who do not like to ape humility, re-
luctantly expose their private life to general
view.

Constantinople, in its different quarters,
presents strange contrasts. When from
spacious bazaars, and splendid mosques, with
Moorish galleries, and the konacks of pachas,
with their closely-latticed windows, the
st►anger stumbles upon Psammathia, a sort of
Greek colony in the midst of the Turkish
town, life presents itself under a new
aspect:—

It had no longer a Turkish air ; the half-open doors of
the houses allowed the eye to penetrate the interior. At
unlatticed windows appeared charming female heads,
decked with little caps of gauze, and surmounted by large
braids of hair, forming a sort of crown. Young
seated on the thresholds, gazed f,arlessly into the street ;
and we could, without alarming eitem, admire their pure
and delicate features, their fair Leases and large blue eyes.
Before the cafes men in white tunics, red caps, and
jackets with loose hanging sleeves, were swallowing large
glasses of raki, and making themselves drunk like good
Christians. Animation had succeeded to silence ; merri-
ment to sadness. We found ourselves once more amid a
race of living beings; and we unconsciously felt the
unspeakable advantages of Christianity, even of the
west order, over Heathenism in a social point of view.

The preference is just, but in the case of
'sammathia it must be qualified. M. Gautier
had a friend with him : an obliging Greek boy
undertook to show them to a restaurant, but
;omc minutes afterwards our author's com-
panion found that he had been relieved of
his porte-monnaie, the young Greek having
possessed himself of the treasure with all the
skill of a patriarch of pickpockets.
The excursion round the walls of Constanti-
nople, in the centre of which this little episode
occurs, is one of the best chapters in the book.
The ancient walls of Byzantium are of
immense extent :
Two lines of wall, flanked with square towers, have at
their base a large moat, at present cultivated throughout,
which is again surrounded by a stone parapet—forming, in
fact. three lines of fortification.
There are the walls of Constantine—at least such as
have been left of them after time, sieges, and earthquakes
have done their worst upon them. . . Here and there
a gigantic crevice severs a tower from top to bottom ; for-

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