The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-04 00:00:00

MARCH OF MORALITY IN TURKEY

The thrilling shrieks of " Yanghinarar !" (fire! fire !)
were on Thursday last re-echoed about mid-day throughout
the extensive quarter of Odovvn-Kapoussy. The panic-
spreading sounds flew with the rapidity of lightning through-
out the city, and although neither smoke nor flames could
be descried from watch-tower or minaret, the appalled crowd
rushed on from every direction to repulse the invasion of
the destructive element. After many a gallant charge
against the unseen enemy, led on by firemen and grandees,
it was ascertained that the alarming cry had first been is-
sued by Ali Aga, the merchant, and that though his
neighbours had grown silent on finding that there was in it
more smoke than fire, this worthy moslem persevered with
unsubdued energy to fill the atmosphere with the ulula-
tions of" Yanghinarar." Sometime elaped before he could
be prevailed upon to return any answer, save these doleful
tones, to the Cavash Bashee, who rode up to learn what
could be the reason of this terrible summons? He re-
plied at last, after throwing before his feet a pair of shoes,
not such as fit lady's or Moslem's feet," but masculine,
and, moreover, Christian ones—" Bahold ! the witnesses to
the pollution an Infidel dog has been subjecting the purity of
my harem I I stumbled over these on crossing the thresh-
old of my dwelling. Their wearer and his guilty partner are
' within ; bring up your guards—seize on both—drag them
before the Seraskier, and let him vindicate the rights of an
insulted husband. Unhappily for the parties concerned,
facts turned out to be exactly as Ali Aga had declared,
and the Hanoum was impressing on the pale cheek of her
Greek paramour the bitter kiss of parting love when the
guard entered to tear him away from her embrace. So
flagrant an offence admitting of no apology, none was of-
fered. We well knew, said the Turkish lady, that love
might conduct us along to one death. We took our chance.
Kismet is against us. Let justice have its course. The
death-warrant was pronounced without further inquiry by
the Seraskier, and on the following eve the bodies of both
were found hanging, one at the gate of Parmak Kapou,
and the other at Balikbazar. A yafta was fixed on the
body of each. " Such is the punishment to which is
doomed the infidel who dares to violate the sanctuary of
the Harem," was written on the one, and on the other—
" Such is the fate that awaits those who follow the ex-
ample of the unfaithful Hatidjeh." The honour of a se-
pulchre being refused to the bodies of criminals in Tur-
key, the mortal remains of these lovers were on the follow-
ing day thrown into the Bosphorus.
But the gallows in Turkey, as at Venice, have ever
proved but poor instruments in scaring the fair from " let-
ting Heaven see the pranks they dare not show their hus-
bands." On the very day the above-mentioned lovers met
with their untimely and unkindly fate, too other fair delin-
quents were surprised by the police. One of the parties
met with the same kind of exposure as Mars and Venus
before the gods of Olympus, with this immaterial difference,
that, instead of being secured under the invisible net of the
wily Vulcan, as the god and the frail goddess were, the
Hanoum and Greek were entrapped within the latticed win-
dows of a carriage, and brought before the Cadi. As she
happened to be the wife of a man of rank, the magistrate,
out of consideration for the feelings of her relatives, directed
her execution and her lover's to be secret. Of the Greek
youth it is known that, born of respectable parents, he had, in
order to gratify the passion his mistress's (noun's) charms
had kindled in his breast, betaken himself to the device of
entering her husband's service in the capacity of coachman.
The history of the other unlucky pair I have not yet learn-
ed. It need hardly be added that, in consequence of these
detections, the jealousy of the Moslems has increased most
fiercely, and that the price of eunuchs has tripled within a
week at the slave market. The police has issued a fir-
man ordering every woman to be back to her house by the
tenth honr, that is, two hours before sunset ; and as of late
Turkish ladies had awakened much suspicion by the sud-
den taste they had taken to shopping at Para snd Galata
the owners of these niagazins have been warned not to ad-
mit within their doors Turkish women of any description,
nor to expose themselves, by countervention to this order,
to be nailed through the ear to the entrance of their
premises.
The frequent repetition of these abominations in the holy
sanctuary of the harem, as well as the numerous in-
stances which have lately occurred both here and in the
provinces of the hitherto-unheard of crime of Moslem fele
de se, are pointed out by the most orthodox among the true
believers as additional signs of the times, indicative of dooms-
day being at hand. Within the last fortnight not less than
three cases of suicides have taken place among the Turks.
The manner in which one of the three conducted himself
when on the point of making his exit out of the scene of
life is highly original. On waking from a deep reverie,
which absorbed his faculties during a trip he had taken on
the Bosphorus, Mehmet Effendi, while complaining to the
Caikdjee of the weather being intolerably oppressive, be-
gan removing, one after the other, the different parts of
his garments, till no other save shirt and drawers remained
on his body. After the pause necessary to fill and smoke
a pipe while renewing his complaints as to the weather, he
pulled off also the above-mentioned articles of dress, and,
deaf to all remonstrances on the part of the more decorous
boatmen, filled and smoked another pipe :71 naturalzbus ;
when, suddenly rising from his seat, he cried out, " I can-
not endure this heat any longer ; the waters of the Bos-
phorus can alone cool me ;" and, so saying, he threw him-
self into its rapid current.
__•••••••••

have just hear- r
Takheenr,eserio,usly injured, to the
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will, therefore, have to
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inquest, and all the circumstances must be
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investigated.
The number of visitors at the Zoological Gardens
in the past month was 38,837. Amongst other valuable ani-
mals the additions to the gardens contain a female tiger and
large Indian tortoise, from the Right Hon. Sir F. Adam, as
also 172 dahlia roots from Mr. Barrett, of Sheffield.
The accounts from Italy relative to the cholera are
alarming. That dreadful malady has broken out at Liri, a
small town within sixty miles of Rome. The Papal Govern-
ment is naturally in terror, and it has established a great sa-
nitory cordon at Valinotova. The cholera has lost little of its
ii.tenbity at i'd(xrzilo, w:t!re the dea..hi. y 11,,n1 tfi
1,500 a-day, and its influence is equally felt at Messina, where
a great mortality likewise prerails.