Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-04-17

pale Arnenlans gliding silently and with ghosty soemnl
ty through the crowd-an touched, you would say on
poiAta little cracked about the affairs Of fe just
like the rest of US.
At last after getting lost dozen times in the
streets you enter dark arched way much you would
enter cavern with lurking suspicion Of attack from
horde Of banditti This is the beginning Of the ia
nous bazaars Of STEAMBOAT. What a strange place it is,
and how utterly impossible give any adequate descrp
ton of it paper! All the pages that have been
written the subject fail to give notion Of these
bazaars either too much is expected too littleany
thing but the strange reality single glance at such
scene worth all the pictures that pen pencil has
drawn it dwells forever in the memory with the vivid
ness Of first impression it is beyond the ornament Of
Language the glowing coors of art it is fixed indeby
upon the BRAIN and rises bdden before the through
out the future in all its wondrous variety of lights sha
dows, costumes and gtering wares; in every thought
of the glorious East is the of the East itself
1t must not be supposed however, that there any thing
very magnificent about these bazaarsany thing to
pete in pendor with the shops Of the Paais Royal the
Arcades of Parsit is their peculiar novelty the semi
barbarous profusion Of rich coors displayed at every
point the theatrical effect the and manners
the confusion Of strange languages the scents Of musk
and altar Of roses that fit through the air. mingled with
odd Of scents from the chb0uks and narguas
the of light pouring down through holes in the
roof relieving the darkness the endless variety Of oren
tai curoses these it is that render the bazaars unique
and wonderful to be compared to any thing except
other bazaars of which there few in the East n
resting as those Of StAmbou
We must over again and look more into the
details. AT present we have only time to make small
purchase as sort of evidence to friends ut the
Bryant that this has really been achieved before
breakfast 1t is pretty trife, embroidered some
thing manufactured of silk which will be very accept
able to certain fair person. nice little present from
the bazaars of STEAMBOAT. grave old man, with
tremendous turban on his head and long chibouk
in his mouth sits bundled up among his precious fabrics
totally Indifferent to the matter Of customers Cats
grohs you ask taking up the article carelessy Some
thing in the shape Of is grunted the old
you can't have the fantest idea of the meaning,
the language being Turkish Arabic other bar
barous compound of cultural sounds. Cats gosh you
say again. little louder. The old takes puff Of
his chbonk and raises ten fingers and shakes them
you four times 1t must be forty pasers forty dol
lars You draw out plaster and demand in plain Eng
sh if he to say that requires forty Of these to
purchase the article? The old gentleman mods assent
Two dollars high for such trihe You shake your
ten fingers him three times, which thirty pas
ters Bosh says the merchant with contemptuous toss
Of the head and he cooly his chbouk. As you
walk off he beckons you back, takes up the silk
points all its beauties grows eloquent upon its pecu
liar merits enarges in the most barbarous tissue of
carnations upon its cost all of which you have to sup
pose, understanding single word he says. Eventu
ally he concludes by shaking his fingers you three
times and five fingers once, signifying thrty-fve You
shake back at him three fingers less upon which you
determined to stand No, it viii not do the old Turk
stands two and the purchase can't be made for the six
teenth part Of little finger less Off you start again. and
this time you look back Halo back here!
shouts the old man. plainly possible in Turkish and
he goes through imaginary process of cutting his
forefnger in No, sir you exclam not cent
The half of the forefnger resigned at last the article
yours and with proud consciousness of shrewdness
and sedependence you pocket it. and set out for Pera
Experience aids you greatly this time in vending through
the afew knocks the head and the loss of
little bark from the knee ies sbe Thought Of
By patience perseverance, and the oil Of good tenn
per- you length reach the Hotel de Bryant Breakfast
has just commenced the purchase is duly exhibited and
extravagantly admired by the ladies' the price miracu
lousy low must have required extraordinary jewng to
get cheap 1t is passed round for the final judgment
of grave gentleman who understands these things tho
roughly Heavens! what grim smile of pity and con-
tempt your beautiful specimen Of Turkish skill is worth
just ten pastres, Cd has been manufactured in Paris
where such things be bought for little nothing
The great variety of languages spoken throughout the
East but especially in Smyrna and Constantnople is
of things that excites the establishment of the
stranger Pera is perfect Babel for languages 1t is
to hear the person speak in six diff
ferent tongues, and am told that there who
speak many twelve Our dragoman Carlo whose in
formation however must be received with grain of al
lowance) tells that there sixty seventy
different castles in Constantinople and the suburbs.
have myself about the wharves Of Gaata, Turks
Persans Armenans Georgians Circassans Arabs Egyp-
tians Algerines Greeks Italians, French, Germans,
Poles Austrians Russians Cossacks, English and Anne
ricans and cannot remember how many others. 1t is
evident that the number Of oriental castles, leaving out
the Franks of civilized Europe who cannot properly be
classed with them must be very great of any
distinction in society here is considered ordinarily
compshed who does speak least four languages in
addition to his own. knowledge of the Turkish Creek
Italian and French is almost indispensable in all bust
transactions and there few merchants who do
speak, in addition to these tolerably good English
OF do not include the Of the native Turkish
population who, far could judge, seldom speak any
but the Turkish and Arabic often only the FIRST saw
many merchants in the bazaars, probably Armenians
who could understand neither Italian French Eng
lish though they might have been very learned in the
languages Of the orient for all know the contrary 1t
the business Of Pera and Galaa that display this
extraordinary talent in the highest degree-the Greeks
perhaps, than any OF the relative facility with
which the languages Of Southern Europe and the
East acquired soy by American or Engshman,
inclined, from oil could ascertain, put them down
as follows French body learns French. a