Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-06-22
from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
COnstanrinOpIe.

After leaving Smyrna, the passage through
the Dardanelles was delightful beyond anything
in the course of my voyagings in foreign lands.
We are but few miles from land on either side,
and every island every promontory and inch OF
the plain of ancient Troy-Mount Ida-the
great mounds over the remains of Achilles, Pa,
trocus, Eneas, and Hecub-each of which
mounds would YIELD doubt not materials for
a dissertation of great interest to the archalog-
ist, were they explored; for they remain, within
precisely as they were left by those who made
them. Without recounting thep particulars the
wide scenes-the Heespont, where Leander
swan across to Hero-or the phases of character
, in the vessel where there were praying Turks,
smoking Arabs, veiled beauties enveloped in large
white sheets, that no man should see them;
| Greeks in such breeches as are seen no where
else; slaves, soldiers, officers, derrishes, monks;
Germans, Italians, English, and French, all star
ing at each other as oddities both in physiogno-
my and dress-I must come directly to the busi-
ness of stating that am now writing in Con-
stantinople. No descriptions of the beauty Of
the scenery, the grandeur Of the appearance on
approaching the Golden Horn from the sea of
Marmory, or the loftiness of the Mosque of St.
Sophia, comes up to the real impression the first
sight Of the imposing array of public and private
edfces makes on the mind. | shall not think
of attempting any thing like narrative of what
is to be seen or what have examined. The
Turks never take a census, therefore the popula-
ton of Constantnople cannot be ascertained 4;
yet it is conjectured to stand in the neghborhood
of $4,000, and perhaps there may be more
The city is far superior, within, to what had
anticipated, from the relation of travellers and
from personal experience in most of the great ci-
ties belonging to the Ottoman empire, which
have ranged over Most of the streets are mar
row and crooked but being up hill and down,
they are drained of the waste water thrown into
them from dwellings. Rains, too clear them of
ofal, that in Carlo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Alex
andra, Rhodes Cyprus, &c. &C., is source of
disease and perpetual offence Some of them
will admit vf the movement ola carriage-but
of all queer things, Constantinople coaches are the
mostabsurd trivancesimaginable. They have
no seat, butcontain two persons, who sit on the
floor facing each other, and are drawn by one
horse, led by driver. The body is carved and
gilded atrociously. Horses, very plump and
finely proportioned, are standing all the while at
certain stations for hire. Donkeys are not pat
ronized here as every where else III the East
The water is alive with thousands of light long,
narrow boats, called caques-pronounced caiks
appearing much as though they were made from
alog. One man rows cross-handed the voyagers
sitting fiat down. There is no safety without
resigning oneself to the direction given on step
ping in, as they roll over nstanter if a mismove-
ment occurs. Most of the walking for sight
seeing is done in these boats. The bazars areso
extensive-being miles upon upon milesin length
were they strengthened into lnes-that | have
given over the intention ofseeing them all. You
travel hours together in narrow streets, lined with
| shops on either side, and covered over head by
heavy arches-the light being admitted through
glass windows. In all other Turkish and Arab
bazaars, the streets are covered by mats, reeds,
poles, and vines, as they could be procured. All
the druggist wholesale dealers are together; and
1 verify believe they are medicine taking race,
or it would be impossible that so many hundreds
of these could be sustained. Each one has a sign
by which his particular stall is known, instead of
his name. Some have miniature ship, another
miniature mosque, third the head of an an
imal, fourth morter, fifth key, and so on.
Then the shoemaker, silk twist dealers sword and
pistol merchants-the latter very numerous
Grocers make feeble show, owing to the small
ness of their stalls, and the exhibition of their
stock, in baskets 1t is usual for pretty exten
siye dealers in many parts Of Syria to keep all
they have in straw baskets, Or bag mats quite ex-
posed in the street, through the day. A five dol
lar customer would clear out the establishment,
and perhaps make the owners fortune. Acapi
tai of $4,000 is incomprehensbe to these kind
of merchants-for that sum, well buried out of
the reach of the government harpiers, would be
thought an iuexhaustible fortune for coming gen
erations.
z One verylong bazaar is occupied on one side
by pipe makers exclusively ly-where you not only
see more mouth peices than there are saints in
the city of amber, glass, and precious woods but
perfect multitude of men sitting on the floor
near the edge of the street, and turning out more
pieces with bow laths They hold the point of the
chse with the toes of either foot, just as perfect
" as we do with our hands. This educating of
the muscle of feet, to give mechanics the advan-
tage of four hands, instead of two, is an every
dav affair. | have often witnessed their expert
ness in using tools between the great and second
toe all over the parts of Asia which l have been
viewing. Embroidery stalls are immensely nu-
merous. All these people are fond of tinscl,
| laee-work on their clothes