Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-02-12
Daily Aenueber sourml.
THE Gardens OF THE DEAD" IN TUR.
KEY.

According to a letter from CONSTANT
nople correspondent, the great burial
grounds in the neighborhood of that city
are in wretched state of decay. The
writer says:
"If you could fancy that a hail-storm
of grave-s.ones had been pelted down
from the skies, and that each stone had
stuck or lain as it fell, you would get some
notion of what a Turkish cemetery is like
when seen from the outskirts. Stones up
right, stones fiat upon the ground. stones
slanting at every possible and impossible
angle, stones broken, stones turned up
side down, stones kept from falling SIM
ply by the moss which has gathered round
them, stones propped up side by side'
stones in piles, stones IN rows, stones
massed up in heaps--there are stones ev-
erywhere. and over all lies g coating OF
moss and leaves and mildewed fir-coneS.
Where the multitude of dead who must
lie Wondering underneath have come
from is thing hard to realize. When
a man died, the old Romans used to say
that he had gone to join the masses; and
here even that densely-peopled town
which crowds close around the graveyards
must surely be desoIate and empty COM
pared with the cities of dead included
within its dwellings.
About these grayestones, as you look
more closely at them, you find one COM
mon form and fashion. They are all kite
shape, the tail of the kite being stuck
loosely into the ground, while the face is
adored with Turkish inscriptions, and over
the head there is fez rudely sculptured.
to mark out a mans grave-a sharp peak
to indicate that therein woman rests.
Whether the inscriptions record the age,
rank and name of the deceased, or wheth-
or they recite verses from the Koran,
cannot tell.
But about the younger generation OF
tombs there has crept in vulgarly garlsh
and unsightly fashion of adornment. Not
only are the memorial plates stained blue,
and green, and red, but the stone fezes
and turbans are all painted in gaudy hues.
There are red caps with yellow tassels,
green turbans with white folds, head-gear
of stone of all sorts of colors. Happily
the colors are SO coarsely laid on that they
soon get cleared and washed away, and
the stone resumes once more its dull gray
hue. The tombs are piled together. OF
rather were piled together when first set
up, in little groups and patches. Some
times bed of earth, loosely thrown up,
Coutellus II sCOit VI StdfCoeoiiOS, q "siA IVA
crowned one in the centre being surround
ed with half dozen pointed ones, and
number of tiny dwarf stonelets, with pig
my fezes and baby peaks. AT the foot OF
most of the slabs are little holes, meant to
hold water. but the water had dried up
long ago, and has not been replaced, and
the holes are well-nigh choked with dirt
and mould Around the more sumptuous
of sepulchres there are low walls OF stone,
broken down and tumbling to pieces; and
over some few there are wire aviary-look-
ing cages, gaudily painted are trellised
with withered flowers; and every now
and then you see an anchor or wreath
of leaves rudely traced upon the grave
stone, but otherwise there is neither sign
nor emblem.
Indeed, in any attempt to describe the
individual features of greater order and
regularity than is to be found among them.
Even over the graves of which | have
spoken there is placed an arbor of wire,
yet everything is in confusion and decay.
The slabs are trodden down round about
them; the wilderness of stones has spread
itself everywhere; and even on the banks
of the high road which skirt the grave
yards there are stones enough lying brok-
en- and shattered to have paved the high
way"