Litchfield enquirer., 1876-11-30


 officers galloping Ep and down;r carriages
 gilded with the arms of foreign em as sies, or filled with Turkish ladies, pressed
 forward to the great gate, which still gave an sign. !, have never seen such a, reli-
 gious excitement. For myself, I found
 some compensation in the usual Oriental
 crowd and unconscious picturesqueness swart Africans in garments of yellow, sell
 CTS of sherbet clinking their glasses, yen- ders of faint sweetmeats walking abou;
 with trays and tripods, and the shifting
 kaleidoscope of races, colors, and grace I ful attitudes.
 Suddenly, I do not know how, or from lwhat quarter, the feeling. for I could not call It Information, was difused that the
 successor5o of the Prophet would pray at
 the mosque in Ortakeui, and that he
 would go by caique; and we all scampered
 up the road, mile or two, racing car
 riages, troops and foot men, in eager out set, in order to arrive before the pious
 man. The mosque stands upon the Bos- I phorus. where its broad marble steps and
 pillared front and dome occupy as con l spicuous position as the Dogana at
 Venice. We secured standing place on
 the dock close to the landing, but outside the iron railing, and waited. A cordon of \ | ings was drawn around the streets in the
 the rear of the mosque, and two compa- I ni6s of soldiers in white had stacked their guns on the marble landing, and were ] lounglng about in front of the building
 The scene on the Bosphorus was as gay
 as flower garden. The water was GOV cred with graceful caiques and painted
 barges and every sort of craft, mean and splendid, that could be propelled by oars l or sails. A dozen men of-war were decked
 with flags from keel to maintop; on every l yard, and from bowsprit to stern stood a line of sailors sharply defined against tie l blue sky At one o'clock cannon an-
 nounced that the superior devotee had entered his caique, and then from every
 vessel of war Tn the harbor salute answer ! ed salute in thunder that awoke the
 echoes of two continents; until on all the ] broad water lay a thlck battle smoke, through which we could distinguish only the tops of the masts, and the dim hulks spouting fire.
 ! In the midst of this earthquake of piety, there was cry "He comes, he comes;" the soldiers grasped thelr arms and drew a line each side of the landing, and the officials of the mosque arranged them selves on the steps. Upon the water, ad- Vanciug with the speed of race-horses, we saw two splendid, gilded caiques, the one containing the Sultan, the other hls at tendants. At the moment. a light car riage with two bay horses, unattended, dashed up to the side door, and there de- 1 scended from it and entered the mosque, l the imperial heir, the son of the late Sul- tan and the nephew of the present, a slen- der pale youth of apparently twenty-five or thirty years. We turn Cnot knowing how soon he is to become Sultan Murad IV.) our eyes to him only for moment, for the Sultan's caique comes with impe- rious haste, with the rush as it were of victory, "a hundred feet long, narrow, ceIteur,- carved and gilded like the golden chariot in which Alexander entered Bab- ylon, propelled by fifty-two long sweeps, rising and falling in unison with the bend ing backs of twenty-six black rowers, clad in white and with naked feet. The Sultan is throned in tho high stern hung with silk, on silken cushions, under splendid canopy on the top of which glistens his arms and blazing sun. The Sultan, who is clad in the uniform of general, steps quickly out, walks up the steps over a carpet spread for his royal feet,-the sol diers saluting, everybody with arms cross ed bending the body, and disappears in the mosque. The second caique lands immediately. and the imperial ministers step from it and follow their master.
 At the side entrance, an immense closed baggage e-wagon drawn by four horses, and said to contain the sacred wardrobe, was then unlocked and unloaded, and out of it came trunks, boxes. carpet bags, as if the imperial visitor had come to stay a week. After half hour of prayer he came out, his uniform concealed under his overcoat. got quickly into plain car rage, drawn by four magnificent gray horses, and drove rapidly away, attended by dozen outriders. His heir followed in the carriage in which he came. We had good view of the chief of Islam, He was tall, stout man, with full gray beard, and on the whole a good face and figure. All thls parade is weekly enacted over one man going to pray. It is, after all, more simple than the pageantry that often attends the public devotion of the vicegerent of Christ in St. Peters.
 Upon our return we stopped at the the Turning Darwishes. do not know that have anything to add to the many animated descriptions which have been written of it. It is not far from the Little Field of the Dead, and all about the building are tombs of the faithful, in which were crowds of people enjoying that peculiar Oriental pleasure, grave yard festivity. The mosque is pleasant and has polished dancing floor, sur rounded by 8 gallery supported on col umns. I thought it would be a good place for chop" Everybody has seen picture of the darwishes, with closed eyes. outstretched arms, and long gowns inflated at the bottom like an old fashion ed churn, turning smoothly round upon their toes, dozen or twenty of them re- volving without collision. The motion is certainly poetic and pleasing, and the plaintive futing of the Arab ,aay adds know not what of pathos to the exercise. I think this dance might advantageously be substituted in Western salons for the German, for it is graceful and perfectly moral. ..
 Constantiuople is city of the dead as much as of the living, and one encounters everywhere tombs and cemeteries senti- neled by the mournful dark green cypress. On our way to take boat for the Sweet Waters of Europe we descended through the neglected Little Field of the Dead. It IS on steep acclivity and the stones stand and lean thickly there. each sur mounted by turban in fashion at the period of the occupants death, and with inscription neatly carved. That ''every man has his date' strikes Alb del.At as remarkable fact The ground is netted by hap-hazard paths. and the careless Gv-- ing tread the graves with thought1ess feet, as if the rights of the dead to their scanty bit oflsoil were no longer respected. We said to the hoatman that this did not seem we'll There was weary touch of philosophy in his reply :-'.Ah, master, the world grows old P 'atG 4-..: E ltis the fashion for the world to go on Friday to the Sweet Waters of Europe, the inlet of the Golden Horn, flowing down between two ranges of hills. This vale, which is almost as celebrated in poetry as that of the Heavenly Water on the Asiatic shore. is resorted to by thou sands.in hundreds of carriages from Pera,