St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-04-06

selves with knives and lancets until the
blood gushed out"
l have learned that these men are
devoted from children to this ceremony
in honor of Hosein, and it is not un-
common that men kill themselves in
| the frenzy of excitemen.
They first become beastly intoxicated,
so that all sense of pain is taken away,
and they are not at all masters of them
selves. 1t sometimes happens that
they work themselves up to such a
pitch of frenzy as to turn and charge
on the crowd of spectators. l am not
sure but l saw all of the ceremony that
l care to, as even now | have only to
shut my eyes, and l can still see the
blood streaming down those ghastly
faces, and hear the mournful cry, ''Oh,
Hosein Hosein ~
THE CARNIVAL
has found its way from Italy to the
East, and the oriental Christians cele-
brate the farewell to meat" which
precedes the gloomy weeks of Lent,
with as much hilarity and revelry as
the gay maskers of Rome and Venice.
1t no doubt originated in Constanti
nOple with the Catholics, but has now
spread among the Greeks and Arme
ever, anywhere except in the capital.
During the several days of carnival
there are companies of maskers, in
grotesque costumes parading the streets,
singing, playing on various kinds of
instruments, and having boisterous
time generally. 1t reaches its height
on Sunday. AS far as l have observed,
the most Objectionable features of it are
confined to the lower classes, among
whom, as would naturally be expected,
it leads to many kinds of vice and I'M
morality, both among men and women.
wAsHINGToN's BIRTHDAY
was celebrated this year in Constan-
tinople by grand reception of Ameri-
cans at the house of Mr.. Eugene Schuy-
ler, our Consul G eneral. The parents
of the little boy, who came into the
world AS years ago, would have had
strange sensations, if they had known
that on. February %, 1877, the men-of-
war in the harbor of ConstantinOple
would be decked out with flags, with
the ensign of the United States at every
masthead, in his honor,-and every
American here was proud that such a
mark of respect was shown to the mem
DRY of one who regarded it his highest
honor to be called an American citizen.
The impulse was given by the U. S.
gunbOat "Vandalia," now in the Bos-
phorus. Only the Turkish iron -clads
refused to decorate. Said the captain
of one of them, ''The 22d of February
is not put down on my book as feast
day, and why should l decorate my
vessel? Who is Washington Is he
alive ?" When told the facts of the
case, ''Humph !" said he, ''why should
| decorate for dead man ?"
The best part of the joke came in the
with about us near an approach to
facts as the COnstantinople newspapers
usually get, stated that ''On yesterday
the American and Ottoman war steamers
were beautifully decorated with flags
in honor of the american Declaration o
Independence"
Although we could hardly call al
ECLIPSE OF THE MOON
fast, or feast, some things that
observed last night during a tota
eclipse may not be uninteresting tC
speak of in this connection. A very
large proportion of the inhabitants o
Turkey regard an eclipse with feeling
of superstitious terror. They believ,
that some demon is devouring, or witcl
is carrying off, the moon, and that it i
the pOrtent of some dire disaster.
A Greek servant woman in the col
lege, who had been told beforehan,
that the eclipse was coming, said whel
she saw it, "How frightened the peopl
of my island will be, for they know
nothing about what makes it. But oh,
she added, ''doesn't it look just lik
blood !"
: Just now when every one is expect
ing a war with Russia, no doubt tn
eclipse of last night caused an unusua
amount of alarm. The two month
armistice was to expire to-day, and tn
; beautiful moon itself became darkened
as if covered with blood. The ALARM
gun was fired from the fire tower, gun
and pistols were fired all over the cit
to frighten off the devouring demon
From the tall minarets rang out upo
: the clear night air the call of tn
muesSin to come to prayers, and man
devOut Moslem hurried to the mosqu
; to pray that the evil might be averted
1t was magnificent eclipse, but
brought no beauty to them, until abou
eleven o'clock the grand old moon sale
i out of the shadow, as clear as ever, an
as calm as if nothing had happened.
= G.. A. S.
= Robert College, Constantinople,
= Feb. %, 1877.
P. S.-The Porte has since made a
: apology to our Legation for refusing t
decorate their war ships on Washing
J toms Birthday.