The Magnolia gazette., 1881-12-23
Praying wOrkmen Of COnstantinOpIe.

TTNllHE WOIhnOu VI NVhSetAhNAhNPANe
In the ba2ars Of Stamboul the work.
men and statesmen (there are no women
employed in these bazars- Turkish opin-
ion will not permit it) are of the male
sex only. Eunuehs are not infrequent,
and are easily recognized at n glance
from other black men, but are never
other than harem servants or managers
OF the household. As ono loiters through
these bazars some queer things are seen.
The bazars, properly SO called, are mar
row streets Of shops, covered from rain
by arehed roofs, and continuous for
miles one with another, so that without
umbrella for sunshine or rain) one can
go through them protected The floors
are damp stones or packed clay--they are
dark and one goes up and down steps
from one TO another SO that progression
is unpleasant. The personal solicitation
of the statesmen is something painful
and very annoying-until one learns, as
he soon does, to pay not the slightest Mt
tention to any one, but to look around
him, apparently indifferent and unob-
servant Of the remarks and exhibitions
of goods-while inwardly you feel
yearning desire to knock over some inn
While you pass along looking ut some
workman making something in the skill
full yet clumsy way they work, with tools
unlike, often, anything you ever saw
using feet as If they were hands and
making complex furniture, veneered
beautifully with the simplest of tools, ESQ
few as to make the work seem Incredibly
10 the worker will turn about with
his back to the door and crowd-seem
to read his Koran and lose himself in
prayer l--or walk off, leaving his pur-
chaser at the door, and enter the nearest
mosque and say his prayers. Clnfernally
aggravating when you have about con-
cluded a desirable purchase y In the
mosques one sees them enter, after wash
ing their feet, pray reyerently aud ah-
sorbedly towards Mecca (the altar o! the
mosque is always placed so that praying
7 towards it is praying towards Mecca, }
and reverently depart, putting on their
I shoes again at the door as they go out.
| several times felt a strong inward
temptation, when at the door Of some pop-
ular mosque, to gather up the queer col
lection of worshippers' shoes and fly with
them to start museum with.
On the boats, at sunset, the Moslem
TEEN in the midst Of the crowd, utterly
oblivious apparently, of surroundings,
bow to the earth repeatedly, seemingly
uttering prayers toward Mecca, and three
times touching the earth with the fore.
head.
The bazaar worRmen are, however, by
no means always Turkish, or even Mo.
hammedan. They are Of every race
many Jews, some Americans and Eng
lish, who have crept in. The frnit-sell
ers of the city are mostly Armenian.
The strong-muscled porters (herculear
many OF them) whom one secs every.
where in the streets carrying loads that
tender-hearted man would not force hi.
horse to pull, are many OF them Wal
lachian, Servian, Bulgarian or Roume
lian. The merchants and artifcers, as {
class intelligent-looking and pleasau
countenances-ar Greek This j.
place of conglomerate nationality th,
Turk luling-the middle class largel'
Greek--the under classes Macedonmn
etc. with mixtures in each class TIN
Circassain always either soldier. or,
woman, a bought wife in the harem pro
nounced hG reeD1,) the negro, (of al
shades Of color Persian, Indian, Egvp
tan, European, American "a few, etc.
are commingled, and very pictme-qu
! crowd is the visible result - COnstaiiti
nopLe Letter in Rokomo Tribune.