The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-03-06
CONSTANTENOPLE DOCTORS.
How the Sick arc Treated in the Capital
OF tho Turks.

VVNSIAN1kNVtLE DUClUkSs
How the Sick arc Treated in the Capital
or tho Turks.
The houses arc close together and tall
and gloomy there is no sunshine, aud
the lower house walls are 80 damp tha,
streets are always wet with filth tha,
often comes above shoetops, and the
stencil that rises is worse than the air in
the underground passages of China.
town. Yet the people live and eat aud
sleep here, and when they get sick-as
they invariably do-they doctor them.
selves after the most approved quackery
in the Turkish pharmacy. The priests
are the chief physicians, but men sell
patent medicines on the Turkish street
corners with much the same volubility
as in New York. They are very conser.
vatiye, these Turkish doctors, resisting
sturdily the new and clinging .enaciously
to old opinions. Most of their practice
is mere fetichism, and they lug astrology
or Divine interference into the smallest
cases of collie or the toothache. For q
nation of fatalists the Turks have more
faith than two. thirds the Christians
living. Nine cases out of ten where
they are cured at all, it is their faith and
not the remedy that cures them.
INVOKING THE DEITY.
Sickness they believe is the result of
offending some deity or spirit, and rever-
sing the process they endeavor to placate
the deity thre Ugh the priests, aud thus
coax him into removing the plague from
them. The deryishes being the most
holy ineg among the Prieats are esteemed
this ssos' ceishgaiea doctors. Escb
Thursday,. after their peculiar rites,
towels and the clothes Of sick persons,
too weak to come personally, are brought
TO them in the temple and laid on the
floor before the altar. A bottle of water
is then carried round the circle Of der.
wishes and rendered holy by being
breathed on by each one in turn. The
high priest 10 the last to do this, and
then taking the bottle, he bears it above
his head to the altar, where, after sundry
salaams and mutterings, he walks back
and forward several times over the
clothes and then sprinkles them With
water from the bottle. This is supposed
to endow both towels and clothes with
miraculous curative properties, and they
are taken away by the sick mems friends
at great cost for rubbing purposes or TO
be worn as a cure. For the ''trampliug"
cure, those who are able to come TO tho
temple in person.
CRUELTY TO CHILDREN.
A woman brought in baby not more
than IL months old. 1t was weak and
pinched, and not knowing what allied it
she had brought it to the priest in hope
of cure. A mat was spread before the
sitter and the child laid on it, face down
ward, on the floor. Then the high priest,
leaning hand on the shoulder of an
astendant On each side, so as not to press
too heavily, put his foot on the child's
loins, settled &C to get firm foothold,
and then raising himself, stood upright
on the poor little body. Then he stepped
back, and lifting the child scothed and
caressed !! With tenderness that showed
him utterly unconscious of any brutality
and also his assurance in the efficacy and
necessity for the remedy. Two ether
babies received the same treatment, and
then five young girls ran in and lay down
side by side on the mat. There was ap-
parently nothing the matter with them,
but their friends were afraid there might
be and 80 brought them to forestall CON
tingencies.
NOVEL TREATMENT.
The priest sprinkled them with water
from the holy bottle, and then, discard,
ing lac help of bis attendants, stepped
up on to the nearest girl and walked
several times across the row. At every
step his feet sank into the soft flesh, but
he kept below the waist, and only an
occasional grunt showed that they felt it
at all. Some of them appeared to think
it very funny, and when the priest had
finished they all got up laughing, kissed
his hand with great show Of reverence,
and ran nimbly out. The only patient
not entirely sloical was an old Turkish
officer, with rheumatism in his limbs.
They brought him in on crutches, with
his legs all bent and stiff, and like the
others he was laid out on the mat. Then
the priest mounted him, beginning at the
waist, and inside of two minutes his legs
were straightened out as limp as carpet
rage, ssa she Old priest was walking up
and down him as cheerfully as if there
was no such thing as feeling In him.
The officers face turned white as his
ahirt, and once or twice he yelled invol-
UNFAIRLY, but the priest paid no atten.
tion, and in the end the effect seemed to
be good, for when it was over and they
raised him to bis feet, although he ap-
peared rather wilted, he stood alone and
walked away without his crutches.
THE SWEATING. STONE"
Another popular cure is tho "sweating.
stone," 90 called, in the mosque of st.
Sophia. 1t is o large pillar near the left
hand entrance, or sort Of greenish.
white stone. In this, about the height of
e Esn's head, Is g s@cll hole, ;issdiy
large enough to contain the entire fingers.
Through some peculiar natural property
of the stone, the inside of this hole 10 al.
ways covered with salty moisture. No
matter how often this is wiped away, it
instantly returns, and this sweat" Of the
stone the Turks credit with miraculous
curative properties. Hundreds come
here, it is eaid, to rub their deceased
members With the healing moisture.
The graves Of many of the dead dervishes,
too, who in life had extra luck as "trsmp.
lers," have been converted into shrines,
to which sick persons make pilgrimages
in hopes Of euro. They tie on tho graf.
ings before these tombs long strips of
flannel and vool-black, yellow snd red
torn from their clothes, and do not for.
get to leave o plaster or 30 in the muney
basin before departing. This is the cure
for fever5 and colds, and also protective
against tho "evil eye." This fear of the
EVIL eys" Is as strong among the Turks