The Arizona sentinel., 1888-01-28
AN ORIENTAL BAZAAR.
What a Traveller from the Occident Saw
 in a Shop at Stamboul.

noon was to go over to Stamboul, ac-
 cept the kind invitation of some
 merchant to take coffee in his shop
 and sit there for an houE gossiping
 and watching the movement of the
 bezestin. Such an invitation may be readily accepted. and you may even
 inspect merchant S whole stock with
 out buying any thing, and yet he will not grudge you his hospitality and the
 savory cup of coffee. It is not the
 splendor of the bazar that strikes one;
 indeed, as we have seen, the bazaar is
 dirty, ill-lighted and cheap-looking
 place. It is not the aspect of null
 hilarious merchandise-rich stuffs, and
 all the fabulous luxury of the East
 for, after all, there is little but
 paltry and current goods in the bazar
 nowadays, and our Western dealers,
 and even such establishments as the
 Louvre, the Bon Marche and the other
 grand bazars of London and Paris.
 can boast finer stock of stuffS, car
 pets and Oriental arms than any of
 inc dealers of Constantinople. My eX- . pcrience in the b@zestin reveal
 edzto me the fact that as a rule, the
 dealers ask for any object,
 even for a pair of bab0uches. just
 fiv etimes the price they are willing
 10 accept Nor did they ask me this
 price because was a Frank and a
 giaour, but because such is thelr> habit whether they are dealing with. Franks, or MlssuiAlans, or Zoroastri-' ans. No; to my mind the interest of
 the bazar is in the general aspect The
 bazar forms sort of neutral ground, where you can observe the Turk, and the Persian, and all the other people who meet there. without their resenting your curiosity; it is a
 place where curiosity is legitimate,
 andwhere every body indulges freely
 in the satisfaction of that sentiment
 Above all, the bazar is an Oriental
 institution, which has remained un- changed except in the character of the goods sold. It is true, one sees there bales of Manchester c,ttons, rolls of English cloth, cargoes of 9 Russian hollow-ware; but this fact.se does not prevent one seeing at every moment de ails of life and customs which are precisely noted in that inimitable mixture of fancy and realism, the stories of Scheherazade. It is per petual, charm to the eyes to see this living exhibition of costume; to note here a dervish. there a turbaned Turk who Ehas made the pilgrimage to Mecca, there grave Persian, and there a swarthy eunuch who can not find diamonds biz enough for his vanity. It is amusing, too, to watch the coquettish ladies of the middle classes, who come in groups of two or three, followed by their children and theirnegresses. the latter carrying big bags, into which their mistresses pass their purchases. For. although Mos lem jealousy does not allow women to keep shop, and although in the whole quarter. of Stamboul you will not see single woman of any nationality engaged in commercial occupations, there are no more active buyers and no keener bargainers than the Turkish ladies. Draped in their | long feridjiS, and with their faces and heads envelOpedin in the white yachmaeh, | they spend hours and hours in the ba- zars; chattering like magpies, and | lavishing torrents of abuse on the | dog of a Christian" on the ''son of a father who is roasting in he'll" on the 1 giaour who dares to look too fixedly into their beautiful flashing eyes. Sometimes also. but then under the | guard of an eunuch. you see in the ba- zar women of higher rank-perfumed flowers of the harem, whose white and ! delicate visage the sun has never tar nishcd
 l confess that this contempt of the Franks, which the Turks do not dis guise, gave me much pleasure. They at least, among all the nations on earth. have not bowed the knee before inc idol of progress. Firm in the faith of their fathers. they calmly ignore Western civilization; and if they do recognize the existence of the Oc- ciden tai, it is only 10 despise him, and not 10 ape him, and thereby lose their own personality, which has been the fate of So many nations who have be- come the victims of Western pro- pagandism and Western ideas. At ConstantinOple, or. at least, in Stam- bout, you feel that you, a Frank, do not exist III the eye of the Turk. ' ou may wear the largest check suit that a London tailor can produce, and yet the Turk will pass without dcigning even to look at~you. At the public fountains he will go through his religious ablutions in your presence as if you were miles away. He will spread out his carpet, inrn lhts f4ce toward Mecca, and say his prayers while you are looking on; and so mean are yoa-in his estimation ihat he ignores you. For this dignity and stability of character l respect the Turk; and l am grateful to him for me sensation which is not common in foreign travel, in Europe at any rate-the- sensation. that am an intruder, contemptible doc, ] | person worthy only 10 De spat upon and killed Happily, the Iiplomaiic relations which the Sub- inc Pnr.e still entertains with the Western world guarantee the material -ccuEity ofihe iraveler in the Sultan's iOmjniODS RtIf.pvaI.v fbinp in Con- |