DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4719#0023
LTDIA.
different men-of-war stationed opposite to my "window; and
the band of the Sapphire frigate has been playing " Grod
save the Queen," and "Home, sweet Home."
February 13th.—On looking ont of my window this morn-
ing, I found that I was really in the East. I beheld a whole
city of Turks, a very gay scene; but the people struck me
as being disgustingly fat. The variety of costume, occa-
sioned by the different orders or sects of the Turks, is quite
curious. It would be an endless task to describe the va-
rieties, all very unlike the European; and nothing but the
pencil could convey an idea of the varioiis head-dresses. I
have just seen a man with a turban, which I took for a small
sack of flour placed upon his head. The women, although
they contrive to have a good view of strangers at a distance,
cover up all but one eye as they approach; and some are
always thus ensconced, having a horse-hair mask or cowl
over the upper part of the face, and the lower part concealed
in the same white sheet which covers the rest of the body.
The dresses are splendidly embroidered, a Turk thinking
it nothing extraordinary to give fifteen or twenty pounds
for a jacket. I saw a child whose clothes must have cost
sixty or seventy pounds, the embroidery being a mass of
gold, and one set of clothes was put over another: the child
was not above eight years old, but was probably the pet of
some wealthy merchant. The expenditure of the Turks in
dress is enormous, and of the Greeks also; at Syra I saw a
celebrated Albanian chief of great wealth in his full dress,
which I heard, independently of the jewels, was worth many
hundred pounds.
Smyrna is a thickly inhabited town, and the streets are
extremely narrow and dirty. The appearance of the people
generally seems to me not pleasing; there is no trace of
simplicity of manners, but they look as if they had always
lived in the bustle of commerce. I do not like any trait in
the character of the Turks which I have yet seen; what a
different men-of-war stationed opposite to my "window; and
the band of the Sapphire frigate has been playing " Grod
save the Queen," and "Home, sweet Home."
February 13th.—On looking ont of my window this morn-
ing, I found that I was really in the East. I beheld a whole
city of Turks, a very gay scene; but the people struck me
as being disgustingly fat. The variety of costume, occa-
sioned by the different orders or sects of the Turks, is quite
curious. It would be an endless task to describe the va-
rieties, all very unlike the European; and nothing but the
pencil could convey an idea of the varioiis head-dresses. I
have just seen a man with a turban, which I took for a small
sack of flour placed upon his head. The women, although
they contrive to have a good view of strangers at a distance,
cover up all but one eye as they approach; and some are
always thus ensconced, having a horse-hair mask or cowl
over the upper part of the face, and the lower part concealed
in the same white sheet which covers the rest of the body.
The dresses are splendidly embroidered, a Turk thinking
it nothing extraordinary to give fifteen or twenty pounds
for a jacket. I saw a child whose clothes must have cost
sixty or seventy pounds, the embroidery being a mass of
gold, and one set of clothes was put over another: the child
was not above eight years old, but was probably the pet of
some wealthy merchant. The expenditure of the Turks in
dress is enormous, and of the Greeks also; at Syra I saw a
celebrated Albanian chief of great wealth in his full dress,
which I heard, independently of the jewels, was worth many
hundred pounds.
Smyrna is a thickly inhabited town, and the streets are
extremely narrow and dirty. The appearance of the people
generally seems to me not pleasing; there is no trace of
simplicity of manners, but they look as if they had always
lived in the bustle of commerce. I do not like any trait in
the character of the Turks which I have yet seen; what a