DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62355#0084
30
BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS
the questioning curiosity which is elicited by the great exchange of the City of
the Three Seas.
In by-past years, ere “ the schoolmaster was abroad," the chubby urchins
of half the remote villages in England believed that the dust of London was
gold-dust, and its pavements silver; and even now, in like manner, there are
many individuals to be found, who almost persist in believing that the Bazars
of Stamboul are as sparkling and gorgeous as the enchanted garden of Aladdin ;
and yet nothing can be further from the fact. The interest of the Tcharchi
exists in its great extent, its peculiar arrangement, and the picturesque effects
constantly produced by the shifting groups who people it, and whose diversity
of costume, countenance, and national character, tends to arouse the admiration
and curiosity of every visitor. It must not be imagined that the bazars of the
East are vast apartments filled with rows of trim counters, overstrewn with toys
and trinkets, and all the gaud and glitter which are the charm of such lounging-
places in London. There is no prettiness in the great commercial mart of the
Moslems ; their Tcharchi is composed of a cluster of streets, of such extent and
number as to resemble a small covered town, the roof being supported by
arches of solid masonry. A narrow gallery, slightly fenced by a wooden rail,
occasionally connects these arches: and it is extraordinary to look down from
one of them upon the changeful and motley crowd below ; nor is it, perhaps,
less singular to the stranger, when he has gained this giddy elevation, to find
himself surrounded by numbers of doves, whom his vicinity fails to disturb,
and who appear to be so habituated to human contact and human turmoil, and
to have suffered both so long with impunity, as to have become regardless alike
of the one and the other.
Every avenue of the bazar is appropriated to a particular branch of com-
merce; thus, in the street known as the Bezenstein, the two ranges of counters
are occupied by jewellers, and are placed on a raised wooden platform, where
the merchants spread their carpets, and make their calculations on strips of a
strong yellowish paper, resembling parchment, that they rest against their knee;
while, without withdrawing the chibouque from their lips, they dip their reed
pen into an ink-bottle, nestled amid the folds of the shawl about their waist,
and thus gravely await their customers. Beyond the platform is a strong-room,
of which the door is made fast; for many of them contain some of the most
costly gems in the world, particularly pearls, turquoises, and brilliants; although
the dingy and ill-supplied glass-cases on the counters would lead a stranger to
imagine that nothing rare or curious was to be met with in the Bezenstein: but
let the keen and quick-sighted dealers (who are almost entirely Armenians) see
BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS
the questioning curiosity which is elicited by the great exchange of the City of
the Three Seas.
In by-past years, ere “ the schoolmaster was abroad," the chubby urchins
of half the remote villages in England believed that the dust of London was
gold-dust, and its pavements silver; and even now, in like manner, there are
many individuals to be found, who almost persist in believing that the Bazars
of Stamboul are as sparkling and gorgeous as the enchanted garden of Aladdin ;
and yet nothing can be further from the fact. The interest of the Tcharchi
exists in its great extent, its peculiar arrangement, and the picturesque effects
constantly produced by the shifting groups who people it, and whose diversity
of costume, countenance, and national character, tends to arouse the admiration
and curiosity of every visitor. It must not be imagined that the bazars of the
East are vast apartments filled with rows of trim counters, overstrewn with toys
and trinkets, and all the gaud and glitter which are the charm of such lounging-
places in London. There is no prettiness in the great commercial mart of the
Moslems ; their Tcharchi is composed of a cluster of streets, of such extent and
number as to resemble a small covered town, the roof being supported by
arches of solid masonry. A narrow gallery, slightly fenced by a wooden rail,
occasionally connects these arches: and it is extraordinary to look down from
one of them upon the changeful and motley crowd below ; nor is it, perhaps,
less singular to the stranger, when he has gained this giddy elevation, to find
himself surrounded by numbers of doves, whom his vicinity fails to disturb,
and who appear to be so habituated to human contact and human turmoil, and
to have suffered both so long with impunity, as to have become regardless alike
of the one and the other.
Every avenue of the bazar is appropriated to a particular branch of com-
merce; thus, in the street known as the Bezenstein, the two ranges of counters
are occupied by jewellers, and are placed on a raised wooden platform, where
the merchants spread their carpets, and make their calculations on strips of a
strong yellowish paper, resembling parchment, that they rest against their knee;
while, without withdrawing the chibouque from their lips, they dip their reed
pen into an ink-bottle, nestled amid the folds of the shawl about their waist,
and thus gravely await their customers. Beyond the platform is a strong-room,
of which the door is made fast; for many of them contain some of the most
costly gems in the world, particularly pearls, turquoises, and brilliants; although
the dingy and ill-supplied glass-cases on the counters would lead a stranger to
imagine that nothing rare or curious was to be met with in the Bezenstein: but
let the keen and quick-sighted dealers (who are almost entirely Armenians) see