DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62355#0289
THE SLAVE-MARKET.
127
whisperings of the leaves, or listening to the wondrous tales of the Massaldjhe,*
ever a welcome guest in the harem, where her marvellous narrations are received
with a deep attention and a perfect faith eminently inspiring. Then there is the
namaz, or prayer, five times a day, never neglected by Turkisli women ; when
deeply veiled, as unworthy to appear before Allali with a bare brow, they spread
their prayer-carpet, and turning their faces Mecca-ward, they humbly and
earnestly perform their devotions. These are their home-occupations; but it is
a great fallacy to imagine that Turkisli females are like birds in a cage, or
captives in a cell;—far from it; there is not a public festival, be it Turk,
Frank, Armenian, or Greek, where they are not to be seen in numbers, sitting
upon their carpets, or in their carriages, surrounded by slaves and attendants,
eager and delighted spectators of the revel. Then they have their gilded and
glittering caiques on the Bosphorus, where, protected by their veils, their ample
mantles, and their negro guard, they spend long hours in passing from house to
house, visiting their acquaintance, and gathering and dispensing the gossip of
the city.
All this may, and indeed must appear startling, to persons who have accus-
tomed themselves to believe that Turkish wives were morally manacled slaves.
There are, probably, no women so little trammelled in the world ; so free to come
and to go unquestioned, provided that they are suitably attended; while it is
equally certain that they enjoy this privilege like innocent and happy children,
making their pleasures of the flowers and the sunshine; and revelling like the
birds and bees amid the summer brightness, profiting by the enjoyment of the
passing hour, and reckless or thoughtless of the future.
THE SLAVE-MARKET.
" Veritatis simplex oratio est."
School Classics.
The fables which have been both written and painted on the subject of the
Veser Bazar, or Slave-Market of Constantinople, with a tenacity of error per-
fectly extraordinary, have tended to excite in Europe a feeling of horror and
* Professional tale-teller,
127
whisperings of the leaves, or listening to the wondrous tales of the Massaldjhe,*
ever a welcome guest in the harem, where her marvellous narrations are received
with a deep attention and a perfect faith eminently inspiring. Then there is the
namaz, or prayer, five times a day, never neglected by Turkisli women ; when
deeply veiled, as unworthy to appear before Allali with a bare brow, they spread
their prayer-carpet, and turning their faces Mecca-ward, they humbly and
earnestly perform their devotions. These are their home-occupations; but it is
a great fallacy to imagine that Turkisli females are like birds in a cage, or
captives in a cell;—far from it; there is not a public festival, be it Turk,
Frank, Armenian, or Greek, where they are not to be seen in numbers, sitting
upon their carpets, or in their carriages, surrounded by slaves and attendants,
eager and delighted spectators of the revel. Then they have their gilded and
glittering caiques on the Bosphorus, where, protected by their veils, their ample
mantles, and their negro guard, they spend long hours in passing from house to
house, visiting their acquaintance, and gathering and dispensing the gossip of
the city.
All this may, and indeed must appear startling, to persons who have accus-
tomed themselves to believe that Turkish wives were morally manacled slaves.
There are, probably, no women so little trammelled in the world ; so free to come
and to go unquestioned, provided that they are suitably attended; while it is
equally certain that they enjoy this privilege like innocent and happy children,
making their pleasures of the flowers and the sunshine; and revelling like the
birds and bees amid the summer brightness, profiting by the enjoyment of the
passing hour, and reckless or thoughtless of the future.
THE SLAVE-MARKET.
" Veritatis simplex oratio est."
School Classics.
The fables which have been both written and painted on the subject of the
Veser Bazar, or Slave-Market of Constantinople, with a tenacity of error per-
fectly extraordinary, have tended to excite in Europe a feeling of horror and
* Professional tale-teller,