DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0040
TURKISH COSTUME.
31
pearance. Indeed, I looked the Turk well. Dif-
ferent from my notions of the appearance of the
Turks, they have generally light and florid com-
plexions ; and, if I could have talked their language,
dressed as a Turk, they could not have judged from
my appearance that I had ever been outside the
walls of old Stamboul. There is no exaggeration
in the unanimous reports of travellers, of the effect
which the costumes of the East give to personal
appearance ; and having seen and known it even in
my own person, I am inclined to believe that there
is fallacy in the equally prevalent opinion of the
personal beauty of the Turks. Their dress com-
pletely hides all deformity of person, and the va-
riety of colours, the arms and the long beard, di-
vert the attention of the observer from a close
examination of features. The striking effect of
costume is strongly perceptible in the soldiers of
the sultan, and the mongrel, half European uni-
form in which he has put them, and in which they
are not by any means an uncommonly fine-looking
set of men. These soldiers are taken wherever
they are caught, and consequently are a fair spe-
cimen of the Turkish race; and any English regi-
ment will turn out finer men than the best in the
sultan's army. Following my example, Paul also
slipped into his Bedouin shirt, and could hardly
be distinguished from the best Arab of them all.
Again our road lay along the shore, so near that
sometimes we had to dismount and pick our way
over the rocks, and at others our dromedaries
31
pearance. Indeed, I looked the Turk well. Dif-
ferent from my notions of the appearance of the
Turks, they have generally light and florid com-
plexions ; and, if I could have talked their language,
dressed as a Turk, they could not have judged from
my appearance that I had ever been outside the
walls of old Stamboul. There is no exaggeration
in the unanimous reports of travellers, of the effect
which the costumes of the East give to personal
appearance ; and having seen and known it even in
my own person, I am inclined to believe that there
is fallacy in the equally prevalent opinion of the
personal beauty of the Turks. Their dress com-
pletely hides all deformity of person, and the va-
riety of colours, the arms and the long beard, di-
vert the attention of the observer from a close
examination of features. The striking effect of
costume is strongly perceptible in the soldiers of
the sultan, and the mongrel, half European uni-
form in which he has put them, and in which they
are not by any means an uncommonly fine-looking
set of men. These soldiers are taken wherever
they are caught, and consequently are a fair spe-
cimen of the Turkish race; and any English regi-
ment will turn out finer men than the best in the
sultan's army. Following my example, Paul also
slipped into his Bedouin shirt, and could hardly
be distinguished from the best Arab of them all.
Again our road lay along the shore, so near that
sometimes we had to dismount and pick our way
over the rocks, and at others our dromedaries