.

Among these fraternities, one of the most numerous is that of the
_kayikjees_ or boatmen, of whom there are not fewer than 19,000,
mostly Turks, in the city and its suburbs; while 5000 more, nearly all
of whom are Greeks, are found in the villages of the Bosphorus. They
are all registered in the books of the _kayikjee-bashi_, or chief of
the boatmen, paying each eight piastres monthly (or twice as much if
unmarried) for their _teskera_ or license: and cannot remove from the
stations assigned them without giving notice. The skill and activity
of these men, in the management of their light and apparently fragile
skiffs, has been celebrated by almost every tourist who has floated on
the waters of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus: and not less precise
is the accuracy with which is adjusted the number of oars to be
employed by the members of the European _corps diplomatique_, and the
great officers of the Porte, according to their relative ranks; the
smallest infringement of which would be regarded as an unpardonable
breach of etiquette. The oars and mouldings are painted of the
national colours, with the hulls white or black; the latter colour is
usually affected by the Turkish grandees, with the exception of the
capitan-pasha, who is alone privileged to use a green boat.
Ambassadors-extraordinary are entitled to ten oars; and the same
number is assigned to the grand-vizir, the mufti, and ministers
holding the rank of _mushir_, or marshal, the highest degree in the
new scale of Ottoman precedence. Pashas of the second rank, the
_cazi-askers_ or grand judges of Anatolia and Roumelia, with other
functionaries of equivalent grade, are allowed eight oars, the number
employed by the Austrian Internuncio, and by ministers-plenipotentiary;
while three or five pair of sculls are allotted to _charges
d'affaires_, and the heads of different departments at the Porte. The
procession of the sultan, when he proceeds to the mosque by water,
consists of six kayiks, the largest of which is seventy-eight feet in
length, and pulled by twenty-four rowers--under the old _regime_ the
crew was taken from the bostandjis, whose chief, the bostandji-bashi,
held the helm; but since the abolition of that corps, they have been
chosen, without distinction of creed, from the common boatmen. The
imperial barge is distinguished, independent of its superior size, by
the gold-embroidered canopy of crimson silk, surmounted by crescents
at the stern; it i