Black for the occasion; and next
day the Corpse was laid on a Bed in the very middle of the Church,
dressed in the Sacerdotal Habit, with the Head towards the Choir, and
his Tiara, or Mitre, lying at the feet. At each corner of the bed stood
a _valet de chambre_, holding a Banner of Black Taffety, with the Arms
of the Deceased. A hundred large Wax Tapers were placed in Candlesticks
round the bed, and High Mass was sung; the Sopranos very beautiful.
After Mass was over, all retired; but the Body lay exposed till evening,
when it was stripped of its Vestments (for though a very Gorgeous
people, they are Economical in their ways), and put into a Leaden
Coffin, enclosed in another of Cypress, and was then let down into the
Grave. 'Tis not usual with the Relations to attend the Funeral, which
they look upon as a Barbarous Custom. But they wear Mourning longer and
more regularly than in many other countries. A woman in a Mourning Habit
appears Black from Head to Foot, not the least Bit of Linen being to be
seen.

The nature of my Employment now brought me into intimate Commerce with
Monsieur B----, a French Merchant of Lyons, who treated me with
extraordinary Civility, and made great Offers of being of Assistance to
me in my Voyage to Constantinople, whither I was now Bound. This
Gentleman, by means of the French Ambassador at the Porte, had gotten a
Firman, or passport, to enable him to Travel to that City, and with a
proper number of Attendants, through any part of the Turkish Dominions.
As 'tis inconvenient and dangerous Voyaging though the territories of
the Great Turk without such a Protection, nothing could be more
Agreeable than the offer he made me of his Company, the more so as his
Eminence had enjoined me to keep a Strict Watch upon every thing that M.
B---- said or did. He had designed to reach Constantinople by Land
through Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, and Roumania; yet, in compliance with
my Inclination (I wish my Inclination had been at the Deuce), which was
all for a Sea Passage, he consented to embark on board a Vessel bound to
Candia and other Islands of the Archipelago, from which we were to
procure a Passage to the Capital of the Ottoman Empire. What made this
Gentleman's Society more acceptable, was his thorough Knowledge of the
Trade of the Levant, and the Genius and Temper of the People. Thus, he
informed me of the Method of Dealing with Jews, Armenians, and Greeks;
of the Eastern manner of travelling in C