nt the preparation of
being smoked in a box, which during the prevalence of the plague is placed
near its entrance for that purpose. These boxes were some eight feet high
by three square, the platform on which the feet rested elevated about a
foot above the earth, so as to admit under it a dish containing the
ingredients of the prophylactic, and a hole in the door to let the face
out during the smoking of the clothes and body. We procured our daily
supply of provisions from a _Bak-kal_, a retail grocer, whose shop was
directly under our front window; an itinerant _Ekmekjer_, or bread-man,
brought our bread to the door; our vegetables were procured from a
gardener close by, and our water we drew from a cistern under the house:
in fine, our food was either smoked or saturated before we touched it, and
every possible precaution observed to cut our little family off from the
dreadful scourge, 'the pestilence which walketh in darkness and the
destruction which wasteth at noon day.' The mother and daughter throughout
the day spun silk, knitted woolen suits, or embroidered kerchiefs for head
dresses, called in Romaic _fakiolee_, and even to a late hour of the night
they frequently continued the same employment, until the plague prevented
the sale of their handiwork, and their materials were all used up. All day
long they would sit upon the sofa of their little apartment, facing the
street, and while their hands toiled for a subsistence, the widow's
daughter hummed a plaintive air, or occasionally broke the silence by
conversing with her mother. The son was yet too young to be of assistance
to his desolate mother and sister, and except when he said his letters to
them, spent the day in idleness. As to my own employment, the dull period
of time passed with them was a blank in my existence; and yet, such is the
influence of past penury and pain, that I now recall them with pleasure.

The weather was generally very warm, and south-west breezes over the sea
of Marmora prevailed. From our highest windows we could observe sluggish
seamen lounging on the decks of their vessels in the port, afraid to land
amid the pestilence. Here and there a vessel strove against the current of
the Bosphorus to gain an anchorage; or would slowly float down that stream
into the open sea, on its way to healthier and happier Europe. The
starving dogs at nightfall would howl dismally, bewailing the loss of the
benevolent hands from which they usually receiv