e to practise condescension; and then, as an
illustration of their courtesy, he tells us that "Mr. Eton, pleasantly
and accurately enough, compared the general behaviour of a Turk to a
Christian with that of a German baron to his vassal." However, he allows
that at least "the common people, more bigoted to their dogmas, express
more bluntly their sense of superiority over the Christians." "Their
usual salutation addressed to Christians," says Volney, "is 'good
morning;' but it is well if it be not accompanied with a Djaour, Kafer,
or Kelb, that is, impious, infidel, dog, expressions to which
Christians are familiarized." Sir C. Fellows is an earnest witness for
their amiableness; but he does not conceal that the children "hoot after
a European, and call him Frank dog, and even strike him;" and on one
occasion a woman caught up a child and ran off from him, crying out
against the Ghiaour; which gives him an opportunity of telling us that
the word "Ghiaour" means a man without a soul, without a God. A writer
in a popular Review, who seems to have been in the East, tells us that
"their hatred and contempt of the Ghiaour and Frangi is as burning as
ever; perhaps even more so, because they are forced to implore his aid.
The Eastern seeks Christian aid in the same spirit and with the same
disgust as he would eat swine's flesh, were it the only means of
securing him from starvation."[86] Such conduct is indeed only
consistent with their faith, and the untenableness of that faith is not
my present question; here I do but ask, are these barbarians likely to
think themselves inferior in any respect to men without souls? are they
likely to receive civilization from the nations of the West, whom,
according to the well-known story, they definitively divide into the hog
and the dog?

I have not time for more than an allusion to what is the complement of
this arrogance, and is a most pregnant subject of thought, whenever the
fortunes of the Ottomans are contemplated; I mean the despair which
takes its place in their minds, consistently with the barbarian
temperament, upon the occurrence of any considerable reverses. A passage
from Mr. Thornton just now quoted refers to this characteristic. The
overthrow at Lepanto, though they rallied from their consternation for a
while, was a far more serious and permanent misfortune in its moral
than in its material consequences. And, on any such national calamity,
the fatalism of their creed, to w