uld do these dirty rooms the honour of
taking them for places of entertainment.

In the market and the squares we notice a great preponderance of the
male sex over the female. The former are seen bustling about every
where, and, like the Italians, perform some duties which usually
fall to the lot of the softer sex. We notice a mixture of the most
different nations, and among them a particularly large number of
Jews.

The bazaar is overloaded with southern fruits of all kinds. Oranges
and lemons are seen here in great numbers, like the commonest of our
fruits. The prices are of course very trifling. The cauliflowers
brought from Asia Minor are particularly fine. I noticed many as
large as a man's head.

In the evening I was required to repair to the harbour and re-
embark.

It is almost impossible to form an idea of the confusion which
reigns here. A wooden railing forms the barrier between the healthy
people and those who come from or intend travelling to a country
infected with the plague. Whoever passes this line of demarcation
is not allowed to return. Soldiers, officers, government officials,
and superintendents, the latter of whom are armed with sticks and
pairs of tongs, stand at the entrance to drive those forcibly back
who will not be content with fair words. Provisions and other
articles are either thrown over the barrier or left in front of it.
In the latter case, however, they may not be touched until the
bearers have departed. A gentleman on the "plague" side wished to
give a letter to one on the other; it was immediately snatched from
his hand and handed across by means of a pair of tongs. And all
this time such a noise and hubbub is going on, that you can scarcely
hear the sound of your own voice.

"Pray hand me over my luggage!" cries one. "Keep farther away!
don't come near me, and mind you don't touch me!" anxiously exclaims
another. And then the superintendents keep shouting--"Stand back,
stand back!" etc.

I was highly entertained by this spectacle; the scene was entirely
new to me. But on my return, when I shall be one of the prisoners,
I fear I may find it rather tedious. For this time I was not at all
hindered in the prosecution of my journey.

On the whole, these timid precautions seemed to me exceedingly
uncalled for, particularly at a time when neither the plague nor any
kind of contagious disease prevailed in Turkey. One of my fellow-
passengers had been banished to