y narrow streets, the
continual necessity to climb up and down steep places in the badly-
paved roads, soon render the stranger weary of a residence in this
city.

Worse than all is the continual dread of conflagration in which we
live. Large chests and baskets are kept in readiness in every
house; if a fire breaks out in the neighbourhood, all valuable
articles are rapidly thrown into these and conveyed away. It is
customary to make a kind of contract with two or three Turks, who
are pledged, in consideration of a trifling monthly stipend, to
appear in the hour of danger, for the purpose of carrying the boxes
and lending a helping hand wherever they can. It is safer by far to
reckon on the honesty of the Turks than on that of the Christians
and Greeks. Instances in which a Turk has appropriated any portion
of the goods entrusted to his care are said to be of very rare
occurrence. During the first nights of my stay I was alarmed at
every noise, particularly when the watchman, who paraded the
streets, happened to strike with his stick upon the stones. In the
event of a conflagration, he must knock at every house-door and cry,
"Fire, fire!" Heaven be praised, my fears were never realised.

CHAPTER III.

Scutari--Kaiks--The howling Dervishes--The Achmaidon, or place of
arrows--The tower in Galata--The Bazaar at Constantinople--Mosques--
Slave-market--The old Serail--The Hippodrome--Coffee-houses--Story-
tellers--Excursion to Ejub--Houses, theatres, and carriages.

I chose a Friday for an excursion to Scutari, the celebrated
burying-place of the Turks, in order that I might have an
opportunity of seeing the "howling dervishes."

In company with a French physician, I traversed the Bosphorus in a
kaik. {48} We passed by the "Leander's Tower," which stands in the
sea, a few hundred paces from the Asiatic coast, and has been so
frequently celebrated in song by the poets. We soon arrived at our
destination.

It was with a peculiar feeling of emotion that for the first time in
my life I set foot on a new quarter of the globe. Now, and not till
now, I seemed separated by an immeasurable distance from my home.
Afterwards, when I landed on the coast of Africa, the circumstance
did not produce the same impression on my mind.

Now at length I was standing in the quarter of the earth which had
been the cradle of the human race; where man had risen high, and had
again sunk so low that the Almighty had almost