nted. The horses were
first-rate, and the men fine strapping fellows, who looked as if they
could do the state some service. We stood at the corner of a street past
which they were marching, and had a good view of them. It was a very
strong regiment, with a full complement of a thousand men. Their uniform
was of the new school, that is to say, after the European model. The
specimens of the regular infantry that are to be seen at Smyrna and
Constantinople, give but an unfavourable idea of the Turkish troops of
the line. It becomes them little to be cross-belted after our fashion,
and they seem to be sulky under the constraint of their accoutrements.
But these horsemen rode by in gallant style, showing, as occasion arose,
excellent horsemanship, and gathering perhaps some vivacity from the
noble animals whose curvetings demanded a vigilant eye, and firm seat.
After all, cavalry seems to be their natural strength, as it has been
ever since the days when they rode wild in the plains of the Selinga.
The natural genius of the people may be sufficiently understood, by a
comparison of the gallant-looking, serviceable dragoons, with the
sluggish fellows who carry the musket. They seem to be no more the stuff
whereof infantry is to be composed, than they are the stuff of which
sailors are to be composed. At this latter transmutation many efforts
have recently been made, and a good deal certainly effected, so far as
regards the mechanical duties of the sailor. All who were in presence
with the Capitan Pasha, lately, on the coast of Syria, were surprised at
the improved state of their powers of nautical evolution. But this is
merely an effort, whose effects cannot last, for the stuff is not in
them of which a sailor is made. Their look and bearing is enough to
condemn them immediately, and, moreover, enough to show that the
training is by no means agreeable to them. Now all these dragoons looked
as if their occupation was exactly to their taste, and as if they were
proud of their horses and themselves. The only absurdity on the parade
(for there was all absurdity, or it would have been contrary to all
Turkish precedent) was, that after the colonel, as gallant-looking a
fellow as one would wish to see, came his pipe-bearer, with the tools of
his craft strapped to his back. This certainly did come at the tail of
the procession with something of the air of an anti-climax.

We followed closely after them to see the fun, and arrived at t