Selected Poems (163 page)

1
. The monk’s sermon is omitted. It seems to have had so little effect upon the patient, that it could have no hopes from the reader. It may be sufficient to say, that it was of a customary length (as may be perceived from the interruptions and uneasiness of the patient), and was delivered in the usual tone of all orthodox preachers.

1
. ‘Symar,’ a shroud.

1
. The circumstance to which the above story relates was not very uncommon in Turkey. A few years ago the wife of Muchtar Pacha complained to his father of his son’s supposed infidelity; he asked with whom, and she had the barbarity to give in a list of the twelve handsomest women in Yanina. They were seized, fastened up in sacks, and drowned in the lake the same night! One of the guards who was present informed me, that not one of the victims uttered a cry, or showed a symptom of terror at so sudden a ‘wrench from all we know, from all we love.’ The fate of Phrosine, the fairest of this sacrifice, is the subject of many a Romaic and Arnaout ditty. The story in the text is one told of a young Venetian many years ago, and now nearly forgotten. I heard it by accident recited by one of the coffeehouse story-tellers who abound in the Levant, and sing or recite their narratives. The additions and interpolations by the translator will be easily distinguished from the rest, by the want of Eastern imagery; and I regret that my memory has retained so few fragments of the original. For the contents of some of the notes I am indebted partly to D’Herbelot, and partly to that most Eastern, and, as Mr Weber justly entitles it, ‘sublime tale,’ the ‘Caliph Vathek.’ I do not know from what source the author of that singular volume may have drawn his materials; some of his incidents are to be found in the ‘Bibliothèque Orientale;’ but for correctness of costume, beauty of description, and power of imagination, it far surpasses all European imitations; and bears such marks of originality, that those who have visited the East will find some difficulty in believing it to be more than a translation. As an Eastern tale, even Rasselas must bow before it; his ‘Happy Valley’ will not bear a comparison with the ‘Hall of Eblis.’

1
. ‘Gul,’ the rose.

1
. ‘Souls made of fire, and children of the Sun,With whom revenge is virtue.’YOUNG’S
Revenge
.

1
. Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the East. Sadi, the moral poet of Persia.

2
. Tambour, Turkish drum, which sounds at sunrise, noon, and twilight.

1
. The Turks abhor the Arabs (who return the compliment a hundred fold) even more than they hate the Christians.

1
. This expression has met with objections. I will not refer to ‘Him who hath not Music in his soul,’ but merely request the reader to recollect, for ten seconds, the features of the woman whom he believes to be the most beautiful; and, if he then does not comprehend fully what is feebly expressed in the above line, I shall be sorry for us both. For an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer of this, perhaps of any, age, on the analogy (and the immediate comparison excited by that analogy) between ‘painting and music,’ see vol. iii. cap. 10.. DE L’ALLEMAGNE. And is not this connection still stronger with the original than the copy? With the colouring of Nature than of Art? After all, this is rather to be felt than described; still I think there are some who will understand it, at least they would have done had they beheld the countenance whose speaking harmony suggested the idea; for this passage is not drawn from imagination but memory, that mirror which Affliction dashes to the earth, and looking down upon the fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied!

1
. Carasman Oglou, or Kara Osman Oglou, is the principal landholder in Turkey; he governs Magnesia: those who, by a kind of feudal tenure, possess land on condition of service, are called Timariots: they serve as Spahis, according to the extent of territory, and bring a certain number into the field, generally cavalry.

1
. When a Pacha is sufficiently strong to resist, the single messenger, who is always the first bearer of the order for his death, is strangled instead, and sometimes five or six, one after the other on the same errand, by command of the refractory patient; if, on the contrary, he is weak or loyal, he bows, kisses the Sultan’s respectable signature, and is bowstrung with great complacency. In 1810, several of these presents were exhibited in the niche of the Seraglio gate; among others, the head of the Pacha of Bagdat, a brave young man, cut off by treachery, after a desperate resistance.

1.
Clapping of the hands calls the servants. The Turks hate a superfluous expenditure of voice, and they have no bells.

2.
‘Chibouque,’ the Turkish pipe, of which the amber mouth-piece, and sometimes the ball which contains the leaf, is adorned with precious stones, if in possession of the wealthier orders.

3.
‘Maugrabee,’ Moorish mercenaries.

4.
‘Delis,’ bravos who form the forlorn hope of the cavalry, and always begin the action.

5
. A twisted fold of
felt
is used for scimitar practice by the Turks, and few but Mussulman arms can cut through it at a single stroke: sometimes a tough turban is used for the same purpose. The jerreed is a game of blunt javelins, animated and graceful.

6
. ‘Ollahs,’ Alla il Allah, the ‘Leilies,’ as the Spanish poets call them, the sound is Ollah; a cry of which the Turks, for a silent people, are somewhat profuse, particularly during the jerreed, or in the chase, but mostly in battle. Their animation in the field, and gravity in the chamber, with their pipes and comboloios, form an amusing contrast.

1
. ‘Atar-gul,’ ottar of roses. The Persian is the finest.

2
. The ceiling and wainscots, or rather walls, of the Mussulman apartments are generally painted, in great houses, with one eternal and highly coloured view of Constantinople, wherein the principal feature is a noble contempt of perspective; below, arms, scimitars, &c. are in general fancifully and not inelegantly disposed.

1
. It has been much doubted whether the notes of this ‘Lover of the rose’ are sad or merry; and Mr Fox’s remarks on the subject have provoked some learned controversy as to the opinions of the ancients on the subject. I dare not venture a conjecture on the point, though a little inclined to the ‘errare mallem,’&c.
if
Mr Fox
was
mistaken.

1
. ‘Azrael,’ the angel of death.

1
. The treasures of the Pre-adamite Sultans. See D’Herbelot, article
Istakar
.

2
. ‘Musselim,’ a governor, the next in rank after a Pacha; a Waywode is the third; and then come the Agas.

3.
‘Egripo,’
the Negropont. According to the proverb, the Turks of Egripo, the Jews of Salonica, and the Greeks of Athens, are the worst of their respective races.

1
. ‘Tchocadar’ – one of the attendants who precedes a man of authority.

1
. The wrangling about this epithet, ‘the broad Hellespont’ or the ‘boundless Hellespont,’ whether it means one or the other, or what it means at all, has been beyond all possibility of detail. I have even heard it disputed on the spot; and not foreseeing a speedy conclusion to the controversy, amused myself with swimming across it in the mean time; and probably may again, before the point is settled. Indeed, the question as to the truth of ‘the tale of Troy divine’ still continues, much of it resting upon the talismanic word ’?πειρος:’ probably Homer had the same notion of distance that a coquette has of time; and when he talks of boundless, means half a mile; as the latter, by a like figure, when she says
eternal
attachment, simply specifies three weeks.

2
. Before his Persian invasion, and crowned the altar with laurel, &c. He was afterwards imitated by Caracalla in his race. It is believed that the last also poisoned a friend, named Festus, for the sake of new Patroclan games. I have seen the sheep feeding on the tombs of Æsietes and Antilochus: the first is in the centre of the plain.

i
. When rubbed, the amber is susceptible of a perfume, which is slight but not disagreeable.

2.
The belief in amulets engraved on gems, or enclosed in gold boxes, containing scraps from the Koran, worn round the neck, wrist, or arm, is still universal in the East. The Koorsee (throne) verse in the second chap. of the Koran describes the attributes of the Most High, and is engraved in this manner, and worn by the pious, as the most esteemed and sublime of all sentences.

3.
‘Comboloio’ – a Turkish rosary. The MSS., particularly those of the Persians, are richly adorned and illuminated. The Greek females are kept in utter ignorance; but many of the Turkish girls are highly accomplished, though not actually qualified for a Christian coterie. Perhaps some of our own ‘
blues
’ might not be the worse for
bleaching.

1
. ‘Galiongée’ – or Galiongi, a sailor, that is, a Turkish sailor; the Greeks navigate, the Turks work the guns. Their dress is picturesque; and I have seen the Capitan Pacha more than once wearing it as a kind of
incog
. Their legs, however, are generally naked. The buskins described in the text as sheathed behind with silver are those of an Arnaut robber, who was my host (he had quitted the profession) at his Pyrgo, near Gastouni in the Morea; they were plated in scales one over the other, like the back of an armadillo.

1
. The characters on all Turkish scimitars contain sometimes the name of the place of their manufacture, but more generally a text from the Koran, in letters of gold. Amongst those in my possession is one with a blade of singular construction; it is very broad, and the edge notched into serpentine curves like the ripple of water, or the wavering of flame. I asked the Arminian who sold it, what possible use such a figure could add: he said, in Italian, that he did not know; but the Mussulmans had an idea that those of this form gave a severer wound; and liked it because it was ‘piu feroce.’ I did not much admire the reason, but bought it for its peculiarity.

1
. It is to be observed, that every allusion to any thing or personage in the Old Testament, such as the Ark, or Cain, is equally the privilege of Mussulman and Jew: indeed, the former profess to be much better acquainted with the lives, true and fabulous, of the patriarchs, than is warranted by our own sacred writ; and not content with Adam, they have a biography of Pre-Adamites. Solomon is the monarch of all necromancy, and Moses a prophet inferior only to Christ and Mahomet. Zuleika is the Persian name of Potiphar’s wife; and her amour with Joseph constitutes one of the finest poems in their language. It is, therefore, no violation of costume to put the names of Cain, or Noah, into the mouth of a Moslem.

2
. Paswan Oglou, the rebel of Widin; who, for the last years of his life, set the whole power of the Porte at defiance.

1
. ‘Horse-tail,’ the standard of a Pacha.

2
. Giaffir, Pacha of Argyro Castro, or Scutari, I am not sure which, was actually taken off by the Albanian Ali, in the manner described in the text. Ali Pacha, while I was in the country, married the daughter of his victim, some years after the event had taken place at a bath in Sophia, or Adrianople. The poison was mixed in the cup of coffee, which is presented before the sherbet by the bath-keeper, after dressing.

1
. The Turkish notions of almost all islands are confined to the Archipelago, the sea alluded to.

1.
Lambro Canzani, a Greek, famous for his efforts, in 1789–90, for the independence of his country. Abandoned by the Russians, he became a pirate, and the Archipelago was the scene of his enterprises. He is said to be still alive at Petersburg. He and Riga are the two most celebrated of the Greek revolutionists.

2.
‘Rayahs,’ – all who pay the capitation tax, called the ‘Haratch.’

3
. The first of voyages is one of the few with which the Mussulmans profess much acquaintance.

4
. The wandering life of the Arabs, Tartars, and Turkomans, will be found well detailed in any book of Eastern travels. That it possesses a charm peculiar to itself, cannot be denied. A young French renegado confessed to Chateaubriand, that he never found himself alone, galloping in the desert, without a sensation approaching to rapture which was indescribable.

1
. ‘Jannat al Aden,’ the perpetual abode, the Mussulman paradise.

1.
A turban is carved in stone above the graves of
men
only.

2.
The death-song of the Turkish women. The ‘silent slaves’ are the men, whose notions of decorum forbid complaint in
public
.