CHAPTER XX.
Feasting after Fasting—Visit to the Patriarch—Gorgeous Procession—Inconvenient Enthusiasm—Indisposition of the Patriarch—The Ceremony of Unrobing—The Impromptu Fair—The Patriarch at Home—The Golden Eggs.
To what a breakfast did we sit down the following morning! The long and rigorous fast was over, and a hearty vengeance was to be taken for the previous forty days of penance and abstinence. It was amusing to remark with what interest every dish was examined, and how universally each was rejected which was not composed of some hitherto forbidden luxury. The centre of the table was occupied by a porcelain bowl filled with eggs boiled hard, and stained a fine red with logwood; but it was placed there merely in compliance with the national custom, as an Easter emblem; for on this, the first day of emancipation from the thrall of fast, no individual of the party had a thought to bestow on such primitive fare.
At the conclusion of the meal, I went, accompanied by my father, and a fine youth who had escaped from college for the Easter recess, and who volunteered to act as interpreter, to pay a visit to the Patriarch, who had expressed a desire to make our acquaintance. We were conducted through several large, cold, scantily furnished apartments, presenting rather the appearance of belonging to a barrack than to an episcopal palace, with their floors thickly strown with bay leaves, which emitted a delicious perfume as we passed along, to the private sitting-room overlooking the court of the church, where we seated ourselves to await the arrival of the Patriarch, who had not yet left the Sanctuary.
A sudden rush from the door of the church called us to the windows, whence we could distinguish, in the distance, the gorgeous procession which was conducting the Patriarch home after eight and forty hours of constant ceremonial. We had ample time to enjoy the spectacle, for the throng was so dense, that it was with the utmost difficulty that the beadles and kavasses could force a passage through the excited and clamorous multitude, for the objects of their overweening and inconvenient enthusiasm. Nor was the difficulty likely to decrease, for the crowd were still pouring out from the church, clinging one to the other to secure their footing, and defying alike the many-thonged whips of the beadles, and the powerful elbows and staves of the police.
The Patriarch, who had rigorously observed the fast throughout the whole of Lent; and who had, moreover, only partially recovered from a severe and lingering illness, was little able, after forty-eight consecutive hours of exertion, to contend with this unlooked-for and gratuitous demand upon his energies; and as he moved forward, supported by two of the Bishops, he continually implored the forbearance of the people, who, in their eagerness to kiss the hem of his garment, subjected him to no slight risk of suffocation. But he implored in vain; the crowd shouted and struggled—the beadles struck and shoved—and the priests threatened and expostulated—unheeded; while the Patriarch was ultimately lifted from his feet, and carried to the foot of the great stair leading to the palace, by half a dozen of his followers.
The solemn chant of the approaching priests instantly re-echoed through the vast pile, and an avenue was formed from the portal of the building to the door of the apartment in which we stood. First entered the incense-bearer, who swung his censor twice or thrice at each extremity of the room, and then hastily withdrew; and he was almost immediately followed by the whole train of Bishops, sinking under the weight of jewels and embroidery in which they were attired, and who took their places in line along the edge of the divan, and there awaited in silence the arrival of the two Archbishops who preceded the Patriarch. The sight was dazzling! On all sides a mass of gold and precious stones, of tissue and embroidery, presented itself; and the eye actually ached with gazing. After the lapse of a few seconds, the Great Dignitaries also arrived: and as I advanced to kiss the hand of the Patriarch, I felt completely overawed by the magnificence of the spectacle.
The ceremony of unrobing followed, during which the solemn chanting of the priests, who lined the gallery through which the train had passed, was never once interrupted; and as the Bishops cast off robe after robe of costly silk, gorgeous brocade, and glittering tissue, I only marvelled how they could have supported such a weight of dress amid the crowd that had so unmercifully pressed upon them below, without sinking under it!
A furred mantle having been flung over the shoulders of the Patriarch, he was conducted from the apartment, followed by the Bishops; and we remained for a time watching the movements of the multitude in the court beneath, while he prepared himself to receive the numerous visits which he had to undergo, ere he could enjoy the repose that he so much needed. Triumphal arches, formed of green boughs and flowering shrubs, had been hastily set up in every direction, and beneath these stood the sherbet venders, and confectioners, without whom no festival is complete in the East.
The church doors were already closed: and the versatile Greeks were now as ardent and eager in the pursuit of pleasure as they had been but an hour previously in that of salvation. Most of them were employed in re-arranging their turbans, which had been unwound in the late struggle; others were squatted on the ground, eating yahourt (a sort of coagulated buttermilk) out of small earthen basins, which they emptied with their forefinger, with a rapidity perfectly surprising; and others again surrounding a mohalibè merchant, whose large tray, neatly covered with a white cloth, china saucers, and shining brass spoons shaped like trowels, enhanced the relish of the dainty that he dispensed—a species of inferior blanc-manger, eaten with rose-water and powdered sugar.
A servant having announced that the Patriarch awaited us in another department, we followed him to a spacious saloon in the opposite wing of the palace, where we found the magnificent Prelate seated in a cushioned chair raised a few steps from the floor. He had exchanged his party-coloured raiment for a flowing robe of violet silk with a falling collar of velvet, and wore about his neck a massive gold chain, from which was suspended a star of brilliants. On his right hand were two baskets of variegated wicker-work; the one containing eggs of a crimson colour richly gilt, and the other filled with eggs of white and gold; while on his left-hand, a larger basket was upheaped with others simply stained with logwood, like those which I had seen on the breakfast table.
He received us with much politeness; and, through the medium of our young friend, who made an admirable Dragoman, he asked me several questions on the impressions which I had received in the East: appeared gratified at the admiration that I expressed of the gorgeous ceremonial to which I had so lately been a witness; and regretted that the exhaustion under which he was then suffering from the fatigues of the last two days rendered him unable to converse with me, as he had been desirous of doing.
Coffee and sweetmeats were shortly afterwards served; and, as I was aware that the anti-room was thronged with persons who were waiting to pay their compliments to him, I rose to depart; when he presented to me a couple of the gilded eggs, which he accompanied by a flattering expression of the pleasure that my visit had afforded to him, and a hope that he should again see me when his health was re-established. I made as handsome a reply as I was capable of doing; pressed to my lips the holy fingers which were extended towards me, and took my leave.
I was not aware, as I received the eggs, of the extent of the compliment that had been paid to me, which I only learnt accidentally, on inquiring the origin and meaning of so singular an offering. The custom, as I was informed, is of so ancient a date, that no reason, save its antiquity, can now be adduced for its observance; but great ceremony is kept up in the distribution. To the principal persons of the nation the Patriarch gives two of those eggs which are gilt, to the next in rank one gilt and one plain—then follows one gilt—then two plain—and finally one—but, to each person who is admitted to the presence of the Patriarch, he is under the necessity of making the offering, be the guest who he may; and a day is set apart during the week, on which the whole of the male Greek population of Constantinople have the right to receive it at his hands, until extreme fatigue obliges him to resign the office to the Grand-Vicar.
On returning to the house of our friends, we partook of coffee, and the delicious Easter cake peculiar to the Greeks; and immediately afterwards embarked in our caïque, which was to convey us to the Echelles des Morts, in order to witness the festivities of the Armenians in the great cemetery.