CHAPTER XXVIII.
Monotonous Entertainments—Bridal Preparations—Common Interest—Appearance of the Surrounding Country—Ride to Arnautkeui—Sight-loving Ladies—Glances and Greetings—Pictorial Grouping—The Procession—The Trousseau—A Steeple-Chase.
Thus far all had been monotonous from its constant repetition; the same dramas had been enacted, the same lamps had been lighted, and the same banquets had been prepared; but the seventh day was the eve of the Imperial marriage, on which the trousseau of the bride was to be borne in state from the Palace of Dolma Batchè, to her own glittering Seraï on the Bosphorus. The period was arrived when her slaves, on withdrawing her from the bath, were to braid her long tresses with threads of gold, and strings of pearl, and to stain the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet with henna.
At an early hour the streets of Pera were crowded with arabas and saddle-horses; and my own eager little chesnut was neighing out his impatience under my window before eight o’clock. It was a glorious morning, bright and sunny, without a cloud; and, as I sprang into my saddle, I felt that this was a day on which the Fates had resolved to weave a white thread into the web of my existence.
All the three hundred thousand persons said to have been collected in Constantinople on the occasion of the Imperial marriage, must have been beside our path that morning! I never before beheld such a gathering of human beings. There had been divided interests during the previous days of festival: different points of attraction, which had wrenched asunder the mighty mass of mortality, and fashioned it into divers portions; but on the present occasion, men’s minds were all bent upon one object; and this community of purpose had collected them together in one vast multitude.
The road was guarded by armed sentinels; and about an arrow’s flight from the Military College, on the line from Dolma Batchè to the Palace of the Princess, a handsome tent had been pitched for the Ambassadors, which was already thronged. Every rising ground was occupied as far as the eye could reach; and the outline of the road along which the procession was to pass, was marked by clusters of females, seated so closely together that from a short distance they appeared to form one compact body. Behind these were ranged lines of arabas, filled with Turkish, Greek, and Armenian ladies; while on the open space beyond, horsemen galloped to and fro; pedestrians, who had been too tardy to secure advantageous places, straggled from spot to spot, in the hope of establishing themselves among some knot of friends; and water-venders, with their long-necked earthen jars and crystal goblets, passed from one party to another, disposing, at an usurious interest, of their tempting merchandize.
As there was no sign of the procession when we reached the Ambassadorial tent, we resolved to canter on to Arnautkeui, and amuse ourselves by a survey of the wayside groups; and a most interesting ride it was. As the Turkish women generally, on any occasion which takes them from their homes at an early hour, profit by the circumstance to remain in the open air all day, none of our party were surprised at the well-organized arrangements that were making on all sides. The whole line of road from Dolma Batchè to the kiosk above the Palace of Arnautkeui was edged with spectators; and wherever a tree afforded the means of doing so, shawls and rugs had been stretched against the sun, producing a very cheerful and pretty effect. The number of Turkish females collected together on this occasion may be imagined when I state that a friend of mine, on whose veracity I have the most perfect reliance, assured me that he knew it to be a fact, that several of these sight-loving ladies had actually sold the tiles off the roofs of their houses, in order to raise money enough to enable them to hire an araba for the last two days of the Festival!
Nor was this all; for a still more startling fact came to my knowledge from so authentic a source that I state it without hesitation. A Turkish female in a respectable station of society, having in vain importuned her husband for the means of witnessing the festivities in a manner suited to her rank, and receiving for an answer the assurance that he was unable to comply with her request; finding that she had no hope of success save through her own ingenuity, set herself to work to devise some expedient by which she might raise the necessary sum; and having taken into her confidence a favourite slave who was to accompany her in the event of any fortunate discovery, it was at length decided between them that she should sell her son, a fine little boy of about five years of age. No sooner said than done; she adjusted her yashmac and feridjhe, took her child by the hand, and, followed by her attendant, proceeded to the house of a slave merchant, where the bargain was soon made, and the sum of three thousand piastres given in exchange for the little Musselmaun!
The astonishment of the husband may be conceived, when on the morrow he saw his wife seated in an araba in the midst of a bevy of her fair friends, without being able to discover how she had contrived to secure a carriage at so expensive a period. He demanded an explanation in vain; and it was not until he inquired for his child, and detected a mysterious confusion in the manner of his wife, that a suspicion of the fact flashed upon him. He insisted on hearing the truth; and when he at length learnt it, he hurried like a madman to the slave-merchant, and demanded back his boy; but the dealer in human beings had no expensive sympathies; and he only answered the agonized intreaties of the father, by asserting his willingness to deliver up the child when the money which he had given for him was repaid. The wretched parent had it not to give; and finding that his misery produced no effect upon the slave-merchant, he hurried in his anguish to the Seraskier, who, having heard the tale, summoned to his presence the mother, the child, and the merchant; and after having ascertained that the fact was precisely as it had been stated to him, he expressed to the former his horror of the unnatural deed of which she had been guilty, and received for answer that she had acted under the firm conviction that her husband had merely refused to supply her with money from an impulse of avarice; and that, being devoted to his child, he would immediately purchase him back. The apology, poor as it was, was admitted; and the Seraskier, finding that the father really did not possess the means of recovering his boy, generously paid the price of his liberty, and restored him to his parents; only cautioning the mother not to attempt a second sale of the same description, as, in the event of such an occurrence, she should herself be her child’s ransom.
Hear this, ye Englishwomen, who have been accustomed to believe that the Turkish females are always under lock and key—Hear this: and then imagine to what a pitch they carry their love of dissipation and expense.
Not the least amusing part of the ride was the multitude of recognitions and salutations consequent upon our progress through the crowd. Here a veiled lady greeted us from her gilded araba; and there a laughing Greek saluted us from beneath his wayside tent. On one side, we were joined by a rival party of mounted Franks; and on the other we were beckoned aside by some pretty friend, who was seated under the shade of a cluster of overhanging branches.
Had there been nothing further to anticipate, the mere sight of the great congregation of human beings collected together that morning, would of itself have been a highly interesting spectacle.
Probably in no other country upon earth can you encounter such groups as you do in Turkey; they always appear as though they had been arranged by an artist; and I find myself on every occasion just about to describe them, when I remember that I have already done so more than once; and am compelled, however reluctantly, to forego the inclination.
Having reached the crest of the hill above Arnautkeui, we turned our horses’ heads once more towards Dolma Batchè; and had almost reached the Palace when the sound of a military band came cheerfully on the wind, and we were obliged to gallop off, in order to secure an elevated station whence we could conveniently witness the passage of the procession.
We were fortunate enough to possess ourselves of a spot of ground that overhung the road, along which we reined up our horses in line, and awaited the arrival of the pageant.
The Band led the way, playing the Sultan’s Grand March upon their wind instruments, and the military followed in good order; it was a squadron of the élite of the Turkish Army, the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, whose several troops are distinguished by the different colour of their horses. I counted four negro officers as they passed us.
The Troops were succeeded by fifty Field Officers, the General Staff of the Empire, well mounted and attended; and they, in their turn, gave place to twenty Great Officers of the Imperial Household. With these individuals commenced the interest and Orientalism of the spectacle; the flashing diamonds upon their breasts and hands, and the glittering housings of their horses, relieving the monotonous slowness with which they progressed. This splendid train was followed by fourteen led mules, laden with packages, covered with the gold and silver stuffs of Broussa, and secured upon the animals with cords of silk. The packages contained the velvet and satin mattresses intended for the harem of the Princess, and all the minor articles necessary to her household; which are supplied by the Sultan, even to the feather-brush that beats aside the flies from the dinner-table.
Next came twelve beautiful white mules, magnificently housed, and led by pages dressed in a scarlet uniform: a present to the Princess from her Imperial Father.
Nine carriages of silver net-work, roofed and draperied with coloured silk, each drawn by four bay horses, followed next in line; and through the transparent lattices glittered the costly sofa-furniture of tissue and embroidery; the velvet cushions, and the golden fringes which were to adorn the saloons of the bridal Palace.
After these came three open droskys, with pages running at the bridle-rein of the superb leaders, who seemed impatient of the pace at which they travelled, and scattered the foam from their mouths as they champed their embossed bits; and these were overlaid with cloths of crimson velvet fringed with gold, on which was displayed a collection of richly-chased silver plate.
Then followed five other carriages, drawn like the foregoing by four stately horses, containing trunks covered with coloured velvets and gold and silver stuffs, and clamped and hinged with wrought silver, laden with the linen of the Imperial Bride.
Next came forward what, at the first glance, seen as it was through the cloud of dust raised by the carriages, seemed to be a moving tulip-bed, extending far as the eye could reach. Nor was the illusion an overstrained one; for this portion of the procession proved to be a train of one hundred and fifty men, each attended by a page, and bearing upon his head a basket of wicker-work, covered with gold tissue, and surmounted by a raised dome of coloured gauze, decorated with bunches of artificial flowers. Beneath these transparent screens might be seen the toilette of the young Princess; her golden ewers, and jewel-studded basins—her diamond-covered essence-boxes, and gemmed water-vases—her glittering porcelain, her emerald-mounted hair-brushes—and all the costly gauds which litter so magnificently the chambers of the great. Golden cages, filled with stuffed birds—inlaid caskets, heavy with perfumes—musical instruments, rich with laboured gold and jewels—salvers, upheaped with gold coins—and ten thousand brilliant toys, if not without a name, yet almost without a use, followed in their turn; and then came pyramids of sweetmeats, glittering like fruits which had suddenly been hardened into gems; and trays of shawls, each one a fortune in itself, enveloped separately in wrappers of coloured gauze, tied with long loops of ribbon.
But the most gorgeous display was yet to come; embroidered handkerchiefs whose gold and silver threads were mingled with silks of many hues, and whose texture was almost as impalpable as the gossamer—jackets of velvet worked on the sleeves and breasts with precious stones—trowsers sprinkled with stars of gold and silver—anteries of white silk, wrought with coloured jewels—robes of satin powdered with seed-pearl—slippers as diminutive as that of Cinderella, fringed with floss silk, and powdered with rubies; and finally, sixteen bearers, balancing upon their heads cages of silver wire, resting on cushions of crimson velvet, whereon were displayed the bridal diamonds. The sunshine was flashing on them as they passed us, and at times it was impossible to look upon them.
It seemed as though the trees of the Seraï must have dropped diamonds, to supply the profusion of the Imperial Father. It is impossible to describe them—the diadems and bracelets, the necklaces and wreaths, the rings and clasps: suffice it that every female article of dress or ornament, for which this costly stone could be made available, was here in its magnificence; and assuredly the gifts of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon must have sunk into insignificance before the bridal trousseau of the Princess Mihirmàh—“The Glory of the Moon!”
Forty mounted negroes appointed to her household followed, like demons of darkness, on the footsteps of the flashing treasure which I have just described; and I can safely declare that I never beheld so hideous an assemblage of human beings. The diamonds were quite secure, I should imagine, from all depredators, under the charge of these frightful guardians—these gnomes, gloating over the produce of the “dark gold mines,” where no light could intrude in which they might mirror their own ugliness; and His Sublime Highness, or rather his Master of the Ceremonies, appeared to have been of the same opinion; for although a guard preceded the procession, none followed it; and the termination of the pageant came so abruptly upon me after its greatest splendour, that I felt as though some accident had detained the remaining actors in the show, and that something more must follow; but as, after the lapse of a moment, I discovered that all was really over, there was nothing for it but a steeple chase “over bank, bush, and briar,” in order to get once more in advance of the procession, and thus secure a second view.
On this we accordingly determined; and after a gallop over ploughed fields, and a few leaps over sundry intervening fences and ditches, we found ourselves on the height above Arnautkeui, just as the gorgeous train was beginning to descend the hill.