A certain Jewish banker, Shabgee by name, had long been the friend and neighbor of this family; and now, in the time of their trouble, he spared nothing for the liberation of the unfortunate young man, the son of his friend; which, he not only succeeded in obtaining, but reinstated him in all the honors of which he was the lawful heir.
The Jews are to be found in many villages on the Bosphorus, though their principal quarter is at Balat, on the Golden Horn. They live also in other parts of the city, but as may naturally be inferred, in such places as no one else would inhabit.
Their houses are like bee-hives, literally swarming with human life; even one single room serves for the only home of several families—and the streets of their quarters are almost impassable, from the collection of garbage and all sorts of refuse, which are indiscriminately thrown from the windows of their dwellings. Their misery may partly be attributed to their practice of very early marriages, as before a man is twenty-one years of age he is burdened with the care and support of a numerous family, which reduces him to such poverty, that even the meanest economy can scarcely enable him to support his own existence and that of the helpless beings dependent on him. The exactions of the Khakhams or priests, which are very great, help also to impoverish this pitiable people. It is no wonder, then, that they appear in rags and tatters—and herd together in styes—yet it is most amusing to see them on a Jewish Sabbath. The filthy gabardines which they wore in the week, as they exercised their various callings, being laid aside, and bright and gaudy finery substituted, in which they strut about the streets, seeming to be other beings, and to have no relation to the wretches of yesterday. But, of course, in such a population there will be various grades of misery, and a few families of wealth are to be found among them.
They have some of the domestic institutions of the Osmanlis, and the women wear thick white veils, but without concealing the features, as in the case of the Turkish ladies. The young virgins are allowed to wear their hair long and flowing—but after marriage it is carefully concealed beneath a towering and cumbersome headgear, which is a wonderful illustration of the tenacity with which this singular race adheres to ancient usages. It recalls to mind the days of Pharaoh and the people of Israel, for the similarity is perfect between their present head-dress and that of the mummies who have reposed in their tombs ever since the family of Joseph “took their cattle and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him.”
As they were originally from Spain, their language is still a mongrel dialect of that country.
They are very strict in the observance of their religious rites and ceremonies—never transacting any business on the Sabbath, nor performing any domestic duties. Even their lamps on Sabbath evenings must be lighted by some one of their Christian neighbors—and should a conflagration occur on that day, their helplessness is truly pitiable, for they will see all their property consumed without making one effort to save it.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
PERA AND THE PEROTES, OR FRANKS.
At the time that the Turks took Constantinople, there was a colony of Genoese Venetians established in a suburb of the city, called Galata, who were allowed to retain this quarter, which occupies the declivity of the hill with the summit called Pera, where the European emigrants, attracted by commerce and other motives, as well as the foreign dignitaries, have ever since continued to reside. The warehouses of the merchants are at Galata, which is connected with the city by a floating bridge across the Golden Horn.