[4] In his book Civilisation des Arabes (p. 642), Dr Gustave le Bon, the eminent French savant, says: "Le paysan et l'ouvrier Turcs sont sobres, infatigables au travail, fort dévoués à leur famille.... Soldat, le Turc meurt à son poste sans reculer jamais. De solde, cependant, il n'en touche pas.... Ce que je viens de dire s'applique uniquement d'ailleurs aux Turcs proprement dits et non assurément à toutes les populations des provinces Asiatiques administrées par la Turquie. On y rencontre le plus souvent surtout dans les villes un melange de races diverses, résidu abâtardi de tous les envahisseurs qui depuis tant de siècles ont traverse ces contrées. Dans ce melange inferieur certaines quality subsistent encore, mais le niveau de la morality et de courage est descendu fort bas."
[5] Under the title "International Fetters," Lord Milner gives a condensed account in his book England in Egypt of the working of these capitulation privileges, and the disgraceful abuse made of them by foreigners.
[6] Many of the Sultan's highly placed officials and spies are of Armenian nationality. It is worthy of note that the Armenian revolutionaries directed their attacks against private individual Turks only; none of the Sultan's right-hand officials were hurt by them. The reason of this was that they wanted to provoke bloodshed, and by this means invite outside intervention. Moreover, it was manifestly to their advantage that the maladministration of the Sultan and his responsible officials should continue, as under it they were much more likely to find a favourable opportunity for this movement, to say nothing of being sure of external support.
[7] In this connection an anecdote is related in Turkey which, whether true or not, I will quote here. A Turkish diplomatist of the past generation paid a visit to the Pope of his time. During the interview die Pope said, "I am aware of the good points of your people, yet you are so unpopular in Christendom. In every international dispute Europe always regards you as in the wrong. Do you understand the reason of this universal hostility?" The diplomatist replied, "Because we are not Christians." "Exactly," said the Pontiff. "Then why do you not embrace Christianity?" Upon this the diplomatist made the following undiplomatic remark, "The Christians believe in Trinity, and we believe in Unity. Some of us are growing tired of worshipping even one God. How, then, could you expect us to worship three?"
[8] No European musical instrument is so much appreciated by Orientals as the bagpipe; it takes a long time to make the average Oriental understand and admire the masterpieces of the great musicians of the West played on any ordinary European instrument. But he takes to the bagpipes on the first hearing, and it is seldom that he gets tired of them. Of course there is much similarity both in the sound and in the manner of playing between bagpipes and a certain popular Oriental instrument which is played mostly by Turks, Arabs, Kurds, and Armenians. Although the tone and the style of playing this Oriental instrument resemble those of the bagpipes so much, there is considerable difference in the form and make. The bag of this instrument, which is called 'tooloom,' is made from a sheep's skin; besides the small mouthpiece there is only one large reedpipe from which the notes are obtained, and which thus replaces the chanter and the three drones of its Highland counterpart. The player, placing the blown-up sheepskin against his chest, and supporting it by the upper part of his left arm, moves his fingers up and down over the holes in the larger pipe. As a matter of fact, the sound of this instrument, like much other Oriental music, appears to European listeners dull and discordant, but it pleases the uncultivated taste of the ordinary Orientals. At the popular fêtes it is a very common thing to see many people, middle-aged as well as young, dancing together in a circle, while pipe and drum fill the air with ceaseless clamour. It is difficult to trace the original home of this instrument. It may be conjectured that it was brought from the West by the persons who went to the East with the Crusaders, or it may have been copied from them, with certain modifications in form, by the Eastern peoples.
[9] Most people who have travelled in the Levant are enthusiastic in their praises of the Turkish coffee which they drank out there. There is no reason why coffee prepared in the Turkish style should not become popular here. There is no difficulty about making it That the coffee may have the delicious flavour it has in the Levant, the beans must be freshly roasted and ground very fine. The water must be boiled in a tin or copper coffee-pot To supply, say, four or five persons with coffee in tiny cups, two or three teaspoonfuls of the powder should be put into the pot while the water is actually boiling therein. Some people do not like sugar in their coffee, but if sugar is required it should be put into the boiling water and allowed to melt before the coffee is added. Great sweetness is not appreciated by connoisseurs in coffee drinking. When the ground coffee is added to the boiling water, the pot should be taken off the fire and the coffee stirred up in the water with a teaspoon. Then it should be put on the fire again until the froth rises up. It is then poured into the cups. It is better to pour out the coffee slowly, placing the pot on the fire at short intervals, and thus getting more froth for pouring out into the cups, as the taste of the coffee is supposed to be better with the yellowish froth on the surface. It is on account of this idea that greedy people in Turkey choose those cups that have the most froth when coffee is handed round on a tray, leaving those with less to the others who are waiting their turn to be served.
[10] The first Turkish Ambassador in London was Agah Effendi, a Mussulman, who came over to this country in 1793. The following paragraph is translated from his memoirs:—
"We proceeded to the village of Chelsea, which is about an hour's distance from London. The King's Master of Ceremony came and felicitated us on our arrival, and conveyed the compliments of the King. The ceremony of our reception having been fixed for the following day, I sent on the presents. Next day the state carriages came. I entered one that was drawn by four horses; with me were a nobleman and the Master of the Ceremony. My suite were in the other carriages along with some court officials.
"When we were passing along the road called Piccadilly there were collected to see us so many people that never in my life had I seen so great a crowd; indeed I afterwards heard that several persons had been injured through the pressing of the crowd trying to get a glimpse of us. Our dress and our turbans must, I think, have appeared very curious to them. We arrived at St James's Palace, and after I had presented my credentials we were invited to dinner. What most impressed me was the charming manners and appearance of the ladies. Some young ladies belonging to the King's family bound round their heads the embroidered silk handkerchiefs I had offered on behalf of my sovereign, and said laughingly and with infinite grace, 'Now we belong to the harem of his Majesty the Sultan!'"
[11] It may be said that vessels other than men-of-war could not, in international law, be exactly considered parts of the territory of the State to which they belong when they are in foreign ports. But owing to the privileged state of foreign ships in the Ottoman empire, the Sultan could not now, under any circumstances, have taken me back from this paraffin-oil ship, had he been informed of my taking refuge there.