The climate and the air being extremely favourable, the inhabitants are all jolly merry fellows, who think of nothing but eating and drinking, of amusement and pleasure. Being all idle amorous fellows, their colour is red, and the women are fair, coming from Abaza, Georgia and Circassia; every one a moon or a portion of the sun.
Occupations, Guilds, &c.
The inhabitants are divided from the earliest period into seven classes. The first are the great and mighty Princes and sons of Princes (Beg and Beg-zadeh), who are dressed in magnificent pelisses of sables. The second are the Ulemás, the sheikhs and pious men, who dress according to their condition and live on endowments. The third are the merchants, who trade by sea and land to Ozakov, into the country of the Cossacks, into Mingrelia, Circassia, Abaza and the Crimea; they dress in ferrájís of cloth and dolimáns called kontosh. The fourth are the handicraftsmen, who dress themselves in ferrájís of cloth and bogássín. The fifth are the boatmen of the Black Sea; they have their peculiar dress, with iron buckles, shalwárs, dolímáns of cloth, and a kind of lining (astár) wrapped round the head, ready, thus accoutred, to trade or to fight at sea. The sixth class are the men of the vineyards, because the mountains of Bozdepeh are all planted with vines, and in the register are set down no less than thirty-one thousand gardens and vineyards, so that if only one man is reckoned to each garden, there are thirty-one thousand gardeners, but in some there are two and three. The seventh class are the fishermen, a calling in which many thousand men are employed.
Description of the principal Arts and Handicrafts.
The goldsmiths of Trebisonde are the first in the world. Selím I. being brought up in this town was taught the art of a goldsmith, and cut dies for the coin of his father Báyazíd, so skilfully, that they appeared as if engraved in marble; I saw some of this coin at Trebisonde. Súleimán (the great) himself was the apprentice of a Greek called Constantine, who was the foster brother of Yahya Efendí, who is buried at Beshik-tásh. From this time the goldsmiths of Trebisonde became the most famous in the world, and work vases for rose-water and incense, swords, daggers and knife-handles in most wonderful perfection. The knives of Ghorghúr-oghlí are the most famous of all; the hatchets of Trebisonde are a new and clever invention. The inlaid work of pearl-shells, with which tables, pulpits, inkstands, sand-boxes and chairs are ornamented in such perfection, that they cannot be equalled in any country, except it be by the pearl-shell work of India.
Eatables and Beverages.
The water of Trebisonde is fresh as the spring of life; the must of the raisins of Bozdepeh is sweet, and gives no headache to those who drink it; the sherbets called the triple, the muscat, and the clove wine are the best. The gardens produce most exquisite fruit; fine flavoured grapes, cherries red as woman’s lips, pears of different kinds, apples called Sinope, figs called Bádinjíán-Injúr, which are not found so sweet any where else, different kinds of lemons, oranges of a deep purple colour, pomegranates and olives, of which alone there are seven sorts to be found nowhere else except at Damascus and Jerusalem. One of the small sorts is eaten before it is quite ripe and resembles a black cherry; this is also an exclusive production of Trebisonde. Another fruit, which is called the date of Trebisonde is roasted on stoves, and is exported to many places; it is a sweet fruit, and has two or three kernels. The ruby-coloured pink which grows here, is peculiar to this place, each blossom is like a red rose, and perfumes the brain with the sweetest scent, and weighs, without the stalk, from five to six drachms.
The fish which are worthy of mention are Lorek-bálighí, Kefál-bálighí (Cephalus), the Kalkán-balighí (Rhombus), which if eaten by women renders them prolific; the fish called Kiziljeh-tekerbálik, with a red head and delicious to taste; the gold fish, the Sgombro which is taken in the season Erbain (forty days). But the most precious of all, which frequently causes bloody strifes and quarrels in the Market-place, is the Khamsí-bálighí taken in the season of Khamsan, (the fifty days when southerly winds blow); these fish were formerly thrown on the shore at Trebisonde by virtue of a talisman erected, as is said, by Alexander, before the gate of the town, representing a fish of this kind in brass on a column of stone; but on the birth-night of the prophet, when all talismans lost their power, the same happened to this at Trebisonde; thus the fish are no longer thrown on the shore, but the sea abounds with them during the said fifty days. At this season boats loaded with these fish arrive in the harbour, and the dealers in fish cry them in a peculiar manner, at the same time sounding a kind of horn or trumpet; as soon as this sound is heard, the whole town is in an uproar, and people who hear it, even when at prayer, instantly cease, and run like madmen after it. It is a shining white fish of a span’s length, and is an aphrodisiac of extraordinary potency; strengthening and easy of digestion, does not smell like fish, creates no fever in those who eat it, and also cures sore mouths. If the head of this fish, Khamsí-bálighí, pronounced Khápsi-bálighí, is burnt, serpents and other venomous reptiles are killed by the smoke. The people use it during forty days in all their dishes, to which it gives a peculiar flavour, it is thus used with yakhní, roasts, pies, and baklava (mixed pies), a dish called pílegí is made of it in the following manner, the fish is first cleaned, then cut into slices on which is laid parsley and celery, then another layer of fish, the best oil is then poured on it, and it is cooked over the fire for one hour, it thus becomes quite a luminous dish, which may be said to illuminate those who eat it. But however this fish may be dressed and eaten, it is extremely useful to the stomach and the eyes, and is a dish of friendship and love. God the Almighty has blessed this town with all kinds of rare trees, including box, cypress, and Turkish nut. It is wonderful that in the mountains of Erzerúm, situated a great deal further to the south, all is winter and storm, while here are roses, syringas, lemons, oranges, and other sweet fruits. The winter and the air is mild, and the nature of the people partakes of this happy equality of the seasons; they are kind to strangers, but the Greeks and the Lezgians, the Chichú and Chifta are extremely troublesome people; the language of the Lezgís cannot be written or expressed in Turkish orthography; they have a peculiar dialect, which even the inhabitants of Trebisonde do not understand without an interpreter; they are for the most part boatmen, who navigate the river Chorúgh to Mingrelia, carrying boxwood and slaves, with which they trade to the harbour of Trebisonde, one of the best of anchoring grounds and ports; it is open to the west, and looks towards the harbour of Kaffa in Crimea, three hundred miles distance.
Walks of Trebisonde.
On the place of Kawák outside of the gate of Za’anús, the Páshás play jeríd with their troops on days of recreation. Three masts are erected in the centre, one of them having a golden top which is shot at by arrows. There have been no Jews at Trebisonde since the time of Sultán Selím, who was governor of the town, the following circumstance was the cause; a Dervish discovered on a piece of leather (saffian), that was handed about for sale, an inscription, written in a way not to be observed by every body, which implored the assistance of all righteous Moslims, to deliver two innocent Moslim youths tyrannically shut up in the Jewish tanneries. The Dervish having explained the inscription to Prince Selím, a general search of all the Jewish tanneries took place by an armed force, when not only the two brothers, lost many years before, but many other Moslim boys were found, on whose backs the Jewish tanners had worked in tanning their skins. This discovery occasioned a general slaughter and banishment of the Jews, none of whom have since dared to show their faces at Trebisonde, the inhabitants of which town are a religious and devout people.