On entering the room I found the Hanoum seated in her sofa corner, from which she did not rise but merely gave a bend of the head, with a cold “Né yaparsen?”[13] in response to my deep Oriental obeisance. She spoke very little, and the few words she was obliged to utter were intermingled with Duvas she muttered; perhaps asking forgiveness for the sin she was committing in holding direct intercourse with a Giaour. The other wives, who were all pretty and gay, tried to make amends for the ill-humor of their doyenne, and were as kind and amiable as etiquette would allow in her presence.
Four other Konaks of the same description may still be seen outside the town of Uskup, standing alongside in melancholy decay. The first and largest was intended for the residence of the once powerful Hevni Pasha himself; the second for his son, and the two others for his daughters. I was deeply impressed by the sight of these imposing ruins, and visited them with the double object of satisfying my curiosity and ascertaining the possibility of lodging myself in some habitable corner of one of them during my stay in the neighborhood. The interior was well worth seeing, and comprised splendid apartments, the walls and ceilings being decorated with gildings and elaborate carvings in walnut wood. The baths of sculptured marble could still be taken as models of that luxurious and indispensable appendage to a Turkish house. A wing of one of these buildings was habitable; but when I proposed to install myself in it, some natives who had accompanied our party objected, saying the houses were hursous and nahletli, having been cursed by the people at whose expense, and by whose unrequited labor, they had been erected. Even the beasts, they said, that had carried the heavy loads of building material were seen to look up to heaven and groan under the pressure of their burdens; and a prophet of the place had foretold the downfall of the owner on the day of the completion of the work. This prophecy was fulfilled to the letter, for on the day the Pasha was to have entered his new abode, the Turkish Government, suspicious of his growing power and wealth, managed to lay hands upon him.
This Deri-Bey[14] is said to have been a wonderfully intelligent man, counterbalancing many of his tyrannical actions by the zealous care he showed in promoting the individual safety of his people and in increasing their prosperity. Though entirely uneducated, his natural talents were great enough to enable him to comprehend the advantages of modern civilization, and to lead him to introduce some recent inventions into the country; he also attempted to render the river Vardar (the ancient Axius) navigable.
Hevni Pasha and his voïvodes, or captains, twenty-five or thirty years ago, may be looked upon as the last representatives of the chiefs of the wild Albanian clans, who at that time still refused to recognize the authority of the Porte, and when pressed to do so broke out into open rebellion. Badjuksis Ahmet Pasha, then a mere colonel, marched with his regiment upon Uskup, one of the principal strongholds of the Albanians, and, partly by stratagem and partly by threats, managed to penetrate into the town and take possession of the fortress. In the meantime, Frank Omar Pasha, the field-marshal, came with some regular troops to his assistance, having previously defeated the Albanians in battle at Kaplan, and dispersed them into the plains. He surrounded the town, and invited Hevni Pasha with his captains and the principal beys of the town into the fortress to hear the Imperial Firman read. This ceremony being concluded without disturbance, Hevni Pasha and such of his party as were likely to continue their resistance to the orders of the Porte were requested by the military authorities to mount at once the horses that had been surreptitiously prepared for them, and were conveyed under escort to Constantinople, whence they were sent into exile, their families being sent after them, and their goods confiscated. Notice was next given to the rest of the native beys that, should any of them be found in direct or indirect communication with the scattered bands of Albanians, or sending provisions to them, the guns of the fortress would be turned upon the town, which would be razed to the ground. This was a master-stroke on the part of the Government; the Albanians, after a few vain attempts at Monastir, Vrania, Philippopolis, and other places, to resist the authority of the Sultan, partially submitted and returned to their impregnable mountain fastnesses; not, however, without having committed some barbarities similar to those recently enacted in Bulgaria.
During my trip to Bazardjik, I visited another konak: it belonged to Kavanos Oglou, another of the too famous Deri-Beys, who had acquired complete control over his part of the country, and who was similarly seized by the Porte, despoiled of his possessions, and sent into exile. This konak was an immense quadrangular building, inclosing a court-yard with a veranda running round it supported on massive wooden pillars. Upon this veranda a hundred rooms opened. The house was low and clumsy in appearance, but timber of remarkable size and solidity had been used in its construction.
At the time of my visit it was abandoned; the doors and windows had disappeared, giving to the edifice an appearance of solitude and emptiness, rendered still more dismal by the presence of innumerable bats and owls, its only occupants. The old dungeon, with its cruel associations, could still be traced in a low building, about thirty feet long and twenty wide, surrounded by a wall of immense thickness and strongly roofed. For windows nothing was seen but a few slits. The interior on one side was occupied by a double wall, with just enough space between to admit a person in a standing position; in this the offenders against the laws, and the victims of vendetta, were squeezed, secured by heavy chains that hung at equal distances from iron rings. A well, now filled up, occupied the centre, into which the heads of decapitated prisoners were thrown, to disappear in the dismal darkness of its depths.
I was not sorry to leave this cheerless scene of former despotism and present decay, and to turn my steps towards a gate on the opposite side of the garden leading into a kiosk more modern in appearance than the house, though bearing traces of decay. This last refuge of a once powerful family was occupied by Azizié Hanoum Effendi, the much-respected widow of the tyrant. Her two sons, who occupied inferior positions under Government, were absent. The descendants of Kavanos Oglou continue to be much respected in the country in spite of their downfall and the confiscation of their property. The venerable lady into whose presence I was ushered bore, notwithstanding her advanced age, traces of a beauty that must have been perfect in its bloom. She was a fine tall blonde of the Circassian type, of a commanding appearance, softened by the sweet dignity of fallen sovereignty, before whom I felt I could bow the knee and kiss the hand she graciously extended to me. I had a long and interesting conversation with her on the state of the country, which she described as having been more flourishing under the rule of her husband than at this time. “But,” said she, with a sigh, “God ordains all things, casting some into misfortunes and raising others into prosperity, according as Kismet has prepared for all. Allah Kerim!”
Every one has heard or read of a kiosk, the indispensable pleasure-seat of a Turk. The imperial and other kiosks on the Bosphorus are miniature palaces, luxuriously furnished, whose elegance and beauty are only equalled by the incomparable advantages of their situation on the richest of soils and beneath the sunniest of skies. Kiosks may be situated anywhere, and may comprise a suite of apartments or be limited to one; they are light and airy in style, generally commanding a fine prospect, often floored with marble, and containing a shadravan, or sculptured fountain, playing in the midst; a range of sofas runs all round the walls, on which the Turk loves to sit for hours together lost in meditation, and in the fumes of his inseparable companion the nargilé.
The interiors of old kiosks and konaks used to be ornamented with a peculiar open woodwork of arabesque design decorating the walls and ceilings, but this is now completely out of fashion. The ceiling of a house I formerly inhabited was decorated with this work, and attracted the attention of all travellers. One, an Englishman, was so much struck with it on entering the room, that hardly had he bowed to the company before he asked permission to make a sketch of it. We were so accustomed to similar displays of originality in British tourists that the request was at once granted.
A koula is a high turret found on every large chiftlik, or farm, and used as a refuge in case of assault by brigands; it is a quadrangular edifice, from three to four stories high; the lowest is used as a granary and for storing seeds and other valuable property belonging to the farm; the others, light and airy, are reserved for the habitation of the owner of the chiftliks during his occasional visits to his property.