Minstrels still play a prominent part among all classes of the Turkish population. These are professional artists, well versed in improvisation, and skilful players on musical instruments, especially the Kanoun, a species of zither, for which a great partiality is displayed. Whatever their nationality, they are as welcome in the Konaks of the highest dignitaries as among the crowds that flock on Fridays and other holidays to some café, where, seated in a prominent place, the bard pours forth his strains or relates his massal (story), which generally turns upon love, and, though wanting neither in interest nor brilliancy, is accompanied by unpleasant gesticulation, and is hardly meet either for the ears or the eyes of the young.
When I was in Albania, the Mushir of Roumelia, with his corps d’armée, passed through the town, and as a mark of civility sent his minstrel to my house to enliven me with his performance. Oriental music, however, has not as a rule an enlivening effect upon Europeans. But there is a pensiveness and a sadness in it that to me have an irresistible charm.
Another amusement is that of the Kara Guez and Hadji Eyvat, a kind of Punch and Judy. This is a most indecent representation, and the language that accompanies it is quite in harmony with the scenes; but it greatly delights the Turkish ladies, for whose diversion it is frequently introduced into the harems. To this class of recreation may be added the obscene Kucheks, or dancing women and boys; the Mukkalits, or clowns, who amuse the company with their jests; the Meydan Oyoun, or comic plays held in the open air; the performing monkeys and bears, trained by hardy Pomaks or gypsies, who lead these creatures from town to town, and force them to display the accomplishments they have learned under the discipline of the lash.
What a Turk heartily enjoys is his pipe and coffee, sitting by the side of a running stream or in some spot commanding a fine view. This quiescent pleasure he calls “taking Kaif.” On the whole, his capacity for enjoyment is rather of a passive than an active kind.
Clubs, reading-rooms, or other resorts for social and intellectual improvement are quite unknown among the Turks. Their place is, however, filled to some extent by the old-fashioned café for the Osmanli of mature age, and by the Casinos and other places of the same doubtful character for “La jeune Turquie,” who faute de mieux resort thither to enjoy the delights of taking their raki, or sometimes ruining themselves by indulging in rouge et noir or other games of chance which they do not understand, and, to do them justice, do not as a rule largely indulge in.
The amusements of the Rayahs are neither very brilliant nor very varied, but they are part of a more healthy social life, and serve as a point of union between the sexes, increasing the joys and pleasures of home existence, whose monotony they do not often interrupt. The great delight of these people is the national dances of the Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, and Jews, always gladly indulged in when a chance offers. Such opportunities are generally weddings and great feast-days, and carnival time. With the Jews and Armenians it is an insipid formality, and the similarity of the costume of the women, who alone indulge in it, the want of variety in the step, and the dull and graceless manner in which it is performed, deprive it of any claim to be called an amusement. But with the Greeks and Bulgarians it is quite a different matter; both enter into it with a zest and animation delightful to witness. The Greeks collect in a ring to dance the surto of immemorial date. Holding each other by the hand, and led by the most agile youth and maiden, who hold the corners of a handkerchief, they perform a variety of measured steps and evolutions, while the surrounding ring execute a step to the sound of the music that accompanies the dance. All the movements are graceful, and performed with precision, at some times becoming more animated, and at others falling back into a slow measured step. The ring breaks at intervals and allows those wishing to retire to do so, or receives fresh additions from the outsiders.
The Bulgarian hora is performed to the sound of the gaida, or bagpipe. The sounds of this instrument act like magic upon these gay and pleasure-loving people, who no sooner hear its discordant groans than, forming into a circle and holding each other by the belt, they begin to stamp and turn round in an earnest and excited manner, appearing thoroughly absorbed in the performance.
There is a second kind of dance in which the Bulgarians take great pleasure, that known as the “bear dance.” It is performed by a man dressed in a bearskin, who presents himself to the company, led by a pretty girl, who makes him perform all kinds of pranks and buffooneries, greatly to the enjoyment of the spectators, who occasionally join in the dance and give chase to the bear. I do not think it is possible to find a people who can enjoy more heartily the wild music of the gaida than the Bulgarian, or enter more enthusiastically into the dance than he does. With the Greeks, dancing is reserved for appointed times and seasons, but the Bulgarian, be he in the field or resting on the common on a Prasnik day, will come forward and indulge in it as his greatest delight.
After the dance come the small pleasure parties, for which families club together and go to spend a few days in some picturesque village or hospitable monastery, or to some wild watering-place, where they can enjoy the baths to their hearts’ content. The mineral springs are encircled by the remains of magnificent old Roman baths, roofless for the most part, but evidently indestructible so far as the splendid marble basins that receive the water are concerned.
Every saint seems, by some ubiquitous means, to possess a shrine in every town, village, or monastery. To these all the people resort on their anniversaries, attired in their best, to see and to be seen, and any person, be it man, woman, or child, bearing the name of the saint, is visited by all its friends and relatives during the day; generally speaking, a party is given in the evening, where, if instrumental music and dancing do not form part of the entertainment, a variety of round games, cards, vocal music, and other similar diversions, are had recourse to. Divers refreshments, in the form of excellent native wine, fruit, and cakes, are offered during the evening after the formal handing round of glico and coffee. These gatherings, often kept up to a late hour, always conclude peacefully, and cases of disorder and drunkenness are unheard of, and indeed are of rare occurrence at any time, excepting at a late hour at the place where a fair is held, when a few mauvais sujets may remain behind in a disorderly frame of mind.