[13] Now Sir Stratford Canning.
[14] M. de Maubourg, chargé d’affaires at Constantinople.
[15] Cherries sold at a farthing per pound, and walnuts in the season, I was told, at ninepence per bushel.
[16] Now Hydrographer to the Admiralty.
[17] Things are much changed since that time.
[18] For her turban and girdle she bought two handsome cashmere shawls, each at £50. Her pantaloons, most richly embroidered in gold, cost £40; her waistcoat and her pelisse £50; her sabre £20; her saddle £35. Other articles necessary for the completion of the costume amounted to £100 more. Mr. B.’s dress was equally expensive; his sword more so, as he purchased it at 1000 piasters, at the exchange of 21, making about £50.
[19] A Mameluke saddle and bridle alone, without the rider, pistol, gun, or sword, weigh 17 rotolos, 3 oz., equal to 43½ lbs. English. A Turkish saddle and bridle, with the rider’s carbine, pistols, sabre, cartouch-box, brogues, and cloak, weigh about 53 lbs. English. A common Turkish saddle weighs 34 lbs. English.
[20] That the learned reader, however, may not be deprived of a description of this kind of dancing, which was so much talked about during the trial of Caroline, the queen of George IV., we will insert that which is given by Emanuel Martin to his friend J. A. Not recollecting whence this extract was made, I am unable to say precisely who Martin and his friend were, but will vouch for the correctness of the delineation, which is quite graphic. “Nôsti saltationem illam Gaditanam, obscenitate suâ per omne œvum famosam: atqui ipsammet hodii per omnia hujus urbis compita, per omnia cubicula, cum incredibili astantium plausu, saltari videas. Nec inter Æthiopos tantem et obscuros homines, sed inter honestissimas fæminas ac nobili loco natas. Saltationis modus hoc ritu peragitur. Saltant vir et fæmina, vel bini vel plures. Corpora ad musicos modos per omnia libidinorum irritimenta versantur. Membrorum mollissimi flexus, clunium motationes, micationes fæmorum, salacium insultuum imagines, omnia denique turgentis lasciviæ solertissimo studio expressa simulacra. Videas cevere virum et cum quodam gannitu crissare feminam eo lepore et venustate ut ineptæ profecto ac rusticæ tibi viderentur tremulæ nates Photidos Appuleianæ. Interim omnia constrepunt cachinnis: quin spectatores ipsi, satyricæ Atellanæque ορχκεσεως furore correpti, in ipso simulatæ libidinis campo leni quodam gestu nutuque vellicantur et fluctuant.”
[21] I was likewise shown a more complicated machine, invented by one of the workmen at the English Consul’s dairy. A perpendicular axis, passing through the floor of the ceiling, and set in motion by a wheel in an upper room or underneath, had a certain number of stout cogs projecting from it horizontally, but wedge-shaped, so that the edge which takes the end of the hammer handle is sharp at first, and grows broader; consequently, as it passes round, will press down the short end of the hammer: and, as the idea was ingenious for such poor machinists as the Egyptians, I made a sketch of it. Thus one yoke of oxen might set to work eight or ten pestles, and much room be saved.
[22] These rushes were shown to Sir Joseph Banks, who pronounced them to be not the papyrus.