And here I cannot help introducing some remarks on a most gross and unfounded calumny against the Turks, which has been copied from one book of travels into another, touching the origin of a custom which prevails throughout Turkey, but which has been principally commented upon at the audiences of European ambassadors at the Porte. I allude to the ceremony of being supported under the arm by two attendants when introduced into the Imperial presence. This has been construed into a measure of precaution against any attack, by such as are introduced, on the person of the Sultan or his ministers. But, setting aside the absurdity of supposing that every embassy was a band of assassins, it is notorious to all those acquainted with the usages of Turkey that persons high in rank, or to be greatly honoured upon any occasion, are supported on either side by two attendants. Thus it was that Nasýf Pasha, obliged to come on foot into the field where our horses were tethered, was led, as an infirm man would be, by two of his servants; and, although a fresh-looking, handsome, and strong man, he leaned on them as though he was helpless.[59] Again at Brusa, where, on one occasion, a deposed pasha came to pay a visit to the governor whilst Mr. B. and I were with him, the latter rose and advanced to the door of the room to receive him, and supported him to the upper seat by placing his arm under the pasha’s arm-pit. Ahmed Bey, at Damascus, was always led thus from sofa to sofa. Yet these very personages, when on horseback, would throw the javelin with a degree of force little compatible with physical debility. We therefore can have no doubt that this mode of introduction into the presence of the Grand Signor is intended to do honour to the members of the embassy, and we must hold as ill informed those writers who assert the contrary; nor can such persons, who, being admitted to a presentation, have rejected the proffered assistance of the servants, be considered otherwise than as petulant and ill-bred.
As to the question whether that French ambassador was justified in what he did, who refused to enter the Imperial presence at Constantinople unless with his sword on, it is for masters of court etiquette to determine. Only thus much is to be said, that in Turkey, in (what we should call in familiar language) dress parties, it is the height of vulgarity to go armed with a sabre, which is the Mahometan’s sword; and if, at a levee of the King of England, a foreign ambassador at his court would look ridiculous without his sword, then there, where custom requires exactly the reverse, the reverse becomes the best breeding. When Lady Hester’s dragoman at Damascus was shut out from the audience chamber because he was armed, it was not because they feared that a stripling, and he a Greek, could do mischief, but because a high-bred courtier from Constantinople chose to retain, even in the provinces, the usages of the metropolis.
Whilst I was in this place, I took lessons in Arabic, in writing and reading, of an old schoolmaster, named Basili, of the Greek church. With respect to the education of children in Syria, there are day-schools in every town and village, the same as in England; with this difference, however, that children are taught not at so much per week, per month, or per annum; but an agreement is entered into, that, for a certain sum, a boy shall be made to read—for as much more to write, and so on. It does not matter how long or how short a time is expended; but the money is not paid until the boy’s progress amounts to a completion of the agreement. Thus it becomes the interest of the teacher to perfect his scholar as fast as possible. It would seem that rods for the chastisement of children are not used in Turkey, as, though I was in the habit of entering many people’s houses, I never saw any.
In the same way doctors agree with their patients, in almost all chronic maladies, to cure them for so much; and to this end a written agreement is drawn up, the basis of which is, “No cure, no pay.” In acute diseases, where experience has taught that attention and skill may sometimes prove unavailing, the practitioner claims a greater latitude for himself, and receives half his gratuity for medicines supplied, and the other half if the patient recovers.
Hamah is full of Mahometans who wear green turbans; that is, those who are the reputed descendants of their Prophet; so that every third person you address has the title of Säyd prefixed to his name.
CHAPTER VIII.
Departure from Hamah—Encampment on the bank of the Orontes—Transformation of aquatic to winged animals—Vale of the Orontes—Calât el Medýk—Bridge and village of Shogre—Topal Ali makes himself independent of the Pasha of Aleppo—Singular application of a Jewess—Poverty of the inhabitants of Shogre—Visit to Topal Ali—Gebel el Kerád—Beautiful Scenery—Tribe of Ansáry—Lady Hester stays behind among them—Latakia.
On the 10th of May, Lady Hester and Mr. B. left Hamah. A sick servant, the Emir el Akhûr, who was dismissed from his place, but to whom I was willing to render service as long as I could to put him out of danger, kept me one day after the rest had departed. On the 11th I quitted the suburbs at noon. The road seemed to lead aslant to the chain of mountains which is seen west of Hamah, and which, by a pocket compass, as well as the distance would allow, I found to run north by east, and south by west. The country was cultivated and the soil rich, like that to the south of Hamah. I was accompanied by a servant and a muleteer, with his mule to carry my luggage. At three o’clock we came abreast of Shayzer, where is a castle, which, from the distance I saw it, seemed to have been a place of great strength. This place is the ancient Larissa, built at the confluence of some stream with the Orontes, which is described in Abulfeda as falling from a mound fourteen cubits high. This mound is called El Kherteleh. Here we turned short to the right, and arrived at a bridge over the Orontes or Aâsy. We crossed it, and in a few minutes reached the spot where Lady Hester was encamped, on the right bank of the river, and whence, at the moment, the baggage-mules were setting off for the next station.
Her ladyship was not yet on horseback, nor was her tent struck, and Mr. B. was asleep on a bank by the river-side; so I dismounted, sending my servant and muleteer forward with the rest, and I sat down by the side of the Orontes, at an elbow of the stream, which formed an eddy, where hundreds of small fish of the size of shrimps were playing on the surface of the water. They attracted my attention: over them numbers of a kind of butterfly were skimming about.[60] A shoal of large fish was mixed with the small fry, not seeming to devour or harm them; but whenever any of the butterflies incautiously touched the surface of the water, they were immediately swallowed up by them. Observing more closely, I saw that the business of these butterflies was to fasten themselves, by means of two long trailing feelers which grew from their tails, to the head of the little fish swimming in the water; then, exerting all the force their wings gave them, they pulled and pulled until by degrees they extricated another animal like themselves from the filmy skin which had just now covered it. No sooner was it at liberty than, flying to and fro, the newly metamorphosed one, now a butterfly, seemed to seek to perform the same office for another fish. Many were eaten by the large fish in the very act of shedding their skin, and as many escaped to be devoured afterwards.
I caught one of the butterflies. Its body was an inch long, covered with circular scales one line in breadth and of a golden colour; the wings were of a blackish dove-colour; the head, which was small and black, was furnished with two curved horny antennæ, seemingly for defence; the tail, besides the two trailing feelers, which were two inches long and jointed, and which, as it flew, draggled in the water, had a double-horned and curved forceps like those on the head.