ROMAN BRIDGE AT BROUSSA.
I sketched it from the window of an Armenian house; overlooked in my employment by a sweet young woman, who held upon her knees her dying infant—her first-born son. As the Orientals believe every Frank, whether male or female, to be skilled in the healing art, she never ceased her prayer, during the whole of my stay under her roof, that I would restore her child to health. I shall never think of the Roman bridge at Broussa but the weeping image of the young Armenian mother will be associated with it in my memory.
CHAPTER III.
Orientalism of Broussa—Costume of the Men—Plain Women—Turbans and Yashmacs—Facility of Ingress to the Mosques—Oulou Jamè—Polite Imam—Eastern Quasimodo—Ascent of the Minaret—The Charshee—Travelling Hyperboles—Silk Bazàr—Silk Merchants’ Khan—Fountains of Broussa—Broussa and Lisbon—The Baths—Wild Flowers—Tzekerghè—Mosque of Sultan Mourad—Madhouse—Court of the Mosque—Singular Fountain—Mausoleum of Sultan Mourad—Golden Gate—Local Legend—The Tomb-house—More Vandalism—Ancient Turban—Comfortable Cemeteries—Subterranean Vault Great Bath—Hot Spring—Baths and Bathers—Miraculous Baths—Armenian Doctress—Situation of Tzekerghè—Storks and Tortoises—Turkish Cheltenham.
The city of Broussa is infinitely more oriental in its aspect than Stamboul; scarcely a Frank is to be seen in the streets; no French shops, glittering with gilded timepieces and porcelain tea-services, jar upon your associations; not a Greek woman stirs abroad without flinging a long white veil over her gaudy turban, and concealing her gay coloured dress beneath a ferdijhe; while the Turks themselves almost look like men of another nation.
I do not believe that, excepting in the palace of the Pasha, there are a hundred fèz-wearing Osmanlis in the whole city. Such turbans! mountains of muslin, and volumes of cachemire; Sultan Mahmoud would infallibly faint at the sight of them; worn, as many of them are, falling upon one shoulder, and confined by a string in consequence of their great weight. Such watches! the size, and almost the shape, of oranges—such ample drawers of white cotton, and flowing garments of striped silk, and girdles of shawl! The women, meanwhile, except such as belonged to quite the lower orders, were almost invisible; I scarcely encountered one Turkish woman of condition in my walks, and those who passed in the arabas kept the latticed windows so closely shut, despite the heat, that it was impossible to get a glimpse of them. The men were a much finer race than those of Constantinople; I rarely met a Turk who was not extremely handsome, and much above the middle height; while the few women whom I did see were proportionably unattractive.