All the next Day we staid at Nice; I believe my Lodging was in the same House where the Council of Nice was heretofore celebrated. As for the Town itself, it is seated on the Bank of the Lake Ascanius. The Walls of it are almost entire, so are the Gates, which are but four, and may all may be seen from the Middle of the Market-Place; in each of them there were old Inscriptions in Latin, which shew that the Town was repaired by Antoninus: which of them I do not well remember; but sure it must be by Antoninus the Emperor. There are also some Remainders of his Baths, and whilst the Turks were digging out Stones from thence to build Houses at Constantinople, they found the Statue of a Soldier in his Armour, curiously wrought, and almost entire; but they quickly battered it with their Hammers, even in our View; and when we shewed ourselves displeased at their rude Violence, they paid us with a Jeer, What, said the Labourers, will you bow down to worship this Statue, as you Christians used to do to yours?
From Nice we continued our Journey to a Place called Jenysar. From Jenysar to Ackbyuck, from Ackbyuck to Bazargyck, from Bazargyck to Bosowick, otherwise called Cassumbasa, seated in the narrowest Streights of Mount Olympus; for almost all our Way from Nice thither, lay through the Cliff of that Mountain. At Nice we lodged in a Turkish Inn, or Hospital, and just against it was a Rock, standing on high Ground, wherein there was a square deep Trench cut, and from the Bottom thereof there issued out a Canal, that reached to the Highway. That Trench or Ditch, the ancient Inhabitants of that Place used, in the Winter Time, to fill with Snow; that so the melted Snow-Water gently dropping down into the Road, by the fore-mentioned Canal, might quench the Thirst of parched Travellers. Such Works as these the Turks count Eleemosynary ones; because they are for the publick Benefit and Advantage of Mankind.
Not far from this Place, on the Right Hand, we saw a Town, called Otmanlick, borrowing its Name, (as I conceive) from Ottoman, the Founder of the Ottoman Family, who lived there.
From those Streights we descended into an open Campaign; and when we came thither, we lay the first Night in our Tents, whereby the Heat did not so much incommode us, as otherwise it would have done; the Place was called Chiausada. The most remarkable Things we saw here, was a subterraneous House, that had no Light, but only what stole in at the Roof: We saw also that Sort of Goats, of whose Hair, (or Fleece, if you had rather call it so) they make the Shagreen or watered Stuff, called Camlet. If you would know the Nature of that Creature, I shall not entertain you with a Flam, but give you the true Description of it.
The Hair of this Creature is very fine, and extreamly white, and it hangs down from their Bodies to the Ground. The Goat-herds do not sheer, but kemb it off, and it is almost as fine as Silk. These Goats are often washed in the neighbouring Rivers, and feed upon the Grass growing there, which is very tender and dry, and that certainly contributes much to the Fineness of their Wool; for if they are removed to another Place, their Fleece changes with their Pasture, and their Kids do so degenerate, that one would hardly think them of the same Breed. The Thread that is spun of that Hair or Wool, is carried, by the Women of that Country, to Ancyra, a City of Galatia, where it is woven into Cloth and dy’d, as I shall tell you anon.
Moreover the Sheep of those Countries have very fat and weighty Tails, (their Sheep-Flocks consist hardly of any other.) The Tail of any one of them weighs sometimes three or four Pound, and sometimes eight or ten; yea, they grow so big in some old Sheep, that they are forc’d to lay them upon a Plank, running on two little Wheels, that so they may draw them after them, not being otherwise able to trail them along.
Perhaps you will think I tell you a Romance; but, take it on my Word, it is a certain Truth. I grant, such bulky Tails may be of some Advantage, because they are full of Fat; but the Flesh of the Sheep seemed more harsh and rank to me, than our own Mutton. The Shepherds that tend them lie Day and Night in the Fields, and carry their Wives and Children about with them, in Waggons, which serve them instead of Houses; only sometimes they erect small Tents to lie under. They wander far and near, sometimes in the open Campaign, sometimes over Hills, sometimes over Dales, as the Season of the Year, and the Necessity of Pasturage, doth require.
I saw also in those Countries, some Sort of Birds, unknown to us, and such as I never saw before. Among the rest, there is a Kind of Ducks, which gives a Sound like Trumpeters, or such as blow the Cornet; the Noise they make is almost like the Sound of a Post-Boy’s Horn. It is a Bird, which though it hath nothing wherewith to defend itself, yet is very strong and daring.
The Turks are verily persuaded, that the Devils are afraid of these Birds. This is certain, they are so tenaciously sensible of their Liberty, that tho’ they have been kept up tame in a Coop, for three Years together, yet if they can but get an Opportunity to escape away, they fly to their wonted Haunts, as preferring their natural Seats before their confined Prisons, though they be cramm’d and fatten’d there.