"U. S. Legation, Constantinople,
"May 22, 1886.
"My dear Mrs. Pryor:—
"If your daughter was half as much pleased with my wife's little gift as your letter made me, then the entente cordiale between the Bosphorus and the Hudson is firmly established. These little ministrations are very little; but—
"'To the God that maketh all
There is no great—there is no small.'
Some Brahmin said that! I think it is one of Emerson's petty larcenies from the Orient; but it is ever so true. Now
"'On what a slender thread
Hang everlasting things,'
as the Methodists used to sing! Here, on my little word 'tote,' you hang a social and philological disquisition! I will not discuss the word in its Africanese dialect; but I take the noble red man—whose totem is his household god; and in this sense, in this connection, let the doyley be revered, as your husband would say, totus atque rotundus.
"The bit of Oriental work with its cabalistic characters bears the Sultan's monogram. It has a story, too—this monogram. It is said to be seen in blood in one of the temples of Stamboul, St. Sophia, on a column so high up that a man of my size can't see it. It is said that the blood came from the hand of Mahomet II when he rode into the church. It is shaped like a hand, you may see. Another tale not so harrowing: It is that Amurath, when he made the first treaty with a Christian power,—a small republic of Ragusa,—lost his temper and dipped his five fingers in ink, and thus made his mark on the parchment. This is the tongbra, or seal. The present Sultan has added a flower to his handicraft.