CHAPTER IX—FASTING AND FEASTING—THE SULTAN AND HIS COURT.
The Great Moslem Fast—Nights of Feasting and Days of Fasting—The Injunction of Mahomet—The Ravenous Mussulman—An Hotel Swindle—A Stranger and They Took Him In—“Too Thin, too Thin”—Greek Wine—Going Out in a Blaze of Glory—Thunder, Smoke, and Flame—The Approach of the Sultan—How He Looked—A Peep at the Ladies of the Harem—The Veiled Queens—The Sultan’s Mother—The Empress Eugenie at the Seraglio—Insult Offered to Eugenie—A Queen in Tears—A Question of Court Etiquette—Murdering Christians.
WHEN the month of Ramadan falls in winter, and the days are short and cool, the fast is not very severe, especially for the wealthier class who are not obliged to work.
But in summer, with heat and long days, the fast becomes a serious matter for all parties, especially for the poorer class who must attend to their daily avocations. The rich Moslems lie around their houses in a semi-comatose condition; some of them sit up all night eating, drinking, and smoking, and devote the day to digestion and sleep; thus they rob the fast of its terrors, and I am told that many of them do not hesitate to take an occasional bite during the day, but they take it very privately and in the strictest confidence.
The fast comes heaviest on the poorer classes, and especially the abstinence from drinking. Think of being at work out of doors in a July day fourteen hours or so, and not a drop of water or any other liquid passing your lips! Men frequently faint under such circumstances, and sometimes their health is seriously impaired. Should a Turk faint from fasting and you endeavored to revive him by pouring coffee or water down his throat, it is an even chance that he would berate you soundly when he came to himself, for attempting to make him abandon the faith of his childhood, and embrace that of the Christian dog.