YLE ST. JOHN'S TITRES /N EITBOPE. *
THE project which this volume aims at inculcating would hardly deserve notice at any other time ; for although the idea of a Chris- tian empire established on the ruins of Turkey is entertained by more persons than Mr. Boyle St. john, it is at present impracti- cable however desirable. If Russia is bent upon forcing war or dishonour on Turkey and the two great powers of Western Eu- rope, for an ulterior advantage of uncertain result, it is not likely that, until she were prostrated by successive defeats, she would consent to the overthrow of her long-cherished hopes by the esta- blishment of a modern Byzantine or Greek empire, avowedly to baffle Russian policy and act as a permanent barrier against her power. Neither might the Turks altogether relish being compen- diously trundled out of Europe; and possibly the new Crusaders i
might have to encounter Russia and Turkey n alliance. As Mr. St. John admits " that if the Turks be now put to the test, they may make a much more gallant stand than their inconsiderate enemies will give them credit for," the victory might not be with the Byzantine theorists. Even if the thing were more ready of attainment, it is doubtful whether the men exist for the esta- blishment of what Mr. St. John stipulates for—a constitutional government, to embrace all the countries South of the Danube —or indeed any real government at all. The Greeks, too, whom our projector selects as the dominant people, have not given such an example of aptitude for civilization progress, and na- tional virtue in their own kingdom, as to tempt other countries to embark in a crusade to set up for them a more extended empire. It is doubtless inconvenient for Europe to be "periodi- cally kept in hot water, its commerce interrupted, the discussion of its domestic affairs suspended," and so forth, in favour of the maintenance of "that abstraction 'the integrity of the Ottoman empire.'" It is by no means clear, however, that this evil would be altogether removed, though the form might be changed, by the enthronement of the Greeks at Constantinople. All has not been fair and above board at the court of Athens, either as regards honesty or friendly feeling. The scheme is worth bearing in mind as a future contingency; but the ignorance, servility, bigotry, and corruption of the Oriental Christians, render them a very rotten reed to rely upon. The project itself forms only the introductory portion of Mr. St. John's book ; the greater part consisting of an exposition of the public and private character of the modern Turks. As this is avowedly done to show their unfitness for empire, Mr. St. John fairly admits that his object compels him to select the worst fea- tures, or in other words the vices of the Mahometans. This fact nearly sums up the criticism on the book, so far as it is an expoii. tion of manners, morals, and habits. There is little, perhaps no- thing, untrue in the account of the ill-training or no-training of the public officials (which in part, however, springs from Mr. St. John's beloved equality); the moral domestic corruption induced by polygamy and Mahomet's encouragement to licentiousness;
ignorance gnorance and bigotry of the mass of Turks who are not
sceptics ; the childishness intrigue, and now even drunkenness, of the harem ; or the total failure of the new reform to ame- liorate the condition of the Christian population, or even the Mahometans of the remote provinces. In some of these state- ments, indeed, Mr. St. John is supported by passing travellers, who write without a purpose if not without a bias. At the same time, those virtues which observers quite equal to Mr. St. John have ascribed to the Turks are suppressed ; while much of what is said to show the necessity of destroying the national existence of the Turks might be applied to other nations—the foreign provinces of Russia and Austria, for example.
The long residence of Mr. St. John in Egypt and the Levant as a member of native families, has given him a knowledge of Oriental domestic doings which few Europeans and no mere travel- lers could attain. This intimate familiarity with Eastern manners is shown throughout the volume; and the author naturally directs a good deal of his attention to the relations of the sexes. Not- withstanding our notion of Eastern life, there are, according to this author, many Turkish bachelors and some henpecked hus- bands.
"We commonly conceive a Turk as a burly individual, surrounded by a great number of submissive beauties, anxious for the honour of the hand- kerchief; but it is not remembered that there is a prodigious number of bachelors in the East. In spite of the disgrace in which celibacy is held, a large proportion of the men of the middle classes abstain from marriage, on account of the difficulties thrown in their way by manners and the competi- tion of the rich. I have known instances among the Levantines in which a young shopkeeper has been compelled to spend half his capital to procure a dirty little wife. The same system of purchase prevails among the Turks, and is indeed derived from them. The number of unmarried persons in the Ottoman empire is therefore very great. This may partly account for the development of vices which alone are sufficient to bring a race to the lowest depths of degradation, and to which I can do no more than allude here.
"The Turks are naturally a licentious race. Even the conformation of
their heads reveals that fact. The posterior portion is enormously developed; and the napes of their necks are something almost miraculous to behold— they resemble those of bulls. They are often uxorious, and, in case no sus- picion of jealousy crosses their minds, treat their wives with considerable deference. Few will venture to appear in the presence of their ladies in the slightest degree intoxicated ; and they will submit to be beaten on the day of Beiram, if from poverty, or other causes, they have been unable to bring home the roast shoulder of mutton required by inexorable custom for the family dinner of that day. Eastern ladies often resort to this summary mode of proceeding with their lords and masters, even when not protected *The Turks in Europe : a Sketch of Manners and Politics in the Ottoman Em- pire. By Boyle St. John, Author of" Village Life in Egypt," tkc., 80. Published by Chapman and Hall. by the privilege of a festival. It is true that, on the other hand, they are exposed to similar treatment if they carry the joke too far, or misbehave in any way; and that the sack—of which it is now the custom to make fun among wags who have looked at the outside of Eastern manners—is always
ready to punish serious derelictions of duty." •
The picture of the Circassian and Georgian beauties should be taken probably with the same qualification that must be extended to other parts of the book. The argument of the author, how- ever, may be admitted as true—the incompetency of the Turkish mothers to train up cultivated men; although, social accomplish- ments being put aside, the same might be predicated of a large por- tion of Europe, and of the whole of Europe a century or two ago. The earlier letters of Walpole do not describe English women as very delicate either in language or manners, though their early life was not so sordid as that of the Georgian beauties.
"Another source from which vacant harims are filled is the market of Georgian slaves ; but it is by no means so popular. These unhappy creatures, who are embarked at Trebisond on board of the regular steamers, reach Con- stantinople in a very sad and pitiable state. We can imagine an European reader almost envying the captain under whose care is placed so poetical a cargo ; but, alas I the truth is, that the Georgians are looked upon almost as suspiciously as a hundred eases of leeches for the Marseilles market. It is true they are separated as much as possible from the rest of the passengers, penned in like a flock of sheep, and hidden by dirty cloths ; or, in bad wea- ther, crammed below like Negroes in the middle passage. In spite of these precautions, the whole vessel suffers from their presence. Nearly every one of them has the itch; and, without exception, every one brings away a colony of native vermin. This is easily accounted tor. The poor things resemble not a bevy of English maidens going out voluntarily to seek for husbands in the barracks of Madras or Calcutta. They are sold from po- verty or avarice by their parents or friends, and are handed over nearly naked to the purchaser. To dress them would eat up all the profits. A rag- ged shift and piece of canvass wrapped round their shoulders—such is the costume in which they crowd by day and huddle together at night, whisper- ing or dreaming of the splendour which has been promised them, to dispel their sorrow or their sulkiness —and perhaps giving a passing thought to the home which has cast them forth, like the pet lamb when it has outgrown the fondness or the patience of its mistress. The merchant, with the uncalcu- lating stupidity which characterizes all dealers in human flesh, fattens these future sultanas during the voyage on water and millet-flour porridge. They arrive at their journey's end in such a state that few connoisseurs in in- cipient beauty would venture to pronounce an opinion.
'Sometimes, when the owner is in haste to realize, he drives his Georgian flock to market in the unseemly condition in which they come ashore ; or at most throws around them a ferigeh—the mantle of the Turkish women. Chance for the most part presides over the sale. The purchaser keeps at a respectful distance from his acquisition, as a doctor might from a plague patient; and drives her before him to what may be called a preparatory school for the harim. A number of old women, indeed, gain their living by polishing up this rough material; curing them, by remedies of which they have the secret, of their disease, combing their hair into shape, scrubbing them' and exterminating the reminiscences they have brought with them from their native hovels. Whilst performing these duties, they take occasion to instruct them a little likewise in Turkish etiquette, and in the means they must adopt to win the affections of their masters. The last rags of modesty are thin torn away, and the slave is ready to become the mother of a Grand Vizier. We must add, that frequently the girls are not brought to market until this preliminary process has been gone through ; and the impatience natural to human nature of course in such cases gives a price that more than covers the expense of breaking in.
"From the two classes of women I have thus described most of the con- sorts of persons high in rank are taken. Such are the mothers of the Ministers of the Sublime Porte, ay, and of all the Sultans that have ever reigned on the shores of the Bosphorus."
There is a touch of humour in this story worthy of a comic writer.
"There is a race of wild boars in Egypt, of the flesh of which, though it be insipid, the Europeans, from the perversity to which I have already al- luded, are fond. I once saw a cage containiug four little ones sent down as a present to an English lady. It was carried through the streets by two great shamefaced porters, whom a crowd of urchins and idlers followed and hooted. They were so annoyed that they dropped their burden, and began cursing Christianity, whilst the sucking boars took to flight, pursued by a shower of stones and slippers. I remember, however, that on one occasion a fine Gratz ham was boiled for our use on hoard the boat. There were ru- mours among the crew whilst the caldron was over the fire. They seemed to consider themselves almost as accomplices of a sacrilege. But when the steaming ham was fished out by a hook at the end of a pole, and deposited with respectful contempt upon the dish, the men collected round at a certain distance with expanded nostrils, sniffing in the unholy odour ; and one of them, in a moment of gastronomic conviction, exclaimed, Wallah, by G—, how iiice it smells! What a pity it is a sin!'"
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