Tourist.

Lake County Press, Issue 2158, 28 February 1907, Page 7

Tourist.

THE SALEMLEK. Tho more one moves about tho world, tho more astonished one is at the curious customs in other countries. You imagine that each nation has been described so often, that you must know all the habits and ideas of its inhabitants, yet it is only when you go to she country itself that you find out bow much you have yet to learn. One drawback that tho English nation suffer from is our inability to speak many foreign languages ; we think if wo can converse in two others besides our own, that we are quite linguists ; whereas, on tho Continent, go where you will, you generally find it is the usual thing for a person to speak three or four foreign languages. In the Levant, to he able to speak six or so von different ones is a common accomplishment w?th both ladies and gentlemen. Last year, while staying in Turkey, I felt very stupid not being able to speak either Turkish or Greek ; and as both aro too difficult to learn inn short time, I was depending on friends or interpreters for getting about. My ignorance of these languages did nor, however, -prevent my seeing many curious sights, or hearing a few strange stories concerning tho lives of the subjects of His Majesty tho Sultan Perhaps a few words about one of tho principal events in tho life of Hamid 11. himself may interest some of inv countrywomen.

That the li'fo of tho Sultan is monotonous to tho hist degree, is known to most people ; and when you think that ho leaves his palace once a week for but three-quarters of an hour, and always with the same object—namely, a state ceremony, even that ceases after a while to bo any change for him. it is considered tho orthodox thing for each Sultan when he comes to tho throne to build a palace for bimsolf. The present sovereign, Hamid 11., has built a nice but unpretentious one on a hill behind Beehiktacho, about a mile and a half from Peru. All the roads over which His Majesty is ever likely to pass are kept in fairly decent repair ; tho others must bo seen and felt; description fails to picture the ruts, holes, boulders, stones, and crevices that you encounter in going along tho roads and streets of Constantinople. If it rains heavily for twenty minutes, you have seas and lakes of mud, to pass over which is almost an impossibility. Tho road leading up to Yeldiz, however, is delightful to rido on ; everything hero is ‘ fair to see.’ Before you arrive at tho palace, you come to tho Mosque of Yeldiz, where the Sultan goes to service every Friday. Tho Mosque is a very liue building of white marble, ricbly gilt though it has hut one miuaret. Compared with the older mosques in Stamhoul, it is quite small. Lately, a very handsome clock tower has been built just withiu tho gates, the clocks showing both Turkish and Frankish time. Exactly opposite the mosque is tho Pavilion, a house which bolomrs to His Majesty, Where visitors go to witness the Salemlek, or Sultan going to tho mosque. If you have no friends who can tako yon there, you must apply to your own Embassy for an invitation—each amhas-sador has so many invitations to give away every week.

To got a good view of all that takes place, you must bo at the Pavilion two hours before the time the Sultan appears, for the windows get very quickly appropriated. I was lucky in having a friend to take me where he lives in Constantinople ; her relations are connected with the Imperial court, as she know all the officers of State, she told me who they were as they passed in the procession. Every Friday there are from eight to ten thousand soldiers stationed round tho inosquo guarding all the approaches. Among such a number of men, you can imagine the variety of uniforms. In one regiment the soldiers wore blue uniforms, with, of course, tho universal red fez ; they carried small red and white pennants; and all the horses wore white. Another regiment had the same uniform and pennant, only the horses wore black. The sailors wear a pretty dress in summer, consisting of white cotton suits, with blue cuffs aud collars, a bright red sash round their waists, and the red fez. They look nice and cool. In winter, blue clothes are substituted for the white ones. Thoro are always eight or ten bauds present, generally two or three playing at a time. Some of them are very good; but. as a nation, you cannot say the Turks are musical; aud after our military music a Turkish band is not a treat.

During the time you have to wait, you see me passing to and fro in all kinds of dress. Priests of every order and kind, some of whom have on a green turban ; some, bettor still, a light green coat, which shows that tho wearer has at some time made a pilgrimage to Mecca, You can imagine how dazzling is tho picture of this great number of soldiers with their glittering uniforms, and tho rich oriental dresses of so largo a crowd. Add to this the exquisite surroundings of marble buildings, blue sea. aud skv, lovely gardens, aud cloudless sunshine, and you have a coup-d’tuil an equal to which you cannot get anywhere else in Europe. The palace of Yoldiz is about three minutes’ drive from the mosque; and just before the Sultan comes, fresh gravel is thrown down, to lot him thick that all roads are in a good condition There is an enclosure round tho mosque, into which ono or two carriages are allowed to enter. They srenerally contain some members of Sultan’s harem, guarded by eunuchs. There wore two or three small Princesses there tho day I was present: and as girls do not wear tho ‘yashmak’ till they are fourteen years old, T bad a good view of the children. The ladies wtro veiled, sc 1 could not well see their faces.

The procession of the Sultan consists, firstly, oi the ministers and high officers of State walkiug slowly two and two : then comes His Majesty, driving in a gorgeous carriage, dark red in colour, but with a great deal of gold about it, drawn by a pair of magnificent horses. The coachman was also richly apparelled. Seated in the carriage opposite to the Sultan was the (then) Grand Vizier, Osman Pasha. After the carriage came more officers and soldiers. At the gate of the mosque, the ministers form two lines, when the Sultan drives between them up to the door of the mosque, bowing right and left to every one. As he approaches (he mosque, a priest on the minaret calls the Faithful to prayer ; and, among' other things, he cries to the Sultan ; • OL, you think yourself it great man; but know that there 1- one creator than you, one Allah.’ As the hands are playing and the troops shouting a Turkish ‘hurrah’—which is dona according to command, not spontaneously or heartily—very little of this reproof is heard. I had :i good look at His Majesty. Ho had an anxious, sad expression, and looked quite twelve years older than his age. After remaining about twenty or thirty minutes in the mosque, ho reappears ; and sometimes he bolds a review, when the ten thousand soldiers pass before him,

He never returns to the palace in the same carriage as he came ; his riding-horse and an elegant park phaeton are waiting, and he chooses whether ho rides or drives himself home. If he drives, the Pashas ride round his carriage. If he tides, every one else walks : nobody does the same as the Sultan. When I saw him he was not in uniform. Ho looked like any ordinary gentleman, only ho wore the fez. Sometimes —perhaps once in six or seven weeks —ho sends out at the last moment to say he is goine to another mosque—one situated or. the Becbiktacbe Road—then soldiers, visitors, &0., have to scamper down hill as fast as they can, to bo ready to receive His Majesty. Here the ceremony loses much of its grandeur and importance, owing to the locality and want of space round that mosque. For over thirteen years, the present Sultan has never missed to appear one single Friday to his subjects. If he did not show himself, they would think something was wrong. The sumo slate and ceremony take place year after year, till 1 should say that both men and horses can go through their duties blindfold. 1 was often very sorry for the troops. They have to stand for two or three hours under a blazing sun without any shade to protect them, for the fez is anything but a protection against the beat. They looked hot and tired after their morning’s work. To got so many troops massed and into position takes s-uno time. Generally, they begin to assemble about ton o'clock, and as the Sultan only appears at one, it is two before they leave Yoldiz. One day, and one only during the summer, it began to rain, and came down whole waters on these unlucky men. I met them returning from the Saleinlek, drenched to tho skin; and I wondered whether for once they liked a wetting as a change to their usual weekly bake. Tho lives of Turkish women are dull and monotonous in the extreme; hut Friday being tho day they go to mosque or to visit their cemeteries, they often take that opportunity to looking at the soldiers passing by. On tho Bechiktacho Road you see numbers of them squatted on the kerbstone, whore they remain for hours chatting and looking about thorn. They make a pretty picture eu masse with their bright dresses of every hueharmony of colour is unknown in Tu key—and they carry parasols, which are also always of the gayest colours. They must ho much attached to their parasols, for you never see them—even as lute as eight or nine at night—hut they have their parasols open, getting shade from something. It cannot he tho aim. No llattcrcr could call 'I uvkisli women either pretty or elegant, for they arc simply u mass of clothing without any shape. They have very largo feet, clad in white cotton stockings, and they walk badly; so that their charms—no doubt they have many —only become known on acquaintance. Tho ‘ yashmak’ is a very becoming addition to their attiro; it makes the plainest woman look nice. You sometimes got rather a shock when it is taken off, so many women hoar the traces of smallpox. Their for cosmetics most often he a little startling; hands, feet, hair, eyes, and complexion are generally ‘improved,’ according to their ideas To see the soles of their feet, the nails and palms of their hands, dyed brown with henna, is tho reverse of pretty ; and the ‘ beauty of orange-coloured hair I fail to perceive. Ihey always tell people that only in Turkey do you see beautiful women. When we consider that Ho Salemlck is about the only pleasure these poor women have, wo most admit it is an innocent one one that may, perhaps, after a time become a little monotonous. Until the life of Turkish women is more rational, and fanaticism is a (Ling of tho past, we will agree with the old proverb that ‘ Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to he wise.’