IN ASIATIC TURKEY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 280, 18 April 1913, Page 8

IN ASIATIC TURKEY

AN UXJi'ORGETTABLK PICIUKE.

England's pastoral country gains in beauty by the tender, mists which u dump climate spreads over monotonous colour and emphatic ontlint*s; but lite garish hues of the Bosph'orus fhorw seem right anil fitting under their liril- . ; 1 iant sun. Here are waters bliU' as t sapphires, houses yellow as topazes, ey- _ , presses black as jet, and a sky. like '■& deepest-lined turn noises. Siambonl, as we lefl it r.nii day in Si'pleml>»r to i cross to Si'ntari. la- basking ru'ler no •... 'Hi ; niggard snn, and its domes and'minar-

ets seemed golden -n'td jewelled unci fnirv-l'ke.' To our lef )-"iv tile de"n. the llosnl'iivus, and b.-fore lis the ' . Asiatic coast. , '*

We cro«*'-d' n ?. '-p'V. •"«««■ ■ of

f-.«vi P ft: nnd' n-iv Wl i's w"l'" >t <SxV.I(. for iii.-t ■■= Tliev wore red f"m>s. whit" shoes and

stockincrs. and the iuterveniiit space* of their nersons were covered by eream

vests and bloomers, liv full" white sleeves , and embroidered' sleeveless jackets. Seatari used to he the meetiinferojmd of all th" caravans from d'Terent parte ■ of Asia: now it i« the terminus of a ;

commonnl'ice, unpicti'recrrf>e ra'lwav, ■ which "♦"'•ts fro-' At the ' jijjM landi'i'or-statr" we found nt«nv earriijjea -iljj fo- in'-. "noi'"'i wptp dome V,#M of them, with tli«i'r WhcV swnihßS Jjw stretched ove- foil'- polK . >,/BM THE' STREETS. * /JM The street we drove up was roughly, paved, and lined, on either side small shops, la one, a. little, low, (Uric, and dirty place, a man perpetually ing liquid rahat-lakomn reminded, 000 .'",W of the "Pilgrim's Progress," and man with the muck-rake. Hard by WH ">Jt a Cabob shop, in which we Baw strung up on sticks, and ready grillht tww for sate. One grey-lftoking vault was ,-"Y; illuminated by shining copper pans, in', u , reality moulds for pressing out misshap* 1 en fuzzes. ■ . But to the coming and' goihg ot tor* , }®, f eigners the people of Scutari are writ accustomed, and' our about them and their ways was more oft* , ® trusivu than theirs about us, A black as Erebus, and' dressed' ih red' and ' $ white calico, passed us by without deign* 'yj ing to send a gfance in- our dilrectliMb.'"'' " Then followed a Hadji, or holv mani. ' J one who has been to Mecca, andwtars Jj the coveted green turban-. Next Ttai& Jml isli ladies in yashmaks and" f&rejihs, mN lers of' cakes and roast chestnuts and qflH rahatlakoitm. - . What an "Arabian |SH Nights Entertainment" it all was. to bit sure. At the top of tile street stood IJjH private houses, wooden, ■fnwtlar. ana-''.JH picturesoue. with their carved projecting windows. , AT THE CEMETERY, ... ; : *M We crossed au open triangular bit of' ground, faintly suggestive o! a village green, and'found ourselves on the high 'liM '. road which leads ta HsJdat Pajsha. Her® before long, we came to tlie great Turk* JH ish cemetery, a sorry spectacle" of nftglected graves, toip bat ones tumbling about in every direction, and. rioorty' ..JJ cypresses. Neither grass nor make beautiful, the last' resting 1 plaiw of these dead. Slabs awry showed yawning holes and even coffins., .',jH -stopes. at aU .seeing -a*, if . eartltquake - h«td dtaturbed - tlum. gleet, gloom, and even horror pervad«A the place; yet'swne children flayed mer- . riiy among the tomks. pood M»l>(ii»W- a|H dans prefer to be buried in rather than in European Turkey, since.; they are nearer Mecca, «nd "they are ''" ■'m laid to rest with their faces turned to- _ wards the Holy, City.. Men's tombstones . *3l tare distinguished by the turban surmounts .them.' A TTurlqu m only record of achievement Km in tfa . J number of bunches of grapes carved pn -jfl her headstone, fend answering, to tn& number, of children she has ' wall or fence thi>- repdlant' spot, and we left it wUn.&&this';*of. deev deSession. No more.stunnc antftbesia this vallev of gloom could be found > 9 than that of the Christian cemetery a ;iB little jurther on. Here, wttfri EnjpUh .fn oaks and elms to shade tbe graves, and emorald turf to cover .tham, lie our . heroes of the Crhhea. Beds as gay with T'M flowers -as ' the swjtfd in Boitieeitrs 1 "Priina vera,"' tidy gravel walks. Mtt' v Wt well-kept grass bear' testimony- Uf loving labours of the old Crimean voterin who used to live at the rates avi teni Ms comrades' graves. And how ||B short were the lives of many .rf <,h»*e9" ; ;Sfe*fi«ah kiUed, at 19/ some nffi. youcgeiT" Fehibd- the cemetery a vellow-washed barrack, onee the .Mb* ous hospitar where Florenee and h»r staff of nurses worked so bnve< 'fflgm ly. Leaving our gallant' dead to. W- 'mfm watohod over by what Sir Ppao6fa of Assissi calls his "Brother "Sister the Rain," we drove to