Charles Lewis Meryon

“ The spectator feels a kind of loneliness, and is forced to recall to his mind the productiveneness of the land—to balance the useful with the agreeable—before he can bring himself to admit that Egypt in reality equals its renown. When, however, he walks inland a few furlongs, when he beholds the richness of vegetation, the variety of grain, the indescribable fatness of the soil—the whole together, if he reflects, must forcibly strike him as an example of fertility, well worthy of all the praises that poets and historians have bestowed upon it. ”

“ And here, I reflected, is a brown creature, full of life and activity, whose utmost accomplishments amount to gathering fuel, fetching water, pitching a tent, baking, cooking, and tending herds of camels, or feeding her father’s mare. Yet she is esteemed valuable, and must be bought at a high price: whilst, in my own country, fair maidens, with complexions white as the driven snow, versed in literature and the fine arts, can find no market for their persons, and go down to the grave deploring their single wretchedness! ”

“ A British ship of war is at all times a noble and interesting spectacle, but, in the Mediterranean, she becomes a beautiful one also. For a week together the sea was scarcely rougher than the bosom of a lake; and the white dresses and straw hats of the sailors, the cleanness of the decks, and the awning over our heads, combined with the serenity of the weather, gave to our voyage the appearance of a party of pleasure.
The view was truly enchanting, when, doubling the north-east point of the island of Zante, we of a sudden discovered the bay and surrounding country. ”

“ Thus, during the twenty-eight days which I passed in the Desert, for fifteen I never washed my hands, never changed my clothes, and slept in a tent open on one side to the snow, the rain, and the wind: often did I awake with my feet soaked in wet. Excepting the six days I passed at Palmyra, it was seldom I ate anything but unleavened bread, figs, raisins, treacle, and rice. People may marvel at the extraordinary hardships of the Bedouin Arabs, who support life with a pinch of flour and a few dates, and at the hundred other wonders related of them. ”

“ It is customary in the East not to ask the business of a person who presents himself as a stranger, until he has been welcomed by some refreshment. Conformable to this usage, I bade the servant bring coffee and pipes, and stared with some degree of inquisitiveness, trying to guess, in my own mind, who he could be. Mâlem Mûsa, I have said, was a man acquainted with the world, and he saw at once that the stranger was unfortunate: thinking, therefore, to relieve the young man’s chagrin, he began a long story on the fickleness of fortune. ”

“ A bridge of one arch, of modern date, but not devoid of beauty, leads over it, and its verdant banks are hedged in by oleander trees, a shrub which, whether in or out of flower, is highly beautiful. Close to the bridge, on the south side, and on the first rise of the hills, stand the venerable ruins of a khan or caravansery, now incapable of affording shelter to the traveller. In earlier times, it probably had been a castle for the defence of the passage of the river. ”

“ Every night several individuals might be seen parading the streets, bawling in a dissonant tone,—“There is no other God but the Lord.” Others, assembled together in rooms, formed themselves into a ring, and imitated the cries and impassioned gestures of the howling dervises, to the sound of the tabor. Whatever merit the religion of Mahomet may have, it certainly has no attractions from its liturgy: and, whether from the minaret or in the mosque, their chant is far from pleasant to the ear. ”

“ If an individual, poor and humble like myself, knows how to make an impression (as I have done) upon thousands of wild Arabs, without even bearing the name of chieftain, by yielding somewhat to their prejudices and by inspiring confidence in my integrity and sincerity, could not a king—a legitimate king—guide that army, to which he owed the preservation of his power, to a just appreciation of their duty? ”

“ For the first quarter of an hour the appearance of the mountain is so wild that one scarcely believes it possible to find habitations higher up. You are however agreeably undeceived, when, quitting the forest of firs, you come upon a small hamlet beset with vineyards, tobacco fields, fig and walnut-trees. You now see above you the monastery with its steeple, and your ears perhaps are saluted with the tolling of a bell, always a pleasing sound among rocks and woods. ”

“ If you sit down and converse with him, and contrast his indolence with the pleasure of strolling through serpentine walks with an agreeable female companion, or of straying through woods with a philosophical friend, he replies that conversation can never be so pleasurable as when held without fatigue, and that the beauties of nature are as striking to the tranquil spectator as to him who hurries hastily over them. He styles the restlessness and bustle of the Franks but a fever of the mind, from which he thanks God he is free. ”

“ Seeing this gentleman and one Hassan Effendi always with Ali Pasha, I inquired the reason of their close attendance; and I was answered—“They are two clever persons who are kept near the pasha to amuse him, to pacify him when his temper is ruffled, to give the tone in conversation, and to raise his spirits when depressed by melancholy forebodings.” The office of toady in Turkey at least requires some talent, where an unlucky observation may lead to a bastinading: but, when this talent is exerted in alleviating the sufferings of a sick bed, a toady ceases to be a despicable person. ”

“ Like Doctor Pangloss, I always try to think that everything is for the best; if I had not been shipwrecked, I should have seen nothing here; if I had been born a man instead of a woman, I could not have entered all the harems as I have done, and got acquainted with all the Turkish customs, and seen all that is to be seen of most magnificent—for a Turk’s splendour is in his harem: the rooms, the dresses, the whole air of luxury is not to be described. ”

“ Nothing is more amusing to a bystander than to observe a European quarrelling with an Arab. He raves and sputters, heaps abuse and threats in a language unknown to the object of his passion, and then desires his dragoman to repeat it, word for word. The dragoman knows the revengeful nature of the Arabs, even between Mahometans among themselves, and more especially against Christians from whom they will not brook a hard word of any kind; he considers that when his present employers have quitted the country he shall be left at their mercy without protectors in it ”

“ From Tripoli, Lady Hester had adopted the plan of breaking the day’s journey by an hour’s rest at some spot halfway; and, for this purpose, it was generally necessary to cause a peasant’s cabin to be emptied and swept: but the fleas sometimes swarmed to such a degree, that it was impossible to get rid of them. On these occasions the practice of the servant employed on this duty was to go into the middle of the room, bare his leg, and watch how many fleas jumped on him from the floor. Sometimes they might be seen like iron filings drawn to a magnet, blackening the skin. ”

“ No sooner were the horses brought to the door, than a crowd of women and children assembled; the gravity of the male part of the Turkish population seldom yielding so far to curiosity, as to allow them to join in a mob. When she came out, as she stood upon the horse-block, (of which there generally is one at the entrance of most houses) a smile on the people around served at once to prepossess them in her favour. She was accompanied by no one, but her young interpreter, Giorgio, and Mohammed, her Janissary, thus throwing herself entirely on the discretion of the inhabitants. ”

“ When we arrived at the summit of the promontory, the town of Tyre came into view: its peculiar situation on a tongue of land, with the ruins of some towers, which, afar off, have still a picturesque appearance, has much to interest the traveller, exclusive of the sacred and pagan recollections which its name excites. In a climate almost always pure, a tree or a bush seen [304] through the haze of noonday, along a coast in some places presenting nothing but an even strand, becomes an object of attention. ”

“ Every traveller in the Levant has heard how certainly the discovery of a jar of money leads to the ruin of the finder, if known. In vain he immediately carries it to the governor: his greedy masters suppose that he has concealed a part for his own use; and the bastinado, nay, often torture, compels him to yield up the supposed remainder by sacrificing all he has in the world. ”

“ A valley, about a mile in width, runs from the shore of the Gulf of Lepanto to a chain of mountains. The valley is covered with vineyards and olive-trees: and, at the verge of it, near the foot of the hills, stands Patras, the ancient Patra. The houses, built of mud, are despicable without and comfortless within. Here and there I observed a mosque. Melancholy indeed was the change from the fine streets of La Valetta to the mud habitations of Patras! Still I felt that I was in Greece, and the language and appearance of the inhabitants had something magical in it. ”

“ Were I desired to describe a peasant woman in her most customary occupation, I should represent her as seated at the door of her cottage, spinning with a hand-spindle, and having a long cane lying by her side to drive away the chickens, which she talks to and scolds as if they were children, giving to each a name. ”

“ I had by this time made a pen sketch of the statue, and had represented to Lady Hester that her labours, if productive of no golden treasures, had brought to light one more valuable in the eyes of the lovers of the fine arts, and that future travellers would come to visit the ruins of Ascalon, rendered memorable by the enterprise of a woman, who, though digging for gold, yet rescued the remains of antiquity from oblivion. ”

“ The old town, or what remained of it, was brick; the bricks of Egypt are of a deep red cast approaching to black. The modern houses were sugarloaf-shaped, of sun-dried bricks. Brulos is celebrated for its melons.
We made no stay there, having a long day’s journey to accomplish. Although the soil was mostly sandy, uncultivated, and barren, still the road was more pleasing than that by the seashore. We saw, soon afterwards, the ruins of a large village. ”

“ Sayd Suliman Pasha had spent his life at the court of Sultan Selim and his predecessors, and was considered as a finished gentleman Turk. It must indeed have been a formidable undertaking to a woman, when, after being led through antechambers by the light of flaring candles, which threw their gleam on the arms of numerous soldiers and attendants, who waited in still [12] and fearful silence, she was ushered into a long saloon, through two rows of the pasha’s suite, where at the upper end sat—and he alone was sitting—on a crimson sofa, in a most starched attitude, the small but dignified man. ”

“ There was a strong feeling of party excited throughout the sea-ports of Syria about this time, by the death of the governor of Smyrna. It was a useful lesson to consuls and to other Europeans, not to hold out inducements to a Mahometan to violate the precepts of his religion. A Turk, who drinks, goes to balls and parties at European houses, flirts with Greek women, and forgets the gravity peculiar to his nation, may go on thus for a time; but eventually the Porte never pardons such flagrant violations of the precepts of the Prophet, and deprives him of his place or of his life. ”

“ I not regret the obstacles arising from religion and prejudices, which must ever prevent the amalgamation of Western and Eastern nations!—that our superabundant population should be compelled to go in search of settlements to distant islands and continents, instead of recovering from their neglected state these once flourishing regions! Asia Minor is the field for emigrant labour; a country where the bounties of Nature are so happily distributed, in a climate so genial and so favourable to pleasurable life. ”

“ Mahannah el Fadel might be said to command that tract of country which extends from Hamah down to Damascus, and backwards as far as Palmyra, perhaps beyond; but it is impossible for a stranger to learn or mark out any precise boundaries for a people, the nature of whose possessions, and even of whose existence, is so uncertain, both from the vicissitudes of their fortune, and from their wandering habits. He was chieftain of the tribe of the Melhem, and had in subjection to him other tribes, all of which go by the general name of Anizy Arabs. ”

“ On the 14th of February, I made a very agreeable excursion to the village of Garýfy, situate between Abra and Dayr el Kamar, in a very romantic glen, through which runs a river that empties itself into the Ewely. The vineyards and olive plantations around Garýfy are not to be exceeded in beauty or extent by those of any other village of the mountain. [90]
On my arrival about sunset, I rode straight to the menzel, or room assigned for the reception of travellers, who are entertained at the expense of the shaykh of the village with a supper and night’s lodging. ”

“ March the 29th, Lady Hester mounted her horse, and went to see the ruins. She knew the report that was current of her being in search after treasures, and took an ingenious mode of curing the shaykh of the village of such a belief. She told him she would have him go with her; and she, being on horseback, led him, who was on foot, such a round, that the poor man, little curious about places in which he had lived all his life, begged her at last to excuse him, as he could walk no farther. ”

“ In coming away, I had an opportunity of judging of the extreme simplicity of the Aga’s mode of living. His dinner was laid out on a mat, on the floor of a room which we passed, and consisted of six or eight messes of pilau and yakhny, which are boiled rice and a stew of small bits of meat and vegetables, and these in dishes of common queen’s-ware. There were no knives or forks, and the spoons were wooden. A man in England, living like a temperate Mahometan, would pass for a prodigy with some, and with others, for one who took not enough to support life ”

“ We wound through several narrow but well-built streets, and arrived at last at the Frank quarter on the banks of the Nile, where our mule-driver brought us to the house allotted for us: it faced the river, commanding a prospect of the country on the opposite side, which, being entirely flat, is very little diversified. But the Nile itself is a never-ceasing source of amusement; being at all times covered with barges, crowded with men, cattle, and goods, and with pleasure-boats, not much inferior to those on the Thames. ”

“ Will it then be said, after this, by writers and travellers, that the Turks are a nation devoid of animation, activity, or enterprise? Rather let us look on them as unmoved by the tranquil occupations of virtuous minds, and by the ordinary pursuits which agitate a Christian’s bosom, because they play a deeper game, and are to be excited to energy only where the stakes are fortune and life: but we must not charge them with dullness or inactivity.
The information acquired respecting Hadji Georgaki induced the pasha to denounce him to the Porte. ”

“ The Bedouins continued to gain on us, and at length we lost sight of them, and saw them no more.
At this distressing moment, the fog cleared up, and our delight may be conceived, when, on a neighbouring hill, we saw a drove of camels. We made towards it, and were informed by the herdsman, that the Beni Omar Bedouins were encamped in a bottom hard by. Our spirits cheered up. We met other herds; and at last saw a woman grubbing roots for fuel, a certain sign that we were close to the tents. In a few minutes we came to the edge of a glen, where was a large encampment. ”

“ The general appearance of the island of Malta is the most unpromising for agriculture that can be conceived. Nowhere is the face of nature so uninviting. A surface of stone has, however, by the effect of industry, been powdered over with a soil, the general depth of which is said to be from six inches to a foot: yet, on this scanty bed, grow lemon, orange, pomegranate, fig, and other fruit-trees, besides corn, cotton, lichen, kali, &c., in the greatest luxuriance. The vines spread wherever they are trained, and the oranges acquire the richest flavour. ”

“ That which is most difficult to bear is the want of water, which, even when it abounds, being collected from holes in rocks and puddles, is quite muddy; yet, in my case, novelty and hunger made me tolerate, if not relish, everything. These are the sources of the liberty of the Arab. Brought up from his birth to bear privations, to which the inhabitants of towns and villages would not submit, he reigns the lord of a territory which nobody envies him: and, whilst he plants his tent at pleasure over a measureless waste, enjoys a freedom bought at a price that few are willing to pay for it. ”

“ I was now in a part of the empire where the Turks are seen in their true colours, their natural dislike to Christians not being softened down by any intercourse with civilized foreigners, as is the case in Constantinople: for there were no more than three Frank families of the middling rank of life in all Brusa, and the resort of European travellers was but rare. The epithet of Christian dog was frequently to be heard in the streets, not indeed applied to ourselves, but to the poor rayah Christians. ”

“ In Syria, there is not a Christian or a Frank, who, in speaking of his own or his neighbour’s maladies, does not ascribe them to fruit, either from its qualities, or from the time of day, or the season of the year, in which it was eaten. [286] At Damascus, this notion was carried so far by the Christians, as to attribute to fruit the numberless sore eyes that afflict the inhabitants. Not so the Turks: they eat fruit abundantly at all times, and give it unrestrictedly to their children and to their sick, as the most palatable and cooling diet, especially in fever. ”

“ The village of Um Khaled is the site of some ancient place, as shafts of white marble pillars are to be seen lying about. Its present state is miserable. Cattle and human beings lie in the same stall. The ways are obstructed with ordure and rubbish, and no man seems to care for anything outside his own walls. Much inconvenience is experienced by travellers in these villages in the day-time from the dust which flies about. ”

“ The bey, who commands the Delibashes, took a great fancy to me when at Cairo, and everything he can command is at my disposal, I know; he is a simple, honest soldier, and has no intrigue about him at all, and is extremely beloved by the troops. It is a good thing that old North is safe off, for he would be in a sad fright. I am not at all, knowing my own presence of mind under all circumstances, and that I have excellent friends in this country. Even with the French I am upon terms of friendship and confidence; they command everything upon the coast ”

“ Every thing now marked our approach to a city— [117] gardens, extensive cemeteries, and a wide and beaten road; until at last we entered it, amidst the light of thousands of lamps, which illuminated the coffee-houses, the mosques, and the streets. Our guide conducted us to a miserable room, from whence I hastened to the bath, which, during Ramazàn, and particularly on the last day of it, is open by night as well as by day. ”

“ He is not represented as a very loveable object; but, making love subservient to ambition, they may unite their arms together, bring about a great revolution both in religion and politics, and shake the throne of the Sultan to its very centre. I wish you would come and assist them with your military counsel. How proud I should feel to learn the art of war under so accomplished a general! I only hope that Lady Hester’s health will be able to resist the fatigue which she will unavoidably be exposed to. ”

“ They are the most singular and wonderfully clever people I ever saw, but require a great deal of management, for they are more desperate and more deep than you can possibly have an idea of. It would have very much amused you to see me riding like a Bedouin woman in a bird’s-nest made of carpeting upon a camel, and upon one of the fleet dromedaries like a Wahabee. I am enrolled as an Anisy Arab in the tribe of the Melhem, and have now the rights of the Desert, particularly [258] that of recommending my friends who may wish to visit them. ”

“ From the low situation of the city, the air is bad, and autumnal diseases are here often very fatal, always very common; but the climate is mild beyond measure in the winter. Seen from the neighbouring hills, Hamah presents one of the most beautiful prospects I ever beheld, arising from the joint effect of the windings of the river through the straggling streets, the noble arcades, the great wheels, and the rich foliage of its orchards. ”

“ Through an opening in the trees, our seats commanded a view [25] of the plain of Damascus, which, in the cultivated part, is one of the richest in foliage I ever saw. We sat, smoked, drank coffee and sherbet; and afterwards the pages were matched against each other to throw the giryd or javelin. The day passed away delightfully, and at sunset we returned to the city.
The bey expressed himself very grateful to me for having saved his son; and hence began an acquaintance between Lady Hester and him, which afterwards ripened into a long and durable friendship. ”