that I have borrowed but two vowel sounds from any other language.

It is not probable that the orientalists themselves would readily adopt this innovation; but this is a secondary object, as it is intended mainly for the instruction of Europeans. The Hindostanee has already been taught successfully on this plan, and this should encourage us to renew our efforts to extend by these means the diffusion of knowledge. The objections to it are thus summed up by Ruphy in the introduction to his Arabic Grammar.

"C'est changer inutilement la physionomie naturelle de cette langue; les caractères Arabes ne sont pas plus bizarres que les nôtres; et la difficulté de l'ecriture de droite à gauche est plus imaginaire que réelle. On apprend la sténographie en une heure; il ne faut guère plus de temps pour apprendre la figure et la valeur des caractères. Après cela, que reste-t-il à étudier? le corps de la langue. Eh bien! les caractères Français diminueront-ils la difficulté de cette étude? L'expérience m'a prouvé le contraire."

The objection that it would change the natural physiognomy of the language appears to be a trivial one. The Germans have changed theirs almost within our own time, and find an advantage in approximating its "natural physiognomy" to the other languages of Europe. The comparison with stenography is equally unfortunate; for who would in preference enter upon the study of a language written in stenographic characters, amounting to more than 100 in number, written backwards, without punctuation or vowels, and interlarded with foreign words. Such is the actual appearance of the Turkish, and the same remark applies more or less to all the oriental languages.

Printing was first introduced into Turkey, in 1727, by Achmet III.; but not until every precaution had been taken, the ulemah carefully sounded, and a solemn decree published by the grand mufti. At this office fifteen works were published, viz. an Arabic and a Persian Dictionary, nine his

torical works, two of geography, one on the compass, and one, strange to say, on the various forms of government throughout the world. The death of its learned projector Basmahji Ibrahim, nineteen years afterward, put a stop to this establishment; but another edition of the Arabic Dictionary was published in the course of eleven years. It was then suffered to slumber for twenty-seven years, when it was revived by Abdool Hamid I., and kept up by Selim, who established several printing-presses about the capital; but the blind and bigoted opposition of the ulemah prevented them from becoming extensively useful. It is related of this learned body, that they objected to the printing of the Koran because it was unlawful to squeeze the word of God, as must necessarily be done by the printer and bookbinder. Several elegant productions, however, appeared from the imperial printing-press at Scutari. Among these were two works, written by the celebrated Rayf Effendi; one of which was entitled, "The Basis of Victory," and was designed to illustrate the necessity of reform in the civil and military departments. It afterward cost its learned and patriotic author his life: the other was entitled, "A Medical Guide to Mecca for the Use of Pilgrims." At the arsenal were six other presses, from which appeared several publications; among them are mentioned a collection of Turkish songs, a magnificent atlas, and a large dictionary of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages. All these establishments perished with their illustrious founder. The present monarch has successfully restored and carried into execution, further than the warmest well-wisher to Turkey could have anticipated, all the improvements connected with printing, so much desired by the unfortunate Selim. Works appear now almost daily from the presses of the capital, which would do honour to any city of Europe. Of these I have seen too few to enumerate; but I may be permitted to particularize the work already alluded to, as a text-book in the college at Hasskeni,

and a treatise on human anatomy, written by Chani Zadeh, one of the ulemah. It is a folio of 300 pages, with fifty-six well-executed plates. It is divided into three parts: the first containing descriptive anatomy, the second physiology, and the third therapeutics.

The difficulties presented by the Turkish characters have led many to write the language in the letters used by the Armenians, which form a very simple and elegant alphabet. The great bulk of the Armenians are not acquainted with their own language, but all speak Turkish from their cradle, and are accustomed to read that language, written in their own characters, and this forms what is erroneously called Armeno-Turkish. Almost all the religious tracts hitherto published for distribution among the Turks, are printed in this way. I have seen Goldsmith's History of Rome, Young's Night Thoughts, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Sale of Joseph, the Passion of Christ, and other similar works, translated into Turkish, with Armenian characters. These were chiefly printed at Venice, under the auspices of the Metacharistan Society.

It may be added, that few Turks are acquainted with the Armenian characters, and hence the religious ArmenoTurkish tracts are of no use to them. Indeed, it is most probable that they are intended for the Armenians, who have more of a literary turn than the Turks, and who receive and read them with much pleasure.

CHAPTER XVI.

Heights above Buyukdery-Chaoush Grapes-Geological SpeculationsTract on Cholera-Aquatic Excursions of the Sultan-His Habits.

THE high hills which overhang our marine villa have frequently tempted us to climb their summits, and to-day we determined to make the attempt. After threading several crooked lanes, occupied almost exclusively by Greeks, we gained the open grounds, and entered the vineyards which cover the breast of the mountain. They were in a healthful condition, and were loaded with fruit. The grapes of this country are mostly of the variety termed chaoush, large, white, and sweet, and without exception the finest table grape I have ever tasted. They are offered for sale in bunches five or six feet long, and are so disposed as to resemble a single mammoth cluster. The usual price in the markets is from one to two cents the pound, and they form no inconsiderable portion of the food of the poor. They keep perfectly well all winter in this latitude, which is said to be owing to the lime or seawater in which they are occasionally immersed; but others have assured me that no particular care is necessary. The soil which seems to prevail in these flourishing vineyards results from a friable greywacke, which decomposes into a reddish earth. From the soft structure of this rock, it is readily acted upon by the winter rains, which in many places have deeply indented the face of the mountain. Towards the summit the heaths (Erica arborea et vulgaris) begin to appear, and soon become the exclusive inhabitants of that region. This hill is a part of that mountain-chain which, commencing at the Black Sea, takes the direction of Constantinople, and forms the European bank of the Bos

phorus. It varies in height from eight hundred to one thousand feet. On the summit of the hill we noticed enormous masses of white quartz boulders, which recalled the long-vexed geological question as to the origin of these foreign bodies in such elevated regions.

The passage from the Euxine to the Sea of Marmora, which lay at our feet, has afforded a fertile field to inquiry, and given ample scope to conjecture. It is certain that the physical conformation of the straits, the composition of the rocks, and the strong volcanic traces to be met with at every step, lead one to adopt the opinion that this celebrated passage has been opened by earthquakes and volThere is, in fact, an ancient tradition that such an event occurred about 3600 years ago, producing a deluge (commonly called Ogygian) which overwhelmed a portion of Greece. Such traditions do not, I apprehend, demand our fullest belief, and in fact are seldom swallowed entire, except by those who hang a theory upon their supposed authenticity. It may have happened that, even in the earliest ages of man, certain physical appearances attracted his attention and excited his speculations, and his crude conclusions passed in succeeding ages, through the medium of tradition, for undoubted facts. Let us take as an example the supposed disjunction of the Straits of Gibraltar. It is possible that, at a very early period, the appearance of those straits led to a general belief, among those who thought at all, that this passage was suddenly formed by some convulsion of nature. At that period, geographical knowledge was necessarily confined within very narrow limits; and all the world was thought to be comprised within their neighbourhood. When this mighty rush of waters took place, it must have swept every thing before it; but as there was nothing but water beyond, the land, which according to their limited ideas previously existed, was totally washed away: and hence arose the fabled