cautioned against dieting myself to ward off this disease, and indeed the use of spirits was warmly recommended. It is supposed that the rigid temperance of the Turks renders them more obnoxious to its attacks; but whether that be the case or not, it is certain that the Franks, who live upon the fat of the land, and wash it down with copious draughts of wine, are rarely affected by this disease. CHAPTER XIX. Excursion to the Giant's Grave-Dervises-Classical Superstition-Tekkay, or Chapel-Geology-Genoese Castle-Guebres-Masonry-Kavawki-Raki-Aquarians-Boston Particular-Turkish Doctor. TEMPTED by a lovely morning, we crossed the Bosphorus to-day to the Asiatic side, to visit a lofty mountain known as the Giant's grave, and which forms a conspicuous landmark as you approach Constantinople from the Euxine. After a toilsome struggle against the steep sides of the hill, varied by stopping occasionally to gather the numerous wild flowers which sprang up in our path, we gained the summit. Here we found a level verdant lawn, shaded by a grove of large chestnut-trees, and a tekkay or chapel of a troop of dervises bounded one side of this natural platform. On the other side was a slight kiosk or summerhouse for the occasional use of the sultan; and this with a row of low cottages constituted the village, which from its isolated situation depends solely for its support upon the generosity of those who visit it from motives of curiosity or devotion. Seated upon the grass under these lofty trees, and looking over the wide expanse of the Euxine now covered with innumerable sails,* our coffee was served up by a stout, ferocious-looking dervis, whose high conical white hat was not the least grotesque part of his dress. His bare legs were swelled up to a frightful size by some disease analogous to elephantiasis, doubtless the effect of intemperance. These dervises correspond in some measure to the monks of Catholic countries, except that they do not take the vow of celibacy. Like their European brethren, they have in general but ragged reputations, with the exception here and there of one of superior sanctity, who is much caressed and idolized by the old ladies of both sexes. Upon expressing a wish to see the grave, which was the chief object of our visit, the dervise unlocked a door behind the chapel, and with sundry mysterious signs and gesticulations invited us to enter. The enclosure is about sixty feet by thirty, and is surrounded by a high stone wall. Occupying the greatest part of this enclosure is a flower-bed fifty feet in length, with a turbaned stone at each end, and this is generally believed to be the grave of a giant. A narrow path permitted us to walk entirely round the raised central part, and to marvel at the size of this wonderful saint. We remarked a small laurel tree covered with little rags of cotton, silk, or woollen, the votive offerings of ignorance and credulity. This is a very ancient and classical superstition, perpetuated to the present day alike by Christian and Mussulman. We remember when very young being struck with the image of some fine old Greek or Roman, suspending his votive offer "The winds swept down the Euxine, and the wave A A ings at the shrine of his tutelar deity; to our youthful imaginations, it appeared as if the piety was almost merged in the poetry of the act, and we were disposed to regard as a superior race the beings who could thus throw a grace over the simple act of devotion. The same thing is here enacted before our eyes, and the reality leaves one in doubt whether laughter, contempt, or pity should predominate. Strip the action of the graceful veil with which poetry has invested it, and it amounts to this: an old woman has a toothache, or a young one a lover; they hasten to the nearest saint, and hang a dirty rag upon a bush, with the confident hope. that both plagues may be mollified. Old men in want of heirs, young ones in want of wives, the poor panting after money, and the rich gasping for health, all resort to a shrine like this, to obtain, by the simple process of a votive offering, the consummation of their wishes. Our filthy friend the dervise had the kindness to enlighten our ignorance on the subject of the huge manmonster whose remains are supposed to have mouldered beneath this spot. His name was Hooshah, or Yooshah, corresponding to Joshua or Jesus. He was a nephew of Moses, or, in other words, a son of Aaron, a mighty prophet, and second only to Mohammed himself, for all prayers or supplications passed through him directly to the Deity. The dervise further instructed us that a part only, namely the head and shoulders, of the prophet reposed here, but with all the discretion of a person who is in possession of an important secret, he evaded our inquiries as to what disposition had been made of the remainder of the prophet's body. A favourite recreation of this prophet was to sit down on this mountain and wash his feet in the Bosphorus, which flows at its base a mile distant. Another of his amusements was to sit down in the Bosphorus, block up the water from the Euxine with his back, and when it had reached up to his shoulders he would suddenly jump up, and the now freed waters would produce sad deluges, which modern geologists have thought proper to attribute to volcanic agencies. From the appearance of a mortise in the marble at one end of the grave, one of our companions suggested that a cross may have once been erected here, and that in fact the Turks have only taken at second hand a pseudo Christian superstition. In point of fact, however, the origin of this monstrous fable goes back to a more remote period than the Turkish, or even Greek empire, and is simply a pagan idolatry under a new name. The earliest, and of course the most authentic accounts, make it to be the grave of Amycus, a sachem or king of Bithynia, who was in the habit of levying a toll upon every canoe which passed up the Bosphorus; and being a man of great personal prowess, he was enabled to enforce his demands, like one of Homer's heroes, with his ponderous fists. He met finally with his death in a boxing-match with one of the lucida sidera of those days, the celebrated Pollux. The whole story is detailed at length in the Argonautica of Apollonius, and is one of those amusing and instructive incidents which are so requisite to be learned by the finished. scholar. Other authorities, among whom we may mention Dionysius of Byzantium, a familiar author to most of our readers, has given another version of the story. Honest Dionysius solemnly avers that this spot is the true and genuine bed of Hercules. "Herculis KAINH hoc est lectus." We are satisfied. Near the headstone of this respectable demigod, a piece of money was ostentatiously displayed as a hint to the curious traveller that the smallest donation would be thankfully received. We were then invited to enter the tekkay or chapel, so called to distinguish it from the djammi, or mosque proper. The word mosque is unknown to the Turks, and it is difficult to account for its general currency in all the European languages, when it is not even an oriental term. The Arabic mesjid, or assembly, approaches nearest to it, but this seems a forced construction. This chapel differs in no respect from the ordinary mosques, being totally devoid of furniture or ornament, even plainer than a Quaker meeting-house, for it has not a single seat or pew. The floor was covered with straw matting; on the walls were suspended boards with sentences from the Koran, resembling a Lancasterian school; and a small circular niche in the east wall, with a large wax candle on each side, completed the whole inventory of this oriental chapel. Our curiosity was soon satisfied, and we resumed our boots and shoes at the door, after bestowing the expected backshish. We took our leave of these dirty devotees, who in the selection of this airy abode have evinced more taste and judgment than one would be disposed to give them credit for, who noticed their filthy appearance, and was acquainted with their infamous practices. Before parting, let me attempt to convey an idea of their appearance, in order that the reader may, in reading the Arabian Nights, figure to himself that delightful grotesque animal an Eastern dervise. Imagine, then, a stout-looking heathen, without a vestige of linen about him, a coarse woollen robe envelopes his whole body, his feet and legs bare, his face almost concealed by a filthy, matted beard, and a high conical cap without a brim, completes the picture of the external man. To this must be added the most brutal ignorance, the grossest superstition, and a life often stained with the foulest vices. This is only the description of a single species, but it may serve to identify the whole family. If you meet a maniacal vagabond wrapped up in a leopard's skin, swinging a box suspended before him by chains, another with a large club thickly studded with spikes, another with a box of vipers, or a fourth screaming aloud to the detriment of his own throat and of all the ears in his neighbourhood, you may safely set them down as dervises. They are in fact all jugglers of different degrees, some dealing in tricks of legerdemain, while others impose upon the ignorant by |