made beautiful, like the long nails of the Chinese, or the gloves of Europeans, is intended, no doubt, to convey the idea that the hands thus artificially distinguished have never been degraded by manual labour. In Constantinople we have noticed the palms of little children thus discoloured, in addition to the ordinary finger and toe marks. The maximum of beauty is supposed to be attained when the nails are about half-grown. At this period the contrast between the discoloured portion of the nail and the new part forms the peculiar distinctive characteristic of the oriental fashionable lady. The khennah, used with a mordant, is also extensively used as an excellent die for woollens and cottons. Another cosmetic, which is called soormay, a composition of antimony and gall-nuts, is used to enlarge and lengthen the eyebrows. Although the effect is singular, yet it certainly gives additional brilliancy and lustre to the eyes, for which it is no doubt intended.

We are now in the middle of October, and the weather has been thus far delightful. The thermometer for the last three months has never fallen below 67°, and the greatest elevation has been 82°; but this only occurred twice during this period. From a register of the weather which was carefully kept in our apartments, the mean temperature has been 73°, and we have had but five days of rain. Within the last three days we have been visited by a severe storm, accompanied by cold and furious blasts from the north. There is said to have been a snow-storm on the Black Sea, and the wrecks of two vessels have been driven ashore near the mouth of the Bosphorus, all hands having perished. This is the season when a violent storm usually occurs, after which we are promised a continuance of fine weather, termed by the Franks here le petit été de St. Martin, which from their description must correspond somewhat to our Indian summer.

Constantinople, it will be recollected, is nearly in the same parallel of latitude with New-York, but it enjoys a much

finer climate; for orange-trees live in the open air during the whole winter, and the olive is enabled to withstand the slight frosts which occasionally occur during that period of the year. The climate is truly delightful, and I know of no spot on the globe more healthy: situated between two seas, the sultry effects of the south winds are tempered in summer by the cool breezes from the Euxine; and on the other hand, during winter, the cold northern blasts are neutralized by the warm breezes from the Sea of Marmora and the Egean.

In my frequent visits to the hospitals I was unable to ascertain what diseases were peculiar to the place, and the physicians themselves could not particularize any one disease. A recent traveller, apparently an invalid, condemns the climate of Constantinople as impure and unhealthy; but unfortunately cites the thick impervious forests of Belgrade, with their bendts, as the cause. These are eighteen miles distant, and would be about as efficient in producing disease at Constantinople as the marshes about Elizabethtown or Bristol in affecting the health of New-York or Philadelphia. Another traveller, Neale, asserts that Constantinople is the most unhealthy place under heaven, and attributes it to the low shores of the Propontis, which, by the way, are not marshy, at least near the capital. To confirm this random assertion, he begs us to contemplate the low grounds of Bithynia (sixty miles from Constantinople), the Lake of Nicca (only eighty miles distant), and the fertile swampy valleys at the foot of Mount Olympus, which are about one hundred miles from Constantinople. Mac Farlane asserts that strangers are sure to pay a tribute of sickness on their arrival or shortly after, and then mentions that a party of Englishmen, who had made their journey from India by land, all fell sick after their arrival at Pera. The sudden change of habits and in their mode of living would be sufficient, one would imagine, to derange the system, without

the necessity of imputing to the capital any particular unhealthiness.

From our own observations and the information derived from the physicians resident here, we should be inclined to believe that, with the exception of the two great epidemics, cholera and plague, few places can be found more exempt from disease than this capital.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Proposition to establish a Turkish Newspaper-Speculations--Death of the Selictar Agha-Coronation of Sultan-Decapitation of a MalefactorPlacard declaring his Crime-Expertness of Turkish ExecutionersTurkish Bulletin--Revolt and capture of Davoud Pacha-His Pardon— Revolt in Albania-Affair of Van.

THE diplomatic circles here are quite in a ferment on the subject of a newspaper which it is said the government purposes to establish. To judge from what we hear, it would seem that the sultan is about to attempt a rash and hazardous enterprise. One set maintains that it will be filled with falsehoods, another that it will be insufferably stupid, and all concur in asserting that there is no occasion for it whatever. The true secret of this unanimity of opinion is, that it will expose and most effectually counteract the numerous silly falsehoods and scandalous inventions which are sent through Europe every post-day from Constantinople. The corps diplomatique forms here a numerous body, that of Russia alone being composed of at least ninety members, and the other embassies in like proportion. Most of these have nothing to do, and accordingly exercise their inventive faculties for the amusement of their friends and correspondents at home. The Frank merchants, too, are not far behind the diplomatists in their fondness for

retailing petty gossip, which always accompanies their circulars and price currents. We were once shown a letter from a merchant at Constantinople to his correspondent, in which he had contrived to enliven some dry speculation about the price of opium and silk, with a sprightly anecdote of his neighbour's wife, and a broad insinuation that Miss in the next street, was no better than she should be. The newspaper is to be published weekly in Turkish and French, and the price $6,66 per annum. It is said, but we repeat it only as a Frank story, that the government have adopted the following mode in order to give it extensive circulation. All the officers of government are, of course, obliged to subscribe, who alone make no inconsiderable number. Then, the rayahs are expected to contribute their share, and this is managed in the following manner. The Armenian patriarch, for instance, is notified that in order to aid this national object, he must find two hundred subscribers among his nation, and forward the subscription list as early as possible. The same notifications are sent to the Greeks and Jews, varying the number according to the supposed capability of the nation to pay. By these various means it is said that they have already secured two thousand subscribers.

A procession of state barges attracted our attention this afternoon as we were crossing the Golden Horn, and we learn that it is the funeral of the Selictar Agha who died yesterday of an attack of apoplexy. This personage is the sword-bearer of the sultan, and one of the highest officers of state. His ostensible employment is to carry the sword of state before the sultan on days of ceremony, but, like many other court officers in Europe, he contrives to pick up a little here and there, and manages to support himself and family. The individual just deceased is reported to have been the richest subject in the empire. His property is reputed to have amounted to eight millions of dollars, and one of the evidences of his wealth is stated to be the

possession of five hundred Cashmere shawls, varying in value from eight to fifteen hundred dollars. Among other reforms of the sultan, that of abolishing useless and burthensome offices is one of the most conspicuous, and he has accordingly expressed his determination not to appoint a successor to the office. All his vast wealth goes of course to the sultan, who will grant out of it annuities to his wives and children. The remains of the Selictar Agha are appropriately deposited near the mosque of Ayoub, at the head of the Golden Horn, where the coronation of the sultan takes place upon his accession to the throne. The ceremony is said to be of a simple but imposing nature. Accompanied by all his officers of state, the sultan proceeds to this mosque, when, after an appropriate address to the Deity, the Sheik islam, or head of the church and of the law, girds on the sultan the consecrated scimetar of his ancestors, repeating an ancient formula purporting that he must receive this weapon with confidence, for that it is a gift from the Deity put into his hands to protect the empire from the infidels. In this mosque are interred the remains of a holy mussulman martyr named Eyoub or Job, and this spot is supposed to be the Hebdomon or place of coronation of the Greek emperors.

Although numerous fires have occurred during our residence here, and repeated public executions are said to have taken place in consequence, yet we have never been able to witness any thing of the kind, although we have almost daily traversed the city in all directions. To-day, however, we saw a decapitated corpse lying in the street with its stomach downward and the head placed between its legs. From the dress and appearance of the head it was evidently a Greek, and a large placard over it in Turkish explained the nature of his crime. A Frank passing by informed us that it was the body of an incendiary, and we should have been satisfied with this explanation, had we not afterward succeeded in obtaining the placard which is