Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

jS TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
cers who take care to examine the weights and measures of those
who sell goods; and these officers daily go their rounds through
the different bazars: woe be unto him who sells with light weights!
he is made an immediate example : he either suffers on the spot
the bastinado (which the reader need scarcely be informed is a
or is con-
heavy cudgel applied violently to the soles of the feet),
demned to the payment of a hue. The weights are of course de-
stroyed.
If any fraud is to be apprehended, it is more especially among those
whom the Turks rank as unbelievers, and particularly among the
Jews, who maintain here the character with which they are too generally
charged ; they are prone to extortion, and in truth to deal
with them requires much circumspection. From what I was able
to observe in the bazars, I am inclined to think that the Turks axe.
fair dealers. In speaking of the manner in which fraudulent trades-
people are treated, it may not be improper to mention, that a pecu-
liar punishment is inflicted in this country upon bakers who trans-
gress the law, either by selling bread of light weight or of bad qua-
lity; they have their ears nailed to their own door post for public
view. In arbitrary governments the police ought to be good, for
the punishments are always sanguinary and cruel.
In the course of my perambulation, I went into a shop, where I
cook a draught of sherbet cooled with ice. This liquor is made in
various ways, with or without the acid: it is very cooling and re-
freshing, and is sold at the very moderate price of a para* the cup.
I was now confirmed in the observation I had made on my first
arrival, that the streets of Constantinople are, without exception,
narrow, ill paved, and dirty. Almost all the houses are built with
windows projecting to the streets, which nearly touch those of
their opposite neighbours ; this custom greatly obstructs the free
circulation of air through the streets. The roofs of the houses arc
miserably ill covered ; they are formed of a reddish tile, loosely
put on without any fastening; occasionally
loose stones are laid on
here and there, but a cat running over the top of a house will fre-
quently untile it ; consequently they are wretchedly constructed
for rainy or tempestuous weather. The external appearance of the
houses is at the same time heavy and dismal,
all the ornaments be-
ing
reserved for the interior. 1 entered the outer court of the seraglio,
beyond which strangers are not allowed to pass, and had a
* A para is nearly equal to a halfpenny ; forty paras make one piastre, and one pias-
tre is worth one shilling and sixpence of our money.