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

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. 77
cording to the Turkish custom, interred without a coffin, and na-
ked, as is almost invariably the usage. Neither the corpse in question,
nor those I had seen buried on former occasions, discovered any par-
ticular marks differing from those which manifest themselves in
cases of the fatal termination of malignant fever. There was of
course no appearance of pestilential tumours. Three houses at Pe-
ra, in which the plague had broken out a few weeks before, still
remained shut up.
Precisely at two in the afternoon of the 23d, the Biram was announced
bv the firing of
guns. This festival, which succeeded the
fast of the Ramazan, was to last for three
days, during which the
Turks were to feast, and to indulge themselves in every possible
license, as a compensation for the severe penance to which they had
been obliged to submit during the preceding month. On the fol-
lowing morning, at four o'clock, I went with a
party to Constantinople
to see the procession of the Biram. We found the streets
through which it was to pass already lighted up, and all the necessary
preparations made. Shortly after day-break the ceremony com-
menced; and between six and seven o'clock the Grand Seignor,
richly dressed, and attended bv a numerous and splendid retinue,
passed by the spot where we had taken our stand. Many new and
elegant satin dresses were displayed on this occasion; but as the ceremonial
differed but little from the procession of the Biram courbam
I have already described, 1 shall dismiss the subject by obser-
ving, that the Capitan Pacha attended with his chiaouses;* and that
the procession went, as in the former case, to the mosque of Sul-
tan Achmct.
In all similar processions the Grand Seignor is preceded by the
Capi Aga, or Capi Agassi, a Turkish officer of high rank and dig-
nity, and the chief of the white eunuchs. He is governor or grand
master of the gates of the seraglio, attends constantly on the Sul-
tan's person, and introduces ambassadors to their audiences. It is
through the medium only of this officer that any person is permitted
to enter the apartments of the Grand Seignor ;
and he constantly
* The chlaouses are a description of subordinate officers, or messengers, acting under
the Chiaous P>ashi, and whose employment resembles in some instances that of our
yeomen of the guards, with this striking exception, however, that they hold themselves
in constant readiness to be dispatched to every part of the empire on public busi-
ness, and are intrusted with the firmans, dispatches, &c. They likewise precede the
Sultan, and gre.it officers of state, either on foot or on horseback, with silver s'icks,
from the ton of which small balls of the same metal a'e appended, as a badge of theii
office.