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

78
TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
accompanies the latter when he visits the apartments
of the Sulta-
nas, taking his station withoutside the door. The Capi Aga, is
without a beard and without mustaches, the reason of which will
be readily understood, when it is remembered that he is the chief of
the eunuchs. The capigis, acting under him as porters, or door-
keepers, are employed in the execution of a Pacha, or other person
of rank, who is to be poisoned, strangled, beheaded, or otherwise
taken off, according to the nature of his offence, or the degree of
consequence he may have possessed.
During the latter part of the month of February, and the commencement
of March, the
changes of weather were sudden and
extraordinary. At intervals the snow fell in abundance, with a cold
and raw air; while at other times there was a considerable degree
of heat in the atmosphere, accompanied by heavy showers of rain.
These unusual and frequent alterations of the weather were pro-
ductive of catarrhs, coughs, and sore throats, which became very
general in the Turkish capital and suburbs. The 7th of March
walk in the
being a very fine and warm dav, I took a morning's
environs of Bishictash, and saw, for the first time during the sea-
son, several very young lambs. Their flesh is not allowed to be
eaten in Turkey until the month of April. Among the Mahome-
tans there is an entire prohibition of pork, which is, notwithstand-
ing, allowed to be brought to market, at the commencement of
the spring season, for the use of the foreign ministers, and ether
christian residents. This indulgence afforded us an opportunity
of purchasing a joint of pork, which, very unfortunately, we
sent to a Turkish baker to be cooked. The discovery which
ensued had nearly subjected us to some very unpleasant circum-
stances ; and the poor baker was made to pay a fine of twenty pi-
astres.
On the 10th, a slight shock of an earthquake was felt at Galata.
On the 12th the weather again became unpleasantly cold, with
falls of snow: during the night the thermometer was below the
freezing point. This intemperature of the air, which could scarcely
have been expected in such a climate, now that the spring was
fast advancing, continued, with almost unabated severity, till to-
wards the close of the month; not, however, without some of
those transitions which I have had such repeated occasions to notice,
and which were necessarily productive of many ailments. It ap-
peared that in Asia the weather was much milder, and indeed alto-
gether different from that which we experienced at Constantinople ;