Eastern Empire.—Part I.
Reign And Character Of Mahomet The Second.—Siege, Assault, And
Final Conquest, Of Constantinople By The Turks.—Death Of
Constantine Palæologus.—Servitude Of The Greeks.— Extinction Of
The Roman Empire In The East.—Consternation Of Europe.—Conquests
And Death Of Mahomet The Second.
The siege of Constantinople by the Turks attracts our first
attention to the person and character of the great destroyer.
Mahomet the Second 1 was the son of the second Amurath; and
though his mother has been decorated with the titles of Christian
and princess, she is more probably confounded with the numerous
concubines who peopled from every climate the harem of the
sultan. His first education and sentiments were those of a devout
Mussulman; and as often as he conversed with an infidel, he
purified his hands and face by the legal rites of ablution. Age
and empire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigotry: his
aspiring genius disdained to acknowledge a power above his own;
and in his looser hours he presumed (it is said) to brand the
prophet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet the sultan
persevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and discipline
of the Koran: 2 his private indiscretion must have been sacred
from the vulgar ear; and we should suspect the credulity of
strangers and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind which is
hardened against truth must be armed with superior contempt for
absurdity and error. Under the tuition of the most skilful
masters, Mahomet advanced with an early and rapid progress in the
paths of knowledge; and besides his native tongue it is affirmed
that he spoke or understood five languages, 3 the Arabic, the
Persian, the Chaldæan or Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek. The
Persian might indeed contribute to his amusement, and the Arabic
to his edification; and such studies are familiar to the Oriental
youth. In the intercourse of the Greeks and Turks, a conqueror
might wish to converse with the people over which he was
ambitious to reign: his own praises in Latin poetry 4 or prose 5
might find a passage to the royal ear; but what use or merit
could recommend to the statesman or the scholar the uncouth
dialect of his Hebrew slaves? The history and geography of the
world were familiar to his memory: the lives of the heroes of the
East, perhaps of the West, 6 excited his emulation: his skill in
astrology is excused by the folly of the times, and supposes some
rudiments of mathematical science; and a profane taste for the
arts is betrayed in his liberal invitation and reward of the
painters of Italy. 7 But the influence of religion and learning
were employed without effect on his savage and licentious nature.
I will not transcribe, nor do I firmly believe, the stories of
his fourteen pages, whose bellies were ripped open in search of a
stolen melon; or of the beauteous slave, whose head he severed
from her body, to convince the Janizaries that their master was
not the votary of love. 701 His sobriety is attested by the
silence of the Turkish annals, which accuse three, and three
only, of the Ottoman line of the vice of drunkenness. 8 But it
cannot be denied that his passions were at once furious and
inexorable; that in the palace, as in the field, a torrent of
blood was spilt on the slightest provocation; and that the
noblest of the captive youth were often dishonored by his
unnatural lust. In the Albanian war he studied the lessons, and
soon surpassed the example, of his father; and the conquest of
two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities, a vain and
flattering account, is ascribed to his invincible sword. He was
doubtless a soldier, and possibly a general; Constantinople has
sealed his glory; but if we compare the means, the obstacles, and
the achievements, Mahomet the Second must blush to sustain a
parallel with Alexander or Timour. Under his command, the Ottoman
forces were always more numerous than their enemies; yet their
progress was bounded by the Euphrates and the Adriatic; and his
arms were checked by Huniades and Scanderbeg, by the Rhodian
knights and by the Persian king.
1 (return) [ For the character of Mahomet II. it is dangerous to
trust either the Turks or the Christians. The most moderate
picture appears to be drawn by Phranza, (l. i. c. 33,) whose
resentment had cooled in age and solitude; see likewise
Spondanus, (A.D. 1451, No. 11,) and the continuator of Fleury,
(tom. xxii. p. 552,) the _Elogia_ of Paulus Jovius, (l. iii. p.
164—166,) and the Dictionnaire de Bayle, (tom. iii. p. 273—279.)]
2 (return) [ Cantemir, (p. 115.) and the mosques which he
founded, attest his public regard for religion. Mahomet freely
disputed with the Gennadius on the two religions, (Spond. A.D.
1453, No. 22.)]
3 (return) [ Quinque linguas præter suam noverat, Græcam,
Latinam, Chaldaicam, Persicam. The Latin translator of Phranza
has dropped the Arabic, which the Koran must recommend to every
Mussulman. * Note: It appears in the original Greek text, p. 95,
edit. Bonn.—M.]
4 (return) [ Philelphus, by a Latin ode, requested and obtained
the liberty of his wife’s mother and sisters from the conqueror
of Constantinople. It was delivered into the sultan’s hands by
the envoys of the duke of Milan. Philelphus himself was suspected
of a design of retiring to Constantinople; yet the orator often
sounded the trumpet of holy war, (see his Life by M. Lancelot, in
the Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 718, 724,
&c.)]
5 (return) [ Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483, his
xii. books de Re Militari, in which he first mentions the use of
bombs. By his patron Sigismund Malatesta, prince of Rimini, it
had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Mahomet II.]
6 (return) [ According to Phranza, he assiduously studied the
lives and actions of Alexander, Augustus, Constantine, and
Theodosius. I have read somewhere, that Plutarch’s Lives were
translated by his orders into the Turkish language. If the sultan
himself understood Greek, it must have been for the benefit of
his subjects. Yet these lives are a school of freedom as well as
of valor. * Note: Von Hammer disdainfully rejects this fable of
Mahomet’s knowledge of languages. Knolles adds, that he delighted
in reading the history of Alexander the Great, and of Julius
Cæsar. The former, no doubt, was the Persian legend, which, it is
remarkable, came back to Europe, and was popular throughout the
middle ages as the “Romaunt of Alexander.” The founder of the
Imperial dynasty of Rome, according to M. Von Hammer, is
altogether unknown in the East. Mahomet was a great patron of
Turkish literature: the romantic poems of Persia were translated,
or imitated, under his patronage. Von Hammer vol ii. p. 268.—M.]
7 (return) [ The famous Gentile Bellino, whom he had invited from
Venice, was dismissed with a chain and collar of gold, and a
purse of 3000 ducats. With Voltaire I laugh at the foolish story
of a slave purposely beheaded to instruct the painter in the
action of the muscles.]
701 (return) [ This story, the subject of Johnson’s Irene, is
rejected by M. Von Hammer, vol. ii. p. 208. The German
historian’s general estimate of Mahomet’s character agrees in its
more marked features with Gibbon’s.—M.]
8 (return) [ These Imperial drunkards were Soliman I., Selim II.,
and Amurath IV., (Cantemir, p. 61.) The sophis of Persia can
produce a more regular succession; and in the last age, our
European travellers were the witnesses and companions of their
revels.]
In the reign of Amurath, he twice tasted of royalty, and twice
descended from the throne: his tender age was incapable of
opposing his father’s restoration, but never could he forgive the
viziers who had recommended that salutary measure. His nuptials
were celebrated with the daughter of a Turkman emir; and, after a
festival of two months, he departed from Adrianople with his
bride, to reside in the government of Magnesia. Before the end of
six weeks, he was recalled by a sudden message from the divan,
which announced the decease of Amurath, and the mutinous spirit
of the Janizaries. His speed and vigor commanded their obedience:
he passed the Hellespont with a chosen guard: and at the distance
of a mile from Adrianople, the viziers and emirs, the imams and
cadhis, the soldiers and the people, fell prostrate before the
new sultan. They affected to weep, they affected to rejoice: he
ascended the throne at the age of twenty-one years, and removed
the cause of sedition by the death, the inevitable death, of his
infant brothers. 9 901 The ambassadors of Europe and Asia soon
appeared to congratulate his accession and solicit his
friendship; and to all he spoke the language of moderation and
peace. The confidence of the Greek emperor was revived by the
solemn oaths and fair assurances with which he sealed the
ratification of the treaty: and a rich domain on the banks of the
Strymon was assigned for the annual payment of three hundred
thousand aspers, the pension of an Ottoman prince, who was
detained at his request in the Byzantine court. Yet the neighbors
of Mahomet might tremble at the severity with which a youthful
monarch reformed the pomp of his father’s household: the expenses
of luxury were applied to those of ambition, and a useless train
of seven thousand falconers was either dismissed from his
service, or enlisted in his troops. 902 In the first summer of
his reign, he visited with an army the Asiatic provinces; but
after humbling the pride, Mahomet accepted the submission, of the
Caramanian, that he might not be diverted by the smallest
obstacle from the execution of his great design. 10
9 (return) [ Calapin, one of these royal infants, was saved from
his cruel brother, and baptized at Rome under the name of
Callistus Othomannus. The emperor Frederic III. presented him
with an estate in Austria, where he ended his life; and
Cuspinian, who in his youth conversed with the aged prince at
Vienna, applauds his piety and wisdom, (de Cæsaribus, p. 672,
673.)]
901 (return) [ Ahmed, the son of a Greek princess, was the object
of his especial jealousy. Von Hammer, p. 501.—M.]
902 (return) [ The Janizaries obtained, for the first time, a
gift on the accession of a new sovereign, p. 504.—M.]
10 (return) [ See the accession of Mahomet II. in Ducas, (c. 33,)
Phranza, (l. i. c. 33, l. iii. c. 2,) Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p.
199,) and Cantemir, (p. 96.)]
The Mahometan, and more especially the Turkish casuists, have
pronounced that no promise can bind the faithful against the
interest and duty of their religion; and that the sultan may
abrogate his own treaties and those of his predecessors. The
justice and magnanimity of Amurath had scorned this immoral
privilege; but his son, though the proudest of men, could stoop
from ambition to the basest arts of dissimulation and deceit.
Peace was on his lips, while war was in his heart: he incessantly
sighed for the possession of Constantinople; and the Greeks, by
their own indiscretion, afforded the first pretence of the fatal
rupture. 11 Instead of laboring to be forgotten, their
ambassadors pursued his camp, to demand the payment, and even the
increase, of their annual stipend: the divan was importuned by
their complaints, and the vizier, a secret friend of the
Christians, was constrained to deliver the sense of his brethren.
“Ye foolish and miserable Romans,” said Calil, “we know your
devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger! The scrupulous
Amurath is no more; his throne is occupied by a young conqueror,
whom no laws can bind, and no obstacles can resist: and if you
escape from his hands, give praise to the divine clemency, which
yet delays the chastisement of your sins. Why do ye seek to
affright us by vain and indirect menaces? Release the fugitive
Orchan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from
beyond the Danube; arm against us the nations of the West; and be
assured, that you will only provoke and precipitate your ruin.”
But if the fears of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern
language of the vizier, they were soothed by the courteous
audience and friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince; and Mahomet
assured them that on his return to Adrianople he would redress
the grievances, and consult the true interests, of the Greeks. No
sooner had he repassed the Hellespont, than he issued a mandate
to suppress their pension, and to expel their officers from the
banks of the Strymon: in this measure he betrayed a hostile mind;
and the second order announced, and in some degree commenced, the
siege of Constantinople. In the narrow pass of the Bosphorus, an
Asiatic fortress had formerly been raised by his grandfather; in
the opposite situation, on the European side, he resolved to
erect a more formidable castle; and a thousand masons were
commanded to assemble in the spring on a spot named Asomaton,
about five miles from the Greek metropolis. 12 Persuasion is the
resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade: the
ambassadors of the emperor attempted, without success, to divert
Mahomet from the execution of his design. They represented, that
his grandfather had solicited the permission of Manuel to build a
castle on his own territories; but that this double
fortification, which would command the strait, could only tend to
violate the alliance of the nations; to intercept the Latins who
traded in the Black Sea, and perhaps to annihilate the
subsistence of the city. “I form no enterprise,” replied the
perfidious sultan, “against the city; but the empire of
Constantinople is measured by her walls. Have you forgot the
distress to which my father was reduced when you formed a league
with the Hungarians; when they invaded our country by land, and
the Hellespont was occupied by the French galleys? Amurath was
compelled to force the passage of the Bosphorus; and your
strength was not equal to your malevolence. I was then a child at
Adrianople; the Moslems trembled; and, for a while, the _Gabours_
13 insulted our disgrace. But when my father had triumphed in the
field of Warna, he vowed to erect a fort on the western shore,
and that vow it is my duty to accomplish. Have ye the right, have
ye the power, to control my actions on my own ground? For that
ground is my own: as far as the shores of the Bosphorus, Asia is
inhabited by the Turks, and Europe is deserted by the Romans.
Return, and inform your king, that the present Ottoman is far
different from his predecessors; that _his_ resolutions surpass
_their_ wishes; and that _he_ performs more _than_ they could
resolve. Return in safety—but the next who delivers a similar
message may expect to be flayed alive.” After this declaration,
Constantine, the first of the Greeks in spirit as in rank, 14 had
determined to unsheathe the sword, and to resist the approach and
establishment of the Turks on the Bosphorus. He was disarmed by
the advice of his civil and ecclesiastical ministers, who
recommended a system less generous, and even less prudent, than
his own, to approve their patience and long-suffering, to brand
the Ottoman with the name and guilt of an aggressor, and to
depend on chance and time for their own safety, and the
destruction of a fort which could not long be maintained in the
neighborhood of a great and populous city. Amidst hope and fear,
the fears of the wise, and the hopes of the credulous, the winter
rolled away; the proper business of each man, and each hour, was
postponed; and the Greeks shut their eyes against the impending
danger, till the arrival of the spring and the sultan decide the
assurance of their ruin.
11 (return) [ Before I enter on the siege of Constantinople, I
shall observe, that except the short hints of Cantemir and
Leunclavius, I have not been able to obtain any Turkish account
of this conquest; such an account as we possess of the siege of
Rhodes by Soliman II., (Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions,
tom. xxvi. p. 723—769.) I must therefore depend on the Greeks,
whose prejudices, in some degree, are subdued by their distress.
Our standard texts ar those of Ducas, (c. 34—42,) Phranza, (l.
iii. c. 7—20,) Chalcondyles, (l. viii. p. 201—214,) and Leonardus
Chiensis, (Historia C. P. a Turco expugnatæ. Norimberghæ, 1544,
in 4to., 20 leaves.) The last of these narratives is the earliest
in date, since it was composed in the Isle of Chios, the 16th of
August, 1453, only seventy-nine days after the loss of the city,
and in the first confusion of ideas and passions. Some hints may
be added from an epistle of Cardinal Isidore (in Farragine Rerum
Turcicarum, ad calcem Chalcondyl. Clauseri, Basil, 1556) to Pope
Nicholas V., and a tract of Theodosius Zygomala, which he
addressed in the year 1581 to Martin Crucius, (Turco-Græcia, l.
i. p. 74—98, Basil, 1584.) The various facts and materials are
briefly, though critically, reviewed by Spondanus, (A.D. 1453,
No. 1—27.) The hearsay relations of Monstrelet and the distant
Latins I shall take leave to disregard. * Note: M. Von Hammer has
added little new information on the siege of Constantinople, and,
by his general agreement, has borne an honorable testimony to the
truth, and by his close imitation to the graphic spirit and
boldness, of Gibbon.—M.]
12 (return) [ The situation of the fortress, and the topography
of the Bosphorus, are best learned from Peter Gyllius, (de
Bosphoro Thracio, l. ii. c. 13,) Leunclavius, (Pandect. p. 445,)
and Tournefort, (Voyage dans le Levant, tom. ii. lettre xv. p.
443, 444;) but I must regret the map or plan which Tournefort
sent to the French minister of the marine. The reader may turn
back to chap. xvii. of this History.]
13 (return) [ The opprobrious name which the Turks bestow on the
infidels, is expressed Kabour by Ducas, and _Giaour_ by
Leunclavius and the moderns. The former term is derived by
Ducange (Gloss. Græc tom. i. p. 530) from Kabouron, in vulgar
Greek, a tortoise, as denoting a retrograde motion from the
faith. But alas! _Gabour_ is no more than _Gheber_, which was
transferred from the Persian to the Turkish language, from the
worshippers of fire to those of the crucifix, (D’Herbelot,
Bibliot. Orient. p. 375.)]
14 (return) [ Phranza does justice to his master’s sense and
courage. Calliditatem hominis non ignorans Imperator prior arma
movere constituit, and stigmatizes the folly of the cum sacri tum
profani proceres, which he had heard, amentes spe vanâ pasci.
Ducas was not a privy-counsellor.]
Of a master who never forgives, the orders are seldom disobeyed.
On the twenty-sixth of March, the appointed spot of Asomaton was
covered with an active swarm of Turkish artificers; and the
materials by sea and land were diligently transported from Europe
and Asia. 15 The lime had been burnt in Cataphrygia; the timber
was cut down in the woods of Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the
stones were dug from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thousand
masons was assisted by two workmen; and a measure of two cubits
was marked for their daily task. The fortress 16 was built in a
triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong and massy
tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the sea-shore:
a thickness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the walls, thirty
for the towers; and the whole building was covered with a solid
platform of lead. Mahomet himself pressed and directed the work
with indefatigable ardor: his three viziers claimed the honor of
finishing their respective towers; the zeal of the cadhis
emulated that of the Janizaries; the meanest labor was ennobled
by the service of God and the sultan; and the diligence of the
multitude was quickened by the eye of a despot, whose smile was
the hope of fortune, and whose frown was the messenger of death.
The Greek emperor beheld with terror the irresistible progress of
the work; and vainly strove, by flattery and gifts, to assuage an
implacable foe, who sought, and secretly fomented, the slightest
occasion of a quarrel. Such occasions must soon and inevitably be
found. The ruins of stately churches, and even the marble columns
which had been consecrated to Saint Michael the archangel, were
employed without scruple by the profane and rapacious Moslems;
and some Christians, who presumed to oppose the removal, received
from their hands the crown of martyrdom. Constantine had
solicited a Turkish guard to protect the fields and harvests of
his subjects: the guard was fixed; but their first order was to
allow free pasture to the mules and horses of the camp, and to
defend their brethren if they should be molested by the natives.
The retinue of an Ottoman chief had left their horses to pass the
night among the ripe corn; the damage was felt; the insult was
resented; and several of both nations were slain in a tumultuous
conflict. Mahomet listened with joy to the complaint; and a
detachment was commanded to exterminate the guilty village: the
guilty had fled; but forty innocent and unsuspecting reapers were
massacred by the soldiers. Till this provocation, Constantinople
had been opened to the visits of commerce and curiosity: on the
first alarm, the gates were shut; but the emperor, still anxious
for peace, released on the third day his Turkish captives; 17 and
expressed, in a last message, the firm resignation of a Christian
and a soldier. “Since neither oaths, nor treaty, nor submission,
can secure peace, pursue,” said he to Mahomet, “your impious
warfare. My trust is in God alone; if it should please him to
mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if he
delivers the city into your hands, I submit without a murmur to
his holy will. But until the Judge of the earth shall pronounce
between us, it is my duty to live and die in the defence of my
people.” The sultan’s answer was hostile and decisive: his
fortifications were completed; and before his departure for
Adrianople, he stationed a vigilant Aga and four hundred
Janizaries, to levy a tribute on the ships of every nation that
should pass within the reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel,
refusing obedience to the new lords of the Bosphorus, was sunk
with a single bullet. 171 The master and thirty sailors escaped
in the boat; but they were dragged in chains to the _Porte_: the
chief was impaled; his companions were beheaded; and the
historian Ducas 18 beheld, at Demotica, their bodies exposed to
the wild beasts. The siege of Constantinople was deferred till
the ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marched into the Morea to
divert the force of the brothers of Constantine. At this æra of
calamity, one of these princes, the despot Thomas, was blessed or
afflicted with the birth of a son; “the last heir,” says the
plaintive Phranza, “of the last spark of the Roman empire.” 19
15 (return) [ Instead of this clear and consistent account, the
Turkish Annals (Cantemir, p. 97) revived the foolish tale of the
ox’s hide, and Dido’s stratagem in the foundation of Carthage.
These annals (unless we are swayed by an anti-Christian
prejudice) are far less valuable than the Greek historians.]
16 (return) [ In the dimensions of this fortress, the old castle
of Europe, Phranza does not exactly agree with Chalcondyles,
whose description has been verified on the spot by his editor
Leunclavius.]
17 (return) [ Among these were some pages of Mahomet, so
conscious of his inexorable rigor, that they begged to lose their
heads in the city unless they could return before sunset.]
171 (return) [ This was from a model cannon cast by Urban the
Hungarian. See p. 291. Von Hammer. p. 510.—M.]
18 (return) [ Ducas, c. 35. Phranza, (l. iii. c. 3,) who had
sailed in his vessel, commemorates the Venetian pilot as a
martyr.]
19 (return) [ Auctum est Palæologorum genus, et Imperii
successor, parvæque Romanorum scintillæ hæres natus, Andreas,
&c., (Phranza, l. iii. c. 7.) The strong expression was inspired
by his feelings.]
The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious and sleepless winter:
the former were kept awake by their fears, the latter by their
hopes; both by the preparations of defence and attack; and the
two emperors, who had the most to lose or to gain, were the most
deeply affected by the national sentiment. In Mahomet, that
sentiment was inflamed by the ardor of his youth and temper: he
amused his leisure with building at Adrianople 20 the lofty
palace of Jehan Numa, (the watchtower of the world;) but his
serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the conquest of the
city of Cæsar. At the dead of night, about the second watch, he
started from his bed, and commanded the instant attendance of his
prime vizier. The message, the hour, the prince, and his own
situation, alarmed the guilty conscience of Calil Basha; who had
possessed the confidence, and advised the restoration, of
Amurath. On the accession of the son, the vizier was confirmed in
his office and the appearances of favor; but the veteran
statesman was not insensible that he trod on a thin and slippery
ice, which might break under his footsteps, and plunge him in the
abyss. His friendship for the Christians, which might be innocent
under the late reign, had stigmatized him with the name of Gabour
Ortachi, or foster-brother of the infidels; 21 and his avarice
entertained a venal and treasonable correspondence, which was
detected and punished after the conclusion of the war. On
receiving the royal mandate, he embraced, perhaps for the last
time, his wife and children; filled a cup with pieces of gold,
hastened to the palace, adored the sultan, and offered, according
to the Oriental custom, the slight tribute of his duty and
gratitude. 22 “It is not my wish,” said Mahomet, “to resume my
gifts, but rather to heap and multiply them on thy head. In my
turn, I ask a present far more valuable and
important;—Constantinople.” As soon as the vizier had recovered
from his surprise, “The same God,” said he, “who has already
given thee so large a portion of the Roman empire, will not deny
the remnant, and the capital. His providence, and thy power,
assure thy success; and myself, with the rest of thy faithful
slaves, will sacrifice our lives and fortunes.”—“Lala,” 23 (or
preceptor,) continued the sultan, “do you see this pillow? All
the night, in my agitation, I have pulled it on one side and the
other; I have risen from my bed, again have I lain down; yet
sleep has not visited these weary eyes. Beware of the gold and
silver of the Romans: in arms we are superior; and with the aid
of God, and the prayers of the prophet, we shall speedily become
masters of Constantinople.” To sound the disposition of his
soldiers, he often wandered through the streets alone, and in
disguise; and it was fatal to discover the sultan, when he wished
to escape from the vulgar eye. His hours were spent in
delineating the plan of the hostile city; in debating with his
generals and engineers, on what spot he should erect his
batteries; on which side he should assault the walls; where he
should spring his mines; to what place he should apply his
scaling-ladders: and the exercises of the day repeated and proved
the lucubrations of the night.
20 (return) [ Cantemir, p. 97, 98. The sultan was either doubtful
of his conquest, or ignorant of the superior merits of
Constantinople. A city or a kingdom may sometimes be ruined by
the Imperial fortune of their sovereign.]
21 (return) [ SuntrojoV, by the president Cousin, is translated
_père_ nourricier, most correctly indeed from the Latin version;
but in his haste he has overlooked the note by which Ishmael
Boillaud (ad Ducam, c. 35) acknowledges and rectifies his own
error.]
22 (return) [ The Oriental custom of never appearing without
gifts before a sovereign or a superior is of high antiquity, and
seems analogous with the idea of sacrifice, still more ancient
and universal. See the examples of such Persian gifts, Ælian,
Hist. Var. l. i. c. 31, 32, 33.]
23 (return) [ The _Lala_ of the Turks (Cantemir, p. 34) and the
_Tata_ of the Greeks (Ducas, c. 35) are derived from the natural
language of children; and it may be observed, that all such
primitive words which denote their parents, are the simple
repetition of one syllable, composed of a labial or a dental
consonant and an open vowel, (Des Brosses, Méchanisme des
Langues, tom. i. p. 231—247.)]