Life in Aleppo.
Our Entry into Aleppo--We are conducted to a House--Our Unexpected
Welcome--The Mystery Explained--Aleppo--Its Name--Its Situation--The
Trade of Aleppo--The Christians--The Revolt of 1850--Present Appearance
of the City--Visit to Osman Pasha--The Citadel--View from the
Battlements--Society in Aleppo--Etiquette and Costume--Jewish Marriage
Festivities--A Christian Marriage Procession--Ride around the
Town--Nightingales--The Aleppo Button--A Hospital for Cats--Ferhat
Pasha.
Aleppo, _Tuesday, June_ 8, 1852.
Our entry into Aleppo was a fitting preliminary to our experiences during
the five days we have spent here. After passing a blackamoor, who acted as
an advanced guard of the Custom House, at a ragged tent outside of the
city, and bribing him with two piastres, we crossed the narrow line of
gardens on the western side, and entered the streets. There were many
coffee-houses, filled with smokers, nearly all of whom accosted us in
Turkish, though Arabic is the prevailing language here. Ignorance made us
discourteous, and we slighted every attempt to open a conversation. Out of
the narrow streets of the suburbs, we advanced to the bazaars, in order to
find a khan where we could obtain lodgings. All the best khans, however,
were filled, and we were about to take a very inferior room, when a
respectable individual came up to François and said: "The house is ready
for the travellers, and I will show you the way." We were a little
surprised at this address, but followed him to a neat, quiet and pleasant
street near the bazaars, where we were ushered into a spacious court-yard,
with a row of apartments opening upon it, and told to make ourselves at
home.
The place had evidently been recently inhabited, for the rooms were well
furnished, with not only divans, but beds in the Frank style. A lean
kitten was scratching at one of the windows, to the great danger of
overturning a pair of narghilehs, a tame sea-gull was walking about the
court, and two sheep bleated in a stable at the further end. In the
kitchen we not only found a variety of utensils, but eggs, salt, pepper,
and other condiments. Our guide had left, and the only information we
could get, from a dyeing establishment next door, was that the occupants
had gone into the country. "Take the good the gods provide thee," is my
rule in such cases, and as we were very hungry, we set François to work at
preparing dinner. We arranged a divan in the open air, had a table brought
out, and by the aid of the bakers in the bazaar, and the stores which the
kitchen supplied, soon rejoiced over a very palatable meal. The romantic
character of our reception made the dinner a merry one. It was a chapter
out of the Arabian Nights, and be he genie or afrite, caliph or merchant
of Bassora, into whose hands we had fallen, we resolved to let the
adventure take its course. We were just finishing a nondescript pastry
which François found at a baker's, and which, for want of a better name,
he called _méringues à la Khorassan,_ when there was a loud knock at the
street door. We felt at first some little trepidation, but determined to
maintain our places, and gravely invite the real master to join us.
It was a female servant, however, who, to our great amazement, made a
profound salutation, and seemed delighted to see us. "My master did not
expect your Excellencies to-day; he has gone into the gardens, but will
soon return. Will your Excellencies take coffee after your dinner?" and
coffee was forthwith served. The old woman was unremitting in her
attentions; and her son, a boy of eight years, and the most venerable
child I ever saw, entertained us with the description of a horse which his
master had just bought--a horse which had cost two thousand piastres, and
was ninety years old. Well, this Aleppo is an extraordinary place, was my
first impression, and the inhabitants are remarkable people; but I waited
the master's arrival, as the only means of solving the mystery. About
dusk, there was another rap at the door. A lady dressed in white, with an
Indian handkerchief bound over her black hair, arrived. "Pray excuse us,"
said she; "we thought you would not reach here before to-morrow; but my
brother will come directly." In fact, the brother did come soon
afterwards, and greeted us with a still warmer welcome. "Before leaving
the gardens," he said, "I heard of your arrival, and have come in a full
gallop the whole way." In order to put an end to this comedy of errors, I
declared at once that he was mistaken; nobody in Aleppo could possibly
know of our coming, and we were, perhaps, transgressing on his
hospitality. But no: he would not be convinced. He was a dragoman to the
English Consulate; his master had told him we would be here the next day,
and he must be prepared to receive us. Besides, the janissary of the
Consulate had showed us the way to his house. We, therefore, let the
matter rest until next morning, when we called on Mr. Very, the Consul,
who informed us that the janissary had mistaken us for two gentlemen we
had met in Damascus, the travelling companions of Lord Dalkeith. As they
had not arrived, he begged us to remain in the quarters which had been
prepared for them. We have every reason to be glad of this mistake, as it
has made us acquainted with one of the most courteous and hospitable
gentlemen in the East.
Aleppo lies so far out of the usual routes of travel, that it is rarely
visited by Europeans. One is not, therefore, as in the case of Damascus,
prepared beforehand by volumes of description, which preclude all
possibility of mistake or surprise. For my part, I only knew that Aleppo
had once been the greatest commercial city of the Orient, though its power
had long since passed into other hands. But there were certain stately
associations lingering around the name, which drew me towards it, and
obliged me to include it, at all hazards, in my Asiatic tour. The scanty
description of Captains Irby and Mangles, the only one I had read, gave me
no distinct idea of its position or appearance; and when, the other day, I
first saw it looming grand and gray among the gray hills, more like a vast
natural crystallization than the product of human art, I revelled in the
novelty of that startling first impression.
The tradition of the city's name is curious, and worth relating. It is
called, in Arabic, _Haleb el-Shahba_--Aleppo, the Gray--which most persons
suppose to refer to the prevailing color of the soil. The legend, however,
goes much farther. _Haleb_, which the Venetians and Genoese softened into
Aleppo, means literally: "has milked," According to Arab tradition, the
patriarch Abraham once lived here: his tent being pitched near the mound
now occupied by the citadel. He had a certain gray cow (_el-shahba_)
which was milked every morning for the benefit of the poor. When,
therefore, it was proclaimed: "_Ibrahim haleb el-shahba_" (Abraham has
milked the gray cow), all the poor of the tribe came up to receive their
share. The repetition of this morning call attached itself to the spot,
and became the name of the city which was afterwards founded.
Aleppo is built on the eastern slope of a shallow upland basin, through
which flows the little River Koweik. There are low hills to the north and
south, between which the country falls into a wide, monotonous plain,
extending unbroken to the Euphrates. The city is from eight to ten miles
in circuit, and, though not so thickly populated, covers a greater extent
of space than Damascus. The population is estimated at 100,000. In the
excellence (not the elegance) of its architecture, it surpasses any
Oriental city I have yet seen. The houses are all of hewn stone,
frequently three and even four stories in height, and built in a most
massive and durable style, on account of the frequency of earthquakes. The
streets are well paved, clean, with narrow sidewalks, and less tortuous
and intricate than the bewildering alleys of Damascus. A large part of the
town is occupied with bazaars, attesting the splendor of its former
commerce. These establishments are covered with lofty vaults of stone,
lighted from the top; and one may walk for miles beneath the spacious
roofs. The shops exhibit all the stuffs of the East, especially of Persia
and India. There is also an extensive display of European fabrics, as the
eastern provinces of Asiatic Turkey, as far as Baghdad, are supplied
entirely from Aleppo and Trebizond.
Within ten years--in fact, since the Allied Powers drove Ibrahim Pasha
out of Syria--the trade of Aleppo has increased, at the expense of
Damascus. The tribes of the Desert, who were held in check during the
Egyptian occupancy, are now so unruly that much of the commerce between
the latter place and Baghdad goes northward to Mosul, and thence by a
safer road to this city. The khans, of which there are a great number,
built on a scale according with the former magnificence of Aleppo, are
nearly all filled, and Persian, Georgian, and Armenian merchants again
make their appearance in the bazaars. The principal manufactures carried
on are the making of shoes (which, indeed, is a prominent branch in every
Turkish city), and the weaving of silk and golden tissues. Two long
bazaars are entirely occupied with shoe-shops, and there is nearly a
quarter of a mile of confectionery, embracing more varieties than I ever
saw, or imagined possible. I saw yesterday the operation of weaving silk
and gold, which is a very slow process. The warp and the body of the woof
were of purple silk. The loom only differed from the old hand-looms in
general use in having some thirty or forty contrivances for lifting the
threads of the warp, so as to form, by variation, certain patterns. The
gold threads by which the pattern was worked were contained in twenty
small shuttles, thrust by hand under the different parcels of the warp, as
they were raised by a boy trained for that purpose, who sat on the top of
the loom. The fabric was very brilliant in its appearance, and sells, as
the weavers informed me, at 100 piastres per _pik_--about $7 per yard.
We had letters to Mr. Ford, an American Missionary established here, and
Signor di Picciotto, who acts as American Vice-Consul. Both gentlemen have
been very cordial in their offers of service, and by their aid we have
been enabled to see something of Aleppo life and society. Mr. Ford, who
has been here four years, has a pleasant residence at Jedaida, a Christian
suburb of the city. His congregation numbers some fifty or sixty
proselytes, who are mostly from the schismatic sects of the Armenians. Dr.
Smith, who established the mission at Ain-tab (two days' journey north of
this), where he died last year, was very successful among these sects, and
the congregation there amounts to nine hundred. The Sultan, a year ago,
issued a firman, permitting his Christian subjects to erect houses of
worship; but, although this was proclaimed in Constantinople and much
lauded in Europe as an act of great generosity and tolerance, there has
been no official promulgation of it here. So of the aid which the Turkish
Government was said to have afforded to its destitute Christian subjects,
whose houses were sacked during the fanatical rebellion of 1850. The world
praised the Sultan's charity and love of justice, while the sufferers, to
this day, lack the first experience of it. But for the spontaneous relief
contributed in Europe and among the Christian communities of the Levant,
the amount of misery would have been frightful.
To Feridj Pasha, who is at present the commander of the forces here, is
mainly due the credit of having put down the rebels with a strong hand.
There were but few troops in the city at the time of the outbreak, and as
the insurgents, who were composed of the Turkish and Arab population, were
in league with the Aneyzehs of the Desert, the least faltering or delay
would have led to a universal massacre of the Christians. Fortunately, the
troops were divided into two portions, one occupying the barracks on a
hill north of the city, and the other, a mere corporal's guard of a dozen
men, posted in the citadel. The leaders of the outbreak went to the latter
and offered him a large sum of money (the spoils of Christian houses) to
give up the fortress. With a loyalty to his duty truly miraculous among
the Turks, he ordered his men to fire upon them, and they beat a hasty
retreat. The quarter of the insurgents lay precisely between the barracks
and the citadel, and by order of Feridj Pasha a cannonade was immediately
opened on it from both points. It was not, however, until many houses had
been battered down, and a still larger number destroyed by fire, that the
rebels were brought to submission. Their allies, the Aneyzehs, appeared on
the hill east of Aleppo, to the number of five or six thousand, but a few
well-directed cannon-balls told them what they might expect, and they
speedily retreated. Two or three hundred Christian families lost nearly
all of their property during the sack, and many were left entirely
destitute. The house in which Mr. Ford lives was plundered of jewels and
furniture to the amount of 400,000 piastres ($20,000). The robbers, it is
said, were amazed at the amount of spoil they found. The Government made
some feeble efforts to recover it, but the greater part was already sold
and scattered through a thousand hands, and the unfortunate Christians
have only received about seven per cent. of their loss.
The burnt quarter has since been rebuilt, and I noticed several Christians
occupying shops in various parts of it. But many families, who fled at the
time, still remain in various parts of Syria, afraid to return to their
homes. The Aneyzehs and other Desert tribes have latterly become more
daring than ever. Even in the immediate neighborhood of the city, the
inhabitants are so fearful of them that all the grain is brought up to
the very walls to be threshed. The burying-grounds on both sides are now
turned into threshing-floors, and all day long the Turkish peasants drive
their heavy sleds around among the tomb-stones.
On the second day after our arrival, we paid a visit to Osman Pasha,
Governor of the City and Province of Aleppo. We went in state, accompanied
by the Consul, with two janissaries in front, bearing silver maces, and a
dragoman behind. The _seraï_, or palace, is a large, plain wooden
building, and a group of soldiers about the door, with a shabby carriage
in the court, were the only tokens of its character. We were ushered at
once into the presence of the Pasha, who is a man of about seventy years,
with a good-humored, though shrewd face. He was quite cordial in his
manners, complimenting us on our Turkish costume, and vaunting his skill
in physiognomy, which at once revealed to him that we belonged to the
highest class of American nobility. In fact, in the firman which he has
since sent us, we are mentioned as "nobles." He invited us to pass a day
or two with him, saying that he should derive much benefit from our
superior knowledge. We replied that such an intercourse could only benefit
ourselves, as his greater experience, and the distinguished wisdom which
had made his name long since familiar to our ears, precluded the hope of
our being of any service to him. After half an hour's stay, during which
we were regaled with jewelled pipes, exquisite Mocha coffee, and sherbet
breathing of the gardens of Gülistan, we took our leave.
The Pasha sent an officer to show us the citadel. We passed around the
moat to the entrance on the western side, consisting of a bridge and
double gateway. The fortress, as I have already stated, occupies the crest
of an elliptical mound, about one thousand feet by six hundred, and two
hundred feet in height. It is entirely encompassed by the city and forms a
prominent and picturesque feature in the distant view thereof. Formerly,
it was thickly inhabited, and at the time of the great earthquake of 1822,
there were three hundred families living within the walls, nearly all of
whom perished. The outer walls were very much shattered on that occasion,
but the enormous towers and the gateway, the grandest specimen of
Saracenic architecture in the East, still remain entire. This gateway, by
which we entered, is colossal in its proportions. The outer entrance,
through walls ten feet thick, admitted us into a lofty vestibule lined
with marble, and containing many ancient inscriptions in mosaic. Over the
main portal, which is adorned with sculptured lions' heads, there is a
tablet stating that the fortress was built by El Melek el Ashraf (the
Holiest of Kings), after which follows: "Prosperity to the True
Believers--Death to the Infidels!" A second tablet shows that it was
afterwards repaired by Mohammed ebn-Berkook, who, I believe, was one of
the Fatimite Caliphs. The shekh of the citadel, who accompanied us, stated
the age of the structure at nine hundred years, which, as nearly as I can
recollect the Saracenic chronology, is correct. He called our attention to
numbers of iron arrow-heads sticking in the solid masonry--the marks of
ancient sieges. Before leaving, we were presented with a bundle of arrows
from the armory--undoubted relics of Saracen warfare.
The citadel is now a mass of ruins, having been deserted since the
earthquake. Grass is growing on the ramparts, and the caper plant, with
its white-and-purple blossoms, flourishes among the piles of rubbish.
Since the late rebellion, however, a small military barrack has been
built, and two companies of soldiers are stationed there, We walked around
the walls, which command a magnificent view of the city and the wide
plains to the south and east. It well deserves to rank with the panorama
of Cairo from the citadel, and that of Damascus from the Anti-Lebanon, in
extent, picturesqueness and rich oriental character. Out of the gray ring
of the city, which incloses the mound, rise the great white domes and the
whiter minarets of its numerous mosques, many of which are grand and
imposing structures. The course of the river through the centre of the
picture is marked by a belt of the greenest verdure, beyond which, to the
west, rises a chain of naked red hills, and still further, fading on the
horizon, the blue summit of Mt. St. Simon, and the coast range of Akma
Dagh. Eastward, over vast orchards of pistachio trees, the barren plain of
the Euphrates fades away to a glimmering, hot horizon. Looking downwards
on the heart of the city, I was surprised to see a number of open, grassy
tracts, out of which, here and there, small trees were growing. But,
perceiving what appeared to be subterranean entrances at various points, I
found that these tracts were upon the roofs of the houses and bazaars,
verifying what I had frequently heard, that in Aleppo the inhabitants
visit their friends in different parts of the city, by passing over the
roofs of the houses. Previous to the earthquake of 1822, these vast
roof-plains were cultivated as gardens, and presented an extent of airy
bowers as large, if not as magnificent, as the renowned Hanging Gardens of
ancient Babylon.
Accompanied by Signor di Picciotto, we spent two or three days in
visiting the houses of the principal Jewish and Christian families in
Aleppo. We found, it is true, no such splendor as in Damascus, but more
solid and durable architecture, and a more chastened elegance of taste.
The buildings are all of hewn stone, the court-yards paved with marble,
and the walls rich with gilding and carved wood. Some of the larger
dwellings have small but beautiful gardens attached to them. We were
everywhere received with the greatest hospitality, and the visits were
considered as a favor rather than an intrusion. Indeed, I was frequently
obliged to run the risk of giving offence, by declining the refreshments
which were offered us. Each round of visits was a feat of strength, and we
were obliged to desist from sheer inability to support more coffee,
rose-water, pipes, and aromatic sweetmeats. The character of society in
Aleppo is singular; its very life and essence is etiquette. The laws which
govern it are more inviolable than those of the Medes and Persians. The
question of precedence among the different families is adjusted by the
most delicate scale, and rigorously adhered to in the most trifling
matters. Even we, humble voyagers as we are, have been obliged to regulate
our conduct according to it. After our having visited certain families,
certain others would have been deeply mortified had we neglected to call
upon them. Formerly, when a traveller arrived here, he was expected to
call upon the different Consuls, in the order of their established
precedence: the Austrian first, English second, French third, &c. After
this, he was obliged to stay at home several days, to give the Consuls an
opportunity of returning the visits, which they made in the same order.
There was a diplomatic importance about all his movements, and the least
violation of etiquette, through ignorance or neglect, was the town talk
for days.
This peculiarity in society is evidently a relic of the formal times, when
Aleppo was a semi-Venetian city, and the opulent seat of Eastern commerce.
Many of the inhabitants are descended from the traders of those times, and
they all speak the _lingua franca_, or Levantine Italian. The women wear a
costume partly Turkish and partly European, combining the graces of both;
it is, in my eyes, the most beautiful dress in the world. They wear a rich
scarf of some dark color on the head, which, on festive occasions, is
almost concealed by their jewels, and the heavy scarlet pomegranate
blossoms which adorn their dark hair. A Turkish vest and sleeves of
embroidered silk, open in front, and a skirt of white or some light color,
completes the costume. The Jewesses wear in addition a short Turkish
_caftan_, and full trousers gathered at the ankles. At a ball given by Mr.
Very, the English Consul, which we attended, all the Christian beauties of
Aleppo were present. There was a fine display of diamonds, many of the
ladies wearing several thousand dollars' worth on their heads. The
peculiar etiquette of the place was again illustrated on this occasion.
The custom is, that the music must be heard for at least one hour before
the guests come. The hour appointed was eight, but when we went there, at
nine, nobody had arrived. As it was generally supposed that the ball was
given on our account, several of the families had servants in the
neighborhood to watch our arrival; and, accordingly, we had not been there
five minutes before the guests crowded through the door in large numbers.
When the first dance (an Arab dance, performed by two ladies at a time)
was proposed, the wives of the French and Spanish Consuls were first led,
or rather dragged, out. When a lady is asked to dance, she invariably
refuses. She is asked a second and a third time; and if the gentleman does
not solicit most earnestly, and use some gentle force in getting her upon
the floor, she never forgives him.
At one of the Jewish houses which we visited, the wedding festivities of
one of the daughters were being celebrated. We were welcomed with great
cordiality, and immediately ushered into the room of state, an elegant
apartment, overlooking the gardens below the city wall. Half the room was
occupied by a raised platform, with a divan of blue silk cushions. Here
the ladies reclined, in superb dresses of blue, pink, and gold, while the
gentlemen were ranged on the floor below. They all rose at our entrance,
and we were conducted to seats among the ladies. Pipes and perfumed drinks
were served, and the bridal cake, made of twenty-six different fruits, was
presented on a golden salver. Our fair neighbors, some of whom literally
blazed with jewels, were strikingly beautiful. Presently the bride
appeared at the door, and we all rose and remained standing, as she
advanced, supported on each side by the two _shebeeniyeh_, or bridesmaids.
She was about sixteen, slight and graceful in appearance, though not
decidedly beautiful, and was attired with the utmost elegance. Her dress
was a pale blue silk, heavy with gold embroidery; and over her long dark
hair, her neck, bosom, and wrists, played a thousand rainbow gleams from
the jewels which covered them. The Jewish musicians, seated at the bottom
of the hall, struck up a loud, rejoicing harmony on their violins,
guitars, and dulcimers, and the women servants, grouped at the door,
uttered in chorus that wild, shrill cry, which accompanies all such
festivals in the East. The bride was careful to preserve the decorum
expected of her, by speaking no word, nor losing the sad, resigned
expression of her countenance. She ascended to the divan, bowed to each of
us with a low, reverential inclination, and seated herself on the
cushions. The music and dances lasted some time, accompanied by the
_zughàreet_, or cry of the women, which was repeated with double force
when we rose to take leave. The whole company waited on us to the street
door, and one of the servants, stationed in the court, shouted some long,
sing-song phrases after us as we passed out. I could not learn the words,
but was told that it was an invocation of prosperity upon us, in return
for the honor which our visit had conferred.
In the evening I went to view a Christian marriage procession, which,
about midnight, conveyed the bride to the house of the bridegroom. The
house, it appeared, was too small to receive all the friends of the
family, and I joined a large number of them, who repaired to the terrace
of the English Consulate, to greet the procession as it passed. The first
persons who appeared were a company of buffoons; after them four
janissaries, carrying silver maces; then the male friends, bearing colored
lanterns and perfumed torches, raised on gilded poles; then the females,
among whom I saw some beautiful Madonna faces in the torchlight; and
finally the bride herself, covered from head to foot with a veil of cloth
of gold, and urged along by two maidens: for it is the etiquette of such
occasions that the bride should resist being taken, and must be forced
every step of the way, so that she is frequently three hours in going the
distance of a mile. We watched the procession a long time, winding away
through the streets--a line of torches, and songs, and incense, and noisy
jubilee--under the sweet starlit heaven.
The other evening, Signor di Picciotto mounted us from his fine Arabian
stud, and we rode around the city, outside of the suburbs. The sun was
low, and a pale yellow lustre touched the clusters of minarets that rose
out of the stately masses of buildings, and the bare, chalky hills to the
north. After leaving the gardens on the banks of the Koweik, we came upon
a dreary waste of ruins, among which the antiquarian finds traces of the
ancient Aleppo of the Greeks, the Mongolian conquerors of the Middle Ages,
and the Saracens who succeeded them. There are many mosques and tombs,
which were once imposing specimens of Saracenic art; but now, split and
shivered by wars and earthquakes, are slowly tumbling into utter decay. On
the south-eastern side of the city, its chalk foundations have been
hollowed into vast, arched caverns, which extend deep into the earth.
Pillars have been left at regular intervals, to support the masses above,
and their huge, dim labyrinths resemble the crypts of some great
cathedral. They are now used as rope-walks, and filled with cheerful
workmen.
Our last excursion was to a country-house of Signor di Picciotto, in the
Gardens of Babala, about four miles from Aleppo. We set out in the
afternoon on our Arabians, with our host's son on a large white donkey of
the Baghdad breed. Passing the Turkish cemetery, where we stopped to view
the tomb of General Bem, we loosened rein and sped away at full gallop
over the hot, white hills. In dashing down a stony rise, the ambitious
donkey, who was doing his best to keep up with the horses, fell, hurling
Master Picciotto over his head. The boy was bruised a little, but set his
teeth together and showed no sign of pain, mounted again, and followed
us. The Gardens of Babala are a wilderness of fruit-trees, like those of
Damascus. Signor P.'s country-house is buried in a wild grove of apricot,
fig, orange, and pomegranate-trees. A large marble tank, in front of the
open, arched _liwan_, supplies it with water. We mounted to the flat roof,
and watched the sunset fade from the beautiful landscape. Beyond the
bowers of dazzling greenness which surrounded us, stretched the wide, gray
hills; the minarets of Aleppo, and the walls of its castled mount shone
rosily in the last rays of the sun; an old palace of the Pashas, with the
long, low barracks of the soldiery, crowned the top of a hill to the
north; dark, spiry cypresses betrayed the place of tombs; and, to the
west, beyond the bare red peak of Mount St. Simon, rose the faint blue
outline of Giaour Dagh, whose mural chain divides Syria from the plains of
Cilicia. As the twilight deepened over the scene, there came a long,
melodious cry of passion and of sorrow from the heart of a starry-flowered
pomegranate tree in the garden. Other voices answered it from the gardens
around, until not one, but fifty nightingales charmed the repose of the
hour. They vied with each other in their bursts of passionate music. Each
strain soared over the last, or united with others, near and far, in a
chorus of the divinest pathos--an expression of sweet, unutterable,
unquenchable longing. It was an ecstasy, yet a pain, to listen. "Away!"
said Jean Paul to Music: "thou tellest me of that which I have not, and
never can have--which I forever seek, and never find!"
But space fails me to describe half the incidents of our stay in Aleppo.
There are two things peculiar to the city, however, which I must not omit
mentioning. One is the Aleppo Button, a singular ulcer, which attacks
every person born in the city, and every stranger who spends more than a
month there. It can neither be prevented nor cured, and always lasts for a
year. The inhabitants almost invariably have it on the face--either on the
cheek, forehead, or tip of the nose--where it often leaves an indelible
and disfiguring scar. Strangers, on the contrary, have it on one of the
joints; either the elbow, wrist, knee, or ankle. So strictly is its
visitation confined to the city proper, that in none of the neighboring
villages, nor even in a distant suburb, is it known. Physicians have
vainly attempted to prevent it by inoculation, and are at a loss to what
cause to ascribe it. We are liable to have it, even after five days' stay;
but I hope it will postpone its appearance until after I reach home.
The other remarkable thing here is the Hospital for Cats. This was founded
long ago by a rich, cat-loving Mussulman, and is one of the best endowed
institutions in the city. An old mosque is appropriated to the purpose,
under the charge of several directors; and here sick cats are nursed,
homeless cats find shelter, and decrepit cats gratefully purr away their
declining years. The whole category embraces several hundreds, and it is
quite a sight to behold the court, the corridors, and terraces of the
mosque swarming with them. Here, one with a bruised limb is receiving a
cataplasm; there, a cataleptic patient is tenderly cared for; and so on,
through the long concatenation of feline diseases. Aleppo, moreover,
rejoices in a greater number of cats than even Jerusalem. At a rough
guess, I should thus state the population of the city: Turks and Arabs,
70,000; Christians of all denominations, 15,000; Jews, 10,000; dogs,
12,000; and cats, 8,000.
Among other persons whom I have met here, is Ferhat Pasha, formerly
General Stein, Hungarian Minister of War, and Governor of Transylvania. He
accepted Moslemism with Bem and others, and now rejoices in his
circumcision and 7,000 piastres a month. He is a fat, companionable sort
of man; who, by his own confession, never labored very zealously for the
independence of Hungary, being an Austrian by birth. He conversed with me
for several hours on the scenes in which he had participated, and
attributed the failure of the Hungarians to the want of material means.
General Bem, who died here, is spoken of with the utmost respect, both by
Turks and Christians. The former have honored him with a large tomb, or
mausoleum, covered with a dome.
But I must close, leaving half unsaid. Suffice it to say that no Oriental
city has interested me so profoundly as Aleppo, and in none have I
received such universal and cordial hospitality. We leave to-morrow for
Asia Minor, having engaged men and horses for the whole route to
Constantinople.