elsewhere observed. Sometimes the power of refraction is so great as
altogether to change the aspect and distance of objects. Ships sailing
up, see the city as it were just under their bows, when suddenly it
disappears; and when it is again perceptible, it is on the distant
horizon. From the constant action of the sun on the air, at the extreme
end of the harbour, where it is encircled by an amphitheatre of high
hills, a considerable degree of rarefaction takes place, and the heated
air ascending, leaves a vacuum below into which the colder rushes. This
creates a continued current during the day, and causes that _Inbat_
which we have before noticed. This constant and regular trade-wind is
peculiarly favourable to the commerce of the port, as ships are wafted
by it to their stations with the unerring certainty of steam-boats.
Some artificial works in this bay attest the wisdom and beneficence of
one conqueror, and the energetic but barbarous sagacity of another,
and still exist as memorials of their labours. The great promontory
formerly the ancient Mount Mincas, shuts it up on the south, and
considerably retards the navigation of the entrance; but at some
distance the bay of Teos enters the land, and approaches so near to
that of Smyrna, as to make their union no difficult enterprise. The
great conqueror Alexander, therefore, pushed a communication across,
so that ships entering the bay of Teos, pushed into that of Smyrna,
and so avoided the dangerous navigation round the great promontory.
There lies also the islands of Clazomenæ, not far from the shore; and
as he had separated the land by a channel, he compensated by bridging
the sea, and uniting the island to the main. The remains of both these
works attract the curious traveller, and while they attest the activity
and skill of the great captain, reproach the indolence and ignorance of
the Turks, who, though it would be highly useful to repair them, and
facilitate the approach to Smyrna, their great emperors consider such a
thing as altogether beyond their comprehension and capability.
In the year 1402 Tamerlane besieged the city, and, in order to prevent
all communication by sea, he ordered every soldier to take a stone in
his hand, and drop it in the mouth of the harbour,−-by this he hoped
not only to keep out their allies, but to shut in all who would attempt
to escape. The ships in the harbour passed over the mound before it
was sufficiently high to obstruct their passage; and the disappointed
barbarian caused a thousand prisoners to be decapitated, and with their
heads, mixed with stones, erected a tower near the spot, to commemorate
his attempt.
[Illustration: W. L. Leitch. J. Sands.
THE CASTLE OF ARGYRO-CASTRO, ALBANIA.
TURKEY IN EUROPE.]
Among the wild and almost inaccessible mountains of Albania, the
traveller is often astonished to enter suddenly on beautiful and
fertile plains, where he expected nothing but a continuation of
those rugged and sterile rocks, over which he had been painfully and
perilously clambering. Of these the magnificent plain of Argyro-Castro
is one of the most remarkable. It extends in length more than thirty
miles, and varies from six to eight in breadth. It contains nearly one
hundred villages, either hanging on the sides of its alpine barriers,
or hidden in the recesses of the shadowy glens that cleave their sides.
Through the centre winds the limpid stream of the Druno, imparting
freshness and fertility to its verdant banks. Vast flocks of sheep
whiten the plain below, and picturesque herds of goats hang on the
crags above; and the whole scene, instinct as it were with life, gives
to the wildness and majestic aspect of nature a singularly beautiful
and interesting character.
At one extremity of this place, perched upon the summit of a precipice,
stands the town of Argyro-Castro. The rock on which it is built is
cleft into various fissures, so that the streets are divided by deep
and yawning chasms, which separate it into various districts, and give
it a character singularly different from any other town. The houses are
of a size and structure superior to those in Albanian towns. They are
not contiguous, or in the form of streets, leaning on one another for
support. They stand single and independent, sometimes on the summit of
a crag, sometimes on the side of a precipice, and sometimes concealed
in the fissure of the rock. The greater number, however, are on level
ground at the bottoms of ravines, and the street is the natural chasm
of the mountain. The sides are lined with fruit-trees, flowing shrubs,
and hanging gardens, so that every lane is a romantic mountain-glen.
These picturesque streets, however, have their disadvantages. On the
sudden solution of snows, or deluges of rain, the torrents from the
higher ground rush with fearful impetuosity through them, devastating
them from one end to the other, and leaving nothing behind, but torn-up
trees, submerged houses, and drowned bodies.
The present population is estimated at 150,000: the greater and more
opulent part are Turks; the rest Albanian Greeks, and Jews. Many of
them were lately engaged extensively in commerce, and the town contains
a spacious bazaar, well supplied with every species of merchandise; but
its prosperity has greatly declined: the ruthless hand of Ali Pasha
fell on it, in common with all its neighbouring towns; its inhabitants
were massacred, its merchants plundered and scattered, and its
prosperity, with its commerce, greatly reduced.
Our illustration presents the castle or fortress of the town impending
over its beautiful plain. This fortress is one of the most extensive
and important in Albania. It contains the seraglio of the pasha, a
mosque, and accommodation for a garrison of 5000 men. To secure it
against the effects of famine, the rock is hollowed into subterraneous
excavations, which form granaries always filled with corn; and in
order to be independent of either wind, water, or other uncertain
power, the mill by which it is ground is moved by a machinery of
clock-work, invented by an ingenious native, which daily yields an
abundant supply of flour. The necessary element of water is conveyed
from the neighbouring hills by a lofty aqueduct. The works are defended
by eighty pieces of English and French ordnance; so that it may be
considered one of the most noble and secure mountain-fortresses in
Europe.
[Illustration: W. L. Leitch. W. Floyd.
TOWN AND CASTLE OF PARAMYTHIA, IN ALBANIA.
TURKEY IN EUROPE.]
More to the south than Joannina, and approaching the Adriatic, are
the town and castle of Paramythia. Unlike the former, there are here
discovered certain indications of its site having been that of some
ancient Greek or Roman city: beautiful specimens of ancient art are
daily disinterred, and arches of ponderous and double masonry indicate
that its former inhabitants were in a far higher grade of social
intelligence than its present possessors. Yet of the ancient city which
did occupy this spot, the name has perished, while its remains attest
its former existence.
Paramythia, like Argyro-Castro stands at the extremity of a fertile
plain, suspended on a rock which overhangs it. The houses, like
those of the structure of Albanian towns in general, are all built
detached from each other. They indicate, however, the miserable state
of insecurity in which the inhabitants live. They resemble so many
fortresses closed up on the outside from light and air, pierced only
with small loop-holes, from whence is thrust the muzzle of a tophek.
They are generally shaded by the spreading branches of the Oriental
platanus: this magnificent tree attains to such a gigantic size in the
East, as to have been the wonder of antiquity; in the trunk of one
tree, 22 people were entertained at supper, and the branches of another
overshadowed a whole village. At Paramythia they grow to a magnificent
size, and the town is partly covered by their leafy canopies. This
luxuriance of vegetation is probably caused by the numerous springs
which issue from the hills, and water the roots. Every tree seems to
have a pure fountain connected with it. The spacious bazaar of the
city is peculiarly marked with this character, shadowed over with a
vast canopy of branches, and cooled by many rills of delicious water.
Towering above the town is the fortress, reposing on a vast rock, in
some places one thousand feet above the plain, and having the town
spread over an inclined plain on the side of the mountain just under it
The calcareous structure of this rock sometimes gives way, detaching
large masses, which overwhelm and crush the houses below on which they
fall. The castle is surrounded by an extensive battlemented wall,
crowned with turrets. Here it is that the ruins of a former town are
most conspicuous. The modern walls are raised on still more ponderous
remains of ancient foundations; and the gate-ways of arches yet remain
here, of evidently very ancient date.
Our illustration represents the fertile plain below, rich in various
productions, full of gardens and shrubs, where the song of the
nightingale seldom ceases, and is reported to be particularly sweet and
plaintive. High above are the ridges of the great chain of Albanian
mountains, which the ancients called Acroceraunian, because their
summits were always splintered with thunderbolts; of these sublime
hills, five distinct and mighty pinnacles can be traced from hence to
the Adriatic. Reposing on the inclined plane of the mountain-side,
is the city with its fortress, surrounded with lofty forests of
plane-trees, and in front is one of those ancient arches, which
indicate the early but unrecorded founder of the city.
[Illustration: T. Allom. J. Jenkins.
THE SULTANA IN HER STATE ARRHUBA.
CONSTANTINOPLE]
This carriage, peculiarly Turkish, we have already described among
the conveyances that thronged the social meetings at the Sweet Waters
of Asia. It is here presented as the principal and most conspicuous
object of our illustration. The ponderous body of the machine, placed
on wheels without springs; the heavy but gilded and gaudy carved-work
which covers it; the long-horned oxen which drag it; the singular
arches dangling with tassels, to which their tails are generally tied;
the dense mass of hair drawn down before, and carefully dyed, like the
ladies’ nails, with henna; and the amulets pending over their noses,
to guard them from the effects of an evil eye−-are here accurately
represented. Beside the draught-beasts walks the Greek arrhubagee,
leading the docile animals by the horns; and next the carriage is one
of the black eunuchs, with his drawn sabre, threatening with instant
death the passenger, whose profane eye shall dare to glance at his
sacred charge within. It was formerly the indispensable usage, that
every arrhuba should be closely covered with silken curtains, so that
the inmates were never seen, except when the wind, or the jolting on an
uneven road, moved the curtains aside, and revealed for a moment the
mysteries of the interior; but recent approximation to European usages
has removed this veil, and even open carriages on springs have been
seen in the Turkish capital, filled with the secluded females of the
harem.
Our illustration represents the Asmé Sultana driving from her palace at
Eyoub, through the Valley of the Sweet Waters. Crowds of females line
one side of the road; and, with the jealous sense of Turkish propriety,
the males, separated from them, line the other. A train of arrhubas
follow in the rear, with various ladies of the seraglio.
[Illustration: J. L. Leitch. H. Adlard.
THE TOMB OF ALI PASHA AND FATIMA, IN THE COURT OF SERAGLIO.
JOANNINA, ALBANIA.]
The wild mountains of Albania had long slumbered in obscurity, and,
though in the immediate vicinity of civilized Europe, and in sight of
the coast of Italy, had never been visited by the curious traveller,
till Ali Pasha, like some lurid meteor, blazed out in this obscure
district, and attracted the notice and admiration of the world by his
ability, his courage, his crimes, and his success.
This extraordinary man was born in Tepeleni, a small village of
Albania, in the year 1741. His ancestors had been distinguished
among the wild chieftains of the district, and his mother, a woman
of ferocious energy of character, determined that he should not
degenerate. He became expert in all manly exercises, and, at a very
early age, distinguished himself among the Kleftes, or robbers, of
the country. While absent at a wedding, the inhabitants of Gardaki, a
neighbouring and rival village, rushed into Tepeleni, and carried off
his mother, and sister Shaïnitza, whom they abused. He vowed he would
never rest till he stuffed the cushions of his divan with the hair
of all the women of Gardaki. This vow he religiously kept; and after
exterminating the inhabitants, and razing the village to the ground,
the long tresses, which are the pride and ornament of Albanian women,
were shorn from their lifeless remains, and the ferocious sister of Ali
exulted while she reposed on the cushions which were stuffed with them.
After a career of crime, in which his cruelty and perfidy were as
distinguished as his courage and ability, he at length made himself
master, under various pretexts, of all the towns and fortresses in the
country, and destroyed, with unrelenting cruelty, every rival whom by
force or fraud he could get into his power. He was then confirmed by
the Turks in the pashalik of all Albania, and he made Joannina his
residence, and the capital of his territory. Here he invited all the
distinguished travellers in Europe to visit him; and by their reports,
his name soon expanded beyond the obscurity of his native mountains.
After enjoying for half a century this celebrity, the Turks became
jealous of his power, and determined to depose him. He resisted all
their open efforts, and at length fell a victim to a perfidy equal to
his own. A pasha paid him a friendly visit, and, after many professions
of good will, rose to take his leave, and made him the usual obeisance.
Ali returned it, and before he could recover himself, his visitor
stabbed him in the back, and his yatagan passed directly through his
heart, and out of his breast. Thus perished, at the age of eighty-one
“the old lion,” as the Turks denominated him. His head was cut off,
and despatched, with his last wife, Vacilesso, to Constantinople,
where it was exposed for three days on a silver dish in the courts of
the seraglio. The heads of his four sons and grandson were sent after
him; and they are all interred, with suitable monuments, outside the
walls of Constantinople, and are the first objects seen by travellers
after passing the Selyvria gate. The body was embalmed, and buried
with that of his first wife, Fatimah or Ermineh, in a mausoleum he had
erected for her on the esplanade of the seraglio at Joannina, where it
overlooks the lake, as represented in our illustration.
[Illustration: T. Allom. W. H. Mote.
HALT OF CARAVANIERS AT A SERAÏ.
BULGARIA.]
The interior of the Turkish empire is constantly traversed by large
bodies of men, who proceed together for protection; and their object is
either commerce or devotion. We have already given some account of the
first−-the second remains to be noticed.
In the sixteenth year of Mahomet’s mission, he ordained that every
believer should engage in a pilgrimage, to visit the place of the
Caaba, or sacred house of Abraham, which was taken up to heaven at
the flood, but its model was left for true believers at Mecca. This
ordinance was rigidly observed by his followers. The caliphs set the
example; and all Mussulmans hold it an indispensable obligation at this
day, when it is possible for them to perform it. Even women are not
exempt. If they have no husband or brother, under whose protection they
could leave the harem, they are bound to marry, for the express purpose
of obtaining one to perform this duty. The only person in the empire
exempt is the Sultan; and he only because the pilgrimage would occupy a
longer period than he could be legally absent from the capital. He is
bound, however, to send a substitute, called Surré Emmini, who always
accompanies the caravan of pilgrims, and represents the sovereign. Thus
it is that every year above one hundred thousand persons, of all ages
and conditions, set out from various points, and traverse Europe, Asia,
and Africa, to fulfil this indispensable duty.
The great European caravan assembles at Constantinople in the month
of Regib, which, according to the Turkish calendar, falls at every
season of the year. They cross the Bosphorus, and unite on the great
plain of Scutari, from whence they take their departure. They exhibit
a strange display of folly and fanaticism. Among the various groups
are seen, at one place jugglers and buffoons exhibiting their light
and often indecent mummery; in another, molhas and dervishes exhorting
to piety, and tearing their limbs with disgusting lacerations: but
the most conspicuous object is the sacred camel; this carries the
mahhfil, or seat from which the Prophet preached and dispensed justice
in his journeys. The race is religiously kept up in the stables of
the seraglio; and some believe the camel of the mahhfil, at this day,
is the actual animal on which the Prophet rode, and kept alive by a
miracle, to perform this annual journey to his holy city.
Our illustration represents a group of a caravan of the faithful,
proceeding from the northern to the southern extremity of the empire,
to perform this pilgrimage. The venerable Moslem, who is ambitious
of becoming a hadgee, is attended by his guards, distinguished by
their fantastic dress, their glittering golden-hafted hanjars, stuck
in their shawl-girdles, beside their silver-mounted pistols, and the
grave turban replaced by a many-tasselled cap. Their accommodation
is the stable of a khan, which their camel equally shares; and their
refreshment is coffee, black, thick, and bitter, served by the khangee
in small characteristic cups.
[Illustration: T. Allom. J. Sands.
THE RUINS OF LAODICEA.
ASIA MINOR.]
This last church of the Apocalypse stood in Phrygia, on the river
Lycus, near Collosæ. It was first called Diospolis, or the “City of
Jupiter,” but changed its name to Laodicea, from the wife of Antiochus,
who rebuilt it. It became celebrated for its commerce; the richness of
its soil, and the raven fleece of its sheep, were a source of unbounded
wealth. It gave birth to many distinguished persons:−-Hiero, who named
its citizens as heirs to his immense wealth; and Zeno, who, though not
the founder of the Stoic sect, was renowned, with his son Polemon,
for skill in rhetoric. His name, two thousand years after, was found
sculptured on the seats of the theatre.
When Christianity was planted here, it was not received with the
eagerness and enthusiasm with which the “new faith” was embraced in
other churches. The evangelist, reproaches them with their “lukewarm”
zeal, and rebukes their indifference by wishing, they were either “hot
or cold.”[10] It does not appear that St. Paul ever visited them in
his travels; yet he took a great interest in their welfare. He was
well acquainted with their character; for he ordered his Epistle to
the Colossians to be read to them also, as equally requiring it.[11] A
letter exists which he is said to have written expressly to them; but
it is considered spurious, and not recognized in our canon.
The place was shattered with earthquakes, in common with other cities
in the same region; and what was not destroyed by the hand of nature,
was more effectually so by the hands of the Turks. In the year 1009
it fell into their power; and from that time it sustained various
assaults, during which the inhabitants were massacred, and their
Christian bishops driven into captivity, along with their cattle. There
is now no modern town built in or near the ancient site; but the extent
and magnificence of its ruins, slumbering in dilapidated grandeur,
attest what it once was; and various perfect and legible inscriptions
still mark the era when it flourished.
Our illustration represents what travellers suppose to have been the
senate-house. It consists of many piers, supporting arches of stone;
among which lie marble fragments of great beauty, mouldings, cornices,
pedestals, and columns, marking by their sculpture and abundance the
opulence of the inhabitants, and the advanced state of the arts among
them. On a portion of the wall is a legible inscription, creditable
to the people. It states that they had “elected Asem to be their
magistrate for life, as a reward for his piety and integrity.” Beyond,
extending over the plain, are the remains of various edifices−-a
stadium, amphitheatre, and other evidences of wealth and civilization
in this rich country, where all is now solitary and desolate−-where a
few wandering Turcomans make a temporary abode, and their feldt-tents
strongly contrast with what remains of the splendid edifices of its
former possessors.
[Illustration: W. L. Leitch. J. Tingle.
THE CASTLE OF PARGA, ALBANIA.
TURKEY IN EUROPE.]
Of all the places contained within the circuit of the Ottoman empire,
this little town is, perhaps, the most interesting to England; because
its fate has compromised that high and before unsullied character for
good faith, which had ever distinguished British transactions, and left
a stain behind which no length of time can entirely wash away.
This town is of comparatively modern foundation, and was unknown before
the fifteenth century. Its erection was attributed to a miracle in the
Greek church. The Christian inhabitants had occupied a place in the
interior, open to the continued assaults and attacks of the Turkish
invaders of the country. While deliberating on searching for a more
secure site, a shepherd, following after some stray sheep, discovered,
in a cave over the sea, a statue of the Panaya, and brought it with
great reverence to a church in the old city. The image, however, would
not rest there, but returned to her former abode. It was brought back,
but again returned; when the inhabitants, hailing the miraculous omen,
followed it, built a church over the cave in which it was found, and
commenced a new city round the church. So Parga rose upon its sea-beat
rock, impending over the Adriatic, and protected by its impregnable
situation from all attacks of the Infidels. The site chosen was
particularly beautiful. A conical hill juts out from a deep bay,
having secure harbours on each side. From hence the bay sweeps with
picturesque curves, embracing with its long arms a magnificent sheet
of water; the view terminated behind with the rugged precipice of the
Albanian chain, and before by the islands of Paxo and Corfu, floating
on a singularly clear and lucid sea. On the summit, over the caves,
stands the acropolis of the city; and sloping down the sides, the
houses of the inhabitants.
The Venetians, who were then in possession of the Ionian Islands,
immediately took this little Christian community, on the opposite
coast, under their care, and for many years they greatly prospered.
Their town contained four thousand inhabitants, and their territory
extended for twenty miles along the shores of the bay. The district
had been anciently called Elaiatis, from the excellency of the oil
it yielded; and the Parghiotes improved this quality to the utmost.
Eighty-one thousand olive-trees clothed the sloping sides of the
bay, and the oil of the industrious citizens of Parga was esteemed
all over the Levant. The character of the people corresponded with
this prosperity−-they were esteemed for their piety and integrity. No
Parghiote, it is said, was ever found among that numerous class in the
country, which were robbers by land and pirates by sea; but, above
all, they were distinguished by an ardent love of liberty, and an
enthusiastic attachment to their native soil, that nothing could subdue
or weaken; and this character they supported in this lawless region for
three centuries.