Feasting after Fasting—Visit to the Patriarch—Gorgeous
Procession—Inconvenient Enthusiasm—Indisposition of the
Patriarch—The Ceremony of Unrobing—The Impromptu Fair—The
Patriarch at Home—The Golden Eggs.
To what a breakfast did we sit down the following morning! The long and
rigorous fast was over, and a hearty vengeance was to be taken for the
previous forty days of penance and abstinence. It was amusing to remark
with what interest every dish was examined, and how universally each was
rejected which was not composed of some hitherto forbidden luxury. The
centre of the table was occupied by a porcelain bowl filled with eggs
boiled hard, and stained a fine red with logwood; but it was placed
there merely in compliance with the national custom, as an Easter
emblem; for on this, the first day of emancipation from the thrall of
fast, no individual of the party had a thought to bestow on such
primitive fare.
At the conclusion of the meal, I went, accompanied by my father, and a
fine youth who had escaped from college for the Easter recess, and who
volunteered to act as interpreter, to pay a visit to the Patriarch, who
had expressed a desire to make our acquaintance. We were conducted
through several large, cold, scantily furnished apartments, presenting
rather the appearance of belonging to a barrack than to an episcopal
palace, with their floors thickly strown with bay leaves, which emitted
a delicious perfume as we passed along, to the private sitting-room
overlooking the court of the church, where we seated ourselves to await
the arrival of the Patriarch, who had not yet left the Sanctuary.
A sudden rush from the door of the church called us to the windows,
whence we could distinguish, in the distance, the gorgeous procession
which was conducting the Patriarch home after eight and forty hours of
constant ceremonial. We had ample time to enjoy the spectacle, for the
throng was so dense, that it was with the utmost difficulty that the
beadles and _kavasses_ could force a passage through the excited and
clamorous multitude, for the objects of their overweening and
inconvenient enthusiasm. Nor was the difficulty likely to decrease, for
the crowd were still pouring out from the church, clinging one to the
other to secure their footing, and defying alike the many-thonged whips
of the beadles, and the powerful elbows and staves of the police.
The Patriarch, who had rigorously observed the fast throughout the whole
of Lent; and who had, moreover, only partially recovered from a severe
and lingering illness, was little able, after forty-eight consecutive
hours of exertion, to contend with this unlooked-for and gratuitous
demand upon his energies; and as he moved forward, supported by two of
the Bishops, he continually implored the forbearance of the people, who,
in their eagerness to kiss the hem of his garment, subjected him to no
slight risk of suffocation. But he implored in vain; the crowd shouted
and struggled—the beadles struck and shoved—and the priests threatened
and expostulated—unheeded; while the Patriarch was ultimately lifted
from his feet, and carried to the foot of the great stair leading to the
palace, by half a dozen of his followers.
The solemn chant of the approaching priests instantly re-echoed through
the vast pile, and an avenue was formed from the portal of the building
to the door of the apartment in which we stood. First entered the
incense-bearer, who swung his censor twice or thrice at each extremity
of the room, and then hastily withdrew; and he was almost immediately
followed by the whole train of Bishops, sinking under the weight of
jewels and embroidery in which they were attired, and who took their
places in line along the edge of the divan, and there awaited in
silence the arrival of the two Archbishops who preceded the Patriarch.
The sight was dazzling! On all sides a mass of gold and precious stones,
of tissue and embroidery, presented itself; and the eye actually ached
with gazing. After the lapse of a few seconds, the Great Dignitaries
also arrived: and as I advanced to kiss the hand of the Patriarch, I
felt completely overawed by the magnificence of the spectacle.
The ceremony of unrobing followed, during which the solemn chanting of
the priests, who lined the gallery through which the train had passed,
was never once interrupted; and as the Bishops cast off robe after robe
of costly silk, gorgeous brocade, and glittering tissue, I only
marvelled how they could have supported such a weight of dress amid the
crowd that had so unmercifully pressed upon them below, without sinking
under it!
A furred mantle having been flung over the shoulders of the Patriarch,
he was conducted from the apartment, followed by the Bishops; and we
remained for a time watching the movements of the multitude in the court
beneath, while he prepared himself to receive the numerous visits which
he had to undergo, ere he could enjoy the repose that he so much needed.
Triumphal arches, formed of green boughs and flowering shrubs, had been
hastily set up in every direction, and beneath these stood the sherbet
venders, and confectioners, without whom no festival is complete in the
East.
The church doors were already closed: and the versatile Greeks were now
as ardent and eager in the pursuit of pleasure as they had been but an
hour previously in that of salvation. Most of them were employed in
re-arranging their turbans, which had been unwound in the late struggle;
others were squatted on the ground, eating _yahourt_ (a sort of
coagulated buttermilk) out of small earthen basins, which they emptied
with their forefinger, with a rapidity perfectly surprising; and others
again surrounding a _mohalibè_ merchant, whose large tray, neatly
covered with a white cloth, china saucers, and shining brass spoons
shaped like trowels, enhanced the relish of the dainty that he
dispensed—a species of inferior blanc-manger, eaten with rose-water and
powdered sugar.
A servant having announced that the Patriarch awaited us in another
department, we followed him to a spacious saloon in the opposite wing of
the palace, where we found the magnificent Prelate seated in a cushioned
chair raised a few steps from the floor. He had exchanged his
party-coloured raiment for a flowing robe of violet silk with a falling
collar of velvet, and wore about his neck a massive gold chain, from
which was suspended a star of brilliants. On his right hand were two
baskets of variegated wicker-work; the one containing eggs of a crimson
colour richly gilt, and the other filled with eggs of white and gold;
while on his left-hand, a larger basket was upheaped with others simply
stained with logwood, like those which I had seen on the breakfast
table.
He received us with much politeness; and, through the medium of our
young friend, who made an admirable Dragoman, he asked me several
questions on the impressions which I had received in the East: appeared
gratified at the admiration that I expressed of the gorgeous ceremonial
to which I had so lately been a witness; and regretted that the
exhaustion under which he was then suffering from the fatigues of the
last two days rendered him unable to converse with me, as he had been
desirous of doing.
Coffee and sweetmeats were shortly afterwards served; and, as I was
aware that the anti-room was thronged with persons who were waiting to
pay their compliments to him, I rose to depart; when he presented to me
a couple of the gilded eggs, which he accompanied by a flattering
expression of the pleasure that my visit had afforded to him, and a hope
that he should again see me when his health was re-established. I made
as handsome a reply as I was capable of doing; pressed to my lips the
holy fingers which were extended towards me, and took my leave.
I was not aware, as I received the eggs, of the extent of the
compliment that had been paid to me, which I only learnt accidentally,
on inquiring the origin and meaning of so singular an offering. The
custom, as I was informed, is of so ancient a date, that no reason, save
its antiquity, can now be adduced for its observance; but great ceremony
is kept up in the distribution. To the principal persons of the nation
the Patriarch gives two of those eggs which are gilt, to the next in
rank one gilt and one plain—then follows one gilt—then two plain—and
finally one—but, to each person who is admitted to the presence of the
Patriarch, he is under the necessity of making the offering, be the
guest who he may; and a day is set apart during the week, on which the
whole of the male Greek population of Constantinople have the right to
receive it at his hands, until extreme fatigue obliges him to resign the
office to the Grand-Vicar.
On returning to the house of our friends, we partook of coffee, and the
delicious Easter cake peculiar to the Greeks; and immediately afterwards
embarked in our caïque, which was to convey us to the Echelles des
Morts, in order to witness the festivities of the Armenians in the great
cemetery.