Monotonous Entertainments—Bridal Preparations—Common
Interest—Appearance of the Surrounding Country—Ride to
Arnautkeui—Sight-loving Ladies—Glances and
Greetings—Pictorial Grouping—The Procession—The Trousseau—A
Steeple-Chase.
Thus far all had been monotonous from its constant repetition; the same
dramas had been enacted, the same lamps had been lighted, and the same
banquets had been prepared; but the seventh day was the eve of the
Imperial marriage, on which the _trousseau_ of the bride was to be borne
in state from the Palace of Dolma Batchè, to her own glittering Seraï on
the Bosphorus. The period was arrived when her slaves, on withdrawing
her from the bath, were to braid her long tresses with threads of gold,
and strings of pearl, and to stain the palms of her hands and the soles
of her feet with henna.
At an early hour the streets of Pera were crowded with arabas and
saddle-horses; and my own eager little chesnut was neighing out his
impatience under my window before eight o’clock. It was a glorious
morning, bright and sunny, without a cloud; and, as I sprang into my
saddle, I felt that this was a day on which the Fates had resolved to
weave a white thread into the web of my existence.
All the three hundred thousand persons said to have been collected in
Constantinople on the occasion of the Imperial marriage, must have been
beside our path that morning! I never before beheld such a gathering of
human beings. There had been divided interests during the previous days
of festival: different points of attraction, which had wrenched asunder
the mighty mass of mortality, and fashioned it into divers portions; but
on the present occasion, men’s minds were all bent upon one object; and
this community of purpose had collected them together in one vast
multitude.
The road was guarded by armed sentinels; and about an arrow’s flight
from the Military College, on the line from Dolma Batchè to the Palace
of the Princess, a handsome tent had been pitched for the Ambassadors,
which was already thronged. Every rising ground was occupied as far as
the eye could reach; and the outline of the road along which the
procession was to pass, was marked by clusters of females, seated so
closely together that from a short distance they appeared to form one
compact body. Behind these were ranged lines of arabas, filled with
Turkish, Greek, and Armenian ladies; while on the open space beyond,
horsemen galloped to and fro; pedestrians, who had been too tardy to
secure advantageous places, straggled from spot to spot, in the hope of
establishing themselves among some knot of friends; and water-venders,
with their long-necked earthen jars and crystal goblets, passed from one
party to another, disposing, at an usurious interest, of their tempting
merchandize.
As there was no sign of the procession when we reached the Ambassadorial
tent, we resolved to canter on to Arnautkeui, and amuse ourselves by a
survey of the wayside groups; and a most interesting ride it was. As the
Turkish women generally, on any occasion which takes them from their
homes at an early hour, profit by the circumstance to remain in the open
air all day, none of our party were surprised at the well-organized
arrangements that were making on all sides. The whole line of road from
Dolma Batchè to the kiosk above the Palace of Arnautkeui was edged with
spectators; and wherever a tree afforded the means of doing so, shawls
and rugs had been stretched against the sun, producing a very cheerful
and pretty effect. The number of Turkish females collected together on
this occasion may be imagined when I state that a friend of mine, on
whose veracity I have the most perfect reliance, assured me that he
knew it to be a fact, that several of these sight-loving ladies had
actually sold the tiles off the roofs of their houses, in order to raise
money enough to enable them to hire an araba for the last two days of
the Festival!
Nor was this all; for a still more startling fact came to my knowledge
from so authentic a source that I state it without hesitation. A Turkish
female in a respectable station of society, having in vain importuned
her husband for the means of witnessing the festivities in a manner
suited to her rank, and receiving for an answer the assurance that he
was unable to comply with her request; finding that she had no hope of
success save through her own ingenuity, set herself to work to devise
some expedient by which she might raise the necessary sum; and having
taken into her confidence a favourite slave who was to accompany her in
the event of any fortunate discovery, it was at length decided between
them that she should sell her son, a fine little boy of about five years
of age. No sooner said than done; she adjusted her yashmac and feridjhe,
took her child by the hand, and, followed by her attendant, proceeded to
the house of a slave merchant, where the bargain was soon made, and the
sum of three thousand piastres given in exchange for the little
Musselmaun!
The astonishment of the husband may be conceived, when on the morrow he
saw his wife seated in an araba in the midst of a bevy of her fair
friends, without being able to discover how she had contrived to secure
a carriage at so expensive a period. He demanded an explanation in vain;
and it was not until he inquired for his child, and detected a
mysterious confusion in the manner of his wife, that a suspicion of the
fact flashed upon him. He insisted on hearing the truth; and when he at
length learnt it, he hurried like a madman to the slave-merchant, and
demanded back his boy; but the dealer in human beings had no expensive
sympathies; and he only answered the agonized intreaties of the father,
by asserting his willingness to deliver up the child when the money
which he had given for him was repaid. The wretched parent had it not to
give; and finding that his misery produced no effect upon the
slave-merchant, he hurried in his anguish to the Seraskier, who, having
heard the tale, summoned to his presence the mother, the child, and the
merchant; and after having ascertained that the fact was precisely as it
had been stated to him, he expressed to the former his horror of the
unnatural deed of which she had been guilty, and received for answer
that she had acted under the firm conviction that her husband had merely
refused to supply her with money from an impulse of avarice; and that,
being devoted to his child, he would immediately purchase him back. The
apology, poor as it was, was admitted; and the Seraskier, finding that
the father really did not possess the means of recovering his boy,
generously paid the price of his liberty, and restored him to his
parents; only cautioning the mother not to attempt a second sale of the
same description, as, in the event of such an occurrence, she should
herself be her child’s ransom.
Hear this, ye Englishwomen, who have been accustomed to believe that the
Turkish females are always under lock and key—Hear this: and then
imagine to what a pitch they carry their love of dissipation and
expense.
Not the least amusing part of the ride was the multitude of recognitions
and salutations consequent upon our progress through the crowd. Here a
veiled lady greeted us from her gilded araba; and there a laughing Greek
saluted us from beneath his wayside tent. On one side, we were joined by
a rival party of mounted Franks; and on the other we were beckoned aside
by some pretty friend, who was seated under the shade of a cluster of
overhanging branches.
Had there been nothing further to anticipate, the mere sight of the
great congregation of human beings collected together that morning,
would of itself have been a highly interesting spectacle.
Probably in no other country upon earth can you encounter such groups as
you do in Turkey; they always appear as though they had been arranged by
an artist; and I find myself on every occasion just about to describe
them, when I remember that I have already done so more than once; and am
compelled, however reluctantly, to forego the inclination.
Having reached the crest of the hill above Arnautkeui, we turned our
horses’ heads once more towards Dolma Batchè; and had almost reached the
Palace when the sound of a military band came cheerfully on the wind,
and we were obliged to gallop off, in order to secure an elevated
station whence we could conveniently witness the passage of the
procession.
We were fortunate enough to possess ourselves of a spot of ground that
overhung the road, along which we reined up our horses in line, and
awaited the arrival of the pageant.
The Band led the way, playing the Sultan’s Grand March upon their wind
instruments, and the military followed in good order; it was a squadron
of the _élite_ of the Turkish Army, the Cavalry of the Imperial Guard,
whose several troops are distinguished by the different colour of their
horses. I counted four negro officers as they passed us.
The Troops were succeeded by fifty Field Officers, the General Staff of
the Empire, well mounted and attended; and they, in their turn, gave
place to twenty Great Officers of the Imperial Household. With these
individuals commenced the interest and Orientalism of the spectacle; the
flashing diamonds upon their breasts and hands, and the glittering
housings of their horses, relieving the monotonous slowness with which
they progressed. This splendid train was followed by fourteen led mules,
laden with packages, covered with the gold and silver stuffs of Broussa,
and secured upon the animals with cords of silk. The packages contained
the velvet and satin mattresses intended for the harem of the Princess,
and all the minor articles necessary to her household; which are
supplied by the Sultan, even to the feather-brush that beats aside the
flies from the dinner-table.
Next came twelve beautiful white mules, magnificently housed, and led by
pages dressed in a scarlet uniform: a present to the Princess from her
Imperial Father.
Nine carriages of silver net-work, roofed and draperied with coloured
silk, each drawn by four bay horses, followed next in line; and through
the transparent lattices glittered the costly sofa-furniture of tissue
and embroidery; the velvet cushions, and the golden fringes which were
to adorn the saloons of the bridal Palace.
After these came three open droskys, with pages running at the
bridle-rein of the superb leaders, who seemed impatient of the pace at
which they travelled, and scattered the foam from their mouths as they
champed their embossed bits; and these were overlaid with cloths of
crimson velvet fringed with gold, on which was displayed a collection of
richly-chased silver plate.
Then followed five other carriages, drawn like the foregoing by four
stately horses, containing trunks covered with coloured velvets and gold
and silver stuffs, and clamped and hinged with wrought silver, laden
with the linen of the Imperial Bride.
Next came forward what, at the first glance, seen as it was through the
cloud of dust raised by the carriages, seemed to be a moving tulip-bed,
extending far as the eye could reach. Nor was the illusion an
overstrained one; for this portion of the procession proved to be a
train of one hundred and fifty men, each attended by a page, and bearing
upon his head a basket of wicker-work, covered with gold tissue, and
surmounted by a raised dome of coloured gauze, decorated with bunches of
artificial flowers. Beneath these transparent screens might be seen the
toilette of the young Princess; her golden ewers, and jewel-studded
basins—her diamond-covered essence-boxes, and gemmed water-vases—her
glittering porcelain, her emerald-mounted hair-brushes—and all the
costly gauds which litter so magnificently the chambers of the great.
Golden cages, filled with stuffed birds—inlaid caskets, heavy with
perfumes—musical instruments, rich with laboured gold and
jewels—salvers, upheaped with gold coins—and ten thousand brilliant
toys, if not without a name, yet almost without a use, followed in their
turn; and then came pyramids of sweetmeats, glittering like fruits which
had suddenly been hardened into gems; and trays of shawls, each one a
fortune in itself, enveloped separately in wrappers of coloured gauze,
tied with long loops of ribbon.
But the most gorgeous display was yet to come; embroidered handkerchiefs
whose gold and silver threads were mingled with silks of many hues, and
whose texture was almost as impalpable as the gossamer—jackets of
velvet worked on the sleeves and breasts with precious stones—trowsers
sprinkled with stars of gold and silver—anteries of white silk, wrought
with coloured jewels—robes of satin powdered with seed-pearl—slippers
as diminutive as that of Cinderella, fringed with floss silk, and
powdered with rubies; and finally, sixteen bearers, balancing upon their
heads cages of silver wire, resting on cushions of crimson velvet,
whereon were displayed the bridal diamonds. The sunshine was flashing on
them as they passed us, and at times it was impossible to look upon
them.
It seemed as though the trees of the Seraï must have dropped diamonds,
to supply the profusion of the Imperial Father. It is impossible to
describe them—the diadems and bracelets, the necklaces and wreaths, the
rings and clasps: suffice it that every female article of dress or
ornament, for which this costly stone could be made available, was here
in its magnificence; and assuredly the gifts of the Queen of Sheba to
King Solomon must have sunk into insignificance before the bridal
_trousseau_ of the Princess Mihirmàh—“The Glory of the Moon!”
Forty mounted negroes appointed to her household followed, like demons
of darkness, on the footsteps of the flashing treasure which I have just
described; and I can safely declare that I never beheld so hideous an
assemblage of human beings. The diamonds were quite secure, I should
imagine, from all depredators, under the charge of these frightful
guardians—these gnomes, gloating over the produce of the “dark gold
mines,” where no light could intrude in which they might mirror their
own ugliness; and His Sublime Highness, or rather his Master of the
Ceremonies, appeared to have been of the same opinion; for although a
guard preceded the procession, none followed it; and the termination of
the pageant came so abruptly upon me after its greatest splendour, that
I felt as though some accident had detained the remaining actors in the
show, and that something more must follow; but as, after the lapse of a
moment, I discovered that all was really over, there was nothing for it
but a steeple chase “over bank, bush, and briar,” in order to get once
more in advance of the procession, and thus secure a second view.
On this we accordingly determined; and after a gallop over ploughed
fields, and a few leaps over sundry intervening fences and ditches, we
found ourselves on the height above Arnautkeui, just as the gorgeous
train was beginning to descend the hill.