M. ----, a Perote, one who knew "the difference between alum and
barley-sugar,"[3] if ever man did, a good catholic, a conscientious
person, a dragoman, and as such necessarily attached to truth, and never
telling a lie, save in the way of business, was himself the hero, or the
witness rather of the story he narrated. He was sent one morning from
the European palace of ----, at Pera, on business in Constantinople. He
was in a great hurry, but as he reached the Meytiskellesi, or wharf of
the dead, and was about stepping into his cäik to be rowed across the
harbour of the Golden Horn, either a nail in one of the rough planks of
the wooden quay caught his slipper, or a post on it his robe, I forget
which--but the dragoman turned round, and saw standing close by him, a
tall and very notorious African magician, who had long been practising
at the capital, and was known to every body as one of the lions of the
place. To do a civil thing, and perhaps to keep well in this world with
one who had intercourse with the spirits of the next, the dragoman
naturally supposing he was waiting there on the water's edge only to
cross over from the suburb to the city, very politely invited him to
take a passage in his cäik. The tall African made no verbal reply, but
smiled, and waved his hand to decline the high honour.
[3] A Turkish saying, much in use.
The dragoman then concluding, that instead of waiting to cross over
himself, he was expecting the arrival of some one from the opposite side
of the Golden Horn, stepped into his cäik, which instantly glided from
the quay and shot across the port. The boats at Constantinople are all
very light and sharp, and go with astonishing speed, even when propelled
with one pairs of oars; but people of high consideration, like
dragomans, generally have two pairs to their cäiks, and at this time M.
---- being in a very great hurry, told his two rowers to pull as fast as
they could.
When about half way on his short aquatic journey, M. ---- turned his
head and looked back, and then he saw at the end of the quay, just where
he had left him, the tall African standing starch and motionless, like a
granite statue before an Egyptian temple.
The dragoman's boat continued to cleave the waves; it neared the
opposite shore--no cäik had passed him on his way--when lo! as his own
came in concussion with the wooden piles of the Divan-kapi-iskellesi,
and he rose from his seat to step on shore, he saw the identical African
wizard standing there before him, and gazing calmly over to the opposite
quay where he had just left him, and whence it was impossible he could
have proceeded by mortal agency!
The dragoman rubbed his eyes, as well he might; but there was the
Maugrabee, with his large leaden eye gazing across the Golden Horn, and
fixed on the wharf of the dead, just as he had been left behind there
gazing at the Divan-kapi-iskellesi. M. ---- felt a sort of
flesh-shivering at this undeniable proof of the wizard's power; he
remained for better than a minute in the position he was, when the tall
African first struck his eye, spell-bound as it were, with one foot on
the edge of the boat, and the other on the edge of the quay; but
recovering himself, he drew up his hinder leg, and then crossing himself
like a good catholic, and _salaaming_ his acquaintance, like a polite
Turk, he stepped along the quay, touching the necromancer as he passed
him, and thus completely assuring himself, it was no deception of
vision. Mr. ---- thinking more about this wonderful occurrence than the
business of the ---- nation he was going upon went his way, and having
discharged his duty, hurried back to Pera, where he told this story,
where it was universally believed from the veracity and character and
dignity of the narrator, and where the narrator himself is still living.
Very possibly, while I am writing he is telling his rencounter with the
wizard, for he tells it to every stranger--_Metropolitan_.
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