wall, and his daughter _Anna Comnena_, the historian, who lived about
the year of _Christ_ 1117. They pretend to shew there, the relics of St
_Anastasia_, who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor _Valerianus_, and
of St _Euphemia_, virgin and martyr, who lost her life most gloriously
for Christ’s holy religion at _Chalcedon_ under _Dioclesian_.
In _Sancta Sophia_, there are pillars so great, that a man can scarce
fathom them at twice. At the end of the gallery that joins the other
two, each about thirty of my paces wide, there is a piece of transparent
marble, two or three inches thick. In the north gallery, upon the
pavement, is a reddish sort of a marble stone, brought, as the _Turks_
and Christians relate, from _Palestine_, on which they fable, that the
Blessed Virgin used to wash the linnen of our Saviour.
I observed but one step from the body of the church to the _Bema_, or
place where the altar formerly stood.
The great mosque at _Chasim-bassa_ on _Pera_ side to the west, was
formerly a church dedicated to St _Theodosia_.
_Gianghir_, a mosque so called upon a hill at _Fondaclee_ near _Tophana_.
In _Constantinople_ there are several narrow streets of trade, closed
up with sheds and penthouses, which I suppose were in use before the
_Greeks_ lost their empire, and are the same with the σκεπαστοὶ καὶ
φρακτοὶ δρόμοι, in _Chrysalaloras_’s Epistle, p. 119. But besides these
places, several trades have their distant quarters. The streets are
raised for the most part on each side for the greater convenience.
Not far from _Suleimania_, is the house of the _Aga_, or General of the
_Janizaries_, which so often changes it’s masters.
_Pompey_’s pillar, as the _Franks_ erroneously call it, is of the
_Corinthian_ order, curiously wrought, about eighteen foot in height, and
three in diameter.
_Beshiktash_, a village within three or four miles of _Constantinople_,
towards the _Bosphorus_, where lies buried the famous pirate _Ariadin_,
whom the Christian writers call _Barbarossa_, who built here a handsome
mosque, having two rows of pillars at the entrance. The captain Bashaw
usually, before he puts to sea with his _Armada_ of gallies, visits the
tomb of this fortunate robber, who had made several thousand Christians
slaves, and makes his prayers at the neighbouring church for the good
success of his expedition.
They reckon in the city above a hundred public baths, every street almost
affording one. They are esteemed works of great piety and charity, there
being a continual use of them, not only upon the account of religion, but
of health and cleanliness: For their diet being for the most part hot
spiced meats in the winter, and crude fruits in the summer; their liquor
fountain water or coffee, to which we may add their lazy kind of life
(for walking is never used by them for digestion, or otherwise in the way
of diversion) frequent bathing becomes necessary.
There are several receptacles of water under ground, and one particularly
under the church of _Sancta Sophia_, as I was informed; but I did not
think it worth my curiosity to descend into it. These were of great use
to the poor _Greeks_ in the last fatal siege; but the _Turks_ are so
secure, that they do not think that they deserve either cost or pains to
keep the waters sweet, or the cisterns in repair.
The aqueducts, which answer to those glorious aqueducts near _Pyrgos_,
and convey the water to the great cistern near Sultan _Selim_’s mosque,
are in that part of _Constantinople_ which lies between the mosque of
_Mahomet_ the Great and _Shazade_.
The _Turks_ began to besiege _Constantinople_ on the fifth of _April_,
and took it the twenty-ninth of _May_, on _Whitsun_-tuesday morning,
1453, or as the _Turks_ reckon in the year 857, of the _Hegira_, or
flight of _Mahomet_, the twenty-second day of the first _Jomad_.
The chapel where _Ejub Sultan_ is interred, at whose head and feet I
observed great wax candles, is inclosed with latten wire grates, for
the better accommodation of such religious _Turks_, as come to pay
their respect to the memory of this great Musulman Saint. In the middle
of the area, there is raised a building sustained by excellent marble
pillars, ascended by two several pair of stairs, where the new Emperor is
inaugurated, and where he usually goes in _Biram_ time.
[Illustration]
_An account of the city of ~Prusa~ in ~Bythinia~, and a continuation of
the historical observations relating to ~Constantinople~; by the reverend
and learned ~Tho. Smith~, D. D. fellow of ~Magd. Coll. Oxon.~ and of the
~Royal Society~._
_Montanea_, formerly called _Nicopolis_, according to _Bellonius_, or
rather _Cios_, the bay hence called _Sinus Cianus_, lies in the bottom of
a bay about fourscore miles from _Constantinople_, and is the scale or
landing place for _Prusa_, from which it may be about twelve miles; in
the middle way to which, is the village _Moussanpoula_.
_Prusa_, now call’d by the _Turks_ _Bursia_, the chief city of _Bythinia_,
is seated at the foot partly, and partly upon the rising of the mount
_Olympus_, which is one of the highest hills of the lesser _Asia_. It’s
top is covered with snow for nine or ten months of the year, several
streams of water flowing down the hill continually, accounted very
unwholsome from the snow mixed with it. In the upper part of the city
to the north-west, lies the Seraglio, which is walled round; but the
Emperors not residing here since their acquists in _Thrace_, or scarce
making visits to this imperial city, and none of their sons living here
of late, according to the former policy of the _Turkish_ Emperors, who
did not permit their sons, when grown up, to be near them, but sent them
to some honourable employment, accompanied with a Bashaw or Cadi, to
instruct them in the arts of war and government; it lies now neglected
and despoiled of all it’s ornaments.
In this part also are the sepulchres of _Osman_, the founder of the
family which now reigns, and his son _Urchan_, who took the city, near
a mosque, formerly a Christian church dedicated to St _John_, and where
was formerly a convent of religious, built by _Constantinus Iconomachus_,
where I saw the figure of a cross still remaining upon the wall. Here
hangs up a great drum of a vast bigness, such as they carry upon the
backs of camels, and I suppose is one of those which they used in the
taking of the place.
In the lower part, near the bottom of the hill, _Norad_ II. the father
of _Mahomet_ the Great, lies buried; near whereunto was formerly
the metropolitical church of the holy Apostles. The _Bezesten_, or
exchange, seems to be much better and larger than the great one at
_Constantinople_, as are the several _Caravanserais_ built for the use
and accommodation of Merchants and travellers; in one of which, the
Rice-chane, I took up my quarters.
Without the city, toward the east, is the mosque and sepulchre of the
Emperor _Bajazid_ I. whom the _Turks_ call _Jilderim_, or lightening,
and the _Greek_ writers λαίλαψ. Not far from hence, is the mosque of
_Mahomet_ I. and his sepulchre. Toward the west, upon the side of
the hill, is the mosque of _Morad_ I. whom they call _Gazi_, or the
Conqueror, near which he lies buried. There are in the whole about 124
mosques, several of which were formerly Christian churches, and between
fifty and sixty chanes. The castles built by _Osman_, when he besieged
the city, are slighted and altogether unfortified, the one to the north,
the other to the south-west.
At _Checkerghe_, about a mile and a half out of town, are the hot baths,
much frequented both by Christians and _Turks_. They are made very
convenient to bathe in, and are covered over, that they may be used in
all weathers. Among others, there is a large round bason, where they
usually divert themselves by swimming.
What opinions the _Turks_ have of our Blessed Saviour, and the Christian
religion, I shall briefly shew, as they lie dispersed in several chapters
of the _Koran_, according to which they frame their discourse whensoever
either zeal or curiosity puts them upon this topic; for _Mahomet_,
upon his setting up to be the author of a new religion, finding such a
considerable part of the world professing the doctrine of Christ, with
all the mysteries of faith therein contained, was cast upon a necessity
of saying something both concerning him and it. By which it will appear
how great the power of truth is above imposture and subtility, and that
as the devils in the possessed confessed, though against their wills,
Christ to be the son of God, so this _Dæmoniac_, in the midst of all his
forgeries and lyes, and ridiculous and childish narratives, not being
able to contradict the universal belief of the Christians of that, and
the preceeding ages, founded on the history of the Gospel, hath been
forced to give testimony to several particulars of it.
They confess then, that Christ was born of a pure spotless Virgin, the
Virgin _Mary_, chosen by God, and sanctified above all the women in the
world; and that the angel _Gabriel_ was dispatched out of heaven, to
acquaint her with the news of it. That such a kind of miraculous and
supernatural birth never happened to any besides, and that Christ was
conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that he wrought mighty miracles, for
instance, that he cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind, restored sick
persons to their health, and raised the dead.
That he is a great Prophet, sent by God to convert men from the vanity
and error of their false worship to the knowledge of the true God, to
preach righteousness, and to correct and restore the imperfection and
miscarriages of human nature; that he was of a most holy and examplary
life; that he was the true Word of God, the Apostle, or Embassador of
God; that his Gospel was revealed to him from heaven, and that he is in
heaven standing nigh to the throne of God. They blaspheme indeed with a
bruitishness and stupidity only befitting _Turks_, the mysteries of the
Holy Trinity, and of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour, and deny that
he was put to death, and say, that another in his shape was crucified
by the _Jews_, and that he himself was assumed into heaven in his body
without dying at all, and consequently they will not own, that he
satisfied Divine Justice for the sins of the world; so great an affinity
is there between the heresy of _Socinus_ and professed _Mahometism_.
I could never yet see any _Turkish_ translation of the _Koran_: they cry
up the elegance of the stile, which being enthusiastic and high flown,
by reason also of the tinkling of the periods, is very delightful to
their ears, who seem to be affected with rhime mightily. Though I suppose
it is upon a more politic account, that they are so averse, as to the
translating it into their vulgar language, not out of respect to the
sacredness of the original only, whose full commanding expressions they
think cannot be translated without a great diminution to the sense; but
to keep it in greater veneration among the people, who might be apt to
slight and dis-esteem it, should it become thus common among them. It is
enough that the Priests and learned men explain the difficult passages
of it to the people, and write commentaries for the use of the more
curious and inquisitive. The _Persians_ on the contrary, think it no
disparagement to the _Arabic_, or profanation of the sense, to translate
this cursed book into their own language, and copies are frequent among
them.
The Grand Signior’s women are usually the choicest beauties of the
Christian spoils, presented by the Bashaws or _Tartars_. The present
_Sultana_, the mother of the young Prince _Mustapha_, is a _Caddiot_,
the _Valide_, or the Emperor’s mother, a _Russian_, the daughter of a
poor Priest, who with her relations were seized upon by the _Tartars_,
in an incursion which they made into the _Muscovites_ country. She being
received into the Seraglio by her beautiful complexion and cunning
behaviour, gain’d the heart and the affection of Sultan _Ibrahim_, (a
man wholly addicted to soft pleasures, and who seldom cared to be long
absent from the womens apartment, but chose to spend his time among
them.) Having the good fortune to be the mother of the Prince _Mahomet_,
the eldest son of his father, who now reigns, she had all the honours
that could possibly be done her, and was the beloved _Hazaki_, or chief
concubine. During this height of splendour and glory, the court removing
from _Constantinople_ to _Adrianople_, distant about an hundred and
twenty miles, as she was passing in great state, attended with her guards
through the streets of the city, in a coach much like our carriage
waggons, but that they are letticed to let in the air, for no one must
presume to stare or scarce look upon the women, much less must they
themselves suffer their faces to be seen in this jealous country, she
out of curiosity looking through the holes, saw a poor Christian slave
in a shop where sugar and such like wares were sold. Upon her return
she sent one of her Eunuchs to enquire for the person, and to ask him
several questions about his country, relations, friends, and the time
when and how long he had been a slave; his answers were so particular and
satisfactory, that she was soon convinced of the truth and certainty of
her apprehensions, when she first cast her eyes upon him, that he was her
brother, and accordingly it proved so. Whereupon acquainting the Emperor
with it, she immediately redeem’d him from his patron, and having made
the poor wretch turn _Turk_, got him considerably preferr’d.
The Bashaws for the most part are the sons of Christians, taken into the
Seraglio, near the Emperor’s person, and so are preferr’d to considerable
governments, or else they raise themselves by their conduct and valour.
_Mahomet_ Bashaw, in the time of _Achmet_, whose eldest daughter he
marry’d, was the first natural _Turk_ that was made chief Vizier, having
before been Captain Bashaw. The chief Vizier _Mahomet Cupriuli_ (who
settled the empire in the minority of this Emperor, when it was ready to
be shaken into pieces, and dissolved by several powerful factions in the
state, and by the mutinies and discontents of Janizaries and Spahis, who
drove different ways) was an _Albanese_ by birth, the son of a _Greek_
Priest, whom out of the height of his zeal for _Mahomet_, he made turn
_Turk_ in his old age, and converted the Christian church in the village
where he was born into a mosque. This man also forbad the Dervises to
dance in a ring and turn round, which before was their solemn practice
at set times before the people, which they would do so long, till they
were giddy by this swift circular motion, and fell down in a swoon, and
then oftentimes upon their recovery from such trances, they pretended
to revelation. The church-men are not very kind to his memory, looking
upon him as a man of little or no religion; and they give out that if he
had lived, he would have forbid their calling to prayers from the spires
of their Mosques, and hanging out lamps; both which they look upon as
solemn and essential to the exercise of religion; but he as the effect of
bigottry and superstition.
They have a mighty honour and esteem for Physicians, for tho’ they are
of opinion, that they cannot with all their art prolong life, the period
and term of it being fatal, and absolutely determin’d by God, yet they
often consult them upon any violent sickness or pain, in order to make
the time allotted them in this world more pleasant and easy. It is
extraordinary rare, that a natural _Turk_ makes Physic his profession
and study. They who practise it among them, when I was in _Turkey_, were
for the most part _Greeks_ and _Jews_, who know nothing of chymical
medicines, but follow the usual methods, which they learn’d in _Italy_
and _Spain_, the former having study’d in _Padua_, and the latter in
_Salamanca_, where they pass’d for good Catholics. And I remember I met
with a certain Jew Physician, who had been a Capucine in _Portugal_.
During the tedious siege of _Candia_, the Vizier, what with melancholy,
and what with the ill air of the camp, finding himself much indisposed,
sent for a Christian Physician, Signior _Massalini_, a subject of the
Republic of _Venice_, but marry’d to a _Greek_ woman, by whom he had
several children, who was our neighbour at _Pera_, an experienced able
man, to come speedily to him, and made him a present of about a thousand
dollars, in order to fit himself for the voyage, and bear the expence
of it. By this worthy gentleman’s care he recover’d his health, and
would not permit him to depart till after the surrender of that city,
which might be about seven months after his arrival there, treating
him in the mean while with all imaginable respect. During our short
stay at _Bursia_, one of our Janizaries accidentally discoursing with a
_Turk_ about us, whom they knew to be _Franks_, told him that there was
a Physician in the company, who had been lately at the Grand Signior’s
court at _Salonichi_ with the _English_ Embassador, and was now upon his
return from _Constantinople_ to _Smyrna_, where he lived. This presently
took vent, and the _Turks_ thought that they had got a man among them
that could cure all diseases infallibly; for several immediately came
to find us out in behalf of themselves or their sick friends, and one
of the most considerable men upon the place, desired the Doctor to go
to his house to visit one of his women sick in bed, who being permitted
to feel her naked pulse (for usually they throw a piece of fine silk or
curle over their womens wrists at such times) soon discover’d by that
and other symptoms and indications of her distemper, that opening a vein
would presently give her ease, and recover her; which he did accordingly;
for which he received an embroidered handkerchief instead of a fee, and
gained the reputation of having done a mighty cure.
They have little of ingenious or solid learning among them; their
chief study next to the _Koran_, being metaphysical niceties about the
Attributes of God, or else the maintenance of other odd speculative
notions and tenents, derived down to them from some of their famed
masters and holy men, whom they pretend to follow. Their knowledge of the
motion of the heavens, for which the _Arabians_ and the other eastern
nations have been so deservedly famous, as their Astronomical Tables of
the Longitude and Latitude of the fixed stars, and of the appulse of the
Moon to them, fully evince, is now very mean, and is chiefly studied for
the use of Judiciary Astrology. The great instrument they make use of is
an Astrolabe, with which they make very imperfect observations, having
no such thing as a Quadrant or Sextant, much less a Telescope, or any
mechanical engine, to direct and assist them in their calculation. Their
skill in Geography is as inconsiderable; I remember I heard the Captain
Bashaw, whom they stile Admiral of the Black and White Seas, meaning
the _Euxine_ and the _Mediterranean_, ask this silly question, Whether
_England_ were out of the Streights? and another time the _Caymacan_,
or Governor of _Constantinople_, hearing that _England_ was an island,
desired to know how many miles it was about, in order, we supposed, to
make an estimate of our King’s greatness and strength, by the extent and
compass of it.
One of the great Astrologers of _Constantinople_, having heard that I had
a pair of globes in my chamber, made me a visit on purpose to see their
contrivance, being introduced by a worthy gentlemen of our own nation.
After the first ceremonies were over, I took my terrestrial globe, and
rectify’d it to the position of the place, and pointed to the several
circles both without and upon it, and told him in short the several uses
of them; then shewed him how _Constantinople_, beared from _Candia_, at
that time besieged, _Cair_, _Aleppo_, _Mecca_, and other chief places of
the empire, with the other parts of the world; at which he was mightily
surprized to see the whole earth and sea represented in that figure, and
in so narrow, a compass, and pleased himself with turning the globe round
several times together. Afterwards I set before him the celestial globe,
and rectify’d that, and shew’d him how all the noted constellations were
exactly described, and how they moved regularly upon their poles, as
in the heavens; some rising, and others setting, some always above the
horizon, and others always under, in an oblique sphere, and particularly
what stars would rise that night with us at such an hour; the man seem’d
to be ravish’d with the curiosity of it, turning this globe also several
times together with his finger, and taking a pleasure in viewing the
motion of it; and yet this silly animal pass’d for a conjurer among the
_Turks_, and was look’d upon as one that could foretel the events of
battels, the fates of empires, and the end of the world.
They have no genious for sea-voyages, and consequently are very raw and
unexperienced in the art of navigation, scarce venturing to sail out
of sight of land. I speak of the natural _Turks_, who trade either in
the Black Sea or some part of the _Morea_, or between _Constantinople_
and _Alexandria_; and not of the pyrates of _Barbary_, who are for the
most part renagado’s, and learnt their skill in Christendom, which they
exercise so much to the terrour and damage of it. A _Turkish_ compass
consists but of eight points, the four cardinal and four collateral; they
being at a mighty loss how to sail by a side-wind; when by hauling their
sails sharp they might lie their course, and much more, when they are in
the winds eye, not knowing how to make tacks and boards, but chuse rather
to make haste into some neighbouring port, till the wind blows fair. An
_English_ and _Turkish_ vessel, both bound for the bay of _Salonichi_, at
the time of the Grand Signior’s being there, pass’d together out of the
_Hellespont_, but foul weather happening, the _Turk_ got into _Lemnos_;
while our men kept at sea, and pursued their voyage, and after three
weeks stay returned back to us, observing in their way, that the _Turks_
remained in the same place where they left them, for want of a fore-wind
to put to sea in.
They trouble not themselves with reading the histories of other nations
or of ancient times, much less with the study of chronology, without
which history is very lame and imperfect; which is the cause of those
ridiculous and childish mistakes, which pass current and uncontradicted
among them. For instance, they make _Job_ one of _Solomon_’s Judges,
and (_Iscander_) _Alexander the Great_, Captain General of his army.
They number _Philip_ of _Macedon_ among the ancestors of our Blessed
Saviour, and believe that _Sampson_, _Jonas_, and St _George_ were
his contemporaries. In this they are more excuseable than their false
Prophet _Mahomet_, who in his _Koran_ has perverted several historical
notices in the writings of the Old Testament, and is guilty of vile and
absurd _Pseudo-chronisms_. To remedy this defect, of which he was very
conscious, and the better to understand the state of Christendom, and
the particular kingdoms and republics of it, the late great and wise
Vizier _Achmet_, made his interpreter _Panagiotti_, a learned _Greek_,
at leisure hours, even at the siege of _Candia_, as well as at other
times, read several ancient histories to him, and render them _extempore_
into the _Turkish_ language, and particularly _Blaeus Atlas_, with which
he was mightily pleased, and made great use of, and truly gained the
reputation of a solid and judicious Statesman, as well as Soldier among
the Christian ministers, who in the ordinary course of their negotiations
apply’d themselves to him.
Tho’ their year be according to the course of the moon, and so the
_Turkish_ months run round the civil year in a circle of thirty three
years and a few odd days, yet they celebrate the _Neuruz_, which
signifies in the _Persian_ tongue, the New-year, the twenty first day of
_March_, (on which day the Veneral Equinox was fixed by the _Greeks_ and
other _Oriental_ Christians, in the time of the Emperor _Constantine_,
who made no provision for the προήγησις ἰσημερινὴ, or procession, which
in process of time the inequality between the civil and astronomical
year must necessarily produce) at which time the Cadi’s and other annual
magistrates, and farmers of the customs take place, and reckon to that
day twelve month again.
In their civil deportment and behaviour one towards another, the left
hand is the more worthy and honourable place, except among their
Ecclesiastics; and the reason they allege is, because they write from the
right hand, and the sword is worn on the left side, and so is more at his
disposal, who walks on that hand. The chief Vizier accordingly in the
Divan sits at the left hand of the Mufti, each maintaining their right of
precedence, according to this way of decision.
In their Mosques they sit without any distinction of degrees.
Some of the more zealous _Turks_ cause to be engraven on their scymeters
and bucklers a sentence out of the sixty first _Surat_, which is
concerning fighting or battle-arrey, and contains encouragements to fight
in the way and path of God, as the Impostor’s words are; for which he
assures them, besides assistance from heaven, to help them to get the
victory over their enemies, and that God will pardon their sins, and
bring them to Paradise. Thus spirited with zeal, a _Turk_ lays about him
with fury, when he is a fighting, and seems ambitious of dying to gain
the delights of Paradise, at least indifferent whether he dies or lives.
The _Turks_ are, as to their temper serious, or rather enclining to
morosity, seldom laughing, which is accounted an argument of great vanity
and lightness. They perform the exercises which they use in the way of
diversion, as shooting and hunting, with a great deal of gravity, as
if they designed them more for health than for pleasure; and this too
but seldom. The better and richer sort who have nothing to do, sitting
all day at home, lolling upon a Sofa, or raised place in their rooms,
and taking tobacco, which their slaves fill and light for them; and if
they retire in the Summer or Autumn for a week or fortnight, to some
convenient fountain in a wood, with their women, it is chiefly to enjoy
the refreshments of the cool air. In the times of triumph indeed for some
great success obtained against the Christians, when the shops are open
for three nights together, and hung with lights, as well as the spires
of the Mosques in curious figures, they are guilty of extravagant mirth,
running up and down the streets in companies, and sometimes singing
and dancing after their rude way; but this fit being over, they soon
return to their former melancholy. In the coffee-houses where they use
to resort to tipple, there is usually one hired by the owners to read
either an idle book of tales, which they admire as wit, or filthy obscene
stories, with which they seem wonderfully affected and pleased, few of
them being able to read. These are the schools which they frequent for
their information, tho’ in times of war when things went ill with them,
their discourses would be of the ill government; and the Grand Signior
himself, and his chief ministers, could not escape their censures,
which manifestly tending to sedition, and to the heightning of their
discontents by their mutual complaints, and by this free venting of their
grievances during the war at _Candia_, the wise Vizier seeing the evil
consequences that would follow, if such meetings and discourses were any
longer tolerated, commanded that all the public coffee-houses should
be shut up in _Constantinople_, and several other great cities of the
empire, where the malecontents used to rendezvouz themselves, and find
fault upon every ill success and miscarriage, with the administration of
affairs.
The custom of the _Turks_ to salute the Emperor, or the Vizier Bashaws,
with loud acclamations and wishes of health and long life, when they
appear first in their houses or any public place, is derived from the
_Greeks_, who took it from the _Romans_. This was done by them in a kind
of singing tone; whence _Luitprandus_, Bishop of _Cremona_ tells us,
that in a certain procession (προέλυσις) at which he was present, they
sang to the Emperor _Nicephorus_ πολλὰ ἔτη, that is, Many Years, (which
_Codinus_, who lived just about the taking of _Constantinople_ by the
_Turks_, expresses by τὸ ψάλλειν τὸ πολυχρόνιον, or by τὸ πολυχρόνιζειν,
and to wish or salute by πολυχρόνισμα) and at dinner the _Greeks_ then
present wish’d with a loud voice to the Emperor and _Burdas_, _Ut Deus
annos multiplicet_, as he translates the _Greek_.
The _Turkish_ coin in itself is pitiful and inconsiderable, which I
ascribe not only to their want of bullion, but to their little skill in
matters relating to the mint. Hence it comes to pass, that Zecchines and
Hungars for gold, and _Spanish_ Dollars and Zalotts for silver stamped
in Christendom pass current among them, most of the great payments being
made in them, they not caring either through ignorance or sloth, to
follow the example of the _Indian_ or _Persian_ Emperors, who usually
melt down the Christian money imported by the Merchants into their
several countries, and give it a new stamp. The most usual pieces are the
Sheriphi of gold, somewhat less than a _Venecian_ Zecchine, and Aspers,
ten of which are equal to six pence _English_ and some few Asper pieces.
A Mangur is an old ugly copper piece, eight of which make but one Asper,
and is not I think a _Turkish_ coin, but rather _Greek_. They have no
arms upon their coin, only letters embossed on both sides, containing the
Emperor’s name, or some short sentence out of the _Koran_.
The _Turks_ look upon earthquakes as ominous, as the vulgar do upon
eclipses, not understanding the philosophy of them. During my stay in
_Constantinople_, which was above two years, there happen’d but one,
which was _October_ 26, 1669, about six o’clock in the morning, a stark
calm preceding. It lasted very near a minute, and we at _Pera_ and
_Galata_ were as sensible of it as those who were on the other side of
the water; but, praised be God, nothing fell, and we were soon rid of
the fears in which this frightful accident had cast us, being in our
beds, and not able, by reason of the surprize, in so little a space to
have past thro’ a gallery down a pair of stairs into the court, if we
had attempted it. The _Turks_ made direful reflections on it, as if some
calamity would inevitably fall upon the empire, quickly forgetting the
great triumphings and rejoicings which they exprest but a few days before
for the surrender of _Candia_. In the year 1668, in _August_, the earth
shook more or less for forty seven days together in the lesser _Asia_
at _Anguri_ (_Anoyra_) and for fifteen at _Bacbaser_, as we heard from
a _Scotch_ Merchant, who lived there; and particularly, that at this
latter place, on the second of _August_, between three and four o’clock
in the afternoon it lasted for a quarter of an hour; several houses were
overthrown, and some hundred of chimneys fell (it being a very populous
town) and yet there were but seven kill’d. The trembling being so
violent, both _Turks_ and Christians forsook their houses, and betook
themselves to the fields, vineyards and gardens, where they made their
abode for several days.
Their punishments are very severe, this being judg’d the most effectual
way, to prevent all public disorders and mischiefs. They use no great
formality in their processes; if the criminal be taken in the fact, and
the witnesses ready and present to attest it, and sometimes if there
be but probable circumstances, without full conviction, condemn him;
and soon after sentence, sometimes an hour or less, hurry him away to
execution. For an ordinary crime, hanging is the usual death; but for
robbery and murder committed upon the highway, by such as rob in parties
and allarm whole provinces, or for sacrilege, or for any heinous crime
against the government, either gaunching or excoriation, or cutting off
the legs and arms, and leaving the trunk of the body in the high-way, or
empaling, that is, thrusting an iron stake through the body out under the
neck or at the mouth; in which extreme torment the miserable wretch may
live two or three days, if the guts or the heart happen not to be wounded
by the pointed spike in it’s passage. This punishment seems to have
been in use among the _Romans_, _Seneca_’s Epist. 14. _Cogita hoc loco
carcerem, & cruces, & eculeos, & uncum, & adactum medium hominem, qui per
os emergat, stipitem._ And so in his book _De Consolatione ad Marciam,
cap. 20_. _Alii capite conversos in terram suspendere; alii per obscena
stipitem egerunt, alii brachia patibulo explicuerunt._ Murder is seldom
pardon’d, and especially if the relations of the murder’d person demand
justice.
The Circumcision, though it be a sacred rite, is perform’d in their
private houses, and never in the Mosques.
The women colour their eye-brows and lids with an ugly black powder, I
suppose, to set off their beauty by such a shadow; and their nails with
the powder of _Kanna_, which gives them a tincture of faint red, like
brick, as they do the tails and hoofs of horses, which they look upon as
a great ornament. Their great diversion is bathing; sometimes thrice if
not four times a week. They do not permit them to go to church in time of
prayer, for fear they should spoil their devotion; the _Turks_ being of
so brutish a temper, that their lust is raised upon the sight of a fair
object. They are call’d oftentimes by the names of flowers and fruits,
and sometimes fantastic names are given them, such as _Sucar Birpara_, or
bit of sugar, _Dil Ferib_, or ravisher of hearts, and the like.
Their skill in agriculture is very mean. In their gardens they have
several little trenches to convey water where it may be most necessary
for their plants and flowers. They know little or nothing of manuring
their grounds; sometimes they burn their fields and vineyards after
harvest and vintage, partly to destroy the vermin, and partly to enrich
the soil. They tread out their corn with oxen, drawing a square plank
board, about a foot and an half or two foot over, studded with flints,
and winnow it upon their threshing-floors in the open air, the wind
blowing away the chaff. They feed their horses with barley and chopt
straw, for I do not remember ever to have seen any oats among them; and
they make but little hay.
For draught of great weight in their carts they make use of Buffalo’s.
Camels will travel four days together without water, and will eat tops of
thistles, shrubs, or any kind of boughs: They are very sure footed, and
kneel when they are loading, and live to a considerable number of years,
some even to sixty.
The chief furniture of their houses are carpets, or matts of Grand
_Cairo_, neatly wrought with straw, spread upon the ground; they having
no occasion for chairs, couches, stools, or tables, their postures
within doors being different from ours. They have no hangings, but their
walls are whited and set off with painting, only adorned with a kind of
porcelain; no beds closed with curtains.
They seal not with wax, but ink, at the bottom of the paper, the
Emperor’s name being usually written with flourishes and in perplex’d
characters; nor have they any coats of arms upon their seals, there being
no such thing as gentility among them.
Some of them, notwithstanding their zeal for _Mahomet_ and the religion
by him establish’d, retain not only a favourable and honourable opinion
of our Blessed Saviour, but even place some kind of confidence in the
usage of his name, or of the words of the Gospel, though it may seem
to be wholly in the way of superstition. Thus in their amulets, which
they call _Chaimaili_, being little bits of paper about two or three
fingers breath, rolled up in pieces of silk, containing several short
prayers or sentences out of the _Koran_, with several circles with other
figures, they usually inscribe the holy and venerable name of _JESUS_, or
the figure of the cross, or the first words of St _John_’s Gospel, and
the like. They hang them about their necks, or place them under their
arm-pits, or in their bosom near their hearts, (being the same with what
the _Greeks_ call ἐγκόλπια) and especially when they go to war, as a
preservative against the dangers of it; and indeed against any misfortune
whatsoever. Some have them sow’d within their caps; and I heard of a
_Turk_ who was so superstitious herein, that he always pluck’d it off,
and was uncover’d, when he had occasion to make water. Some are such
bigots in their religion, and so furious against Christians, that not
only they treat them with all imaginable scorn and contempt, but take
it ill to be salam’d or saluted by them, as if it were the effect of
sawciness and unbecoming familiarity. Their malice against the Christians
makes them envy the rich furs they line their vests with, and it is a
trouble to these hypocritical zealots to see _Franks_ ride upon their
fine _Arabian_ horses.
The respect which they shew the _Koran_ is wonderful, they dare not open
the leaves of it with unwashen hands, according to the advice and command
written in _Arabic_ upon the cover, _Let no one touch this book, but he
that is clean_. They kiss it, and bend their heads, and touch their eyes
with it, both when they open and shut it.
The Janizaries, when they attend upon Christian Embassadors to their
audience, seem to appear in their bravery, and in a habit far from that
of a soldier, being without either fire-arms or swords, which latter
are not worn but in time of service, or when they are upon a march, or
embodied, wearing a cap made of camels hair, with a broad flap dangling
behind, a gilt embroider’d wreath running round it, and an oblong piece
of brass rising up from the middle of their forehead near a foot, with a
great club in their hand, like inferior officers of the civil government.
But when they are in the camp, they throw off their upper vest and
turbants, which they wear at all other usual times, as troublesome, and
put on a fez or red cap, which fits close to their head, and tuck up
their _Duliman_ or long coat to their girdle, that they may be the more
quick and expedite in their charge.
They affect finery and neatness in their cloaths and shashes; not so much
as a spot to be seen upon them, and in rainy or suspicious weather are
very careful how they go abroad without their _Yamurlics_, which is a
kind of coat they throw over their heads at such times.
Their pans and dishes are for the most part of copper, but so handsomely
tinned over, that they look like silver.
There are thousands of Gypsies or _Zinganies_ in _Turkey_, who live the
same idle nasty kind of life as they do in Christendom, and pretend to
the same art of telling fortunes; and are look’d upon as the off-scouring
of mankind. It is accounted the extremest point of human misery, to be a
slave to any of this sort of cattle.
The _Haggi_ or Pilgrims, that have been at _Mecca_ and _Medina_, forbear
to drink wine most religiously, out of a persuasion, that one drop would
efface all the merits of that troublesome and expensive journey; and some
have been possest with such a mad zeal, that they have blinded themselves
after their having been blest with the sight of _Mahomet_’s sepulchre.
After _Jatzah_, that is, an hour and an half in the night, throughout the
whole year, there is as great a silence in the streets as at midnight.
The Emperor _Achmet_, in the year 1611, having made an order, that no
one should presume to be out of his house after that time, which is to
this day most punctually observed. The _Bostangi bashi_, who has the
command of all the _Agiamoglans_ in the Seraglio, the _Topgibashi_, or
such great officers, attended with a great train of armed men, walking
the rounds, and drubbing such as they find abroad at unseasonable hours,
of what nation or quality soever, except Physicians, Chirurgions, and
Apothecaries, whom they allow at all times to visit the sick.
The _Turkmans_, (for so they are peculiarly called, as if they were the
true descendents of the old _Turks_ or _Scythians_, whose wandring kind
of life is described by the Poet,
Ἁμαξόβιοι { _Nulla domus, plaustris habitant, migrare per arva_
{ _Mos, atque errantes circumvectare penates._)
have no fix’d residence any where, but travel with their families and
cattel from place to place, carrying their wives and children upon
camels; they pitch their tents usually near rivers and fountains, for the
conveniency of water, and according as their necessities require, make a
longer and shorter stay. Their whole estates consists in their numerous
flocks and herds, which they sell upon occasion, to supply themselves
with what they want, at the towns they pass by. Their only concern is,
how to enjoy the benefits and blessings of nature, without the troubles
and turmoils and disquiets of life, being contented and happy in one
anothers company, void of all ambition and envy, courteous and humane to
strangers, that may want their help and assistance, kindly entertaining
them with such provision as their folds afford. I have met with some
companies of these harmless wanderers in my travels. The country lies
open without any enclosures, and the property not being vested in any
one, they travel thro’ the plains unmolested, and find excellent pasture
every where. The _Turks_ till no more ground than will serve their
necessities, being supply’d with corn from _Egypt_, and from _Moldavia_
and _Wallachia_, by the way of the Black sea, letting vast traces of
ground lie waste and uncultivated; so that their sloth herein sometimes
is justly punish’d with dearths.
They have nothing to shew for their houses and possessions, but an
_Hogiet_, or piece of paper subscribed by the Cadi, if they have acquired
them by their money, or that they were their father’s before them.
The Dervises generally are melancholy, and place the greatest part of
their religion in abstinence and other severities. Some cut their flesh,
others vow not to speak for six or seven years, or all their lives long,
though never so much provoked or distressed. Their Garments are made of
a coarse sort of wool, or goats hair: They are tied up by the vow of
their order ever from marrying. Several of this sect, in the height of
their religious phrenzy, have attempted upon the lives of the Emperors
themselves (at whose government they have taken disgust) as _Mahomet_ II,
and _Achmet_, as if such desperate attempts were fatal to bigots in all
religions.
They pay a mighty veneration to any relic of _Mahomet_, his banner is
still preserved in the treasury of the Seraglio, and is looked upon as
the greatest security of the empire. They believe that it was sent from
Heaven, and conveyed into the hands of _Mahomet_ by the Angel _Gabriel_,
as a pledge and sign of success and victory in his battels against
the Christians, and all other enemies of the _Musulman_ faith. It was
sent to _Candia_, to encourage the Soldiers to endure the fatigue of
that long and tedious siege; and when it was brought thence after the
surrender of that city, to be deposited in it’s usual place, the Vizier
gave several Christian slaves, that row’d in the galley that was fraught
with this holy ware, their liberty. They pretend to have some rags of
_Mahomet_’s vest, to which they ascribe great virtue. In confidence of
which the Emperor _Achmet_, in the time of a great fire, which raged at
_Constantinople_, when all other means failed, dipt part of them in water
to be sprinkled upon the fire to abate the fury of it.
Next to the Mufti or Cadaleskiers are the Mollas, of which these four are
the chiefest in dignity. The Molla of _Galata_, _Adrianople_, _Aleppo_,
_Prusa_; and after them are reckoned these eight, _Stambol Ephendi_,
_Larissa_, _Misir_ or _Cairo_, _Sham_ or _Damuscus_, _Diarbeker_ or
_Mesopotamia_, _Cutaia_, _Sophia_, _Philippi_.
The Priests have no habits peculiar to their profession, whereby they
are distinguished from others. If they are put from their Mosque for
miscarriage or neglect of doing their duty, or if they think fit to
resign and be Priests no longer, they may betake themselves without any
scandal to secular employments, their former character and quality wholly
ceasing. While they remain Priests, they counterfeit a more than ordinary
gravity in their discourse and walking: And affect to wear turbants
swelling out, and made up with more cross folds; which was all the
difference which I could observe by their head-attire, which is various,
though I could not find that this was constantly and strictly observed.
In _Byram_-time, which is the great festival of the year, at which time
every one looks cheerfully and merrily. Among other signs of mutual
respect, they besprinkle one another with sweet water: They indulge to
several sports; and some are mightily pleased with swinging in the open
air, the ordinary sort of people especially, paying only a few Aspers for
the diversion.
The government is perfectly arbitrary and despotical; the will and
pleasure of the Emperor having the force and power of a law, and
oftentimes is above it. His bare command, without any process, is enough
to take off the head of any person (though never so eminent in dignity;
though usually for formality, and to silence the murmurings of the
soldiery and people, the sentence is confirmed by the Mufti.) Sometimes
Bashaws, who have amassed great treasures in their governments, are cut
off in their own houses in the midst of their retinue, the messengers of
death producing the Imperial Command, usually sent in a black purse, and
not a sword drawn in their defence. Others, if they are obnoxious to the
least umbrage or jealousy, though dismist the Seraglio with all possible
demonstrations of the Grand Signior’s favour, and with rich presents
in order to take possession of places of great command in the empire,
before they have got two or three days journey from _Constantinople_,
have been overtaken and strangled. In the army commands are given
according to merit; courage and conduct are sure to be rewarded, the way
lying open to the meanest soldier to raise himself to be the chief of
his order. But other preferments depend upon meer chance, and upon the
fancy of the emperor, whether the person be fit or no, and they are as
soon lost. The least ill success or miscarriage proves oftentimes fatal,
and a more lucky man is put in his place, and he succeeded by a third,
if unfortunate in a design, though managed with never so much prudence
and valour. They admit of no hereditary honours, and have no respect
to descent or blood, except the _Ottoman_ family; he only is great and
noble whom the Emperor favours, and while his command lasts. According
to a tradition that passes current amongst them, a Bashaw’s son by a
_Sultana_, or a daughter or sister of the Emperor, can rise no higher
than to be a _Sangiachi_, or Governor of some little province, much
inferiour to a Bashaw, and under his jurisdiction. Being born of slaves
for the most part, they do not pride themselves in their birth, very few
among them being scarce able to give any account of their grandfathers.
They have no sirnames, but are distinguished by their possessions and
places of abode, and enjoying by law a liberty of having what women they
please, they have little or no regard to alliance or kindred.
Their empire owes the continuance of it’s being to the severity of the
government, which oftentimes takes place without regard either to justice
or equity, and to their frequent wars, which prevent all occasions of
mutiny and faction among the Soldiers, which happen frequently when
unemploy’d. So that tho’ ambition may put a warlike Sultan upon enlarging
his territories by new conquests, yet reason of state forces a weak
and effeminate Prince, such as was _Ibrahim_, to make war for his own
security. Their politics are not owing to books and study, and the
examples of past-times, but to experience, and the plain suggestions
of nature and common sense: They have rules of government, which they
firmly adhere to, holding the reins streight, especially being cruel
and inexorable to criminals of state, who never are to expect any mercy
or pity. Their councils formerly were open, and their designs known,
and proclaimed before-hand, as if this had been a bravery becoming
their greatness, and that they scorned to steal a conquest. But they
have learned since the art of dissimulation, and can lye and swear for
their interest, and seem excessive in their caresses to the ministers
of those countries, which they intend to invade. But their preparations
for arming are made with so much noise, that an ordinary jealousy is
soon awakened by it to oppose them, in case of an attack. They seldom
or never care to have war at both extremes of the empire at the same
time, and therefore they are mighty sollicitous to secure a peace with
_Christendom_, when they intend a war upon the _Persian_; and as much as
is possible, they avoid quarrelling with two _Christian_ Princes at once,
being usually at league either with _Poland_ and _Muscovy_, when they
war upon _Hungary_, and so on the contrary; dreading nothing more than a
union of the _Christian_ Princes bordering upon them, which would prove
so fatal to their Empire, and quickly put a period to their greatness;
for hereby they would be put upon a necessity of making a defensive war,
to their great loss and disadvantage, and at last either be forced to beg
a peace of the Christians, or run the hazard of losing all by a farther
prosecution of war.
This they are very sensible of, and therefore as they take all occasion
to promote quarrels and dissentions in _Hungary_ and _Transilvania_, so
they greatly rejoice, when the Christian Princes are at war one with
another. This is their great time of advantage, and they know, that it is
their true interest to pursue it, tho’ they do not always, by reason of
the ill condition of their own affairs make use of it. During the civil
wars of _Germany_, the Bashaws and other commanders of the army were very
importunate with the Grand Signior, to make a war on that side, and to
enlarge his conquests as far as _Vienna_, no conjuncture having been ever
so favourable to consumate such a design, in which _Solyman_ so unhappily
miscarry’d. They promised him an easy victory, assuring him, that the
animosities of the Princes of the empire were so heightened, that there
was no room left for a reconciliation, that he was but to go in the
head of an army to take possession, and that _Austria_ would surrender
at the first news of his march towards it. The Emperor was not to be
moved at that time by these insinuations and plausible discourses; being
continually urged, he as often deny’d. One day when they came to renew
their advice about the _German_ war, he having given order before, that
several dogs should be kept for some days without meat, commanded that
they should be brought out, being almost starved, and meat thrown among
them; whereupon they snarl’d and bit one another; in the midst of their
noise and fighting he caused a bear to be let loose in the same area;
the dogs forgetting their meat and leaving off their fighting, ran all
upon the bear, ready to pray upon them singly, and at last killed him.
This diversion the Emperor gave his Bashaws, and left them to make the
application.
A certain prophecy of no small authority runs in the minds of all
the people, and has gain’d great credit and belief among them, that
their empire shall be ruin’d by a northern nation, which has white and
yellowish hair. The interpretation is as various as their fancy. Some
fix this character on the _Moscovites_; and the poor _Greeks_ flatter
themselves with foolish hopes, that they are to be their deliverers,
and to rescue them from their slavery, chiefly because they are of
their communion, and owe their conversion to the Christian faith, to
the piety and zeal of the _Grecian_ Bishops formerly. Others look upon
the _Sweeds_ as the persons described in the prophecy, whom they are
most to fear. The ground and original of this fancy, I suppose, is owing
to the great opinion which they have of the valour and courage of that
warlike nation. The great victories of the _Sweeds_ in _Germany_, under
_Gustavus Adolphus_, were loudly proclaim’d at _Constantinople_, as if
there were no withstanding the shock and fury of their arms; and their
continued successes confirmed the _Turks_ in their first belief, and
their fears and jealousies were augmented afterwards, when _Charles
Gustave_, a Prince of as heroic a courage, and as great abilities in
the art and management of war, as the justly admired _Gustavus_, entered
_Poland_ with his army, and carry’d all before him, seized upon _Warsaw_,
and drove _Casimire_ out of his kingdom, and had almost made an entire
and absolute conquest, only a few places holding out. This alarmed the
Grand Signior and the Bashaws of the _Porte_, as if the prophecy were
then about to be fulfilled, who did not care for the company of such
troublesome neighbours, who might push on their victories, and joining
with the _Cossacks_, advance their arms farther, and make their country
the seat of war, which might draw after it fatal consequences. To prevent
which couriers are dispatched from _Constantinople_ to _Ragotzki_, Prince
of _Transilvania_, then in concert with the _Sweeds_, to command him to
retire with his army out of _Poland_, as he valued the peace and safety
of his own country, and the friendship of the Grand Signior, whose
tributary he was, and by whose favour he had gained that principality;
and the _Crim-Tartars_, the sworn enemies of the _Poles_, who at that
time lay heavy upon them, were wrought upon by the same motives and
reasons of state, to clap up a peace with them, that being freed from
these distractions, they might unite their forces the better together,
and make head against the _Sweeds_.
The Embassadors of Christian Princes, when they are admitted by the Grand
Signior to an audience, their presents being then of course made, which
are look’d upon as due, not to say as an homage, are dismist in few
words, and referred by him to his _Wakil_ or deputy, as he usually stiles
the chief Vizier, and a small number of their retinue only permitted the
honour of kissing his vest, and then rudely enough sent away.
The Grand Signiors keep up the state of the old _Asiatic_ Princes; they
do not expose themselves often to the view of the people, unless when
they ride in triumph, or upon some such solemn occasion; when they go
to the Mosques, or divert themselves in the fields, either in riding
or hunting, they do not love to be stared upon or approached. It is
highly criminal to pry into the sports, such an insolent curiosity being
often punished with death. The story is famous of _Morad_ the third,
who baiting a bear in the old palace with a mastiff, and espying three
fellows upon the tower of _Bajazid_’s Mosque, who had planted themselves
to see the sport, commanded their heads to be struck off immediately and
be brought before him, which was done accordingly. Instances of such
capricios are frequent in the _Turkish_ history; this following happen’d
during my stay at _Constantinople_.
Upon the return of Vizier _Achmet_ from _Candia_, after the surrender of
that city, and a happy end put by him to that tedious and bloody war, he
acquainting the present Emperor, then at _Adrianople_, with the history
of that famous siege at large, made such terrible representations of
their and the _Venetians_ mining and countermining one another, that the
Emperor was resolved out of curiosity to see the experiment made of a
thing that seemed to him almost incredible. A work was soon raised and
undermined, and above thirty murderers and robbers upon the highway,
and such like villains were put into it, as it were to defend it. The
Grand Signior stood upon an eminence at some considerable distance,
expecting the issue of it: upon a signal given, the mine was sprung, and
the fort demolish’d, and the poor wretches torn peacemeal, to his great
satisfaction and amazement.
The moon is the auspicious planet of the _Turks_; according to the course
of which they celebrate their festivals. They begin their months from the
first appearance of it, at which time they chuse, except a delay brings a
great prejudice and inconvenience with it, to begin their great actions.
The crescent is the ensign of the empire, which they paint in their
banners, and place upon the spires of their Mosques. Next to the day of
the appearing moon, they pitch upon Friday, to fight upon, to begin a
journey, and especially their pilgrimage towards _Mecca_, or do any thing
of great consequence, as very lucky and fortunate.
[Illustration]
_An account of the latitude of ~Constantinople~ and ~Rhodes~; written by
the learned Mr ~John Greaves~, sometime professor of astronomy in the
university of ~Oxford~, and directed to the most reverend ~James Usher~,
Archbishop of ~Ardmagh~._
Upon intimation of your Grace’s desires, and upon importunity of some
learned men, having finished a table as a key to your Grace’s exquisite
disquisition, touching _Asia_, properly so called; I thought myself
obliged to give both you and them a reason, why in the situation of
_Byzantium_, and the island _Rhodus_, (which two eminent places I have
made the παραπήγματα, and bounds of the chart) I dissent from the
traditions of the ancients, and from the tables of our late and best
Geographers, and consequently dissenting in these, have been necessitated
to alter the latitudes, if not longitudes, of most of the remarkable
cities of this discourse. And first for _Byzantium_, the received
latitude of it by _Appianus_, _Mercator_, _Ortelius_, _Maginnus_, and
some others, is forty three degrees and five minutes. And this also
we find in the _Basil_ edition of _Ptolomy_’s Geography, procured by
_Erasmus_ out of a _Greek_ MS. of _Pettichius_. The same likewise is
confirmed by another choice MS. in _Greek_, of the most learned and
judicious Mr _Selden_, to whom for this favour and several others, I
stand obliged. And as much is expressed in the late edition of _Ptolomey_
by _Bertius_, compared and corrected by _Sylburgius_, with a MS. out of
the _Palatine_ library. Wherefore it cannot be doubted, having such a
cloud of witnesses, but that _Ptolomy_ assigned to _Byzantium_ as our
best modern Geographers have done, the latitude of 43° 5′. And this will
farther appear, not only out of geography, where it is often expressed,
but also out of his μεγάλη σύνταξις, or _Almagest_, as the _Arabians_
term it, where, describing the parallel passing διὰ Βυζαντίου, he assigns
to it 43° 5′. What was the opinion concerning _Byzantium_ of _Strabo_
preceding _Ptolomy_, or of _Hipparchus_ preceding _Strabo_, or of
_Eratosthenes_ more ancient, and it may be accurater than all of them,
(for _Strabo_ (_lib. 2._) calls him τελευταῖον πραγματευσάμενον περὶ
τῆς γεωγραφίας) though _Tully_ (_lib. Ep. ad Att._) makes _Hipparchus_
often reprehend _Eratosthenes_, as _Ptolomy_ after him doth _Marinus_,
their writings not being now extant, (unless those of _Strabo_) cannot
be determined by us. But as for _Strabo_, in our enquiry, we can expect
little satisfaction; for his description of places, having more of the
Historian and Philosopher, (both which he hath performed with singular
gravity and judgment) than the exactness of a Mathematician, who strictly
respects the position of places, without inquisition after their nature,
qualities, and inhabitants, (though the best geography would be a mixture
of them all, as _Abulfeda_, an _Arabian_ Prince in his _Rectification of
Countries_, above three hundred years since hath done;) I say for these
reasons, we can expect little satisfaction from _Strabo_, and less may
we hope for from _Dionysius Afer_, _Arrianus_, _Stephanus Byzantinus_,
and others. Having next therefore recourse to the _Arabians_, who in
geography deserve the second place after the _Grecians_, I find in
_Nassir Eddin_ the latitude of _Byzantium_, which he terms _Buzantiya_,
and _Constantiniya_, to be 45 degrees, and in _Ulug Beg_’s Astronomical
Tables the same to be expressed. _Abulfeda_ chiefly follows four
principal authors as his guides, in the compiling of his Geographical
Tables, those are _Alfaras_, _Albiruny_, _Hon Saiid Almagraby_, lastly,
_Ptolomy_, whose geography he terms a _Description of the Quadrant_,
(or the fourth part of the earth) inhabited; and all these, according
to his assertion, place _Byzantium_ in 45 degrees of latitude. And here
it may justly be wonder’d how this difference should arise between the
_Greek_ copies of _Ptolomy_, and those translated into _Arabic_ by the
command of _Almamon_, the learned Calife of _Babylon_; for _Abulfeda_
expressly relates, that _Ptolomy_ was first interpreted in his time, that
is, in the computation of _Almecinus_, in _Erpenius_’s edition, and of
_Emir Cond_, a _Persian_ Historiographer, more than 800 years since;
concerning which, _Abulfeda_ writes thus, _This book_ (discoursing of
_Ptolomy_’s Geography) _was translated out of the ~Grecian~ language
into the ~Arabic~ for ~Almamon~_: And, in this I find, (by three fair
MSS. of _Abulfeda_) _Byzantium_ to be constantly placed in 45°, and as
constantly in the _Greek_ copies in 43° 5′. But in the πρόχειροι κανόνες
of _Chrysococca_, out of the _Persian_ tables, (made about the year
1346, in _Scaliger_’s calculation) it is placed in 45°. To reconcile the
difference between the _Greeks_ and _Arabians_, may seem impossible, for
the common refuge of flying to the corruption of numbers by transcribers,
and laying the fault on them, which sometimes is the author’s, will not
help us in this particular; seeing the _Greek_ copies agree amongst
themselves, and the _Arabic_ amongst themselves.
The best way to end the dispute, will be, to give credit concerning the
latitude of _Byzantium_, neither to the _Greeks_ nor _Arabians_. And that
I have reason for this assertion, appears by several observations of mine
at _Constantinople_, with a brass sextant of above four foot radius.
Where, taking in the summer solstice, the Meridian altitude of the Sun,
without using any προσθαφαίρεσις, for the parallax and refraction, (which
at that time was not necessary) I found the latitude to be 41° 6′. And in
this latitude in the chart, I have placed _Byzantium_, and not in that,
either of the _Greeks_ or _Arabians_. From which observation, being of
singular use in the rectification of geography, it will follow by way of
corallary, that all maps for the north-east of _Europe_, and of _Asia_,
adjoining upon the _Bosphorus_, _Thracius_, the _Pontus Euxinus_, and
much farther, are to be corrected, and consequently the situation of most
cities in _Asia_, properly so called, are to be brought more southerly
than those of _Ptolomy_, by almost two entire degrees, and than those of
the _Arabians_, by almost four.
Concerning _Rhodes_, it may be presumed, that having been the mother
and nurse of so many eminent Mathematicians, and having long flourished
in navigation, by the direction of these, and by the vicinity of the
_Phœnicians_, they could not be ignorant of the precise latitude
of their country, and that from them _Ptolomy_ might receive a true
information. Though it cannot be denied, but that _Ptolomy_, in places
remoter from _Alexandria_, hath much erred. I shall only instance in our
own country, where he situates λονδίνιον, that is _London_, in 54° of
latitude, and the περὶ μέσον, or the middle of the _Isle of Wight_ (which
in the printed copies is falsly termed οὐίκτησις, but in the MSS. rightly
οὐῆκτις) in 52° and 20′ of latitude. Whereas _London_ is certainly known
to have for the altitude of the pole, or latitude of the place, only 51°
and 32′; and the middle of the _Isle of Wight_ not to exceed 50°, and
some minutes.
But in my judgment _Ptolomy_ is very excusable in these and the like
errors, of several other places far distant from _Alexandria_, seeing he
must for their position, necessarily have depended either upon relations
of travellers, or observations of Mariners, or upon the longitude of the
day, measured in those times by _Clepsydræ_; all which how uncertain they
are, and subject unto error, if some celestial observations be not joined
with them, and those exactly taken with large instruments, (in which kind
the ancients have not many, and our times (excepting _Tycho Brayhe_, and
some of the _Arabians_) but a few) I say no man, that hath conversed with
modern travellers and navigators, can be ignorant. Wherefore to excuse
these errors of his (or rather of others fathered by him) with a greater
absurdity, by asserting the poles of the world since his time, to have
changed their site, and consequently all countries their latitudes,
as _Mariana_, the master of _Copernicus_, and others after him have
imagined; or else to charge _Ptolomy_, being so excellent an artist, with
ignorance, and that even of his own country, as _Cluverius_ hath done,
from which my observations at _Alexandria_ and _Memphis_ may vindicate
him; the former were too great a stupidity, and the latter too great
a presumption. But to return to _Rhodes_, an island in _Eustathius_’s
Comment upon _Dyonisius_’s περιήγησις of 920 furlongs circuit, where
according to _Ptolomy_, the parallel passing διὰ ῥόδου, hath 36° of
latitude, and so hath _Lindus_, and Ἰηλυσσός the chief cities of the
island; the same is confirmed by the MS. but where the printed copy and
_Eustathius_ read Ἰηλυσσὸς, which _Mercator_ renders _Talyssus_, the MS.
renders Ιλισὸς. _Abulfeda_ in some copies, situates the island _Rhodes_,
(for he mentions no cities there) in the latitude of 37° and 40′: And the
geography of _Said Ibn Aly Algiorgany_, commended by _Gilbyrtus Gaulmyn_,
in 37°, if it be not by a transposition in the MS of the numerical
letters in _Arabic_, 37 for 36, which, by reason of their similitude,
are often confounded in _Arabic_ MSS. By my observations under the walls
of the city _Rhodes_, with a fair brass _Astrolabe_ of _Gemma Frisius_,
containing 14 inches in the diameter, I found the latitude to be 37°
and 50′. A larger instrument I durst not adventure to carry on shore
in a place of so much jealousy. And this latitude in the chart, I have
assigned to the city _Rhodes_, from the island so denominated, upon
which, on the north-east side, it stands situated, better agreeing with
the _Arabians_ than with _Ptolomy_, whom I know not how to excuse.
[Illustration]
CHAP. VI.
_Some Observations made in a voyage to ~Egypt~. By M. ~Belon~._
In our sailing between _Rhodes_ and _Alexandria_, a sort of Falcon came
and sate two hours upon our sails. Abundance of Quails flying from the
north, southwards, fell into our ship. We observ’d in our sailing many
Pelicans, and some unknown birds.
At _Alexandria_, I observ’d them to burn the _Kali_ for fuel, wood being
scarce; they calcine lime with the ashes, then call it _Soda_, and sell
it to the _Venetians_, who melt it with a particular stone brought from
_Pavia_, by the river _Tesino_, and so make their famous chrystal glass
at _Muran_; but the _French_ find the sand brought from _Estampes_ to
serve as well as the _Pavian_ stone. From this place they send their
commodities and merchandize into all parts of the world.
In my passage to and from Grand _Cairo_, and during my abode there, I
observed besides other things, the animals and Plants.
As the _Garaffa_, or _Camelopardalus_; the _Bubalus_ of _Afric_,
different from the Buffalo; flocks of the _Oryx_, and of _Gazells_ which
they shoot; the _Axis_, a most beautiful creature (_by the description it
may be the ~Zebra~, or ~Zembra~ of ~Afric~_) great varieties of Monkeys
at _Cairo_; the _Hippopotamus_ about the lakes and rivers; Goats with
very long ears hanging down almost to the ground; Sheep with great tails,
and vast laps under their chin; the _Ichneumon_ tame in their houses like
cats; this animal destroys Rats and Mice like Weasils, hunts Serpents
which the people eat, destroys Camelions and other Lizards, it creeps
and darts upon it’s prey; ’tis bigger and much stronger than a Cat. I
observ’d at _Cairo_, many Civet-Cats.
Two kinds of Camelions frequently sitting on the _Rhamnus_, catching
of insects with their tongues as they fly by; Crocodiles common in the
lakes and rivers; the little _Lacerta Chalcidica_, hunts insects under
the walls; the _Stellio_ or swift Lizard, is common about the Pyramids,
and the other Sepulchres, where it runs after Flies; the excrement of
this animal is sold up and down for an excellent Cosmetic: I saw also the
Serpent call’d _Cerastes_. The great Bats abound in the caves.
Amongst the Birds, the Ostrich, whose skins and feathers are in use
amongst the _Turks_, the Pelican, with whose bills and bags, the watermen
of the _Nile_ throw the water out of their boots; the _Vulp-Anser_ is
common in the watery places. I observed also the _Crex_ and the _Ibis_.
The inhabitants never hatch their eggs under hens, but all in ovens or
furnaces.
The common trees are the Tamarisk, loaded with galls, or animal
excrescencies; the Date-Palm; the _Acacia_, or Gum-_Arabic_-tree; the
_Cassia Solutiva_; the Tamarind; the true Sycamore, or _Pharaoh_’s
_Fig_-tree; the _Musa Arbor_, or the Plantane; the _Siliqua_, or _Carob_;
yellow Jessamine, and yellow Roses; _Syringa_; _Alcanna_, a sort of
_Ligustrum_, Cotton-trees, _&c._
The most remarkable Herbs I took notice of, were the _Papyrus Nilotica_
(a sort of _Cyperus_ out of whose threads, or filaments, the ancients
made their paper.) The _Colocasia_, or great _Egyptian Arum_, whose
root they boil with most of their meats: The Sugar-cane, or Reed, by
the fuel whereof they melt their Metals, wood being scarce in _Egypt_;
_Hyoscyamus niger_, out of whose root they prepare an oil for their
lamps and other uses: A milky _Convolvulus_ on the walls (perhaps an
_Apocynum_ being podded;) several _Phaseoli_ or Kidney-beans; Gourds,
Pumpions, Thorn-apples, _Coloquintida_; many _Ocimums_ or wild Basils;
the _Harmala_, common about _Alexandria_ (a sort of Rue, with great white
flowers) the _Abrus_, two _Senna_’s, _Bammia_, _Melochia_, _Stratiotes_,
&c.
The Eagle-stone is found up and down _Egypt_ in very great plenty.
MORE
OBSERVATIONS
MADE IN
_EGYPT_,
BY
Guilandinus, Alpinus, _and others_.
CHAP. I.
_Of the weather and seasons in ~Egypt~._
The months of _January_ and _February_ make the spring in _Egypt_, the
trees beginning to germinate and put forth, and the herbs to flower, so
that then the fields and gardens are in their glory.
They reckon two summers, their first is in _March_, _April_, _May_, which
is the most inconstant, unequal, and most sickly season of the year, as
also the hottest and most scorching; which is imputed to the east and
south winds, that blow generally for fifty days together over desart
sandy places, accompanied with a hot burning sand, that spoils all their
eyes; Strangers during this season, retire into grotts and subterraneous
places, and drink much of the water of the _Nile_, which is excellent in
quenching epidemical thirst at that time.
Their second summer is in _June_, _July_, _August_, which is equal,
constant, and healthful, the wind blowing then from the north over
sea, the _Nile_ also swelling and overflowing by the rains falling in
_Ethiopia_, and the air moist and refreshing. Now all the people abstain
from business and labour, follow spectacles, games, plays, _&c._ the land
being under water.
_September_ and _October_ make their autumn, at the end whereof they
sow their wheat, which they reap in _March_ following. This autumn is
temperate and salubrious.
_November_ and _December_ are their winter; ice, snow, and hail are
seldom or never seen: Rain falls rarely in the inner parts of _Egypt_,
only a dew; but at _Alexandria_, and other places near the sea they have
rain, and a more healthful air; these showers come most in _November_.
CHAP. II.
_Of the meats and drinks of ~Egypt~._
The inhabitants, especially the Mahometans, live abstemiously, eat
little and often; their diet is generally simple, abhorring mixtures and
variety. Rice boiled in mutton broth, Lentils, Pulse, and legumes; Bete,
Mallows call’d _Bamia_, Cucumbers, Melons, Citruls, Dates, Figs of the
Sycamore, Plantanes, Pomegranates, Grapes, Oranges, Lemons, Citrons,
Sugar-canes, _Colocasia_-root, _&c._ make up the greatest part of their
diet.
The richest sort eat mutton, poultry, and several sorts of fish from the
_Nile_, which tho’ fat, are not esteemed wholsome, because the bottom of
that river is very muddy, and the water much troubled. All their bread
is made of Wheat, and they make abundance of milk-meats. Their kitchen
herbs are water’d every day, all their gardens being planted near the
banks of the _Nile_, which is one reason that their salleting is more
watry and insipid than in _Italy_; yet if they did not water them every
day in _Egypt_, they would soon be dried up. There are no gardens but
near the river, because there is no rain nor fresh water in other parts.
The ordinary people will eat Camels, Buffaloes, and Crocodiles. The
water of the _Nile_, purged and clarified, either by standing in jars,
or precipitated with powder and pastes of sweet Almonds, is the general
drink of the country, being esteem’d the lightest, the most nutritious,
and the most refreshing liquor in the world, the water running so far
under a hot sun, and falling down so many cataracts.
The inhabitants sleep little, indulge venery, having many wives and
concubines, are generally idle, yet live long, and see more years than
the _Poles_, _Germans_, and other northern nations, where gluttony and
drunkenness are much more in fashion than in the _Egyptian_ climate. The
_Jews_ and Christians, as also the _Turkish_ soldiers, will often debauch
at Grand _Caire_, with those rich wines brought from _Candy_, _Rhodes_,
and _Cyprus_; those from _Italy_, _Corfou_, and _Zant_, will not keep in
_Egypt_, the heat soon pricking them.
[Illustration]
CHAP. III.
_Of the diseases, and physic._
The most epidemical and endemical distempers of _Egypt_, are sore eyes,
from the east and south winds bringing along with them a burning sand
and piercing nitre mix’d with it, which makes them frequently wash and
cleanse their eyes with the _Nile_ water at that season. Leprosies from
their salt and rotten fish. Inflammatory phrenzies, killing in three or
four hours time. A pestilential small pox, and pestilential feavers,
especially at _Alexandria_ in autumn. Ruptures are very common, by
reason of their moist and watry diet: But that which destroys most is
the plague, which they take no care to obstruct or avoid, depending upon
their principle of inevitable fate and predestination; therefore in the
year 1580, they lost above 500,000 souls in six or seven months time, in
the single city of Grand _Cairo_.
The plague in _Egypt_ rages for the most part from the beginning of
_September_ to _June_, at which time it never fails to cease, the wind
turning then to the salubrious quarter of the north, and the _Nile_
swelling with fresh streams.
They reckon this plague is constantly brought either from _Barbary_,
_Lybia_, or other _African_ countries, or else from _Syria_ or _Greece_;
that from _Barbary_ is most furious and pernicious, the other two mild
and gentle.
Their practical physic consists in Phlebotomy, which they administer
universally in almost every disease; in cauterizing or burning, in
scarrifying, in cupping, bathing in a few lenative purgatives, and
cooling quieting alteratives.
They bleed by cutting or pricking the veins and arteries themselves in
most parts of the body; yet in eunuchs, women, children, and other soft
constitutions, they take away blood by scarrifying the thighs, ears,
lips, nostrils, gums, _&c._ They generally bleed after meat. Their
cupping-glasses are of different figures from ours, and their cautery is
Cotton set on fire.
They have a gross way of cutting in dropsies to let the water out.
Their manner of extracting stones out of the bladder, is by blowing
and extending the _Urethra_, then pressing the stones to the neck of
the bladder, by their fingers put into the _Anus_, or fundament, and
afterwards sucking them out through the expanded passages.
Their women bathe very much, and use all manner of arts to soften and
plump their bodies.
They abstain from all hot or violent purgatives, as _Scammony_,
_Coloquintida_, _Elaterium_, Hellebores, _Cataputia_, _Metezon_, &c.
and use only the most gentle lenitives, as _Cassia_, Tamarinds, Manna,
_Myrobalans_, sometimes Rheubarb and a little _Sena_, as also cooling
clysters.
Their alterative physic consists of coolers and anodyns, as _Nymphæa_,
Poppy, Endive, Lettice, Berberries, _China_-root (never _Guaicum_ or
_Sursa_) _Opium_, flowers of the _Alcanna_, Coffee: The women will eat
_Hermodactyls_ like roasted Chesnuts at night. They have few compound
medicines, unless a _Theriaca_ different from the _Venetian_, or that
of _Andromachus_, in the preparing of which, they seem very careful and
ceremonious. Some amongst them pretend to many _Arcanums_ against feavers.
For a full catalogue of such trees, shrubs, and herbs as grow in _Egypt_,
together with their synonymous names and places, the reader may consult
Mr _Ray_’s _Collection of Exotick Catalogues_, published at _London_
1693, and annexed at the end of this work, amongst which he will find an
_Egyptian_ one.
The manner of hatching chickens at Grand _Cairo_, with a particular
delineation of the ovens, fire, mats, _&c._ may be read at large in Mr
_Greave_’s _Relation_, printed in the _Philosoph. Trans._ Nᵒ 137. pag.
923, 924, 925.
Several conjectures and experiments upon the _Egyptian_ nitre, commonly
call’d _Natron_, (found floating on the lake _Latron_ near _Nitria_,
a town lower upon the _Nile_ than Grand _Cairo_) may be read in the
_Philosoph. Trans._ Nᵒ 160. from pag. 609. to pag. 619. also in Nᵒ
167, pag. 837, 838. where ’tis proved to be little different from _Sal
Armoniac_, and may owe it’s original to a natural union or mixture of
the fossile salt of the lakes with the urinose one, that comes from the
Crocodiles, _Hippopotami_, and other animal inhabitants of those waters.
[Illustration]
_Of the PYRAMIDS of ~Egypt~: By Mr ~Greaves~, Professor of Astronomy in
the University of ~Oxford~._
_A description of the Pyramids in ~Egypt~, as I found them in the 1048th
year of the ~Hegira~, or in the year 1638, and 1639 of our Lord, after
the ~Dionysian~ account._
_A description of the first and fairest Pyramid._
The first and fairest of the three greater Pyramids is situated on the
top of a rocky hill, in the sandy desart of _Lybia_, about a quarter of
a mile distant to the west, from the plains of _Egypt_, above which the
rock riseth an hundred feet or better, with a gentle and easy ascent.
Upon this advantageous rise, and upon this solid foundation the Pyramid
is erected; the height of the situation adding to the beauty of the
work, and the solidity of the rock giving the superstructure a permanent
and stable support. Each side of the Pyramid, computing it according to
_Herodotus_, contains in length 800 _Græcian_ feet; and in _Diodorus
Siculus_’s account 700. _Strabo_ reckons it less than a furlong, that is
less than 600 _Græcian_ feet, or 625 _Roman_. And _Pliny_ equals it to
883. That of _Diodorus Siculus_, in my judgment, comes nearest to the
truth, and may serve in some kind to confirm those proportions, which
in another discourse I have assigned to the _Græcian_ measures; for
measuring the north side of it near the Basis, by an exquisite Radius of
ten feet in length, taking two several stations, as Mathematicians use
to do, when any obstacle hinders their approach, I found it to be 693
feet, according to the _English_ standard; which quantity is somewhat
less than that of _Diodorus_. The rest of the sides were examin’d by a
line for want of an even level, and a convenient distance to place my
instruments, both which the Area on the former side afforded.
The Altitude of this Pyramid was long since measured by _Thales
Milisius_, who according to _Tatianus Assyrius_ lived about the fiftieth
Olympiad, but his observations are no where by the ancients express’d;
only _Pliny_ tells us of a course proposed by him, how it might be
found, and that is by observing such an hour, when the shadow of the
body is equal to it’s height. A way at the best, by reason of the
faintness and scattering of the extremity of the shadow, in so great an
Altitude, uncertain, and subject unto error. And yet _Diogines Laërtius_,
in the life of _Thales_, hath the same story, from the authority of
_Hieronymus_, who reports, that he measured the Pyramids by their
shadow, marking when they are of an equal quantity. Wherefore I shall
pass by his, and give my own observations. The Altitude is something
defective of the Latitude; tho’ in _Strabo_’s computation it exceeds; but
_Diodorus_ rightly acknowledges it to be less, which if we measure by
it’s perpendicular, is 481 feet; but if we take it as the Pyramid ascends
inclining, as all such figures do, then it is equal, in respect of the
lines subtending the several angles, to the Latitude of the Basis, that
is to 693 feet.
What excessive heights some fancy to themselves, or borrow from the
relation of others, I shall not now examine. This I am certain of, that
the shaft or spire of St _Paul_’s in _London_, before it was casually
burnt, being as much or somewhat more than the Altitude of the tower now
standing (1647) did exceed the height of this Pyramid. For _Cambden_
describes it to have been in a perpendicular 520 feet from the ground.
If we imagine upon the sides of the Basis, which is perfectly square,
four equilateral Triangles mutually propending, and enclining, till they
all meet on high as it were in a point, for so the top seems to them
which stand below, then shall we have a true notion of the just dimension
and figure of this Pyramid: the Perimeter of each triangle comprehending
2079 feet, besides the Latitude of a little plain or flat on the top,
and the Perimeter of the Basis 2772 feet; whereby the whole Area of the
Basis (to proportion it to our measures,) contains 480,249 square feet,
or eleven _English_ acres of ground, and 1089 of 43560 parts of an acre.
A proportion so monstrous, that if the ancients did not attest as much,
and some of them describe it to be more, this age would hardly be induced
to give credit to it. But _Herodotus_ describing each side to contain 800
feet, the Area must of necessity be greater than that by me assigned,
the sum amounting to 640,000, or computing it as _Diodorus Siculus_
doth, the Area will comprehend 490,000 feet, and in the calculation of
_Pliny_, if we shall square 883, which is the number allotted by him to
the measure of each side, the product 779,689, will much exceed both
that of _Herodotus_ and this of _Diodorus_. Tho’ certainly _Pliny_ is
much mistaken, in assigning the measure of the side to be 883 feet, and
the Basis of the Pyramid to be but eight _jugera_, or _Roman_ acres; for
if we take the _Roman jugerum_ to contain in length 240 feet, and in
breadth 120, as may be evidently proved out of _Varro_, and is expressly
affirmed by _Quintilian_, then will the superficies or whole extention of
the _jugerum_ be equal to 28,800 _Roman_ feet, with which if we divide
779,689, the result will be 27 _Roman jugera_, and 2089 of 28800 parts
of an acre. Wherefore if we take those numbers 883 of _Pliny_ to be
true, then I suppose he writ 28 _jugera_ instead of 8, or else in his
proportion of the side to the Area of the Basis he hath erred.
The ascent to the top of the Pyramid is contrived in this manner: From
all the sides without we ascend by degrees; the lowermost degree is near
four foot in height, and three in breadth. This runs about the Pyramid
in a level, and at the first, when the stones were entire, which are now
somewhat decay’d, made on every side of it a long but narrow walk. The
second degree is like the first, each stone amounting almost to four feet
in height, and three in breadth; it retires inward from the first near
3 feet, and this runs about the Pyramid in a level as the former. In the
same manner is the third row placed upon the second, and so in order the
rest, like so many stairs rise one above another to the top. Which ends
not in a point, as mathematical Pyramids do, but in a little flat or
square.
Of this _Herodotus_ hath no where left us the dimensions, but _Henricus
Stephanus_, an able and deserving man, in his comment hath supply’d
it for him; for he makes it to be eight _orgyiæ_; where if we take
the _orgyia_, as both _Hesychius_ and _Suidas_ do, for the distance
between the hands extended at length, that is for the fathom, or 6
feet, then should it be 48 feet in breadth at the top. But the truth
is, _Stephanus_, in this particular, whilst he corrects the errors of
_Valla_’s interpretation, is to be corrected himself; for that Latitude
which _Herodotus_ assigns to the admirable bridge below, (of which there
is nothing now remaining) he hath carry’d up, by a mistake, to the
top of the Pyramid. _Diodorus Siculus_ comes nearer to the truth, who
describes it to be but 9 feet. _Pliny_ makes the breadth at the top to
be 25 feet, _Altitudo_ (I would rather read it _latitudo_) _à cacumine
pedes 25_. By my measure it is 13 feet, and 280 of 1000 parts of the
_English_ foot. Upon this flat, if we assent to the opinion of _Proclus_,
it may be supposed that the _Egyptian_ Priests made their observations in
Astronomy; and that from hence, or near this place they first discovered,
by the rising of _Sirius_, their _annus_ κυνικὸς, or _Canicularis_, as
also their _periodus Sothiaca_, or _annus magnus_ κυνικὸς, or _annus
Heliacus_, or _annus Dei_, as it is termed by _Censorinus_, consisting
of 1400 sidereal years, in which space their _Thoth Vagum_, and _fixum_,
came to have the same beginning. That the Priests might near these
Pyramids make their observations, I no way question, this rising of
the hill being, in my judgments as fit a place as any in _Egypt_ for
such a design, and so much the fitter by the vicinity of _Memphis_. But
that these Pyramids were designed for observatories, (whereas by the
testimonies of the ancients I have proved before, that they were intended
for sepulchres) is no way to be credited upon the singular authority of
_Proclus_. Neither can I apprehend to what purpose the Priests with so
much difficulty should ascend so high, when below with more ease, and
as much certainty, they might from their own lodgings hewn in the rocks
upon which the Pyramids are erected, make the same observations; for
seeing all _Egypt_ is but as it were one continued plain, they might
from these cliffs have, over the plains of _Egypt_, as free and open a
prospect of the heavens, as from the tops of the Pyramids themselves. And
therefore _Tully_ writes more truly, _Ægyptii, aut Babylonii, in camporum
patentium æquoribus habitantes, cum ex terra ad nihil emineret, quod
contemplationi cœli officere posset, omnem curam in siderum cognitione
posuerunt._ The top of this Pyramid is covered not with one[18] or
three[19] massy stones, as some have imagin’d, but with nine, besides
two which are wanting at the angles. The degrees by which we ascend up
(as I observed in measuring many of them) are not all of an equal depth,
for some are near four foot, others want of three, and these the higher
we ascend, do so much the more diminish; neither is the breadth of them
alike, the difference in this kind being, as far as I could conjecture,
proportionable to their depth. And therefore a right line extended from
any part of the Basis without, to the top, will equally touch the outward
angle of every degree. Of these it was impossible for me to take an exact
measure, since in such a revolution of time, if the inner parts of the
Pyramid have not lost any thing of their first perfection, as being not
exposed to the injury of the air[20], yet the outward parts, that is
these degrees or rows of stone, have been much wasted and impaired by
both. And therefore they cannot conveniently now be ascended, but either
at the south side, or at the east angle on the north. They are well
stiled by _Herodotus_ βωμίδες, that is, little altars, for in the form of
altars they rise one above another to the top; and these are all made of
massy and polish’d stones, hewn according to _Herodotus_ and _Diodorus_,
out of the _Arabian_ mountains, which bound the upper part of _Egypt_,
or that above the _Delta_, on the east, as the _Lybian_ mountains
terminate it on the west, being so vast, that the breadth and depth of
every step is one single and entire stone. The relation of _Herodotus_
and _Pomponius Mela_ is more admirable, who make the least stone in this
Pyramid to be thirty feet. And this I can grant in some, yet surely it
cannot be admitted in all, unless we interpret their words, that the
least stone is thirty square, or to speak more properly, thirty cubical
feet; which dimension, or a greater, in the exteriour ones, I can without
any difficulty admit. The number of these steps is not mentioned by the
ancients, and that caused me and two that were with me, to be the more
diligent in computing them, because by modern writers, and some of those
too of repute, they are described with much diversity and contrariety.
The degrees, saith _Bellonius_, are two hundred and fifty, each of them
single contains in height forty five digits, at the top it is two paces
broad; for this I take to be the meaning or what _Clusius_ renders thus:
_A basi autem ad cacumen ipsius supputationem facientes, comperimus
circiter, 250 gradus, singuli altitudinem habent 5 solearum calcei 9
pollicum longitudinis, in fastigio duos passus habet._ Where I conceive
his _passus_ is in the same sense to be understood here above, as not
long before he explains himself in describing the Basis below, which
in his account is _324 passus paululum extensis cruribus_. _Albertus
Lewenstainius_ reckons the steps to be 260, each of them a foot and an
half in depth. _Johannes Helfricus_ counts them to be 230. _Sebastianus
Serlius_, upon a relation of _Grimano_ the Patriarch of _Aquileia_,
and afterwards Cardinal, who in his travels in _Egypt_ measured these
degrees, computes them to be 210, and the height of every step to be
equally three palms and a half. It would be but lost labour to mention
the different and repugnant relations of several others; that which by
experience and by a diligent calculation I and two others found, is this,
that the number of degrees from the bottom to the top is 207, tho’ one of
them in descending reckoned 208.
Such as please, may give credit to those fabulous traditions of some,
that a _Turkish_ archer standing at the top, cannot shoot beyond the
bottom, but that the arrow will necessarily fall upon these steps. If
the _Turkish_ bow (which by those figures which I have seen in ancient
monuments, is the same with that of the _Parthians_, so dreadful to the
_Romans_) be but as swift and strong as the _English_; as surely it is
much more, if we consider with what incredible force some of them will
pierce a plank of six inches in thickness, (I speak what I have seen) it
will not seem strange, that they should carry twelve score in length,
which distance is beyond the Basis of this Pyramid.
_The description of the inside of the first Pyramid._
Having finish’d the description of the superficies of the greater
Pyramid, with the figure and dimensions of it, as they present themselves
to the view without; I shall now look inwards, and lead the reader into
the several spaces, and partitions within; of which if the ancients have
been silent, we must chiefly impute it to a reverend and awful regard,
mixed with superstition, in not presuming to enter those chambers of
death, which religion and devotion had consecrated to the rest and quiet
of the dead. Wherefore _Herodotus_ mentions no more, but only in general,
‘That some secret vaults are hewn in the rock under the Pyramid.’
_Diodorus Siculus_ is silent, though both enlarge themselves in other
particulars less necessary. _Strabo_ is also very concise, whose whole
description both of this and the second Pyramid is included in this
short expression: ‘Forty stadia, or furlongs, from the city _Memphis_,
there is a certain brow of an hill, in which are many Pyramids, the
sepulchres of Kings, three of them are memorable, two of these are
accounted amongst the seven miracles of the world; each of these are a
furlong in height; the figure is quadrilateral, the altitude somewhat
exceeds each side, and the one is somewhat bigger than the other. On
high, as it were in the midst, between the sides, there is a stone that
may be removed, which being taken out, there is an oblique, or shelving,
entrance, for so I render that which by him is termed σῦριγξ σκολία
leading to the tomb.’ _Pliny_ expresses nothing within, but only a well,
(which is still extant) of 86 cubits in depth, to which he probably
imagines, by some secret aqueduct, the water of the _Nile_ to be brought.
_Aristides_ in his oration entituled Αἰγύπτιος, upon a misinformation of
the _Egyptian_ Priests, makes the foundation of the structure to have
descended as far below, as the altitude ascends above. Of which I see
no necessity, seeing all of them are founded upon rocks; his words are
these: ‘Now as with admiration we behold the tops of the Pyramids, but
that which is as much more under ground opposite to it, we are ignorant
of, I speak of what I have received from the Priests.’ And this is that
which hath been delivered to us by the ancients, which I was unwilling to
pretermit, more out of reverence of antiquity, than out of any special
satisfaction. The _Arabian_ writers, especially such as have purposely
treated of the wonders of _Egypt_, have given us a more full description
of what is within these Pyramids; but that hath been mix’d with so many
inventions of their own, that the truth hath been darkn’d, and almost
quite extinguish’d by them. Which traditions of theirs are little better
than a _Romance_; and therefore leaving these, I shall give a more true
and particular description out of my own experience and observations.
On the north side ascending thirty eight feet, upon an artificial bank
of earth, there is a square and narrow passage leading into the Pyramid,
through the mouth of which (being equidistant from the two sides of the
Pyramid) we enter as it were down the steep of an hill, declining with
an angle of twenty six degrees. The breadth of this entrance is exactly
three feet, and 463 parts of 1000 of the English foot; the length of it
beginning from the first declivity, which is some ten palms without, to
the utmost extremity of the neck, or streight within, where it contracts
it self almost nine feet continued, with scarce half the depth it had at
the first entrance, (though it keep still the same breadth) is ninety
two feet and an half. The structure of it hath been the labour of an
exquisite hand, as appears by the smoothness and evenness of the work,
and by the close knitting of the joints; a property long since observed,
and commended by _Diodorus_, to have run through the fabric of the whole
body of this Pyramid. Having passed with tapers in our hands this narrow
streight; though with some difficulty (for at the farther end of it we
must Serpent-like creep upon our bellies) we land in a place somewhat
larger, and of a pretty height, but lying incomposed: Having been dug
away, either by the curiosity or avarice of some, in hope to discover an
hidden treasure; or rather by the command of _Almamon_, the deservedly
renowned Calife of _Babylon_. By whomsoever it were, it is not worth the
enquiry, nor doth the place merit describing, but that I was unwilling
to pretermit any thing, being only an habitation for batts, and those
so ugly, and of so large a size, (exceeding a foot in length) that I
have not elsewhere seen the like. The length of this obscure and broken
space containeth eighty nine feet, the breadth and height is various,
and not worth consideration. On the left hand of this, adjoining to that
narrow entrance through which we passed, we climb up a steep and massy
stone, eight or nine feet in height, where we immediately enter upon
the lower end of the first gallery. The pavement of this rises with a
gentle acclivity, consisting of smooth and polish’d marble, and where
not smeared with dust and filth, appearing of a white and alabaster
colour; the sides and roof, as _Titus Livius Burretinus_, a _Venetian_,
an ingenious young man, who accompanied me thither, observed, was of
impolish’d stone, not so hard and compact as that on the pavement, but
more soft and tender; the breadth almost five feet, and about the same
quantity the height, if he have not mistaken. He likewise discovered some
irregularity in the breadth, it opening a little wider in some places
than in others; but this inequality could not be discerned by the eye,
but only by measuring it with a careful Hand. By my observation with a
line, this gallery contained in length an hundred and ten feet. At the
end of this begins the second gallery, a very stately piece of work, and
not inferiour, either in respect of the curiosity of art, or richness
of materials, to the most sumptuous and magnificent buildings. It is
divided from the former by a wall, through which stooping, we passed in
a square hole, much about the same bigness as that by which we entred
into the Pyramid but of no considerable length. This narrow passage lieth
level, not rising with an acclivity, as doth the pavement below and roof
above of both these galleries. At the end of it, on the right hand, is
the well mentioned by _Pliny_, the which is circular, and not square, as
the _Arabian_ writers describe: The diameter of it exceeds three feet,
the sides are lined with white marble, and the descent into it is by
fastening the hands and feet, in little open spaces, cut in the sides
within, opposite and answerable to one another in a perpendicular. In
the same manner are almost all the wells and passages into the cisterns
at _Alexandria_ contrived, without stairs or windings, but only with
inlets and square holes on each side within, by which, using the feet
and hands, one may with care descend. Many of these cisterns are with
open and double arches, the lowermost arch being supported by a row of
speckled and _Thebaic_ marble pillars, upon the top of which stands a
second row, bearing the upper and higher arch: The walls within are
covered with a sort of plaister for the colour white, but of so durable a
substance, that neither by time, nor by the water is it yet corrupted and
impaired. But I return from the cisterns and wells there to this in the
Pyramid, which in _Pliny_’s calculation is eighty six cubits in depth,
and it may be was the passage to those secret vaults mentioned, but not
described by _Herodotus_, that were hewn out of the natural rock, over
which this Pyramid is erected. By my measure sounding it with a line,
it contains twenty feet in depth. The reason of the difference between
_Pliny_’s observation and mine, I suppose to be this, that since his time
it hath almost been dammed up, and choaked with rubbage, which I plainly
discovered at the bottom, by throwing down some combustible matter set on
fire. Leaving the well, and going on strait upon a level, the distance
of fifteen feet, we entered another square passage, opening against
the former, and of the same bigness. The stones are very massy, and
exquisitely jointed, I know not whether of that glistering and speckled
marble I mentioned in the columns of the cisterns at _Alexandria_. This
leadeth (running in length upon a level an hundred and ten feet) into an
arched vault or little chamber, which by reason it was of a grave-like
smell, and half full of rubbage, occasion’d my lesser stay. This chamber
stands east and west; the length of it is less than twenty feet, the
breadth about seventeen, and the height less than fifteen. The walls are
entire, and plaister’d over with lime; the roof is covered with large
smooth stones, not lying flat, but shelving and meeting above in a kind
of arch, or rather an angle. On the east side of this room, in the middle
of it, there seems to have been a passage leading to some other place,
whither this way the Priests went into the hollow of that huge _Sphynx_,
as _Strabo_ and _Pliny_ term it, or _Androsphynx_, as _Herodotus_ calls
such kinds (being by _Pliny_’s calculation 102 feet in compass about
the head, in height 62, in length 143, and by my observation made of
one entire stone) which stands not far distant without the Pyramid,
south-east of it, or into any other private retirement, I cannot
determine; and it may be too this served for no such purpose, but rather
as a _Theca_ or _Nicchio_, as the _Italians_ speak, wherein some idol
might be placed; or else for a piece of ornament (for it is made of
polish’d stone) in the Architecture of those times, which ours may no
more understand than they do the reason of the rest of those strange
proportions that appear, in the passages and inner rooms of this Pyramid.
Returning back the same way we came, as soon as we are out of this narrow
and square passage, we climb over it, and going straight on, in the
trace of the second gallery, upon a shelving pavement (like that of the
first) rising with an angle of twenty six degrees, we at length come to
another partition. The length of the gallery from the well below to this
partition above, is an hundred fifty and four feet; but if we measure
the pavement of the floor, it is somewhat less, by reason of a little
vacuity (some fifteen feet in length) as we described before, between
the well and the square hole we climbed over. And here to re-assume some
part of that, which hath been spoken, if we consider the narrow entrance
at the mouth of the Pyramid, by which we descend, and the length of the
first and second galleries, by which we ascend, all of them lying as
it were in the same continued line, and leading to the middle of the
Pyramid, we may easily apprehend a reason of that strange eccho within,
of four or five voices, mentioned by _Plutarch_, in his fourth book _De
placitis philosophorum_; or rather of a long continued sound, as I found
by experience, discharging a musquet at the entrance; for the sound being
shut in, and carried in those close and smooth passages, like as in so
many pipes or trunks, finding no issue out, reflects upon it self, and
causes a confused noise and circulation of the air, which by degrees
vanishes, as the motion of it ceases. This gallery or _Corridore_, or
whatsoever else I may call it, is built of white and polish’d marble, the
which is very evenly cut in spacious squares or tables. Of such materials
as is the pavement, such is the roof, and such are the side-walls that
flank it; the co-agmentation, or knitting of the joints is so close,
that they are scarce discernable by a curious eye; and that which adds
a grace to the whole structure, though it makes the passage the more
slippery and difficult, is the acclivity and rising of the ascent. The
height of this gallery is 26 feet, the breadth is 6 feet, and 870 parts
of the foot divided into a thousand of which three feet, and 435 of 1000
parts of a foot, are to be allowed for the way, in the midst; which is
set, and bounded on both sides with two banks (like benches) of sleek
and polish’d stone; each of these hath one foot 717 of 1000 parts of a
foot in breadth, and as much in depth. Upon the top of these benches near
the angle, where they close, and join with the wall, are little spaces,
cut in right angled parallel figures, set on each side opposite to one
another, intended, no question, for some other end than ornament. In
the casting and ranging of the marbles in both the side-walls, there is
one piece of Architecture, in my judgment very graceful, and that is,
that all the courses or ranges, which are but seven, (so great are those
stones) do set and flag over one another about three inches, the bottom
of the uppermost course oversetting the higher part of the second, and
the lower part of this overflagging the top of the third, and so in order
the rest, as they descend.
Having passed this gallery, we enter another square hole, of the same
dimensions with the former, which brings us into two _Anticamerette_, as
the _Italians_ would call them, or _Anticlosets_, (give me leave in so
unusual a structure to frame some unusual terms) lined with a rich and
speckled kind of _Thebaic_ marble. The first of these hath the dimensions
almost equal to the second; the second is thus proportioned, the Area is
level, the figure of it is oblong, the one side containing seven feet,
the other three and an half, the height is ten feet. On the east and west
sides, within two feet and an half of the top, which is somewhat larger
than the bottom, are three cavities, or little seats, in this manner,
[Illustration]
This inner _Anticloset_ is separated from the former, by a stone of red
speckled marble, which hangs in two mortices, like the leaf of a sluce,
between two walls, more than three feet above the pavement, and wanting
two of the roof. Out of this closet we enter another square hole, over
which are five lines cut parallel and perpendicular.
Besides these, I have not observed any other sculptures or engravings in
the whole Pyramid, and therefore it may justly be wondered whence the
_Arabians_ borrowed those vain traditions I before related, _That all
Sciences are inscribed within in Hieroglyphics_. And as justly it may be
questioned, upon what authority _Dio_, or his epitomizer _Xiphilinus_,
reports that _Cornelius Gallus_ (whom _Strabo_ more truly names _Ælius
Gallus_, with whom he travelled into _Egypt_, as a friend and companion)
_ingraved in the Pyramids his victories_, unless we understand some other
Pyramids not now existent. This square passage is of the same wideness
and dimensions as the rest, and is in length near nine feet, (being all
of _Thebaic_ marble, most exquisitely cut) which lands us at the north
end of a very sumptuous and well proportion’d room. The distance from the
end of the second gallery to this entry, running upon the same level,
is twenty four feet. This rich and spacious chamber, in which art may
seem to have contended with nature, the curious work being not inferiour
to the rich materials, stands as it were in the heart and center of the
Pyramid, equidistant from all the sides, and almost in the midst between
the basis and the top. The floor, the sides, the roof of it are all made
of vast and exquisite tables of _Thebaic_ marble, which if they were not
vailed, and obscured by the steam of tapers, would appear glittering and
shining. From the top of it descending to the bottom, there are but six
ranges of stone, all which being respectively sized to an equal height,
very gracefully in one and the same altitude, run round the room. The
stones which cover this place are of a strange and stupendious length,
like so many huge beams lying flat, and traversing the room, and withal
supporting the infinite mass and weight of the Pyramid above. Of these
there are nine which cover the roof, two of them are less by half in
breadth than the rest, the one at the east end, the other at the west.
The length of this chamber[21] on the south-side, most accurately taken
at the joint or line, where the first and second row of stones meet, is
thirty four _English_ feet, and 300 and 80 parts of the foot divided into
a thousand (that is 34 feet and 380 of 1000 parts of a foot). The breadth
of the west side at the joint or line, where the first and second row of
stones meet, is seventeen feet, and an hundred and ninety parts of the
foot divided into a thousand (that is 17 feet, and 190 of 1000 parts of a
foot). The height is nineteen feet and an half.
Within this glorious room (for so I may justly call it) as within some
consecrated oratory, stands the monument of _Cheops_, or _Chemnis_,
of one piece of marble, hollow within, and uncovered at the top, and
sounding like a bell. Which I mention not as any rarity, either in
nature or in art; (for I have observed the like sound in other tombs
of marble[22] cut hollow like this) but because I find modern authors
to take notice of it as a wonder. Some write, that the body hath been
removed hence, whereas _Diodorus_ hath left above sixteen hundred years
since, a memorable passage concerning _Chemnis_ the builder of this
Pyramid, and _Cephren_ the founder of the next adjoining. ‘Although
(_saith he_) these Kings intended these for their sepulchres, yet it
happened that neither of them were buried there: For the people being
exasperated against them, by reason of the toilsomness of these works,
and for their cruelty and oppression, threatened to tear in pieces their
dead bodies, and with ignominy to throw them out of their sepulchres.
Wherefore both of them dying, commanded their friends privately to bury
them in an obscure place.’ This monument, in respect of the nature
and quality of the stone, is the same with which the whole room is
lined; as by breaking a little fragment of it I plainly discover’d,
being a speckled kind of marble, with black, and white, and red spots,
as it were equally mix’d, which some writers call _Thebaic_ marble;
though I conceive it to be that sort of porphyry which _Pliny_ calls
_Leucostictos_, and describes thus: _Rubet Porphyrites in eadem Egypto,
ex eo candidis intervenientibus punctis Leucostictos appellatur.
Quantislibet molibus cædendis sufficiunt lapidicinæ[23]._ Of this kind
of marble there were, and still are, an infinite quantity of columns
in _Egypt_; but a _Venetian_, a man very curious, who accompanied me
thither, imagined that this sort of marble came from mount _Sinai_[24],
where he had lived amongst the rocks, which he affirmed to be speckled
with party colours, of black and white, and red, like this. And to
confirm his Assertion, he alledged, that he had seen a great column left
imperfect amongst the cliffs, almost as big as that huge and admirable
_Corinthian_ pillar[25] standing to the south of _Alexandria_, which by
my measure is near four times as big as any of those vast _Corinthian_
pillars in the _Porticus_ before the _Pantheon_ at _Rome_, all which
are of the same coloured marble with this monument, and so are all the
obelisks with hieroglyphics, both in _Rome_ and _Alexandria_. Which
opinion of his doth well correspond with the tradition of _Aristides_,
who reports, that in _Arabia_ there is a quarry of excellent porphyry.
The figure of this tomb without is like an altar, or more nearly to
express it, like two cubes finely set together and hollowed within: It
is cut smooth and plain, without any sculpture and engraving, or any
relevy and imbossment. The exteriour superficies of it contains in length
seven feet three inches and an half. _Bellonius_ makes it twelve feet,
and Monsieur _de Breves_ nine; but both of them have exceeded. In depth
it is three feet three inches and three quarters, and is the same in
breadth. The hollow part within is in length, on the west side, six feet
and four hundred eighty eight parts of the _English_ foot divided into a
thousand parts, that is[26] 6 feet and 488 of 1000 parts of a foot, in
breadth, at the north end two feet, and two hundred and eighteen parts
of the foot divided into a thousand parts, (that is[27] 2 feet, and 218
of 1000 parts of a foot.) The depth is 2 feet and 860 of 1000 parts of
the _English_ foot. A narrow space, yet large enough to contain a most
potent and dreadful monarch, being dead, to whom living all _Egypt_ was
too straight and narrow a circuit. By these dimensions, and by such other
observations, as have been taken by me from several embalmed bodies in
_Egypt_, we may conclude, that there is no decay in nature; (though the
question is as old as _Homer_) but that the men of this age are of the
same feature, they were near three thousand years ago; notwithstanding St
_Augustine_ and others are of a different opinion, _Quis jam ævo isto non
minor suis parentibus nascitur?_ Saith _Solinus_.
It may justly be questioned how this monument could be brought hither,
since it is an impossibility that by those narrow passages before
described, it should have entered. Wherefore we must imagine, that by
some _Machina_ it was raised, and conveyed up without, before this
oratory or chamber was finished, and the roof closed. The position of it
is thus, it stands exactly in the _Meridian_, north and south, and is as
it were equidistant from all sides of the chamber, except the east, from
whence it is doubly remoter than from the west. Under it I found a little
hollow space to have been dug away, and a large stone in the pavement
removed, at the angle next adjoining to it; which _Sands_ erroneously
imagines to be a passage into some other compartiment, dug away, no
doubt, by the avarice of some, who might not improbably conjecture an
hidden treasure to be reposited there.
The ingenious reader will excuse my curiosity, if before I conclude my
description of this Pyramid, I pretermit not any thing within, of how
light a consequence soever. This made me take notice of two inlets or
spaces, in the south and north sides of this chamber, just opposite to
one another; that on the north was in breadth 700 of 1000 parts of the
_English_ foot, in depth 400 of 1000 parts; evenly cut, and running in a
straight line six feet, and farther, into the thickness of the wall. That
on the south is larger and somewhat round, not so long as the former; and
by the blackness within seems to have been a receptacle for the burning
of lamps. _T. Livius Burretinus_ would gladly have believed that it had
been an hearth for one of those eternal lamps, such as have been found
in _Tulliola_’s tomb in _Italy_, and, if _Cambden_ be not misinformed in
_England_, dedicated to the urns and ashes of the dead; but I imagine the
invention not to be so ancient as this Pyramid.
_A description of the second Pyramid._
From this Pyramid we went to the second, being scarce distant the flight
of an arrow from it; where by the way, I observed on the west side of
the first, the ruins of a pile of building, all of square and polished
stone; such as _Pliny_ calls _Basaltes_, and describes to be _ferrei
coloris, & duritiæ_;—_of an iron colour and hardness_. Formerly it
may be some habitation of the Priests, or some monument of the dead.
To the right hand of this, tending to the south, stands this second
Pyramid, of which besides the miracle, the ancient and modern writers
have delivered little. _Herodotus_ relates, that _Cephron_, in imitation
of his brother _Cheops_, built this, but that he fell short in respect
of the magnitude. _For_ (saith he) _we have measured them._ It were to
be wished, for fuller satisfaction of the reader, he had expressed the
quantity, and also the manner how he took his measure. He adds, _It
hath no subterraneous structures, neither is the ~Nilus~ by a channel
derived into it, as in the former_. _Diodorus_ somewhat more particularly
describes it thus: That _for the architecture, it is like unto the
former, but much inferior to it in respect of magnitude: Each side of the
basis contains a ~Stadium~ in length._ That is, to comment on his words,
of _Grecian_ feet, six hundred; of _Roman_, six hundred and twenty-five.
So that by this computation, each side should want an hundred _Grecian_
feet of the former Pyramid. _Pliny_ makes the difference to be greater,
for assigning eight hundred eighty-three feet to the former, he allows
to the side of the basis of this, but seven hundred thirty-seven. By
my observation, the stones are of colour, white, nothing so great and
large, as those of the first and fairest Pyramid; the sides rise not with
degrees like that, but are smooth and equal, the whole fabrick (except
where it is opposed to the south) seeming very entire, free from any
deformed ruptures or breaches. The height of it, taken by as deliberate
a conjecture as I could make (which it was easy to do, by reason of the
nearness of this and the former, being both upon the same plain) is not
inferior to it; and therefore _Strabo_ hath rightly judged them to be
equal. The sides also of the basis of both are alike, as, besides the
authority of _Strabo_, the _Venetian_ doctor assured me, who measured it
with a line.
There is no entry leading into it, and therefore what may be within,
whether such spaces and compartments, as I observed in the former;
or whether different, or none, I must leave to every man’s private
conjecture, and to the discovery of after-times.