_(For the Mirror.)_
After the opening of the Bairam,[2] a ceremony among the Turks, attended
with more than ordinary magnificence; the Sultan, accompanied by the
Grand Signior and all the principal officers of state, goes to exhibit
himself to the people in a kiosk, or tent near the seraglio point,
seated on a sofa of silver, brought out for the occasion. It is a very
large, wooden couch covered with thick plates of massive silver, highly
burnished, and there is little doubt from the form of it, and the style
in which it is ornamented that it constituted part of the treasury of
the Greek emperors when Constantinople was taken by the Turks.