Social Condition of the Eastern Jews—Parallel between the Jews
of Europe and the Levant—Cruelty of the Turkish Children to
Jews—A Singular Custom—Religious Strictness of the
Jews—National Administration—The House of Naim Zornana of
Galata—Costume of the Jewish Women—Hebrew Hospitality.
I never saw the curse denounced against the children of Israel more
fully brought to bear than in the East; where it may be truly said that
“their hand is against every man, and every man’s hand against
them,”—Where they are considered rather as a link between animals and
human beings, than as men possessed of the same attributes, warmed by
the same sun, chilled by the same breeze, subject to the same feelings,
and impulses, and joys, and sorrows, as their fellow mortals.
There is a subdued and spiritless expression about the Eastern Jew, of
which the comparatively tolerant European can picture to himself no
possible idea until he has looked upon it. The Israelite of Europe has a
peculiar physiognomy; a crouching, self-humbling, constrained manner;
but there is “a lurking devil in his eye,” which at once convinces you
that it is the hope of gain rather than the fear of insult, which
teaches him that over-acted subserviency of carriage. You may detect the
internal chuckle of self-gratulatory success; the stealthy glance of
calculating caution; the sudden flashing out of the spirit’s triumph, as
transitory as it is vivid. But the Jew of Turkey knows not even the poor
enjoyment of these momentary outbreaks of our common nature; “he eats
his bread in bitterness,” and comes forth from beneath his own roof-tree
with fear and trembling, to pursue his calling; and to mingle, even
unequally, in the avocations of his task-masters.
It is little to be wondered at, therefore, that the bitterness of hatred
is blent with the terror of the Jew, in his commerce with his Moslem
lords; nor that his heart burns as he treads their highways, and wanders
through their cities. But this is a secret and impotent revenge; and,
even while his spirit pours forth “curses not loud, but deep,” he only
crouches the more servilely beneath the power that crushes him, lest the
yoke should be pressed down yet more heavily, and the burthen be
doubled.
It is impossible to express the contemptuous hatred in which the
Osmanlis hold the Jewish people; and the veriest Turkish urchin who may
encounter one of the fallen nation on his path, has his meed of insult
to add to the degradation of the outcast and wandering race of Israel.
Nor dare the oppressed party revenge himself even upon this puny enemy,
whom his very name suffices to raise up against him.
I remember, on the occasion of the great festival at Kahaitchana, seeing
a Turkish boy of perhaps ten years of age, approach a group of Jewesses,
and deliberately fixing upon one whose delicate state of health should
have been her protection from insult, give her so violent a blow as to
deprive her of consciousness, and level her to the earth. As I sprang
forward to the assistance of this unfortunate, I was held back by a Turk
of my acquaintance, a man of rank, and I had hitherto believed, divested
of such painful prejudices; who bade me not agitate, or trouble myself
on the occasion, as the woman was _only a Jewess_! And of the numbers of
Turkish females who stood looking on, not one raised a hand to assist
the wretched victim of gratuitous barbarity.
Very shortly before our departure from Constantinople, my father and
myself were ascending the hill of Topphannè, on our way to Pera,
followed by a Jewish lad of sixteen or seventeen years of age, heavily
laden with linen drapery, which he was hawking for sale. About mid-way
of the rise we passed a house upon whose doorstep a party of Turkish
boys were amusing themselves; but they no sooner saw the Jew, who was
quietly pursuing his way in the centre of the street, than they
simultaneously quitted the sport with which they were engaged, and,
springing upon the poor youth, they commenced beating him, and
endeavouring to drag from his back the merchandize with which he was
laden.
The terror of the lad was frightful. The street was, as usual, so filthy
as to entail ruin upon every thing that fell to the ground; and, as he
struggled against the pain of the blows that were showered upon him on
all sides, and the efforts which were made to destroy his goods; the big
tears rolled from his eyes. But the contest was soon terminated by my
father, whose cane liberated the unfortunate Jew from his tormentors in
a very short time; and procured for himself a volley of abuse, the most
_piquante_ of which was: “See the Giaour! the Giaour who fights for the
Jew!”—a specimen of wit that appeared to be greatly relished by a
couple of grave-looking old Turks, who had been unmoved spectators of
the whole scene—the poor lad, meanwhile, like an animal which has been
beaten, and rescued by a passer-by, following crouchingly upon our
footsteps until he entered the High Street.
A common custom with both the Turks and the Greeks when they pass a
caïque on the water laden with Jews, is to raise one hand, and with
outstretched finger to count their number, which is supposed to bring
some heavy misfortune on the last of the party. The Jews, who have firm
faith in the effect of the spell, writhe with agony as they remark the
action, and never fail collectively to yell forth: “May the curse fall
back upon yourself!” After which the caïques dart onward, each upon its
own errand; the one gay with the subdued mirth of the tormentors, and
the other freighted with new and unnecessary bitterness.
The Jews of the East, like their brethren of Europe, are the people of
the country who spend their sabbath the most strictly; and who are the
most conscientious in the exercise of their religious observances, and
the most obedient to its professors. Even accustomed as they are to
habits of chicane and extortion, the Jews are seldom guilty of wilful
error in their contributions to the National Chest, for relieving the
wants of the poorer portion of their people; which is supplied from a
tax levied on the provisions consumed by each family, thus falling the
most heavily on the wealthiest of their community.
The Levantine Jews individually live in the hope, and with the
intention, of terminating their lives at Jerusalem; and, as this
speculation is an expensive one, their energies are quickened by the
necessity it entails of making a gradual provision for so extensive an
outlay; and instances have been frequent in which the father of a
family, feeling that from his advanced age and his failing powers, he
was no longer able to benefit his children by his personal exertions,
has resigned to his sons all his worldly wealth, save the sum necessary
to defray the charges of his pilgrimage; and sometimes alone, and,
sometimes accompanied by his wife, has bidden a last adieu to his
children, and departed to die in the chosen city.
In order not to be ruined by any political convulsion, or beggared by
any stretch of despotic power, the Jews have a law regulating the
division of their property into three equal proportions. One consists of
floating capital; another is secured in jewels; and the third is
retained in the coin of the country; an arrangement which proved highly
beneficial to that portion of their nation that was compelled from
ecclesiastical persecution to evacuate Portugal and Spain, at the
instigation of Torquemada and other influential members of the clergy:
and to establish themselves in Constantinople; where, through the long
series of years which has succeeded, they have retained the language of
the countries whence they were banished, with such tenacity, that most
of their women are altogether ignorant of the Turkish.
The Constantinopolitan Jews, who wear a dingy-coloured white cap,
surrounded by a cotton shawl of a small brown pattern, are raïahs, or
vassals to the Porte, and are also distinguishable by their dark purple
boots, and black slippers; while those who cover their heads with a
_calpac_, somewhat similar to that of the Greeks, but surmounted by a
scarlet rosette at the summit of the crown, are either under foreign
protection; or subjects of another country trading temporarily in the
Levant, and enjoying all the prerogatives of that portion of the
community whose costume they adopt; these invariably wear yellow boots,
and slippers similar to those of the Turks. The raïahs, as well as the
strangers, are under the jurisdiction of the Grand Rabbin; the
difference of their position acting only on their external relations,
and not being recognised by their own rulers.
The Levantine Jews formerly visited the infidelity of their women with
death; but the present Sultan has forbidden to them the exercise of so
severe a law, and the crime is now punished by exile. They marry their
sons at fifteen, and their daughters at ten years of age; and if a
father desires to chastise his child, he is obliged to obtain the
concurrence of the seven Deputy Counsellors, charged with the religious
administration of the nation; who refer the matter to the Grand Rabbin;
whose order in its turn must, ere it can be made available, receive the
sanction of the Porte. The same rule is observed with individuals
charged with any crime, save that these are imprisoned during the
deliberation.
Having expressed to a friend my desire to visit one of the principal
Jewish families, in order to see the costume of their women, of which I
had heard a great deal; he accompanied my father and myself to the house
of Naim Zornana, with whom he had held some commercial relations.
Nothing could be more miserable than the approach to his dwelling; for,
in order to reach it, we were compelled to traverse the entire length of
the Jew’s Quarter at Galata; nor did the appearance of the house itself,
as we crossed a miserable yard into which it opened, tend to give us a
very favourable idea of the establishment. The window-shutters were
swinging in the wind upon their rusty hinges; the wooden balustrade of a
dilapidated terrace, whose latticed roof was overgrown by a magnificent
vine, was mouldering to decay; the path to the house was choaked with
rubbish; and the timber of which it was built was blackened both by time
and fire.
The first flight of stairs that we ascended, together with the rooms on
the ground-floor, were quite in keeping with the exterior of the
dwelling: but when we reached the foot of the second, we appeared to
have been suddenly acted upon by magic: the steps were neatly matted,
the walls were dazzlingly white, and at the entrance of the vast _salle_
into which the several apartments opened, lay a handsome Persian carpet.
Here we were met by the females of the family, and greeted with the
lowliest of all Eastern salutations, ere we were conducted to the
scrupulously clean and handsomely arranged saloon appropriated to the
reception of visiters.
Never, during my residence in the East, had I looked on any costume
which equalled in richness, and, their head-dresses excepted, in
elegance, the dress of these Jewish females. It was a scene of the
Arabian Nights in action; and for a few moments I was lost in
admiration. The mistress of the house stood immediately in front of the
sofa on which we were seated: she was a tall stately woman, who looked
not as though she belonged to a bowed and rejected race; she had the
eagle eye, the prominent nose, and the high pale forehead of her nation,
with a glance as fiery as it was keen.
Such as I have described her, she was attired in a full dress of white
silk, confined a little above the hips by a broad girdle of wrought
gold, clasped with gems; both the girdle and the clasps being between
five and six inches in width. Above this robe, she wore a pelisse of
dove-coloured cachemire, lined and overlaid with the most costly sables,
and worth several hundred pounds; the sleeves were large and loose, and
fell back, to reveal the magnificent bracelets which encircled her arms,
and the jewelled rings that flashed upon her fingers. Her turban, of the
usual enormous size worn by all Jewish women, was formed of the painted
muslin handkerchief of the country, but so covered with gems that its
pattern was undistinguishable; while, from beneath it, a deep fringe of
pearls, dropped with emeralds of immense size and value, fell over her
brow, down each side of her face, and ultimately upon her shoulders.
Behind her were grouped her three daughters-in-law, in dresses nearly
similar, save that, not being widows, they did not wear the heavy
pelisse; and that the gold and pearl embroidered sleeves and bosoms of
their silken robes were consequently visible. The prettiest woman of the
party was her own and only daughter, who had been summoned from the
house of her husband on the previous day, to welcome the return of her
younger brother from Europe, where he had passed five years. She was
nearly fourteen, with an expression half pensive and half playful; a
something which seemed to indicate that her nature was too sad for
smiles, and yet too gay for tears; as though the young bright spirit had
been chilled and withered ere it had felt its freshness, and that it
still struggled to free itself from the thrall.
Her dress was gorgeous; the costly garniture of gold and jewels, which
almost made her boddice appear to be one mass of light, was continued to
the knee of her tunic, where it parted to form a deep hem, that entirely
surrounded the skirt of the garment. The jewelled fringe of her turban
was supported on either temple by a large spray of brilliants, and fell
upon a border of black floss silk that rested on her fair young brow.
Her arms were as white as snow, and seemed almost as dazzling as the
gems which bound them; while her slender waist was compressed by a
golden girdle similar in fashion, but richer in design, than that of her
mother.
In their girlhood, the Jewish females take great pride in the adornment
of their hair, but from the moment of their marriage it is scrupulously
hidden; so scrupulously, indeed, that they wear a second handkerchief
attached to the turban behind, which falls to the ground, in order to
conceal the roots of the hair that the turban may fail to cover.
A sweet little girl of about nine years of age, the affianced wife of
one of the brothers, was introduced, in order to show me the difference
of head-dress; and assuredly her _coiffure_ was a most elaborate affair.
She must have worn at least fifty braids, each secured at the end by a
knot of pearls and ribbon; while her little chubby hands were literally
covered with jewelled rings; and her feet, like those of the elder
females, simply thrust into richly embroidered slippers.
The courtesy and hospitality of the whole family were extreme. They
appeared delighted at the unusual circumstance of receiving Christians,
who appreciated their kindly intentions; and when I promised, in
compliance with their earnest request, that I would repeat my visit, I
had no intention to fail in the pledge.