The servant of the house—The Onbashee—Five piastres—Osman
detected—The guilty man—Vankovitch's remarks—The sentence—May
I put Osman in prison?—The barracks—Two old Khans—The women
weeping—Immense enthusiasm—Numbers of volunteers—Parading
for the march—Men crying—We shall eat the Russians—The
Sergeant—The Major of the battalion—The Dervish—A
Circassian—The Imaum of the regiment—The Muleteer—Baggage
animals required for the regiment—A bitter cry—The women's
wail—The old Major—The soldier's hymn—The standard of the
battalion—Go in safety—God be with you!
The following morning the servant of the house in which I was lodging
entered the room and observed that a Zaptieh corporal, or Onbashee, who
had escorted us into the town on the day of my arrival, wished to see
me.
"Tell him to come in," I said. In a few minutes the Onbashee opened
the door; approaching me, he took from his waistcoat five piastres, and
placed them in the palm of his hand.
"What is this for?" I inquired.
"Osman!" answered the Onbashee, with a sigh.
"Osman! What has he been doing?"
"Osman gave them to me, Effendi; but you said that he was to give me
half a medjidi—he has kept the difference for himself!"
It now flashed across my mind that the previous evening I had desired
Osman to give the corporal half a medjidi as a baksheesh, and that I
had told him to do so in the presence of the servant of the house. The
latter had informed the Onbashee. Osman, who wished to appropriate to
himself the difference between five piastres and the larger coin, was
thus detected.
I sent for the culprit. He was aware that his knavery had been
discovered. Instead of coming to me with his usual assertion that he
was the most industrious man in the world, he stood in the corner of
the room, an object of derision to the Onbashee, who was regretting the
loss of his half medjidi, and to the servant of the house, who had been
the means of disclosing Osman's dishonesty.
Addressing the guilty man, I asked him why he had not given the Zaptieh
the half medjidi, and added that the previous evening, when he had told
me of the expenses of the day, he had charged me with that sum.
Osman had hardly anything to say for himself. Presently he stammered
out something about his only having five piastres in his pocket.
"That is a lie, Effendi!" here interrupted the Onbashee. "He had many
coins in his hand when he gave me the five piastres."
I at once made up my mind to get rid of Osman. Vankovitch's remarks
about the Turk's dishonesty also recurred to my memory. Osman was
undoubtedly a rogue; I determined to procure another servant.
"Osman," I said, "you have robbed a Mohammedan, a follower of Islam,
and one of your own religion. If you had confined yourself to robbing
me, I could have understood it, for you might have reasoned to yourself
as follows: 'The Effendi is a giaour, and there is gold in his purse.'
But to rob a brother Mohammedan, and a poor man; to rob him of the
pittance which I had given him,—this I can only understand by the
assumption that you are a greater scoundrel than I thought you were!
You are no longer my servant. You darken the threshold no longer!"
"I am innocent, Effendi!" cried Osman.
"Well, prove your innocence, and I will say no more about the matter."
"Effendi, the Onbashee is a liar!"
"Very likely, but then the servant must be a liar as well, and he saw
you give the five piastres to the corporal. Now what interest has the
servant in telling a lie about the matter?"
This was too much for the delinquent; lowering his eyes, he walked
out of the room, through a long row of servants, who had come from the
neighbouring houses to hear me administer justice.
The sentence appeared to give great satisfaction to the Onbashee.
"May I put Osman in prison?" he eagerly inquired.
"I have no authority on such matters," I replied.
"No, Effendi, but the Caimacan likes you, and if you asked him to do
so, he would put Osman in prison. Just a day or so, Effendi! Please
do!"
"Why do you want to put him in gaol?" I asked.
"Because, if he is once shut up, we will not let him out till he has
returned me the difference between your present and the five piastres."
"No," I said; "here is the difference," at the same time giving him a
small sum of money. "But now go and inquire in the town for a man who
wants a situation, as I want a servant immediately."
Just then a sergeant entered the room. He brought word from the
Caimacan that he was waiting for me, and that the battalion would leave
Tokat in about half an hour.
I at once rode to the barracks. They consisted of two old Khans, which
surrounded a courtyard, the Khans being used as barracks when there
were troops in Tokat, and at other times of the year as lodgings
for wayfarers. The streets leading to the Khans were lined with
women, muffled up in long white sheets, and weeping piteously. The
battalion was drawn up in two ranks inside the courtyard. The men were
standing at ease, and engaged in talking to their numerous friends and
relatives. Immense enthusiasm prevailed amidst the bystanders. Numbers
of volunteers were offering their services.
"Look at these men, sir," observed Radford, who was riding behind me;
"they do not look as if they liked going as soldiers: bless my heart
alive, if they ain't a-crying!"
I glanced in the direction he was pointing, and saw thirty or forty men
with most woe-begone faces, and some of them in tears.
"Why are you crying?" I said to one of their party. "Are you afraid of
being killed?"
"No, Effendi, we want to go with our brothers in the battalion and to
fight by their side; but the major will not take us, he says that his
battalion is complete. Do ask him to let us accompany him! Our hearts
are full of sorrow at being left behind."
A captain in the regiment, a short, podgy-looking man, with very fat
cheeks, now came to them, and tried to console the volunteers by saying
that their turn would come soon, and that they should go with the next
battalion.
It was a curious spectacle: the soldiers dressed in a neat dark
blue serge uniform, and with their feet in sandals, surrounded by
little knots of relatives clad in every kind of attire that can well
be imagined; fathers embracing sons, brothers rubbing cheeks with
brothers, and the sergeant and corporals vainly endeavouring to get
their men into some sort of order; the fat captain in the background
engaged in trying to console the rejected volunteers; and the younger
portion of the crowd looking inquisitively at the new Martini-Peabody
rifles which had only arrived from Samsoun the previous evening. Some
of the soldiery were showing how quick their rifles could be loaded and
fired. The rapidity of the system created great astonishment amidst the
crowd.
"The giaours come from the country where these guns are made," said a
bystander, pointing to Radford and myself.
"The giaours have more brain than we have," said another.
"If they help us, we shall eat the Russians!" exclaimed a third. We
became the object of still more curiosity when a sergeant, coming to
me, said that the Caimacan was in the major's room, drinking coffee,
and hoped that I would join him there.
"He is going to drink coffee with the Governor—he is a great man!" said
one of the bystanders. Some of the volunteers, rushing up, entreated me
to intercede with the Caimacan, and perhaps he could induce the major
of the battalion to take them with him to the war.
The major, and several other officers were squatted on a carpet in a
small and rather dirty room overlooking the courtyard. The Caimacan was
seated on a chair, a dervish sat by his side. The latter individual was
a portly-looking man, wrapped up in a roll of brown cloth, and with a
gigantic sugar-loaf hat on his head. The hat was made of grey cloth,
and would have made the fortune of the leader of a nigger band. Several
more officers now came into the room, amongst others the fat captain.
They each in turn bent before the dervish, who placed his hands above
their heads, and pronounced some sort of a blessing.
A Circassian entered the building. He presently informed us that five
thousand of his nation, who resided in the neighbourhood of Tokat, had
expressed a wish to go to the seat of war, and to bring with them their
own horses and arms.
By this time the sergeants had succeeded in arranging their men in
the ranks, and the major going downstairs, followed by the Imaum or
chaplain of the regiment, the latter addressed the battalion. The Imaum
was attired in a lieutenant's uniform, but with a green turban round
the fez, as a distinctive mark of his profession.
The Chaplain's discourse was not a long one. It was listened to with
great attention by the populace. When he had finished the ranks were
again broken by a crowd of eager, excited Mussulmans, who rushed up to
embrace their friends.
As I was descending the steps, my attention was called to a man who
was seated on the stair. He was sobbing like a child; at the same time
striking his chest with the palms of his hands.
"What is the matter?" I inquired.
On his looking up, I recognized the muleteer whom I had hired to bring
my baggage from Sileh Zela to Tokat. The man on seeing me sprang to his
feet, then throwing himself on the ground, he began to embrace my legs,
at the same time kissing my boots.
It appeared that several baggage animals were required for the
battalion which was about to march. The Zaptiehs of Tokat had pressed
the muleteer into their service, and had taken his mules.
"Do speak for me, Effendi!" he said. "They will take me to Kars. I
shall be a ruined man. And my wife expects me home—she is in a delicate
state of health; I shall shortly be a father."
"It is useless," said the Caimacan, who overheard his prayers. "We must
have baggage animals," he continued; "you will not be taken to Kars,
only to Samsoun; you will be paid for the hire of your animals. Dry
your eyes, and do not block up the steps."
"It is a great pity, and I am very sorry for these poor fellows,"
observed the Caimacan, turning to me; "but what can we do? It is war
time, or very soon will be so: some of us must suffer."
"Listen to those poor women there," he continued, as we rode through
the gate, preceded by the brass band of the regiment playing a
melancholy march. A deep wail could be heard even above the noise of
the instruments. The wives, mothers, and other female relatives of the
soldiers, had not been permitted to enter the barracks; but from an
early hour they had taken up a position along the streets. The bitter
cry, which was joined in by hundreds of voices, announced to the people
in the very outskirts of the town that the battalion was on the march.
Presently the band ceased playing; and the old major, his long white
beard streaming in the wind, began singing the words: "God is great.
There is but one God, the God, and there is but one Prophet, the
Prophet, and he is the Prophet of God."
The soldiers took up the strain, ten thousand bystanders joined in
the verse—it even silenced the women's wail—and resounded along the
banks of the river. Here taken up by some people on the ruined citadel,
the words were re-echoed back to us; there wafted by the breeze to an
adjacent hamlet, the peasantry swelled the chorus. The standard of the
battalion, with the crescent embroidered on a green border, was raised
high in the air, and several of the crowd, rushing up to the major,
implored him to take them in his ranks.
It was a striking scene—these weeping women in their shroud-like
dresses; the many-coloured garments of the men; the excited
soldiery—the still more excited major; and the immense religious
enthusiasm.
Snow-capped mountains barred the way before us, and the river, its
banks set fast with ice and hoar-frost, glittered in the distance, and
reflected the rays of a midday sun.
Large stacks of wood had been piled up near the stream. The timber had
been cut in the forests above the town, and been floated down the river
to Tokat. It is chiefly used for smelting copper, the Government having
some smelting works in the neighbourhood. According to my informant,
they were established thirty years ago by a German; after his decease
they had been bought by the Turkish authorities.
The Caimacan thought that he had accompanied the battalion far
enough. Drawing a little on one side, we let the soldiers pass us. The
standard-bearer waved his flag, the old major saluted by lowering the
point of his sword as he rode past, and with the words, "Go in safety,
God be with you. We shall meet in Erzeroum," we parted.