Religion,

The Turks are Mahometans of the sect of Omar. The rule of their faith is the Koran, an incongruous mixture of sound and absurd doctrines, of grave and trifling precepts. The two leading doctrines are, that there is one God, and that Mahomet is his prophet. The five principal precepts enjoin, 1st, frequent ablutions; 2dly, prayers at five stated times in a day; 3dly, alms to be bestowed according to the ability of the giver; 4thly, fasting, particularly during the month of Ramazan; and 5thly, pilgrimages to Mecca, one being esteemed absolutely necessary to salvation. The use of pork is prohibited, and also the drinking of wine, yet the principal people indulge in it to a certain degree. Polygamy, though permitted, is seldom practised; but the rich are in the habit of keeping concubines.

The charity enjoined by the Koran is chiefly confined to the erection of public buildings, as mosques, caravanseras, or inns for the accommodation of travellers, fountains for water, bagnios or baths, colleges, and bridges. Little of the charity is applied to the immediate relief of the necessitous, except to the support of faquiers, who are continually wandering about the country.

During the month of Ramazan, all ranks of people abstain from eating and smoking till after sunset: but through. the night all is festivity, the mosques and private houses are illuminated within and without, and they are careful to recompense themselves for the abstinence of the day. The Turks believe in the doctrine of predestination in such a manner as to prevent their taking precaution against the plague and other evils; they also endure afflictions with great fortitude.

Language and Literature.

The language of the Turks is a mixture of several dialects, and is esteemed greatly inferior in force and harmony to the Arabic or Persian. The lower ranks are almost devoid of education. Learning is confined chiefly to law and theology, which have here a close connexion; for the lawyer must be skilled in the Koran; the divine learned in the law. They have their ancient poets, his

torians and divines; but their poetry is full of hyperbole and false taste; and of the geography and history of other countries they are almost entirely ignorant. Astronomy, as taught in Turkey, is a fanciful system of judicial astrology.

Government and Laws.

The government is despotic. The emperor, who is styled sultan or grand seignior, is the sole fountain of honour and office, and has absolute power of life and death. Though unchecked by any representative body, he is virtually restrained by the ordinances of the Koran, by certain usages, and by the decisions of the ulema and mufti. There is hardly any hereditary nobility, and very little distinction of rank, but what arises from holding a public office. The prime minister, or first officer after the sultan, is called grand vizier. The mufti is at the head of the religious establishment, and is the second subject in the empire. The divan, or cabinet council, is composed of the vizier, the mufti, and kioga bey, who is the lieutenant of the vizier. Other high officers are sometimes called in.

The governors of provinces are styled pachas. One of the first class, termed a pacha of three tails, has a right to punish capitally any subordinate officer, without the form of trial. The ulema are a numerous body, combining the character of clergy and lawyers, and have at their head the grand mufti. The imans are inferior priests, who perform public worship in the mosques. The two high judicial officers are the kadileskar of Europe and the kadileskar of Asia; the inferior judges are the mullahs and cadis. Bribery is practised to a great extent in the courts of justice. The court of the sultan is styled the Porte, the Sublime Porte, or the Ottoman Porte.

"A remarkable cause," says Dr. Clarke, "was tried while we were in Cos; and a statement of the circumstance on which it was founded will serve to exhibit a very singular part of the Mahometan law; namely, that which relates to homicide by implication.' An instance of a similar nature was before noticed, when it was related that the Capudan Pacha reasoned with the people of Samos upon the propriety of their paying for a Turkish

frigate which was wrecked upon their territory; ' because the accident would not have happened unless their island had been in the way.' This was mentioned as a characteristic feature of Turkish justice, and so it really was; that is to say, it was a sophistical application of a principle rigidly founded upon the fifth species of homicide, according to the Mahometan law; or homicide by an intermediate cause,' which is strictly the name it bears. The case which amused us at Cos fell more immediately under the cognizance of this law.

"A young man desperately in love with a girl of Stanchio, eagerly sought to marry her; but his proposals. were rejected. In consequence of his disappointment he bought some poison, and destroyed himself." The Turkish police instantly arrested the father of the young woman, as the cause, by implication, of the man's death: under the fifth species of homicide, he became amenable for the act of suicide. When the cause came before the magistrate, it was urged literally by the accusers, that, if he, the accused, had not had a daughter, the deceased would not have fallen in love; consequently he would not have been disappointed; consequently he would not have swallowed poison; consequently he would not have died: -but he, the accused, had a daughter; and the deceased had fallen in love; and had been disappointed; and had swallowed poison; and had died.' Upon all these accounts, he was called upon to pay the price of the young man's life; and this being fixed at the sum of 80 piastres, was accordingly exacted."

Dress, &c.

The Turks wear their beards long, except those who are in the seraglio, who wear whiskers only. They cover their heads with a white turban, which they never pull off but when they go to sleep, and none but Turks are permitted to wear the turban. They have slippers instead of shoes, which they pull off when they enter a house or temple. They wear shirts with wide sleeves, and over them a vest fastened with a sash; their upper garment being a loose gown or pelisse of cloth lined with fur for winter.

The ladies wear drawers very full, which reach to the

shoes: they are made of thin rose-coloured damask, brocaded with silver flowers. The shoes are of white kid leather, embroidered with gold. Over these hangs a shift of fine white gauze, edged with embroidery, having wide sleeves hanging half way down the arm, and it is closed at the neck with a diamond button. A waistcoat is made to the shape, of white and gold damask, with long sleeves falling back, and edged with deep gold fringe : this should have diamond and pearl buttons. The caftan, of the same stuff with the drawers, is a robe exactly fitted to the shape, and reaching to the feet with very long strait falling sleeves; over this is a girdle about four fingers broad, which all who can afford it have set entirely with diamonds or other precious stones. The curdee, with a loose robe, is put on or thrown off according to the weather, being a rich brocade, lined either with ermine or sables.

The head-dress is composed of a cap called talpoe, which in winter is of fine velvet, embroidered with pearls or diamonds; and in summer, of light shining silver stuff; this is fixed on one side of the head, from which it hangs a little way down with a gold tassel, and is bound on either with diamonds or a rich embroidered handkerchief; on the other side of the head the hair is flat; and here the ladies are at liberty to shew their fancy, some putting flowers, others a plume of heron feathers. The hair hangs at its full length behind, divided into tresses, braided with pearls or ribbands in great quantities.

In some of the districts a large gold or silver ring is hung to the external cartilage of the women's right nostril, which is perforated for the purpose. The dress of

the men is equally splendid.

As the Turks advance to old age, they dye their beards to conceal the change of colour which begins to take place; and women at the same time usually metamorphose themselves in the like way by colouring their hair, eyebrows, and eye-lids. Their hands and feet are ornamented nearly in the same manner, with this difference, that the colour they choose for the purpose is a dusky yellow, with which they touch the tips of the fingers and toes, and drop a few spots of the preparation used in this operation on the hands and feet: some, indeed, as marks of superior elegance, stain great part of their extremities in

the forms of flowers or figures, with a dye of a dark green cast; but this soon loses its beauty, changing, however, to a colour not less pleasing than the other.

The Turkish females walk abroad by themselves in fine weather; they resort to some favourite skirts without the towns, occupy the banks, or seat themselves on the tomb-stones in their cemeteries, where they sit quietly for hours together. They appear to lead a most indolent life; their recreations and exercises being extremely limited.

Food and Mode of Living.

As wine and spirits are forbidden by the laws of Mahomet, the Turks practise another species of intoxication; they use opium very freely, which produces some of the immediate effects of drunkenness, inspiring them with an extraordinary cheerfulness, rousing them into unusual exertions, and occasioning a kind of temporary delirium.

The Turks do not undress and go to bed at any certain hour, and wait the approach of sleep; but being seated on a mattress, they smoke till they find themselves sleepy, and laying themselves down, their servants cover them. Some of high rank have musicians attending when they retire to rest, who endeavour to compose them by the softer strains of music; others employ young men of letters to read passages out of the Koran, or stories from the Tales of the Genii, or the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, till they fall asleep. They have always a lamp burning; and if they wake in the night, refresh them selves with a pipe, a dish of coffee, sweetmeats, &c. sitting up till the inclination to sleep returns.

The Turks sit cross-legged, according to the customs of the East, on sofas, cushions, or mattresses. Rice is the customary food of the common people, but a principal dish is pilau, which consists of mutton and fowl boiled to rags; and the rice being boiled quite dry, the soup is highly seasoned, and poured upon it. Coffee is their common drink, and also sherbet. The superior class dine about eleven or twelve in the forenoon, and sup at five in the winter, and six in the summer; the evening repast being the principal meal. The dishes are served up one by one; but they have neither knife nor fork, and their