Chinill Kiosk

In 1888, consequent upon the discovery of twenty-one sarcophagi, some of which may be justly regarded as masterpieces of Hellenic sculpture, at Saida (the Sidon of the Ancients), Chinill Kiosk, in its turn, was found too small for the requirements of a museum, and an imperial decree was issued sanctioning the erections of special premises for the Saida sarcophagi opposite Chinill Kiosk. The new building was completed and inaugurated in 1892.

The most prominent by far of all the antiquities in the Constantinople Museum are those contained in the matchless collection of ancient monuments unearthed in Phoenicia. The greater part of these monuments, and the most important, were discovered in the vicinity of Saida, the Sidon of the Ancients, during two archaeological expeditions under Hamdl Bey, director of the Imperial Museum at Constantinople. His party succeeded in excavating and exploring two contiguous tumuli. One of these contained the anthropoid Egyptian sareophagus of Tabnith, King of Sidon. The other, consisting of seven chambers, contained seventeen sarcophagi, among which were those called ‘ the Weepers or ‘ Mourners ; the black stone one in Egyptian style; that said to be Alexanders, with three others in the same style; that called the ‘ Lycian ; the ‘ Satrap’s ’; two anthropoid sarcophagi, and a few plain ones private tour istanbul.

The best and easiest way of seeing the Museum is to begin from the room on the left of the entrance and which is :—

ROOM NO. 2

The Lycian Sarcophagus, No. 75.—This was discovered at Saida in 1887 by Hamdl Bey, and is of Paros marble. The head was broken in excavation ; but such of the fragments as have been recovered have been pieced together, and the monument has thus been partially restored. The colouring has almost entirely disappeared. The shape of this sarcophagus is one which is peculiar to Lycia, where numerous other monuments of its kind are to be found. It is evident that this stone coffin was acquired at second hand by some Sidonian magnate, and was used for him after his demise. The carvings at the head and foot represent en-counters between centaurs.

The figures at the foot represent two centaurs quarrelling about a hind; while those at the head illustrate an episode in a wrestling-match between centaurs and lapiths, the death of the hero Cseneus, who is represented lying under a heap of amphorae and fragments of rock. The figures on one of the sides are those of Amazons in four-horse chariots hunting lions; and those on the opposite one represent a party of mounted men at a wild boar hunt. The symmetrical arrangement of the figures on both sides of this sarcophagus is well worthy of notice.

This sarcophagus is contemporary with some of the finest Athenian sculptures, and belongs to the close of the fifth, or to the commencement of the fourth century B.C., the period when Lycia, becoming tributary to the Athenians, was influenced by Athenian art.

The Sarcophagus alleged to be Alexander’s.— This sarcophagus was discovered at Saida in 1887 by Hamdl Bey, and is of Pentelic marble; it is 10 feet 8 inches long, 5 feet 7 inches broad, and 8 feet 2 inches in depth. One of its corners was broken off in excavation, but some of the fragments have been recovered and put together, and the monument is now partially restored; a head, however, and some other fragments of the carved figures are still missing. The repairs to the horse’s hoof and to the arm of one of the hunters are ancient.

THE VARNA TREASURE

31. THE VARNA TREASURE

The treasure was fortuitously found in Varna in 1961, during construction works, at the corner of Knyaz Boris I and Makedonia streets, 1,5 m be-low the today’s walking level. The spot is about 500 m north – east to the Late Antiquity fortress walls of Odessos, near the Roman necropolis of the town (AD 2nd – 3rd centuries). At the area of the find there is evidence of funerals dating from the 4th – 6th centuries.

It has been probably kept within a leather sa-chet and might have been part of a larger treasure

consisting of gold jewelry belonging to ecclesiastical or secular persons. The presence of additional artifacts and fragments suggests the treasure has been divided in two parts at least, and submitted by the Church or by Odessos authorities in the second half of the 6th – early 7th century to Barbarians (probably the Avars who invaded the Balkans in 580 – 582) in return for captives; the local bishop Martin attested to a similar initiative — in 544 he succeeded in receiving from Emperor Justinian a special privilege for the church community in town (Just. Nov. CXX, 4)

The treasure consists of eight objects or frag-ments of 22-carat gold, precious and semi-precious stones: pearls, garnet and malachite of a total weight of 417 g. They were produced in different periods between mid 5th and mid 6th centuries, using various techniques peculiar of the Early Byzantine goldsmith’s art as forging, engraving, chasing, filigree, granulation, incising, intaglio and encrustment. Some of the pieces were prob-ably fashioned in the imperial workshop of Con-stantinople, as the bracelets tour bulgaria, the incised diadem which is the only one known of its kind, and per-haps the necklace. The rest of the jewels were like-ly produced in the workshops of Odessos, which were very active in the course of 4th – 6th centuries.

31.1. DIADEM

Constantinople Second half of the 5th century Gold, pearls, green gems (emeralds?) 32,5 x 1,3 cm; 16,4 g

31.2. DIADEM A fragment Odessos 6th century Gold, opal, pearls, glass 19 x 1,3 cm; 40,8 g Varna, Regional Museum of History, lnv. N III 560

31.3. NECKLACE

Odessos

Late 5th – 6th century Gold, pearls, glass L. 25,6 cm; 25,6 g Varna, Regional Museum of History, lnv. N III 561

31.4. PECTORAL CROSS -ENCOLPION

Odessos 6th century Gold, garnet, malachite 7,3 x 5,2 x 0,75 cm; 37,5 g

Byzantium

Second half of the 6th century Gold, filigree, amethyst 3,9 x 2,5 cm Sadovets, Pleven region, discovered during archaeological research in 1934, in the vicinity of a Late Antiquity fortress together with 54 gold coins and 50 copper coins dating from the reign of Justinian (527 – 565) to Maurice Tiberius (582 – 602)

31.5. BRACELET

(the other one of the pair is now in a process of conservation) Constantinople 6th century Gold, pearls, glass, enamel 6,3 x 3,4 cm; 109,4 and 112,3 g Varna, Regional Museum of History,

Phoenix Bazaar

Hairdresser’s salons are at the Phoenix Bazaar and near Hotel Trakia, Continental, Bourgas, Kouban and Rila, open from 6.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.

There is a round-the-clock taxi stand by the Palma Hotel Tel 291.

A car repair garage is at the back of Hotel Park (tel. 292). i he filling station, open day and night, stands where the road turns to Nessebur. The Rent-a-Car service is next to the Palma Restaurant. Tel.291.

Slunchev Bryag has many places of entertainment offering fine cuisine and interesting floor shows.

Variety Bar, the biggest and best night club in the resort, is between Hotels Olymp and Phoenix. It is open from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

Fregata Bar is a ship ‘stranded’ on the dunes in the southern part of the resort. Open from 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

Roussalka Bar a night club with an excellent orchestra and floor show with Bulgarian and foreign artists. It is in the centre of the resort next to the Casino Restaurant city tours istanbul, open from 10 00 a.m. to 3,00 p.m.

Hanska Shatra — an original taverna built to resemble the tents of the old Bulgarian khans. During the day it functions as a restaurant, and at night offers an interesting floor show. Open from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Chouchoura folk taverna — furnished in national Bulgarian style, serves local specialities, and drinks, folk orchestra. Open until midnigth.

Vyatama Melnitsa (The Windmill) — a folk taverna serving original Bulgarian dishes, cooked miller’s style. At night there is a fantastic view of the resort. Open from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. and from 6.00 p.m. to midnight.

Ribarska Hizha

Ribarska Hizha — right on the beach near Hotel Vitosha, specializing in sea food. Music. Open until 1.00 a.m.

Kapitanska Sreshta — an old restored house in Nessebur, serves delicious food in a pleasant atmosphere. Open until 1.00 am.

Lozarska Kushta — an original restaurant in an old house in Nessebur. Open until 11 00 p.m.

The International Golden Orpheus Pop Festival is held at Slunchev Bryag annually in June. A Decade of Symphony Music is an annual feature at Bourgas, Slunchev Bryag and Primorsko Youth Centre. In July an International Folklore Festival is organized in Bourgas and Slunchev Bryag,

Trips are organized from Slunchev Bryag to nearby places of interest and to the interior. Excursions are also arranged to Mamaya in Romania, Istanbul. Moscow and Kiev.

Two swimming pools, indor and outdor, rilled with heated sea water are linked to Hotel Bourgas by a covered passage. The hotel offers physiotherapy treatment, massage, sauna and remedial exercises.

Shoumen is Preslav

19 km south of Shoumen is Preslav (pop. 14,000) and a further 2 km south are the ruins of Veliki Preslav. During the reign of Tsar Simeon (893-927) the town was for a short time an important cultural and trade centre. It fell under Byzantine domination from 971-976 and from 1001-1187, In 1388 it was seized by Ottoman invaders and destroyed. It was rebuilt in the 16th-19th century north of the ruins and was called Eski Stamboul (the old capital). So far some 2 000 metres of fortress walls have been discovered.

Most of the remains have been uncovered including north and south gates, towers, palace compound, monasteries, workshops as well as two monasteries, several churches, cottages and other buildings from the 9th-10th century. In 1978 near the ruins of the palace compound, gold treasure was discovered comprising a necklace, rings, etc., the work of local masters.

Ten kilometres east of Shoumen, near the village of Mut- nitsa is the Madara National Historical and Archaeological Reserve with its magnificent bas-relief, cut into the rock of the ancient Madara fortress of a horseman followed by a dog and a lion pierced by a spear. The inscription beneath dates from the reign of Khan Omourtag (816-831). The Madara Horseman is one of four sites in Bulgaria (the Kazanluk Thracian Tomb, Boyana Church and Ivanovo rock churches near Rousse) to be included in UNESCO’s World List.

On the terrace below the relief are ruins of buildings from different eras — palaces, a Proto-Bulgarian heathen shrine (9th century), churches and monasteries from the late Middle Ages. Stairs cut into the rock lead to the Madara plateau and fortress, used until the Ottoman invasions. To the southwest, at the foot of the plateau, are remains of Roman houses and farm buildings.

10 km along the main E-70 road is Kaspichan and 6 km from there the ruins of the first Bulgarian capital of Pliska. The town was founded after the establishment of the Bulgarian state. In 811 it was plundered and burnt by troops of the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I. It was restored during the reign of the Bulgarian Khan Omourtag. After Pres lav was declared capital of Bulgaria in 893, Pliska retained its role as a major centre. In 1001 it was again seized by the Byzantines. The town fell into decay after the invasions of the Pechenegs and other tribes.

Pliska

Pliska covered an area of 23 sq km and was planned with a concentric fortification system. The town had two belts of fortifications: a rampart with moat and fortress walls with mo-numental gates and guard towers. Between the two fortification systems were the dwellings of the common people and many churches, while the houses of the boyars, temples and palaces were in the inner town sofia guided tours.

Some 1.5 km from the Eastern gate in the outer town are the ruins of the Great Hasilica. A tomb was discovered here in 1978 containing gold jewellery, probably the work of local masters.

4 km away along E-7Q is the town of Novi Pazar (pop. 17,0) which has glass, porcelain and glazed earthenWare in-dustries. A mediaeval necropolis was unearthed near the town.

Hanski Stan Motel, one star, petrol station.

40 km further on is the Iaige industrial centre ofDevnya (pop. 15,500). Here, during the reign of Emperor Trajanus (98-117) the Roman town of Martianopolis was founded near the Karst springs.

KALOTINA DRAGOMAN SOFIA

ITINERARY

TOURS

KALOTINA-DRAGOMAN-SOFIA

The Kalotina border crossing point lies on the E-80 motorway on the Bulgarian-Yugoslav frontier some 55 kilometres from Sofia. Tourists entering Bulgaria can exchange money and shop at the Corecom hard-currency shop there.

The Cheshma service area is three kilometres from Kalotina along the motorway to Sofia. There is a 100 seater snack bar, a 60 seater restaurant, and a large Corecom shop daily tours istanbul. There is an exchange bureau and a kiosk for soft drinks, fruit and vegetables.

Dragoman

Dragoman (population: 3,700) is 18 kilometres from Kalotina. The town was built on a site which in Roman times was a stop-over for changing the Meldia horses and it was called Meldia up to the Middle Ages. There is a motel of the same name. It is a frontier-check-point for entry by train.

The Slivnitsa camping site near the town of Slivnitsa (population 8,000) is open from May 1 to September 30. Both Slivnitsa and Dragoman are famous for the bitter battles waged during the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885 In defence of the reunification and independence of Bulgaria. The two-star Krasnogorsk hotel here offers two suites and 58 double rooms, a restaurant, night club, a Corecom shop, an information desk and an exchange bureau.

Some 37 kilometres from Kalotina and 18 kilometres south-west of the centre of Sofia is the Sofia-West roadside motel with 170 beds. It has a restaurant, snack-bar, coffee- shop, petrol station, car service station and tourist office.

Bankya (population: 8,500), is situated 17 kilometres south of Sofia at an altitude of 650 metres. Bankya is one of Bulgaria’s best known spas and resort centres. The climate here is extremely mild and the thermal mineral waters have a temperature from 34° to 38° C. It is recommended for people suffering from cardio-vascular diseases, high blood pressure and neuroses with neurasthenic syndrome.

In June 1971 the World Health Organization declared Bankya a centre for post-medical specialization in cardio-vascular diseases. There are over 40 sanatoriums and preventive treatment establishments, as well as many rest houses. There are very favourable conditions for rest and recreation. In 1978 Bankya was incorporated into the metropolitan area. Shortly after leaving Bankya on the right-hand side of the road is the BANKYA camping site which has first class facilities and is open from May 15 to September 30.

Sofia (population: 1,200,000), capital of Bulgaria, is situated in the southern part of the picturesque Sofia Plain. Its suburbs spread along the alluvial terraces of the river Iskur and its tributaries — the Vladaya, Perlovets and Souhodol Rivers, and have reached the foot of Mount Vitosha and the Lyulin Mountains. Sofia is surrounded by a garland of mountains. Mount Vitosha, closest to the city, rises to the North, and has become the invariable backdrop of Sofia’s panorama. Back in the 19th century the Viennese geologist, Ferdinand Hochstetter said that Sofia and Mount Vitosha were as inseparable as Naples and Vesuvius. On the north side of the plain rise the rounded elevations of the Balkan Range; the Lozen Mountains are to the southwest and the gently sloping contours of the Lyulin Mountains to the southeast.

BULGARIA HISTORICAL MONUMETS AND NATURAL SIGHTS

RILA MONASTERY

It is the most impressive architectural and historical monument in Bulgaria from the Bulgarian National Revival period, founded by the hermit Ivan of Rila in the 10th century after the adoption of the Christian religion by the Bulgarians. Far from the major roads, the monastery preserved the rights granted to it by the Bulgarian kings and repeatedly reaffirmed by the sultans. At the end of the 18th century, however, began the onslaughts of the Kurdjalis. The monastery was destroyed to be restored later, in the first half of the 19th century. Situated at an altitude of 1,147 m above sea level, it occupies an areaof 32,000 sq m and is surrounded with stone walls up to 2 m thick and up to 24 m high.

One of the best preserved architectural monuments of the monastery complex is Hrelyo’s Tower, which was built in 1335. It is 23 m high. On the fourth floor there was a small church, in which valuable mural paintings have been preserved, dating from the 14th century. The monastery church rises in the centre of the yard, the inner and outer decoration of which is the work of wood-carvers from the Samokov, Debur and Razlog schools, and the mural paintings were created by the talented Bulgarian icon-painter ZahariZograph.

Interesting are the guest rooms of the monastery, furnished by different towns and villages in the country and bearing their respective names: that of Koprivshtitsa, that of Pazardjik, etc. The Refectory is a rare piece of architecture with its hearths, arcades and vaults. In the monastery library there are more than 16,0 books, including many unique ones, scores of old printed books, gospels and lives of saints in beautiful bindings. In the museum there are old parchments private tour guide ephesus, icons, Hrelyo’s throne and the old door of Hrelyo’s Church – the work of talented wood- carvers of the 14th century. Of equally great interest is a cross – a crucifiction — which was made by Monk Raphael. The monk devoted 12 years of his life to making the cross, in the course of which he lost his sight, but the 140 biblical scenes incorporating more than 1,500 human figures arouse the admiration of visitors even today. On show in the ethnographic section of the museum are various objects and costumes, given as gifts by pilgrims from all parts of the peninsula.

Near the monastery there is an attractive restaurant run by Balkantourist (3rd class), which is open day and night. The Rila Monastery Camp Site and the Bor Camp Site can accommodate a total of 270 people.

Interesting excursions can be made from the monastery to the Partisan Meadow locality at the foot of the peaks Dvouglav and Iglata. A two hours’ walk leads to Brichebor Peak, a five hours’ walk – to the Dry Lake, and a six hours’ walk – to the Ribni Ezera (Fish Lakes).

The Rila Monastery is 123 km from Sofia. It is reached via the international highway leading to Athens; at Kocherinovo village a turning leads through the valley of the Rilska River to the monastery.

BACHKOVO MONASTERY

The second largest monastery in Bulgaria after the Rila Monastery. It was founded in 1083 by the Georgian Grigoriy Bacuriani and has been reconstructed several times. The only building which has come down to us from the time of its foundation is the two-storeyed church and ossuary.The murals of the church are a unique monument of Byzantine art from the period of the Comnenus dynasty.

The central church was erected in, the 17th century, during the Ottoman rule. At the beginning of the 19th century the monastery was extended and one more church was built, the murals of which were painted by Zahari Zograph.

The monastery lies south of Plovdiv and can be reached by a modern, partly paved and partly asphalted road (some 30 km). The road goes on further south as far as Pamprovo.

Old English school

In passing from the literary iconoclasm of the ‘Old- English ’ school I would venture to add that no man is a more humble admirer than I am of the vast learning and the marvellous powers of research belonging to the author of the Norman Conquest. Nor can any man more deeply deplore another disaster which our literature has sustained in the premature loss of the author of A Short History of England: one who in his brief time has shown such historical imagination and such literary power, that it is impossible to mention him without a pang of regret. Si, qua fata aspera rump as, Tu Marcellus eris.

We may add a few words about various names which under the influence of a most mistaken literalism are being wantonly transformed. Persons who are anxious to appear well informed seem almost ashamed to spell familiar names as their grandfathers did. What is the meaning of ‘Vergil’? As every one knows, the best MSS. in the last lines of the fourth Georgic spell Vergilium; and accordingly some scholars think fit so to alter the poet’s name. Be it so. But ‘ Vergil’ is not Latin, any more than ‘Homer’ is Greek. Virgil is a familiar word, rooted deep in English literature and thought. To uproot it, and the like of it, would be to turn the English language into a quagmire. We shall be asked next to write ‘ Omer.’ If all our familiar names are to be recast, as new manuscripts or autographs turn up, none of these venerable names will remain to us.

Omeros and Durante

We shall have to talk of the epic poets, Omeros and Durante. Again, if autographs are conclusive, we shall have to write of Marie, Quean of Scots, and Lady Jane Duddley; of the statesmen, Cecyll and Walsyngham; of ‘Lord Nelson and Bronte,’ of the great Maryborough, of the poet Noel-Byron, of Sir Kenelme Digby, Sir Philip Sidnei, and Arbella Seymaure; of Bloody ‘ Marye,’ and Robert Duddley turkey sightseeing, Earl of Leycester. All of these queer forms are the actual names signed by these personages in extant autographs. The next step will be to write about these personages in the contemporary style; and archaic orthography will pass from proper names to the entire text.

The objection to insisting on strict contemporary orthography is this: the spelling of the family name was continu-ally changing, and to write it in a dozen ways is to break the tradition of the family. If we call Burleigh ‘ Cecyll,’ as he wrote it himself, we lose the tradition of the family of the late Prime Minister. If we call the author of the Arcadia Sidnei, as he wrote it himself, we detach him from the Sidneys. The Percys, Howards, Harcourts, Douglas, Wyatts, Lindsays, and Montgomerys of our feudal history will appear as the Perses, Hawards, Harecourts, Dowglas, Wiats, Lyndesays, and Monggomberrys. If we read Chevy Chase in the pure palaeography, we shall find how the ‘ Doughete dogglas’ spoke to the ‘ lord perse ’/ and how there died in the fray, Wetharryngton, ser hewe the monggomberry, ser dauy Iwdale, and ser charts a murre.

And then how the purists do drag us up and down with their orthographic edicts ! Just as the Old-English school is restoring the diphthong on every side, the classical reformers are purging it out like an unclean thing. We need not care much whether we write of Caesar ox ‘Caesar.’ But just as we have learned to write Caesar and Vergil’s Aeneid, in place of our old friends, we are taught to write Bceda and selfred for ‘Bede’ and ‘Alfred.’ The ‘Old- English ’ school revel in diphthongs, even in the Latin names; your classical purist would expire if he were called upon to write ‘Caesar’ or ‘Pompey.’ Farewell to the delightful gossipy style of the last century about ‘Tully,’ and ‘ Maro,’ and ‘ Livy ’! They knew quite as much about them at heart as we do to-day with all our Medicean manuscripts and our ‘sic. Cod. Vat.’

The annual increase of London

There are tens of thousands who prefer to loaf or starve in the streets rather than to work in comfort in the fields. Nearly one-third of the annual increase of London is due to immigration; and the immigrants are in great measure both destitute and incapable. Is it that our agricultural system is sorely at fault; that labour in the country is become so flat, stale, and unprofitable, with opportunities so wretched, hopes so few, and life so weary and sordid, that the countryman at all risks will crave the crowd, the glare, the excitement of the city, even though it offers an almost certain wretchedness and squalor? If this be so, if our civilisation has come to this, that the labourer finds the country intolerable, a complete resettlement of rural life is at hand.

Democratic governments

But we cannot attribute too much to this; for this vast and rapid increase of great cities is a feature of modern civilization. It is equally marked under despotic or democratic governments, in monarchies and republics, with a peasant proprietary or a system of great domains, on both sides of the Atlantic, in every race, in both hemispheres, in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as in Europe. Paris, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Brussels, New York, Lyons, Marseilles, Milan, Munich sightseeing turkey, Moscow, Turin, Bombay, and New Orleans have increased in fifty years more than London; and Glasgow, Hamburg, Philadelphia, and Chicago increase at a far higher ratio. So the increase of London, tremendous as it is, has nothing exceptional about it but its enormous positive volume. The increase itself, and even the rate of increase, is at bottom the result of modern industrial life and modern mechanical resources.

Of this vast problem, or wilderness of problems, it is enough to touch on one or two; and those rather of the simpler and material sort. Take the single one of water supply, a necessity of life, and the condition of health of inconvenient in supply, very various in quality, and exposed to one or two immense risks of pollution. We are at times drinking water that is minutely but sensibly infected with deposit. Though the recuperative energy of moving water usually restores it to a fairly wholesome condition, we all know that London is not quite safe from a catastrophe. A single epidemic might any summer make the water of London as deadly as the climate of Vera Cruz. Now, the death-rate of Vera Cruz in London would mean an extra mortality of nearly 200,000.

From Justinian to Isaac Comnenus

The fact is that, for the five centuries from Justinian to Isaac Comnenus, the attacks on the empire, from the European side, at any rate, were the attacks of nomad, unorganised, and uncivilised races on a civilised and highly- organised empire. And in spite of anarchy, corruption, and effeminacy at the Byzantine court, civilisation and wealth told in every contest. Greek fire, military science, enormous resources, and the prestige of empire always bore down wild valour and predatory enthusiasm. Just as Russia dominates the Turkoman tribes of Central Asia, as Turkey holds back the valiant Arabs of her eastern frontier, as Egyptian natives with British officers easily master the heroic Ghazis of the Soudan — so the Roman Empire on the Bosphorus beat back Huns, Avars, Persians, Slaves, Bulgarians, Patzinaks, and Russians. We need only to study the history of Russia and of Turkey to learn how the organising ability, the resources, and material arts of great empires outweigh folly, vice, and corruption in the palace.

4. Of course a succession of victorious campaigns implies a succession of valiant armies; and there is nothing on which we need more light than on the exact organisation and national constituents of those Roman armies which crushed Chosroes, Muaviah, Crumn, Samuel, and Hamdanids. They are called conventionally ‘Greeks’; but during the Heraclian, Isaurian ephesus daily tour, and Basilian dynasties there seem to have been no Greeks at all in the land forces. The armies were always composed of a strange collection of races, with different languages, arms, methods of fighting, and types of civilisation. They were often magnificent and courageous barbarians, conspicuous amongst whom were Scandinavians and English, and with them some of the most warlike braves of Asia and of Europe.

National characteristics

The empire made no attempt to destroy their national characteristics, to discourage their native language, religion, or habits. Each force was told off to the service which suited it best, and was trained in the use of its proper weapons. They remained distinct from each other, and wholly distinct from the civil population. But as they could not unite, they seldom became so great a danger to the empire as the Praetorian guard of the Roman army. The organisation and management of such a heterogeneous body of mercenary braves required extraordinary skill; but it was just this skill which the rulers of Byzantium possessed. The bond of the whole was the tradition of discipline and the consciousness of serving the Roman Emperor.

The modern history of Russia and still more the native armies of the British Empire will enable us to understand how the work ©f consolidation was effected. The Queen’s dominions are at this hour defended by men of almost every race, colour, language, religion, costume, and habits. And we may imagine the composite character of the Byzantine armies, if we reflect how distant wars are carried on in the name of Victoria by Hindoos, Musulmans, Pa- thans, Ghoorkas, Afghans, Egyptians, Soudanese, Zanzibaris, Negroes, Nubians, Zulus, Kaffirs, and West Indians, using their native languages, retaining their national habits, and, to a great extent, their native costume.

The Roman Empire was maintained from its centre on the Bosphorus, somewhat as the British Empire is maintained from its centre on the Thames, by wealth, maritime ascendency, the traditions of empire, and organising capacity — always with the great difference that there was no purely Roman nucleus as there is a purely British nucleus, and also that the soldiery of the Roman Empire had no common armament, and was not officered by men of the dominant race, but by capable leaders indifferently picked from any race, except the Latin or the Greek. Dominant race there was none; nation there was none. Roman meant subject of the Emperor; Emperor meant the chief in the vermilion buskins, installed in the Palace on the Bosphorus, and duly crowned by the Orthodox Patriarch in the Church of the Holy Wisdom.

Sails up the Gulf of Aigina

As the traveller for the first time in his life sails up the Gulf of Aigina, and his straining eyes at last behold Attica and Athens, the impression is always the same. How magnificent is the amphitheatre in the centre of which stands the Acropolis; how majestic and upsoaring is the grandest of all ruins on its immortal steep; how incredibly near together are placed these mighty memorials and historic sites; how marvellously small is the stage on which these undying dramas were played! How sublime is ancient Athens in its loneliness: how infinitesimally small is the space it occupied on the earth!

The situation of Athens is far grander than that of Rome, or Florence, perhaps even that of Naples, and of any city in Europe except Constantinople, which is a wholly different thing.

The nearness and the continuity of the mountain amphitheatre round Athens, the great height and grand form of the mountains, the splendid mass and elevation of the Acropolis in the centre, produce an im-pression more strange, simple, and imposing than any city of the West. From the distance at sea, what we behold is a vast ruin on a noble cliff. If we do not so much consider beauty and picturesque charm such as that of Naples, Palermo, Verona, and Venice, but mass, unity, and weight of stroke in the impression, we may well feel that in simple, and it may be almost painful, majesty, nothing in Western Europe can equal the first sight of Athens. And what a mere shelf of rock it looks, buttressed round by mountains on all sides but towards the sea! Like the rock of Gibraltar, Athens stands an imposing mass towering out of the sea, lonely, unapproachable by landward, and hardly habitable apart from the sea; suggesting at first sight far off empire across the sea, useless and unintelligible, except as the impregnable fastness of a sea-born race bulgaria trips.

Attica itself

Attica itself is a mere rocky shelf opening down to the sea, but with nothing around it or behind it landwards, except jagged mountain peaks, defiles, and citadels- held by her enemies and rivals. As we stand on the Propylaea and survey the magnificent panorama of rock, promontory, crags, gorges, and mountain ranges one beyond the other, rising into the sky, 5000, 6000, even 8000 feet, we are looking on soil trodden by the fiercest enemies of Athens in the days of her greatest strength, by Boeotians, Argives, Corinthians, Achaeans, and Arcadians.

An Athenian thus lived ever in full ‘view of the home of his enemies, and could behold some of the most memorable scenes in his own history, and also the birthplace and the tombs of some of his most famous chiefs. The history of Athens, its triumphs and its weakness, had for its cradle one single rocky amphitheatre. And yet, as Comte has finely put it, it was easier for her to conquer a wide empire on the seas, than it was to subdue a neighbouring state within a day’s march of her citadel. She could plant her trophies, her colonies, and her subject cities all over the Mediterranean, from Sicily in the West, to the Propontis on the North, and to Crete and Rhodes in the East; but she never could subdue many a petty republic, whose territory could be seen as the citizens climbed the great staircase to the shrine of Athene.

All citizens were free

Within the city, there were now no slaves, no serfs, no abject and outlaw caste of any kind, except the Jews who formed a separate city of their own. All citizens were free: all without exception had rights of some kind. The churches, monasteries, hospitals, and schools existed, in original design, mainly for the poor, the wretched, and the diseased. Christ loved the weak and the suffering.

And the doors of His house stood ever open to the .weak, the suffering, the halt, the blind, and the lame. The church of the Middle Ages suffered little children to come unto Him. The poorest, the weakest, the most abject, were welcome there. The Priest, the Monk, the Nun taught, clothed, and nursed the children of the poor, and the suffering poor. The leper was tended in lazar-houses, even it might be by kings and princesses, with the devotion of Christian self-sacrifice. For the first time in history there were schools, hospitals, poor-houses, for the most lowly, compassion for the most miserable, and consolation in Heaven for those who had found earth a Hell city tours istanbul.

The old Greek and Roman religion

The old Greek and Roman religion of external cleanness was turned into a sin. The outward and visible sign of sanctity now was to be unclean. No one was clean: but’ the devout Christian was unutterably foul. The tone of the Middle Ages in the matter of dirt was a form of mental disease.

Cooped up in castles and walled cities, with narrow courts and sunless alleys, they would pass day and night in the same clothes, within the same airless, gloomy, windowless, and pestiferous chambers; they would go to bed without night clothes, and sleep under uncleansed sheepskins and frieze rugs; they would wear the same leather, fur, and woollen garments for a lifetime, and even for successive generations; they ate their meals without forks, and covered up the orts with rushes; they flung their refuse out of the window into the street or piled it up in the back-yard; the streets were narrow, unpaved, crooked lanes through which, under the very palace turrets, men and beasts tramped knee-deep in noisome mire.

This was at intervals varied with fetid rivulets and open cesspools; every church was crammed with rotting corpses and surrounded with graveyards, sodden with cadaveric liquids, and strewn with disinterred bones. Round these charnel houses and pestiferous churches were piled old decaying wooden houses, their sole air being these deadly exhalations, and their sole water supply being these polluted streams or wells dug in this reeking soil. Even in the palaces and castles of the rich the same bestial habits prevailed. Prisoners rotted in noisome dungeons under the banqueting hall; corpses were buried under the floor of the private chapel; scores of soldiers and attendants slept in gangs for months together in the same hall or guard-room where they ate and drank, played and fought.

It is one of those problems which still remain for .historians to solve — how the race ever survived the insanitary conditions of the Middle Ages, and still more how it was ever continued — what was the normal death-rate and the ‘ normal birth-rate of cities? The towns were no doubt maintained by immigration, and the rural labourer had the best chance of life, if he could manage to escape death by violence or famine.

The year 1789

The year 1789, more definitely than any other date marks any other transition, marks the close of a society which had existed for some thousands of years as a consistent whole, a society more or less based upon military force, intensely imbued with the spirit of hereditary right, bound up with ideas of theological sanction, sustained by a scheme of supramundane authority; a society based upon caste, on class, on local distinctions and personal privilege, rooted in inequality, political, social, material, and moral; a society of which the hope of salvation was the maintenance of the status quo, and of which the Ten Commandments were Privilege.

And the same year, 1789, saw the official installation of a society which was essentially based on peace, the creed of which was industry, equality, progress; a society where change was the evidence of life, the end of which was social welfare, and the means social co-operation and human equity. Union, communion, equality, equity, merit, labour, justice, consolidation, fraternity — such were the devices and symbols of the new era. It is therefore with justice that modern Europe regards the date 1789 as a date that marks a greater evolution in human history more distinctly than, perhaps, any other single date which could be named between the reign of the first Pharaoh and the reign of Victoria sofia sightseeing.

One of the cardinal pivots in human history we call this epoch, and not at all a French local crisis. The proof of this is complete. All the nations of Europe, and indeed the people of America, contributed their share to the movement, and more or less partook in the movement themselves.

It was hailed as a new dispensation by men of various race; and each nation in turn more or less added to the movement and adopted some element of the movement. The intellectual and social upheaval, which for generations had been preparing the movement, was common to the enlightened spirits of Europe and also to the Transatlantic Continent. The effects of the movement have been shared by all Europe, and the distant consequences of its action are visible in Europe to the third and the fourth generations. And lastly, all the cardinal features of the movement of 1789 are in no sense locally French, or of special national value. They are equally applicable to Europe, and indeed to advanced human societies everywhere. They appeal to men primarily, and to Frenchmen secondarily. They relate to the general society of Europe, and not to specific national institutions.

Common Weal

They concern the transformation of a feudal, hereditary, privileged, authoritative society, based on antique right into a republican, industrial, equalised, humanised society, based on a scientific view of the Common Weal. But this is not a national idea, a French conception of local application. It is European, or rather human. And thus, however disastrous to France may have been the travail of the movement officially proclaimed in 1789, from a European and a human point of view it has abiding and pregnant issues. May we profit by its good whilst we are spared its evil.

Obviously, the salient form of the revolution was French, ultra-French; entirely unique and of inimitable peculiarity in some of its worst as well as its best sides. The delirium, the extravagances, the hysterics, and the brutalities which succeeded one another in a series of strange tragicomic tableaux from 1789 till 1795, were most intensely French, though even they, from Caps of Liberty to Festival of Pikes, have had a singular fascination for the revolutionists of every race. But the picturesque and melodramatic accessories of the revolution have been so copiously over-coloured by the scene-painters and stage- carpenters of history, that we are too often apt to forget how essentially European the revolution was in all its deeper meanings.

A dozen kings and statesmen throughout Europe were, in a way, endeavouring to enter on the same path as Louis xvi. with Turgot and Necker. In spite of the contrast between the government of England and the government of France, between the condition of English industry and that of France, Walpole and Pitt offer many striking points of analogy with Turgot and Necker.

Michelet’s History of France

Michelet’s History of France down to Francis I., although it is a collection of brilliant pensies, caractHes, and aperqus rather than a continuous history, is a fine and stirring work of special value to the English reader. It is now sixty years old; but a century will not destroy its living inspiration. Hallam, the very antithesis of Michelet, one who was never once betrayed into an epigram or fired into poetry, has acknowledged in fit language the beauty and vigour of his French competitor.

There are magnificent chapters on the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries; and his picture of physical France, his story of Charles the Great, of Louis the Fat, Philip Augustus, St. Louis, Philip the Fair, of the Crusades, the Albigenses, the Communes, his chapters on Gothic architecture, on the English wars, and especially on Jeanne Dare, are unsurpassed in the pages of modern historical literature. Michelet has some of the moral passion and insight into character of Tacitus, no little of the picturesque colour of Carlyle, and more than the patriotic glow of Livy. Alas! had he only something of the patient reserve of Thucydides, the simplicity and precision of Caesar, the learning and harmonious completeness of Gibbon! He is a poet, a moralist, a preacher, rather than a historian in the modern sense of the word. Yet with all his shortcomings (and his later work has but flashes of his old force), Michelet’s picture of mediaeval France will long remain an indispensable book private turkey tours.

Dean Milman’s Latin Christianity

Dean Milman’s Latin Christianity, which appeared forty years ago, just misses, it may be, being one of ‘ the great books of history ’ —but will long hold its own as an almost necessary complement to Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. It was avowedly designed as its counterpart, its rival, and in one sense its antidote. And we cannot deny that this aim has been, to a great extent, attained. It covers almost exactly the same epoch; it tells the same story; its chief characters are the same as in the work of Gibbon. But they are all viewed from another point of view and are judged by a different standard.

Although the period is the same, the personages the same, and even the incidents are usually common to both histories, the subject is different, and the plot of the drama is abruptly contrasted. Gibbon recounts the dissolution of a vast system: Milman recounts the development of another vast system: first the victim, then the rival, and ultimately the successor of the first. Gibbon tells us of the decline and fall of the Roman empire: Milman narrates the rise and constitution of the Catholic Church — the religious and ecclesiastical, the moral and intellectual movements which sprang into full maturity as the political empire of Rome passed through its long transformation of a thousand years.

The scheme and ground-plan of Milman are almost perfect. Had he the prodigious learning, the superhuman accuracy of. Gibbon, that infallible good sense, that perennial humour, that sense of artistic proportion, the Dean might have rivalled the portly ex-captain of yeomanry, the erudite recluse in his Swiss retreat. He may not be quite strong enough for his giant’s task. But no one else has even essayed to bend the bow which the Ulysses of Lausanne hung up on one memorable night in June 1787 in his garden study; none has attempted to recount the marvellous tale of the consolidation of the Christianity of Rome over the whole face of Western Europe during a clear period of a thousand years.

Modern abstract philosophy

In abstract thought their results were still more surprising. All the ideas that lie at the root of our modern abstract philosophy may be found in germ in Greece. The schools of modern metaphysics are the development of conceptions vaguely grasped by them. They analysed with perfect precision and wonderful minuteness the processes employed in language and in reasoning; they systematised grammar and logic, rhetoric and music ; they correctly analysed the human mind, the character, the emotions, and founded the science of morality and the art of education; they correctly analysed the elements of society and political life, and initiated the science of politics, or the theory of social union. Lastly, they criticised and laid bare all the existing beliefs of mankind ; pierced the imposing falsehood of the old religions; meditated on all the various answers ever given to the problem of human destiny, of the universe and its origin, and slowly worked out the conception of unity through the whole visible and invisible universe, which, in some shape or other, has been the belief of man for twenty centuries. Such were their gifts to the world.

It was an intellect active, subtle, and real, marked by the true scientific character of freedom, precision, and consistency. And, as the Greek intellect overtopped the intellect of all races of men, and combined in itself the gifts of all others, so were the great intellects of Greece all overtopped and concentrated in one great mind — the greatest, doubtless, of all human minds — the matchless Aristotle; as the poet says, ‘ the master of those who know,’ who, in all branches of human knowledge, built the foundations of abiding truth ephesus sightseeing.

Let us pause for moment to reflect what point we have reached in the history of civilisation. Asia had founded the first arts and usages of material life, begun the earliest social institutions, and taught us the rudiments of science and of thought. Greece had expanded all these in infinite variety and subtlety, had instituted the free state, and given life to poetry and art, had formed fixed habits of accurate reasoning and of systematic observation.

Materially and intellectually civilisation existed

Materially and intellectually civilisation existed. Yet in Greece we feel that, socially, everything is abortive. The Greeks had not grown into a united nation. They split into a multitude of jealous republics. These republics split into hostile and restless factions. And when the genius of the Macedonian kings had at last founded an empire, it lasted but twenty years, and gave place to even more colossal confusion. All that we associate with true national existence was yet to come, but the noble race who were to found it had’ long been advancing towards their high destiny. Alexander, perhaps, had scarcely heard of that distant, half-educated people, who for four centuries had been slowly building up the power which was to absorb and supersede his empire.

Far beyond the limits of his degenerate subjects, worthier successors of his genius were at hand: the Romans were coming upon the world. The Greeks founded the city, the Romans the nation. The Greeks were the authors of philosophy, the Romans of government, justice, and peace. The Greek ideal was thought, the Roman ideal was law. The Greeks taught us the noble lesson of individual freedom, the Romans the still nobler lesson, the sense of social duty. It is just, therefore, that to the Romans, as to the people who alone throughout all ages gave unity, peace, and order to the civilised world, who gave us the elements of our modern political life, and have left us the richest record of public duty, heroism, and self-sacrifice—it is just that to them we assign the place of the noblest nation in ancient history.

That which marks the Roman with his true greatness was his devotion to the social body, his sense of self-surrender to country: a duty to which the claims of family and person were implicitly to yield ; which neither death, nor agony, nor disgrace could subdue ; which was the only reward, -pleasure, or religion which a true citizen could need. This was the greatness, not of a few leading characters, but of an entire people during many generations. The Roman state did not give merely examples of heroes — it was formed of heroes ; nor were they less marked by their sense of obedience, submission to rightful authority where the interest of the state required it, submission to order and law.

Anglican church at Kadikeuy

There are about 1200 of these native Protestants in Constantinople. Three churches have been organized among them, which manage their own ecclesiastical affairs independently of foreign control. The influence of these “ Gospel Christians ” must be reckoned upon in any summing up of forces that tend for the substitution of the service of God for the service of self in this place. Besides the native “ Gospel Churches ” in Constantinople there are congregations of English speaking Protestants connected with the chapel of the British Embassy and the Crimean memorial church in Pera, with the Union Evangelical Church which worships at the chapel of the Dutch Legation in Pera, with an Anglican church at Kadikeuy, the ancient Chalcedon, and with a little Union Church of English and Americans at Bebek on the Bosphorus.

German Protestant congregation at Bebek

There is also a German Protestant congregation at Bebek, and a more important one under the charge of the Chaplain of the German Embassy in Pera. All of these efforts to secure the spiritual culture of foreign residents of Constantinople are to be regarded as one in purpose and interest with missions among the natives, because people who do not know Christ learn of Him more influentially through the lives and conduct of his followers than through the most eloquent of sermons. It is entirely possible that an English or Swiss or German merchant, who is of incorruptible character, and who lives in Constantinople without thought of what is beyond the Bosphorus may exert a Christianizing influence in Bagdad through the return to that place of natives who have admired the Christian life of such business men tailor-made bulgaria tours.

Among these forces for the reform of life and character will be reckoned, too, every one of the foreign missionary establishments in Constantinople alluded to in the last chapter. As a type of the influence which such establishments may wield the work of the mission of the American Board may be described, since it is one of the oldest and largest of these institutions in the city.

After seeing the Colleges and the Bible House, the traveller sometimes leaves Constantinople with the idea that he has looked into all the enterprises of the American missionaries there, and that they do educational work alone. As a remedy for this idea the visitor has to be taken to see sights on Sunday. A missionary calls at the hotel at nine o’clock on Sunday morning, and takes the stranger to a chapel about two blocks away. There for the first time in his life the visitor hears “ Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” sung in Armenian to the tune of Old Hundred, and then listens to a prayer in Armenian offered by the preacher.

He is hurried away from this chapel, however, and taken to another two blocks farther along. Here an-other native congregation is assembled, and another pastor is in the midst of a service in the Greek language. There the visitor hears for the first time, perhaps, the Greek Testament read with its natural pronunciation. Thence again he is hurried a mile and a half to the Bible House, where in a neat chapel another Greek preacher is just finishing a very eloquent sermon. The bene-diction is pronounced and the congregation disperses.

The visitor wishes to go, too, when he discovers that an entirely different set of people are beginning to come into the chapel. Before he knows what is happening a new congregation has filled the place. It is composed of all classes of people, from the professional man and the merchant to the day-laborer and the donkey driver, and from the lady in silk to the tired handkerchief painter in her faded cotton dress. Then he hears for the first time a sermon in Turkish, to which the people pay profound attention, and which a Turkish officer or two also come in to hear. By their tunes he recognizes the hymns in Turkish, sung by every man, woman and child, roaring at full lung power. He further understands without the services of an interpreter, the collection, and drops a gold piece on the plate, to the vast amazement of the coppers and five-cent pieces into the midst of which it falls.

Quite impossible to restrain laughter

The troupe is generally of native talent, and the advantage of hearing a tragedy as rendered by a native troupe is that it is quite impossible to restrain laughter during the proceedings. Some of the plays are comic, and of these such as deal with commercial knavery are often really good. But love, blood, deep laid plots on the part of the hero against the peace of the villain are the necessary staples of the Turkish stage. One of the play-bills will give an impression of the interminable nature of these entertainments:

“ The Ottoman Theatre will be open to the public on the evening of Wednesday, that is to say, the night of Thursday next. The celebrated troop of M. Dikran, the Armenian, will play. English acrobats will perform feats hitherto seen in no other part of the world. There will be an operetta of ten acts, with songs by actresses. There will also be a pantomime of three acts. The performance on this occasion being for the benefit of the public, no tickets will be required.” The slight uncertainty which appears respecting the day of this performance arises from the fact that the Mohammedan day begins at sunset, so that Wednesday evening coincides with the beginning of the night of Thursday. The theatre is one of the institutions which Turks have derived from contact with the West guided istanbul tour.

It is hardly necessary to say that the place is crowded with both men and women at every performance. With all its defects the Turkish theatre is a power. The capital cities of some of the provinces of the empire receive from it their sole effective impression of what the Western world is. The poorest of the native companies and the worst of their plays are taken to cities of the interior and put on the boards. Then the local papers will congratulate the people that Brousa or Adrianople, or Konia, as the case may be, is assuming the characteristics of a European city, for a theatre has now been established.

Sweet Waters

Visitors at Constantinople rarely fail to visit the Sweet Waters, or Geuk Sou, and remember the beautiful little river and the multitude of boats and the masses of people enjoying themselves on the grass. Such expeditions to places where natural beauty is the chief attraction form another favourite recreation of the people of the city. Rarely do we find a people more truly lovers of nature—of fine scenery, of pure air and gurgling water, of the songs of birds, and of the colour-songs which earth sends out in the form of trees and gay flowers. These little expeditions which the people make are the only recreations in which the family is found enjoying itself as a unit.

Under magnificent plane trees, or in cool groves of oak and chestnut the people place themselves by families upon mats furnished by the ubiquitous coffee-shop man. On these mats, spread upon the ground within sight of some stream, or of the sea, the Turk will sit for hours, finding great delight in the pure air, the gracious foliage, the music of unwonted birds, and the prattle of his women and his children. To an American, “ refreshments ” may imply drinks that exhilarate, or at the very least that have “ fizz ” in them, and food of substantial quality.

The Turk who is out for a picnic, has for his refreshment water from some favourite spring, (of which the brand is as carefully tested as though it were champagne) and coffee. For food he has bread and cheese or olives or dried fish, and fruit. A water-pipe (narguileh), and cigarettes which he makes himself fill out the list of his requirements at such a place. His whole excitement is in the beauty of nature and in the dress and the manners of assembled human-kind. As the day wears away the men will mingle more together, chatting or singing love-ditties with evident delight in their own vocal powers. The women meanwhile wander sedately over neighbouring hillsides to gather flowers, while the children frolic in herds upon the grass. The end of the day finds the whole family quite as thoroughly refreshed by their outing as if they had spent the day in circus or drinking house, or in amusements like those that delight the heart of the Coney Islander.

Historical relic or an archaeological centre

It as a historical relic or an archaeological centre, or as a place for observing the dress and behaviour of various races, or merely as a place for tasting some flavour of the Orient during a brief vacation. But they seldom consider the relation of that magnificent site to the life of the people to whom it is an inheritance, and still less do they question what influence the city has upon the surrounding regions, and the development of their populations. Such matters are left to the missionary with his optimistic views on the possibility of bringing forward backward peoples with advantage to themselves and the world.

Certain peculiarities of the life of the people of the city thrust themselves upon the stranger. Looking at the throngs of men and women, in picturesque and many coloured dress, who fill the streets of Constantinople, a salient point for attention is the discomfort to which they seem to have accustomed themselves. The bedraggled and unkempt appearance of a large part of the people; the impossible pavements of the streets; the pack- horses, donkeys, and perhaps even camels, which thrust the sauntered to the wall, forcing him to stand in a strained attitude of respectful attention while each procession of harden-bearers goes by; the use of men instead of beasts and trucks and drays, that they may, as the saying is private tours istanbul, “ earn an olive or two to put in their mouths by carrying a hogshead on their hacks ”; and the lazy tolerance of the cringing dogs which slouch along the street or occupy for rest or for family duties the dry and sunny side of the way, all show the people of the city to be at a point of civilization a century or two behind the age. Yet Constantinople was once, and by very many of these people is supposed to he now, a very Paris in leading the civilization of the world. The missionary will enquire why such an arrest of progress has occurred.

The people the stranger

Another curious characteristic of the people the stranger begins to learn from the moment that his foot is fairly on the shore. The frauds of greed never destroy social standing in this city. Official dignity persists though dragged through consecutive quagmires of embezzlement. The consequence is that in lay circles a man will perhaps kill one who suggests that he is ungodly, but will smile benignly when called a liar and a thief. As to the church, whomsoever a man may select on occasion to entrust with money for safekeeping, he will never entrust money to his parish priest or his imam or his rabbi or his bishop.

Once more, the stranger in Constantinople learns to suppress his surprise at the fondness of the people for imitation. He finds that there is progress in Turkey, but that much which appears to be such is mere mimicry. Imitation may be a valuable homage to superiority, but in observing this city a distinction is necessary between the imitation which marks a trend, and that which merely apes a result.

ME HOWLING DERVISHES

“When I got back to the hotel that night, Angelo (for so was “Arlechifto” properly called) told me that, having thrashed the cook a few days before, he had now beaten two of the waiters in some unexplained kitchen squabble. The house was quite full, for several Hungarians had arrived during the day. Where, or how they slept, was a riddle to all of us, but they must have been half a dozen in a room. They were poor, humble fellows, and appeared broken down by earnest misery and anxiety.

ME HOWLING DERVISHES — ROIiBEIlY OP TRAVELLERS

BESIDES the daneing dervishes, there is another set at Scutari, who howl; and their exhibition is also public every Thursday afternoon, about two o’eloek. It is a mile and a half across the Bosphorus, from Galata to Scutari. The Maiden Tower (or Leander’s Tower, as it is sometimes called) is a little building rising from the water, about which the old story is told of the favorite ehild, shut up until he or she was of age, because a prediction had announced an early accidental death, and being at last killed by a viper from some fire-wood. The same legend belongs to the Polly, at Clifton, and a dozen other places.

Landing at Scutari, which I imagine must be the most oriental portion of Constantinople, we went up to the Convent of the Howling Dervishes, and were introduced into a square room, with a balustrade round it, and at the top a latticed gallery for the women. All around were hung rude musical instruments — chiefly little drums and tambourines; and against the wall at the end were battle-axes, and apparently instruments of torture, in great numbers — hooks, spikes, and the like. The dervishes, who were crouching on the floor, on sheepskins, did not appear to have any particular costume, as those at Pera; but eaeh afterwards put on a felt skull-cap. Round the enclosure were other persons sitting, who appeared to be visitors; one was a soldier. Some large-eyed, unwholesome children were also of the party of performers; and a dancing dervish joined them before they finished.

Extraordinary state of frenzy

They went hrough a great many ceremonies of bowing, embracing, and repeating prayers, and at last got in a line at the end of the room by the railing, one or two of the elders still squatting in front of them. Here they commenced to chant, swinging themselves backwards and forwards, and then sideways; getting quicker and quicker in their motions, like a railway engino going off, and . shouting “La ilah illali-lah,” (There is but one God!) faster and faster, until they worked themselves up into an extraordinary state of frenzy, children and all: They kept shouting this monotonous line, and throwing themselves about for at least half an hour; when, the noise was so wearing, and the place so close and disagreeable, that I made my escape local ephesus tour guides.

I could not exactly understand what induced these men to make such fools of themselves. Certainly it was not for money, for none was given by the spectators, nor indeed was any solicited. Neither can I suspect it to have been for religious motives; for, to all appearances, a greater set of scamps had seldom been collected together.’ I must leave the explanation to those familiar with the mysteries of Eastern worship.

Above that convent, there is another enormous burying-ground, through which the road runs — a perfect forest, with millions of tombstones. Here again the road is divided; and its paved portion is at least ten feet higher than the dusty half. The proper complement of dogs and poultry were wandering about; and a large tomb, formed by a cupola upon six pillars, was shown as the grave of a favorite horse once belonging to the Sultan Mahmoud. Another was surrounded by an iron railing, upon which shreds of clothes were hung, in large numbers, as I had seen at the Giant’s Mountain.

Individual benefit

The water-side rows of bail lings were seen through forests of ships, the lines of which were agreeably broken by the slanting spars of the felucca-rigged vessels, which formed the greater portion of those at anchor. In the middle of tin stream were tjeep safari bulgaria. good-tempered, intelligent misseri eotlien’s collected his intended inmates into large caique hotel d’angleterre; young destuniano (whose father formerly best dragoman Constantinople, now keeps d’lurope) followed. i latter, anxious break party we formed putting off old scamandre, gilded barge approached us, which sitting two imposing turks, officers customs. proper duty examine our luggage but bribe three piastres sixpence satisfied scruples. gravely received this; then, proud, saluted party, away another boat. must my ears tingled when reflected share pecuniary offering these noble gorgeous gentlemen been under penny. need delicacy 4 upon matter.

Appears perfectly understood customs constantinople are established individual benefit; thus dollar any kind finds its way the sultan’s treasury. landed tophane stairs, found enough occupy attention. first all, five six turkish women got out boat just before veiled eyes, looking like nuns incantation hubert devil, throw dresses; only black skirts. then great many sellers fruit cakes former consisting grapes, honestly literally plovers’ eggs, latter species pancake. appearance, tables, what pea-and-thimble used carry races, novel amusing. directly, came string mules laden rubbish buildings pera; unloaded themselves going haunches, reached landing, allowing panniers end slide off. next, sturdy porters, itamals, seized luggage. fellows, who past prime life, wore knots half backs, capable carrying immense weights. preceded them, set off, jostled crowds variety striking costume, picking half-wild dogs, lay streets scores, did get one.

Abbas Pacha used to come down

“Lor’ bless you, sir,” he began—“ the power of the boat hasn’t much to do with it! When Manned Ali started his boat on the Nile, Abbas Pacha started one as well, and tried to beat him; and did it too, though his’n wasn’t nigh such a good boat. When Manned Ali’s boat was on a-head, Abbas Pacha used to come down and say, £ Mr. Horton,’ he used to say, £ wo must lick my uncle’s boat;’ (leastwise he didn’t say lick, but he meant it in his tongue, as I might say), and then he used to go on and say, ‘Mr. Horton,’ he’d say, £ we’ll have a bottle of champagne together,’ says he. Now, they say the Mustaphas don’t drink, but, Lor’ bless us, I’ve had Abbas so overcome, as the saying is, down in the cabin, that we’ve often shut the doors to keep it a secret. Well, he’d send down the champagne, and then Abbas’s boat would creep up to Manned’s, and then he’d send down another bottle, and then we’d get alongside; and then another, and we’d go right a-head. I don’t mean to say that we used to put the champagne in the boiler; but, you may depend upon it, it did more than the coals, and so it will, any day.”

I found my friend was a very great man on board his boat. He had a smart cabin of his own below, close to the engine room, where the thermometer was always at 90°; and from the heat, the glare, and the noise, looked next door to the infernal regions. Here he reigned supreme. I asked him how he agreed with the officers. “ Oh,” he replied, “ very well; it’s best for them to keep in with me. Once we had a row in this boat, but I got the best of it. I’m allowed a cheese a week for my own store; and once we had a new captain between Beyroot and Alexander—a cocky chap, who was going to set everybody to rights in a hurry—and he never sent me my cheese. Well, what did I do? I wasn’t going to make a noise about it, but I stopped the engines, and let the boat toss about for half an hour, until he came to his senses. I pretty soon got my cheese ; and they never made a mistake about it afterwards.”

The weather cleared up the next day, but the Turks never came out again from their nestling place, nor were the women unpacked. The priest still kept to his book, and to all remarks about our probable detention, replied, “Metis, cest impossible” “ Out” returned M. Abro, who, being a Levantine, knew all about it, tl e’est impossible; mais cependant, cest rrai.” But the priest was still strong in the belief of going on shore, and looked out his three-cornered hat, and clean bands accordingly.

 Beyrout quarantine

We arrived off Alexandria on the morning of the 1st of October, and were, as may be expected, all most anxious to know our fate. A surly-looking old gentleman, in a European dress, came alongside, and inspected our papers, which the captain held up to he looked at, the other keeping at a proper distance. These did not seem satisfactory, so he received them in a tin box, and went hack to the health office. In a short time he returned, and told us that we could not have pratique, but must prepare for the Beyrout quarantine. In vain the passengers expostulated in a Babel of unknown tongues ; he only shrugged his shoulders, and said he would go to the board once more; at the same time he ordered the abominable yellow flag to go up again. As he departed the thin priest smiled grimly, and said that it all meant nothing —that he was sure we should laud that afternoon guided istanbul tours.

All that day we lay in the harbour, under a broiling Egyptian sun, with nothing to do but grumble, hope, despair, and watch the countless many-sailed windmills along the low coast, which almost twirled me into a frenzy. At night, we were told to get ready early the next day, for that the barge would come to convey us to the Lazaretto. We had been condemned by the board to the entire Beyrout quarantine ! The thin priest would not believe it. lie said to-morrow morning we should land, and returned to the intent perusal of his grubby book.

At daybreak, on the following morning, a wretchedly old and dirty lighter came alongside, into which we were all shot like so much pestilential rubbish; and two or three boats’ crews of Arabs taking us in tow, with a melancholy monotonous chant suited to the occasion, we made a dismal journey of two hours, to the distant lazaretto. All my Egyptian enthusiasm vanished as we came near its gaunt prison walls.

Italian Opera at Constantinople

The crew were lying lazily about, playing at cards and dominoes; and a young Maltese, whom I found out to be the first flute in the orchestra of the Italian Opera at Constantinople, played several popular airs from Norma and Lucrezia Borgia. He was a nice intelligent fellow, and had established himself in a boat, upon deek, where he had his mattress and baggage, with a species of “ bachelor’s kitchen,’’ in which he made coffee and soup, cooked fish, boiled eggs, and concocted all sorts of dishes. As night came on, the fourth-class passengers arranged their different bivouacs—under the bulwarks, alongside the guns, and about. One group was especially effective. A young Greek girl, her brother, and a little child in their charge—all from Tunis and on their way to Athens, took up their position under the capstan, and looked so well—the man in his

Albanian costume, and the girl in her petticoat, (for her night toilet only consisted in taking off her gown) that I did my best to make a sketch of them, which a more able hand has put on the wood. Gavarni himself could not have surprised some wearied masqueraders in a better pose. As soon as it became tolerably dusky, the fowls and ducks were assassinated by the light of a lantern, at the side of the paddlebox, for the morrow’s consumption ; and later, a sheep shared the same fate. Then, one by one, the passengers of the cabins crept below; but the heat was still so far beyond anything possible to be conceived, that I got my knapsack, as before, and laid myself down again upon the deck, where I was soon fast asleep, being followed in my example by one or two more of my gasping fellow travellers. This night I am not aware that the large rat paid us a visit; he was possibly attracted by the results of the fowl- murders on the other side of the boat. Anyhow, I slept undisturbed until after four in the morning tour bulgaria.

The progress of the next day presented little variety. We still had nothing but blue sky and sea to look upon, when we sought distraction beyond the bulwarks of the steamer. Mademoiselle Virginie was studying navigation with the Commissaire, in his cabin; she was there nearly all day. Pauline was incessantly employed upon a piece of crochet-work, which lasted all the journey, and got very dirty towards the end of it—being one of those fearfully uncomfortable things called antimacassars, which hang on the backs of chairs, to make your hair rough and tumble over your head. About four o’clock in the afternoon we caught sight of Greece—high up over the larboard bow; and at dinner-time a pretty stiff breeze came on and the boat began to ride, which had the admirable effect of keeping the foreigners rather more quiet at table; indeed, one or two left it. At dusk, we passed Cerigo, one of our English possessions —a melancholy reddish-rock island. It was difficult to conceive a more dreary time than the officer

must have had of it who was stationed there with his handful of troops. I longed to have seen some small boat by which I could have sent him a bundle of Galignanis, and a few numbers of Punch that we had on board. Then the little concert on deck began again—the opera airs bringing up thoughts of Gris, and Coveut Garden and the London season, here, out and away, at one of the gates of the Archipelago; and then, at nine o’clock we all began to think of retiring. I did not try the berths again ; but the Maltese lent me a coat, and lying down on this, with my knapsack as before, for a pillow, I was soon comfortably curled up with my own thoughts. I was, however, obliged to silence two runaway patriots, from some of the Italian States, who had been arguing loudly for an hour upon the affairs of Rome, without any chance of approaching a conclusion. When this was done, and the usual quantity of fowls had been killed, as on the preceding night, everything became quiet, and I was soon wandering in the world of dreams.

My Lady Mary of Vertus

My Lady Mary of Vertus, a very good lady and a saintly woman, came to tell me that the queen was making great lamentation, and asked me to go to her and comfort her. And when I came there, 1 found her weeping; and I told her that he spoke sooth who said that none should put faith in woman. “ For,” said I, “ she that is dead is the woman that you most hated, and yet you are showing such sorrow.” And she told me it was not for the queen that she was weep king, but because of the king’s sorrow in the mourning that he made, and because of her daughter, afterwards the Queen of Navarre, who had remained in men’s keeping.

The unkindness that the Queen Blanche showed to the Queen Margaret was such that she would not suffer, in so far as she could help it, that her son should be in his wife’s company, except at night when he went to sleep with her. The palace where the king and his queen liked most to dwell was at Pontoise, because there the king’s chamber was above and the queen’s chamber below; and they had so arranged matters between them that they held their converse in a turning staircase that went from the one chamber to the other; and they had further arranged that when the ushers saw the Queen Blanche coming to her son’s chamber, they struck the door with their rods, and the king would come running into his chamber so that his mother might find him there; and the ushers of Queen Margaret’s chamber did the same when Queen Blanche went thither, so that she might find Queen Margaret there.

Once the king wras by his wife’s side, and she was in great peril of death, being hurt for a child that she had borne. Queen Blanche came thither, and took her son by the hand, and said: “ Come away; you have nothing to do herel” When Queen Margaret saw that the mother was leading her son away, she cried: “Alas! whether dead or alive, you will not suffer me to see my lord! ” Then she fainted, and they thought she was dead; and the king, who thought she was dying, turned back; and with great trouble they brought her round.

Christian folk who hold the creed of the Greeks

There are among them a great many Christian folk who hold the creed of the Greeks, and there are, besides, the Christians of whom we have already spoken, and others. These Christians the Tartars send against the Saracens when they wish to make war on the Saracens; and contrariwise they use the Saracer in any war against the Christians. All manner of childless women go with them to war, and they give pay to such women as they would do to men, according

to their strength and vigor. And the king’s envoys told us that the men and women soldiers ate together in the quarters of the chiefs under whom they served; and that the men dared not touch the women in any sort, because of the law that their first king had given them.

The women

The flesh of all manner of beasts dying in the camp is eaten. The women who have children see after them, and take care of them; and also prepare the food of the people who go to battle. They put the raw meat between their saddles and the lappets of their clothing, and when the blood is well pressed out, they eat it quite raw. What they cannot eat, there and then, they throw into a leather bag; and when they are hungry they open the bag and always eat the oldest bits first. Thus I saw a Khorasmin, one of the Emperor of Persia’s people, who guarded us in our imprison mint, and when he opened his bag we held our noses, for we could not bear it, because of the stink that came out of his bag.

But now let us go back to the matter in hand, and tell how the great King of the Tartars, after he had received the king’s envoys and presents, sent to gather together, under safe conduct, several kings who had not as yet submitted to him; and when they were come he caused the king’s chapel to be pitched, and spoke to them after this manner: “ Lords, the King of France has sued for mercy, and submitted him self to us, and behold here is the tribute he has sent us; and if you do not submit yourselves to us we will send and fetch him tor your destruction.” Many there were who, through fear of the French king, placed themselves in subjection to that Tartar king.

Brother Renaud of Vichier

Then spoke brother Renaud of Vichier, who was Marshal of the Temple, and he said this: “ Sire, let us set to one side this quarrel between the Lord of Joinville and our commander; for indeed, as our commander says, we could not advance any of this money without being forsworn. And as to what the seneschal advises, viz., that if we will not lend you the money, you had better take it why, he says nothing that is very outrageous, and you must do as you think best; and if you do take what is ours here in Egypt, why, we have so much of what is yours at Acre, that you can easily in dignify us.”

I said to the king that I would go and take the money, if he so ordered; and he ordered me accordingly. So I went to one of the galleys belonging to the Temple, the chief galley, and when I wished to go down into the hold of the galley, where the treasure was, I asked the Commander of the Temple to come and see what I took; but he did not deign to do so. The marshal said he would come and be a witness to the violence I should do him.

Treasurer of the Temple

So soon as I had gone down to where the treasure was, I asked the Treasurer of the Temple, who was there, to give me the keys of a chest that lay before me; and he, seeing I was thin and emaciated with sickness, and had on only such clothes as I had worn in prison, said he would give me none of them. Then I perceived a hatchet lying there, and lifted it. and said I would make of it the king’s key. When the marshal saw this, he. took me by the fist, and said: “ Lord, we see right well that you are using force against us, and we will cause the keys to be handed over to yon.” Then he ordered the treasurer to give me the keys, which he did. And when the marshal told the treasurer who I was, he was greatly astonished.

I found that the chest that I opened belonged to Nicholas of Choisi, a sergeant of the king. I threw out the silver I found therein, and went and sat on the prow of our little vessel that had brought me. And I took the Marshal of France, and left him with the silver in the Templar’s galley, and on the galley I put the Minister of the Trinity. On the galley the marshal handed the silver to the minister, and the minister gave it over to me on the little vessel where I sat. When we had ended and came towards the king’s galley, I began to shout to the king: “ Sire, sire, see how well I am furnished!” And the saintly man received me right willingly and right joyfully. We gave over what I had brought to those who were counting the money for the ransom.

Lord Hugh of Ecot

Then did my Lord Hugh of Ecot receive three lance wounds in the face, and my Lord Raoul; and my Lord Frederic of Loupey received a lance wound between the shoulders, and the wound was so large that the blood flowed from his body as from the bung-hole of a cask. My Lord Everard of Siverey was struck by a sword in the middle of the face in such sort that his nose fell over his lip. Then it came to my mind to think upon my Lord St. James, so that I prayed: “ Fair Lord St. James, give me help and succour in this our need.”

As soon as I had made this my prayer, my Lord Everard of Siverey said to me: “ Lord, if you think that neither I nor my heirs will incur reproach therein, I will go and fetch you help from the Count of Anjou, whom I see in the midst of yonder field.” And I said to him: “ My Lord Everard, meseems that you would earn for yourself great honour if you went for help to save our lives; and your own life too is in great jeopardy.” And I spoke sooth, for he died of that wound. He sought counsel of all the knights who were there, and all advised as I had advised. When he heard this, he asked me to let go my hold of his horse, which I held by the bridle, with the others, and I did so.

He came to the Count of Anjou, and begged him to succour me and my knights. A man of note who was with the Count of Anjou tried to dissuade him, but he said lie would do what my knight asked of him; so he turned his bridle to come to our help, and several of his sergeants too set spurs to their horses. When the Saracens saw them coming, they left us. In front of the sergeants rode my Lord Peter of Auberive, with his sword in his fist, and when he saw that the Saracens had left us, he charged full into the Saracens who held my Lord Raoul of Wanou, and rescued him, sore wounded.

THE KING’S DIVISION ATTACKS THE SARACENS

As I was there on foot with my knights, wounded as I have said, the king came up with his battalions, and a great sound of shouting, and trumpets, and cymbals; and he halted on a raised causeway. Never have I seen so fair a knight! Lord he seemed by the head and shoulders to tower above his people; and on his head was a gilded helm, and in his hand a sword of Allemaine.

When he halted there, the good knights whom he had in his division, and whom I have already named to you, hurled themselves against the Turks; and with them several other valiant knights of his. And you must know that this was a very fine passage of arms, for in this battle no one drew bow or crossbow: it was a battle of mace and sword between the Turks and our people, all intermingled customized daily istanbul tours.

One of my squires, who had fled away with my banner, and had returned to me, gave me one of my Flemish horses, on which I mounted, and so drew up to the king, side by side.

While we were standing thus, my Lord John of Valery, the right worthy man, came to the king, and said he advised him to bear to the right towards the stream, so as to have the help of the Duke of Burgundy, and of those who were guarding the camp, and so also that his sergeants might obtain somewhat to drink, seeing that the day was already grown very hot.

The king commanded his sergeants to go and fetch the good knights of his council who were thereby, and named them all by their names. The sergeants went and summoned them from the midst of the fight, where the strife was very fierce between them and the Turks. They came to the king, and he asked counsel of them; and they said that my Lord John of Valery was advising him very well. Then the king commanded the great flag of St. Denis and his standard bearer to move to the right towards the river. At the moving of the king’s host there was again a mighty sound of trumpets, and cymbals, and horns.

THE EMPEROR TWICE DELIVERS NICOMEDIA

THE EMPEROR TWICE DELIVERS NICOMEDIA, BESIEGED BY THEODORE LASCARIS

Theodore Lascaris sent the most part of his force into the land of Nicomedia. And the people of Thierri of Loos, who had fortified the Church of St. Sophia, and were therein, besought their lord and the emperor to come to their relief; for if they received no help they could not hold out, especially as they had no provisions. Through sheer distress and sore need, the Emperor Henry and his people agreed that they must once more abandon thought of going to Adrianople, and cross the straits of St. George, to the Turkish side, with as many people as they could collect, and succour Nicomedia.

And when the people of Theodore Lascaris heard that the emperor was coming, they avoided the land, and retreated towards Nice die Great. And when the emperor knew of it, he tcok“ council, and it was decided that Thierri of Loos, the seneschal of Roumania, should abide in Nicomedia, with all his knights, and all his sergeants, to guard the land; and Macaire of Sainte-Menehould should abide at Charax, and William of the Perchois in Skiza; and each defend the land where he abode.

Then did the Emperor Henry, and the remainder of his people return to Constantinople, and prepare once again to go towards Adrianople. And while he was so preparing, Thierri of Loos the seneschal, who was in Nicomedia, and William of the Perchoi, and all their people, went out forag ing on a certain day. And the people of Theodore Lascaris knew of it, anti surprised them, and fell upon them. Now the people of Theodore Lascaris wrere very many, and our„ people very few. So the battle began, and they fought hand to hand, and before very long the few were not able to stand against the many istanbul daily tours.

Thierri of Loos

Thierri of Loos did right well, as also his people; ne was twice struck down, and by main strength his men remounted him. And William of the Perchoi was also struck down, and remounted and rescued. But numbers hemmed them in too sore, and the Franks were discomfited. There was taken Thierri of Loos, wounded in the face, and in peril of death. There, too, were most of his people taken, for few escaped. William of the Pereheis fled on a hackney, wounded in the hand. Those that escaped from the discomfiture rallied in the Church of St. Sophia.

He who dictates this history heard blame attached this affair whether rightly or wrongly he knows not to a certain  name3~Eiseau  was liegeman of Loos the seneschal, and chief of his men; and who abandoned him in the fray.

Then did those who had returned to the Church of St. Sophia in Nicomedia, viz. William of the Perchoi and Anseau of Remi, take a messenger, and send him flying to Constantinople, to the Emperor Henry; and they told the emperor what had befallen, how the seneschal had been taken with his men; how they themselves were besieged in the Church of St. Sophia, in Nicomedia, and how they had food for no more than five days; and they told him he must know of a certainty that if he did not succour them they must be killed or taken. The emperor, as one hearing a cry of distress, passed over the straits of St. George, he and his people, each as best he could, and pell-mell, to go to the relief of those in Nico media. And so the march to Adrianople was put off once more.

When the emperor had passed over the straits of St. George, he set his troops in array, and rod® day by day came to Nicomedia. When the people of Theodore Lascaris, and his brothers, who formed the host, heard thereof, they drew back, and passed over the mountain on the other side, towards Nice. And the emperor encamped by Nicomedia in a very fair field that lay beside the river on this side of the mountain. He had his tents and pavilions pitched; and caused his men to overrun and harry the land, because the people had rebelled w hen they heard that Thierri of Loos, the seneschal, was taken; and the emperor’s men captured much cattle and many prisoners.

DIVISION OF TKE LAND BETWEEN THE CRUSADERS

THE KINGDOM OF SALONIKA IS RESTORED TO BONIFACE DIVISION OF TKE LAND BETWEEN THE CRUSADERS

The marquis then took leave, and went towards Salonika with his people, and with his wife; and with him rode the envoys of the emperor; and as they went from castle to castle, each, with all its lordship, was restored to the marquis on the part of the emperor. So they came to Salonika, and those who held the place for the emperor surrendered it. Now the governor, whom the emperor had left there, and whose name was Renier of Lions, had died; he was a man most worthy, and his death a great mischance.

Then the land and country began to surrender to the marquis, and a great part thereof to come under his rule. But a Greek, a man of great rank, whose name was Leon Sgure, would in no wise come under the rule of the marquis, for he had seized Corinth and Napoli, two cities that lie upon the sea, and are among the strongest cities under heaven. He then refused to surrender, but began to make war against the marquis, and a very great many of the Greeks held with him. And another Greek, whose name was Michael, and who had come with the marquis from Constantinople, and was thought by the marquis to be his friend, he departed, without any word said, and went to a city called Arthe (? Ihirazzo) and took to wife the daughter of a rich Greek, who held the land from the emperor, and seized the land, and began to make war on the marquis.

Constantinople to Salonika

Now the land from Constantinople to Salonika was quiet and at peace, for the ways were so safe that all could come and go at their pleasure, and from the one city to the other there were full twelve long days’ journey. And so much time had now passed that we were at the beginning of September (1204). And the Emperor Baldwin was in Constantinople, and the land at peace, and under his rule. Then died two right good knights in Constantinople, Eustace of Canteleu, and Aimery of Villeroi, whereof their friends had great sorrow.

Then did they begin to divide the land. The Venetians had their part, and the pilgrims the other. And when each

one was able to go to his own land, the covetousness of this i, world, which has worked so great evil, suffered them not to be at peace, for each began to deal wickedly in his land, some ^ more, and some less, and the Greeks began to hate them and to nourish a bitter heart.

Then did the Emperor Baldwin bestow on Count Lewis the duchy of Nice, which was one of the greatest lordships in the land of Roumania, and situate on the other side of the straits, towards Turkey. Now all the land on the other side of the straits had not surrendered to the emperor, but was against him. Then afterwards he gave the duchy of Philippopolis to Renier of Trit.

So Count Lewis sent his men to conquer his land some hundred and twenty knights. And over them were set Peter of Bracieux and Payen of Orleans. They left Constantinople on All Saints Day fist November 1204), and passed over the Straits of St. George on ship-board, and came to Piga, a city that lies on the sea, and is inhabited by latins. And they began to war against the Greeks.

Greek emperors at that time

By common consent of Franks and Greeks, it was settled that the new emperor should be crowned on the feast of our Lord St. Peter (1st August 1203). So was it settled, and so it was done. He was crowned full worthily and with honour according to the use for Greek emperors at that time. After wards he began to pay the moneys due to the host; and such moneys were divided among the host, and each repaid what had been advanced in Venice for his passage.

ALEXIUS BEGS THE CRUSADERS TO PROLONG THEIR STAY

The new emperor went oft to see the barons in the camp, and did them great honour, as much as he could; and this was but fitting, seeing that they had served him right well. And one day he came to the camp, to see the barons privily in the quarters of Count Baldwin of Hainault and Flanders. Thither were summoned the Doge of Venice, and the great barons, and he spoke to them and said: “Lords, I am emperor by God’s grace and yours, and you have done me the highest service that ever yet was done by any people to Christian man. Now be it known to you that there are folk enough who show me a fair seeming, and yet love me not; and the Greeks are full of despite because it is by your help that I have entered into my inheritance.

“ Now the term of your departure is nigh, and your fellow-ship with the Venetians is timed only to last till the feast of St. Michael. And within so short a term I cannot fulfil our covenant. Be it known to you therefore, that, if you abandon me, the Greeks hate me because of you: I shall lose my land, and they will kill me. But now do this thing that.

St. Michael

I ask of you: remain here till March, and I will entertain your ships for one, year from the feast of St. Michael, and bear the cost of the Venetians, and will give you such things as you may stand in need of till Easter. And within that term I shall have placed my land in such case tha.t 1 cannot lose it again; and your covenant will be fulfilled, for 1 shall have paid such moneys as are due to you, obtaining them from all my lands; and I shall be ready also with ships either to go with you myself, or to send others, as I have covenanted; and you will have the summer from end to end in which to carry on the war against the Saracens.”

The barons thereupon said they would consult together apart; knowing full well that what the young man said was sooth, and that it would be better, both for the emperor and for themselves, to consent unto him. But they replied that they could not so consent save with the common agreement of the host, and that tney would therefore lay the matter before the host, and then give such answer as might be devised. So the Emperor Alexius departed from them, and went back to Constantinople. And they remained in the camp and assembled a parliament the next day. To this I parliament were summoned all the barons and the chieftains of the host, and of the knights the greater part; and in their hearing were repeated all the words that the emperor had spoken.