long, and was habited in European style, with blue frockcoat and pants, with the exception of the red cap upon his head and a fan in his hand. He wore over his dress a rather short olive cloth cloak, which set very gracefully upon him. As he passed we pulled off our hats and waved them valiantly, to which he returned a gracious smile. He was an intelligent and very fine-looking man.

In various directions upon these extensive hills are erected marble pillars, to commemorate the achievements in archery of himself and predecessors. From what we have been told, Sultan Mahmoud excelled them all in the distance to which he could throw the arrow. He appeared to be a favourite with the people, and was on the throne a period of near thirty years. longer, I believe, than any of his predecessors. His appearance was uncommonly commanding, and his countenance indicated character and intelligence.

On every Friday (their Sabbath) he used to go in state to a mosque; and generally, on the Asiatic side, in summer, he repaired to a smaller one, not very distant from his summer palace. For this purpose he passed some distance either up or down the Bosphorus by water, and on landing, rode on horseback to the place of worship. Such a pageant, such a truly Oriental and fairy scene, can scarcely be imagined. The magnificence and massive richness of the state barges far exceeded, in reality, all the gaudy and florid descriptions that language can possibly convey. Three immense barges made up the group. That in which the sultan went much exceeded the others in dimensions, and was a little in advance of the two that accompanied him, one on each side. They were all rowed by a large number of expert oarsmen, and were canopied over with rich silk and gilded drapery. Within were sumptuous otto

mans, sofas, and cushions, loaded with golden ornaments, glittering like a magic scene of enchantment in the sun and on the waves.

"The barge he sat in, like a burnish'd throne

Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were lovesick with them: the oars were silver;
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster."

Three or four of his favourites accompanied him. The other barges contained the rest of his court. As he landed upon the wharf, a band struck up a peal of excellent martial music, and between a long line of soldiers he mounted a noble Arabian horse most richly caparisoned. A number of his ministers rode by his side and behind him, and thus they proceeded to the mosque. A group of military officers in full dress were also at the landing-place; and directly, as he mounted his horse, they all bowed their heads almost to the ground as he passed. There was no shouting, no noise -but the music. The Turks never remove their caps as a mark of respect; but if any Franks were about or near, it was expected of them to take off their hats. From the time he left the palace until he entered the mosque, there was a thundering roar of cannon from all the ships-ofwar, and also from a great number of pieces placed on the heights around. It is a most noisy, blazing, and smoking time indeed, but the spectacle altogether is one of the most imposing and grand that can be imagined. When he returned from the mosque to the palace, it was by some private way, unobserved.

In all this multitude not a female was to be seen! Poor woman! What a disgusting and degraded state she is in, in this land of Mohammedanism; and so long as this continues, so long will man continue ignorant and

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debased. It is humiliating and painful to the greatest degree to contemplate the degraded light in which they are looked upon, but more so to witness it. They are never seen in places of worship; nor, at the houses of the best Turks, do women ever make a part of the society of the most intimate friends of their lords and masters on any occasion whatever. Never have I seen an instance of one of their women riding with their husbands.

The women are in public invariably alone. If it is discovered that any improper intercourse has taken place between a Turkish woman and a Frank, it is certain death to her, and either death or the most ignominious punishment to the man. The woman, without judge or jury, is sewn up in a bag, by order of the husband, and thrown into the Bosphorus.

If the Christian religion had no brighter star to recommend it to the adoption and practice of all the nations of the earth, than that of giving to lovely woman her proper, just, and noble elevation in society, this alone would entitle it to universal sanction and adoption. Every man in every country, who misuses and abuses this best of gifts and most precious of treasures, ought to, and will meet, at an early or a later day, with justice retributive and merited. Devoutly thankful I am, that the lot of our countrywomen has not been cast in this benighted land.

The Armenians and the Greeks, who profess a modification of the Christian religion, ought assuredly to hold up to general detestation such unrighteous and unnatural treatment of woman; but, from what I have heard at Constantinople, they are not entirely exempt from the influence of bad examples.

The religious tenets of the Armenians permit them

to have only one wife, and they admit them into their temples of worship in a gallery, as the Jews do; but the galleries of the former are closely grated, so that you cannot distinguish a feature of their faces. After the men have got through with their religious exercises, some of the females come down into the church below, and manifest their communion and fellowship by kissing a book in the hands of the officiating priests, and then kneel before the altar. They are all covered with the disgusting habiliments of the Turkish women. The laws, moral and ecclesiastical, which bind the sexes in these churches, I very much fear, are too lax and insecure, and particularly so among the Greeks.

We

Scutari is a fashionable resort in the summer afternoon for the richer class of Turks, where they are seen lounging in their carriages and eating ice-cream. have before spoken of the ordinary description of wheeled vehicle or clumsy-painted cart in which the women are seen riding. The better description of this machine, in which the rich ride, is seldom seen except at Scutari, and differs from the common kind only in being more fantastically ornamented with red silk, gilded and carved work, and other trappings, and sometimes also with pre

cious stones.

This is also drawn by a couple of oxen.

THE BOSPHORUS, BLACK SEA, AND

DANUBE.

We took our leave of the Ottoman capital on the 20th of July, and proceeded in an Austrian steamer through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, which latter we crossed to one of the mouths of the Danube, and thence continued up that noble river, one of the longest and largest in Europe, stopping at Galatz, in Moldavia, on the European side, where we were not permitted to land, and from thence pursued our course, touching at many towns on the Turkish side, with which we had free intercourse, and, after a voyage of twelve days and nights, we finally reached our place of destination, Orsova, on the extreme limit of Hungary.

The whole Bosphorus, from Constantinople to the Black Sea, is one of the most beautiful routes we ever passed. On each side there is a succession of mountain, and green valley, and villas, presenting bold, richlyvariegated, and picturesque scenery. The progress up the Bosphorus is slow, in consequence of the very strong and rapid current which comes down from the Black Sea.

On reaching the Black Sea we were struck with the dark colour of its water, and think it very appropriately named, when compared with the appearance of other seas that we have voyaged in. It is certainly of a much blacker hue even than the broad Atlantic, and contrasted still more forcibly with the light-green waters of the Mediterranean.