It is a very
old piece of fun, no doubt--quite an Oriental Joe Miller; but the
Turks are fondly attached, not only to the institutions, but also
to the jokes of their ancestors; so the lady's silvery laugh rings
joyously in your ears, and the mirth of her women is boisterous and
fresh, as though the bright idea of giving the plague to a
Christian had newly lit upon the earth.
Methley began to rally very soon after we had reached
Constantinople; but there seemed at first to be no chance of his
regaining strength enough for travelling during the winter, and I
determined to stay with my comrade until he had quite recovered; so
I bought me a horse, and a "pipe of tranquillity," {7} and took a
Turkish phrase-master. I troubled myself a great deal with the
Turkish tongue, and gained at last some knowledge of its structure.
It is enriched, perhaps overladen, with Persian and Arabic words,
imported into the language chiefly for the purpose of representing
sentiments and religious dogmas, and terms of art and luxury,
entirely unknown to the Tartar ancestors of the present Osmanlees;
but the body and the spirit of the old tongue are yet alive, and
the smooth words of the shopkeeper at Constantinople can still
carry understanding to the ears of the untamed millions who rove
over the plains of Northern Asia.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53