CHARACTER OF THE TURK S. (From Hunter's Travels.) WHEN we confider what a long period of time has elapfed, fince the light of reafon first began to difpel the thick cloud of ignorance which darkened the face of Europe, and by degrees, to roufe, to inform, to refine, and to illumine the understanding of man, we are aftonished that this people should have remained stationary, and, in fpite of the influence of example, fhould still be guided by an unfhaken adherence to their former notions and errors. Whilft we are making the remark, we feel inclined to investigate the cause whence fuch a blind, deeprooted veneration originates.-Is it occafioned by the natural difpofition of the people?-Surely not.-Does it then arife from the vices of a government, which is peculiarly framed to deaden the faculties of the mind, and to eradicate the feelings of the heart?-Much may, no doubt, be attributed to its influence; yet that wonderful degree of mental apathy, and bodily indolence, which they have gradually allowed to overwhelm them, appears to me to be principally derived from a ftill more potent fource. It is the ridiculous doctrines of their religion (engrafted in a moment of enthufiafm, and cultivated and ftrengthened by the impofing arts of fucceeding ages) which, though firft ufed as an inftrument to excite, have been fince employed as an engine to crush the restless propenfity of man. 249 the credulity of the multitude; and to the prevalence of this abfurd tenet, many of the revolutions, which bave happened at Conftantinople may be traced. A Turk regards every occurrence of his life with the fame torpid indifference; and, being fully perfuaded, that no exertion or prudence.can prolong his happiness, or avert his deftruction, it very frequently happens, that neither the profpect of fecurity, nor the approach of danger, can animate his perceptions, or awaken him from his lethargy.-Grave and uncommunicative, rather from habit than from nature, as if the pleasures of fociety were totally eftranged from his breaft, he trifles away his life in the liftleffness of indolence and inactivity; and, as if entirely feparated from the concerns of the world, and uninterested in the welfare of his fpecies, he scarcely fulfils one duty which can render him ferviceable to his fellow-creatures. If he reads the Coran a fpecified number of times; prays at stated hours, either at home or at mosque, five times a day; and conforms to a few of the positive ordinances of his Prophet; he imagines that he has difcharged every thing which is either requifite or im. portant, and that, as a recompenfe for fuch exact and fcrupulous obedience, he has fecured, in a future ftate, the endlefs and voluptuous, enjoyments of his ideal paradife. Superftition, which is the mother The firm belief of predeftination, ofthe strangeft abfurdities and contrawhich is a principal article of faith, dictions, notwithstanding the fatalism and one of the indispensable duties of of the Turks, difpofes them to celea Muffulman, is, perhaps, the most brate eclipfes with extraordinary fopowerful political machine, which lemnity.-If one happens to occur ftupidity ever fubmitted to, or craft during the night, they are roufed ever devifed. Whether obedience is from their flumbers by the cries of to be insured, or fedition promoted, the Muezzins; and, on hearing the it is equally calculated to impofe on fummons, they inftantly rife; repair Ed. Mag. April 1797. to to their mofques; and, by vows and fupplications, endeavour to avert the menaces of fuch an alarming omen. How easily might these ftupid fears be removed by a little knowledge in aftronomy! But fuperftition and ignorance must ever go hand in band. maintenance of hans. or inns for the accommodation of indigeat travellers; and for enabling the needy to pérform their pilgrimage to Mecca, Medina, and Jerufalem, which pious expedition every believer in the faith of Mahomet is bound to undertake, at least once in the courfe of his life*. They are alfo very careful of their domeftic animals. Of their horfes they are paffionately fond; and fuch is their refpect for dogs, that at Conftantinople there is a public charity for their fupport. Their feminaries, for the inftruction and enlargement of the human understanding, are not very numer. ons. They would ill accord with the principles of a government, which ance prevails. Yet there are, both at Conftantinople and Brufa, royal colleges, where the fludents are inftructed in Arabic and the knowledge of the Coran. This is all the fcholars are permitted to learn, and all the mafters have the wisdom to teach. Their religion is fupported at an immenfe expence.-Its minifters, of whom the Mufti is the head, are innumerable; and the revenues of fome of the royal mofques amount to the almost incredible fum of 60,000l. fterling. The Mufti is appointed by the Grand Seignor. He is Sovereign Pontiff, expounder of the law of Mahomet, and fupreme director of all religious concerns. He is regarded as the oracle of fanctity and wifdom; and having an extenfive authority, can only laft in proportion as ignor both over the actions and confciences of men, his office is one of the moft dignified and lucrative in the empire. The Turks are very proud, which is one great cause of their gravity and their taciturnity, Laughter and familiar converfation are, in their ideas, derogatory from dignity. They af fect to hold, in thorough contempt, the Greeks, the Jews, the Armenians and the Franks, whom they abufe in the streets, calling them infidels and chriftian dogs.-The Greeks are oppreffed by them in numberlefs ways; and as for the poor Jews, they are the objects of fuch complete obloquy and fcorn, that they are buffeted, and plucked by their beards, wherever they are met. -In fome few refpects, however, the Turks are well-meaning, hofpit. able and charitable.-The beflowing of alms, is one of the principal duties of their religion, and there are various inftitutious, in different parts of the empire, for the relief of poor fcientious.-But whit they are fo Muffulmen; for the erection and exact and pertinacious, in attending Friday among the Turks, is more refpected than any other day in the week, because they believe it was on that day Mahomet fled from Mecca to Medina. In their perfons, independent of their drefs, they are cleanly, their religion enjoining frequent ablutions; and, for the convenience of the pub. lic, fountains are erected on all the principal roads of the empire. Thefe ablutions are, indeed, fo often repeated, that the punctual obferv. ance of thera must be very troublefome, and, in many inftances, highly unneceffary and ridiculous; yet the Turks, in this refpect, are very con to *The pilgrims for Mecca fet out from Conftantinople in a caravan in the month of May, and repair to Damafcus, where they join the other pilgrims from Natolia and Afia. Afterwards they unite with thofe that come from Perlia, and from Egypt, and other parts of the Ottoman empire. The whole number commonly amounts to 60,000 pilgrims. See Habefci's Prefent State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 96. to the outward forms and ceremonies of their religion, its effence and spirit are, in molt cafes, neglected; and whilst they rigidly obferve what they might with innocence omit, they openly violate what it is criminal to difobey. Unfortunately for the world, this reproach is, I fear, applicable to every other country as well as Turkey; for fuch is the folly and fallibility, or the perverfenefs and ob. duracy of human nature, that the moft facred obligations are very frequently, either openly infringed, or artfully evaded, when they are re pugnant to our ideas of happiness, or inconfiftent with our views of pleafure, convenience or profit.— The Turks are very fond of chefs, which is a game that correfponds with the gravity of their tempers. An anecdote was not long fince related to me, which proves, at once their partiality for this amufement, and their indifference about matters of much higher concern.-An Aga had incurred the difpleasure of his Sovereign, and the warrant for his execution arrived, whilft he was engaged at chefs. The game was nearly over, and he begged the officers, who were the meffengers of his fate, to delay the sentence for a few minutes, that he might have the fatisfaction of beat ing his adversary. His request was granted; and, when the game was finished, he thanked them for their civility and condefcenfion; kiffed the order which deprived him of life; and fubmitted, with the greatest compofure, to the ftroke of the executioner. With regard to the women, you muft depend on the accounts of others, as no man, but he to whom they be long, is ever permitted to fee them.As, however, I have mentioned them, I thall beg leave to add, that my ideas of their happiness are totally oppofite to thofe of a justly celebrated female writer; and I think, that by a reference to the strongest principles of our nature, the force and propriety of my opinion may be eafily established. In a country where a plurality of wives is authorized by law, and where one man, in addition to this license, is alfo permitted, without any breach of the morality which he has been taught, to immure in his haramt aş many female flaves as his purfe can purchase, the fex muft infallibly be tyrannized over and degraded. It is deprived of its natural rights. It is denied its natural protection. It is forbidden the chaffe enjoyments of reciprocal friendship and love. It is robbed of its dignity and its honour, which are its brightest attractions. It is compelled to pay obedience to a wretch whom it defpifes, and whilst it defpifes, to fubmit to the gratifica. tion of his luft-Can any thing be Ii2 more Lady Mary Wortley Montague. The Haram is the term given to the apartments in which the women are confined. They are always in a retired part of the premises, and are furrounded and fecured by lofty walls. They are faid to be, in general, fitted up with splendour and tafte. Before them, are spacious areas, which are partly paved with marble, and decorated with fountains, fhrubberies, and parterres of flowers. They have large doors and windows, and are extremely well ventilated. The haram is ftrictly and vigi lantly guarded by Eunuchs, and no man, except the mafter, is allowed to enter, Locks and bolts cannot, however, confine the instincts of nature, and the women, with the affiftauce of the Jews, contrive to carry on many intrigues, particularly at the feafon of the Bairam, when they are often permitted to go to the public baths, and even to walk about the streets. I have been fpeaking all along, of the women belonging to the rich, for the higher the quality of the person, the closer the confinement. The women of fhop-keepers and people of that defcription are not watched by Eunuchs, and go to the public baths three or four times a week. The mafter of the house could not afford the expence of such an attendance, or of baths at home. 1 more unjust? Can any thing be more weak and helpless: and, whatever is horrible? Are these the fuggeftions, fo wide, fo revolting a deviation from the dictates of Nature-Nothofe propenfiies and principles, which They are an abandoned perverfion of Nature has, with her own hand, in her pureft, her mildest, her most va- diftinct and indelible characters, writluable fentiments.-They are ten in our hearts, cannot possibly be thameless, infulting tyranny, achieved productive of any thing but hatred, by the powerful and ftrong over the difcontent, and mifery. a NEW AND CURIOUS PARTICULARS IN THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OSTRICH, From Vaillant's new Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa. IMET with nothing remarkable during this day's journey, except the neft of an oftrich, in which was the female hatching her young. Three eggs, deposited on the bare ground, lay before her; and he was fitting upon nine others, the young in which were in fo advanced a state as to be ready to burst the fhell. The feparation of the eggs in this manner into two parcels, near to, but distant from each other, is a fact I have already mentioned in my first travels; but the way in which I accounted for it has been contradicted. There are perfons who cannot believe that the oftrich places eggs before her neft, to serve as food for her young when they are hatched. So much fore. fight in a bird, which we have hitherto thought proper to confider as the emblem of ftupidity, appears to them an improbable fiction. It has been faid, that before the publication of my travels, no naturalist ever mentioned the circumftance; which is the fum total of all the objections they can make; and I have furely no need to fhew its futility, fince, as naturalifts have fpoken fo differently on other points, what conclufion would be made should I affirm, on my part, that they have published nothing but falfehoods and errors? How many discoveries in natural history, controverted at firft on account of their novelty, are now ad. mitted as incontestable truths! When a traveller thought proper to fay, that coral was not a marine production of the vegetable kingdom, but a real neft conftructed by infects; and when Delifle, on his return from China, advanced that ambergris was produced by a whale, and gave proofs of it, were there not men, your closet nas turalifts, who opposed their affertions? Let us not believe from vague report every thing indifcriminately.Such conduct would by no means accord with the dictates of reason. Let us previously examine the credibility due to the person who may advance new facts, and the evidence adduced in fupport of them; but let us not reject them merely because they are new. The more we study nature, the more we fhall discover circum. ftances which it will be impoffible for us to explain.. But how many daily occur before our eyes, which we even never think of examining! Let thofe writers on natural history, whofe whole fcientific knowledge confifts in reading and reafoning from books, inform me, for example, why the fwallow, when its neft is destroyed, will begin ten or twelve times fucceffively to rebuild it in the fame place, while indigenous birds abandon theirs as foon as it has been touched, and go elfe where to conftruct another. With regard to the eggs fet apart by the oftrich for the first nourishment of her young, I can quote, in fupport of my, affertion, the teftimony of a celebrated navigator,de Bougainville, who who had failed round the globe before dictory evidence only, the uncertainty of which must neceffarily embarrafs the naturalist. I even thought of vifiting Africa. Having called upon me to fee my collection of natural history, after the publication of my first travels, and the converfation turning upon what I had written refpeting the oftrich, he told me, that my obfervation was ftrictly correct, that he had every where met with proofs of it, and that he had refrained from being the first to publish it, from the fear that his veracity would be called in question. This however is one of thofe novelties which ought to be made known by men capable of beftowing on them credibility; for the opinion the world has formed of a man is often indifpenfible to the giving the colour of truth to the most unquestionable facts.. From what I have here had occafion to say respecting the oftrich, I flatter myself that I fhall be pardoned for adding a few obfervations more upon the fame fubject. It has been afferted by a naturalist to whom science is much indebted, that at Senegal this bird fits on her eggs during the night only; and that the abandons them in the day to the heat of the fun. I do not know whether the heat of Senegal be greater than under the fame latitude on the other fide of the equator, nor whether the oftriches of the former are fuperior in inftinct to thofe of the latter climate. But from the Cape, as far as the twenty-fecond degree of latitude, I have feen nefts; and I can affert, that I never found one which was not covered by a male or female, unless, from the death of the oftrich that had been fitting on them, or fome other particular accident, the eggs had been totally deferted. With regard to the number of eggs, the feafon when they are laid, and the period of incubation, nothing that can be depended on is yet known: for those who have traverfed Africa, prefent us, on this subject, with contra What may have led travellers into an error is, that in the fame district we fee, at one and the fame time, a female which has begun to lay, young oftriches two or three months old, and others as large as the mother.All this prefents an idea of diforder in the fpecies, which proceeds from two causes. I fhall fpeak of the first elsewhere, as it is common to all the birds of Africa; and content myself at prefent with mentioning the fecond. Birds of the fame fpecies copulate generally at the fame feason, and confequently ought all to produce young about the fame period. Their eggs, however, may be deftroyed, and the mother obliged in confequence to lay a fecond, and even perhaps a third fet; and it is evident that there will then be young fcarcely hatched, while others will have attained a confiderable` size. This is the cafe with the oftrich. She generally lay's ten eggs; but thefe eggs are much fought after by the favages, who confider them as dainties; and when they discover them, they never fail to carry them away. The confequence is, that the animal is retarded in laying, and that young oftriches are reared of different ages. If a Hottentot find a nest where incubation is not yet begun, and if he fuppofe that it is known to himself only, it becomes a treasure, the produce of which he will referve for a long time. Instead of removing the eggs all at once, he takes only one or two, convinced that the female, who never begins to fit till fhe has completed her number, will lay again. Two days after he will repeat his theft. In fhort, if he plunder with addrefs and precaution, he may caufe her to lay as many as fifty; and fometimes even, when the neft is occupied by two or three |