especially in the interior. Often there is also a serious and devout appearance among the people, which shows that they too are sincere in their worship. I have noticed sometimes, when the Gospel has been read in a language understood by the people, how they have remained in perfect silence, drinking in every word, while the rest of the services were as unintelligible to them as to me. From this it arises, in good part, that the Eastern congregations, especially in the capital, are sometimes inattentive and noisy. This evil it will be difficult to remedy until the congregation become intelligent worshippers; and how this is to be brought about in any short space of time, it seems equally difficult to say, unless it be by having translations of the services in modern tongues for the use of the people, while the priest still continues to minister in the ancient language. The clergy, for the most part, are opposed to any translation of the offices for their own use, and with some good reason. The modern tongue is generally corrupt and vulgar, besides that it is ever-varying and has no fixed standard. They esteem it a degradation to put the services into it for the use of the sanctuary, besides that no translation could long remain a standard. They have, too, a very natural prejudice in favor of the old language, as the ancient tongue of their nation. It is, after all, the distinctive language of their race, which is preserved only in the standards of the Church, and would soon pass away if those standards were changed. It is the language in which their fathers worshipped from the beginning, and its forms have all the sanctity of age and venerated associations. It is their national bond, and they hope that by preserving it, its use in common life may one day be re

1 I mean by this double mode of expression, that while there is no classical standard of the modern tongue, which is universally received as such, the language changes differently in different places, being corrupted in one place by Kurdish, in another by Turkish, and in another by Arabic.

stored. Besides, the modern dialect is, in many places, not a corruption of the ancient tongue, but some Mussulman language, which has wholly displaced the national. Thus, in large provinces of Asia Minor, the Greeks have lost their Greek altogether and speak only Turkish; so also of the Armenians in some places. The Syrians in many parts know only Arabic. It is almost too much to ask that they should abandon their own ancient language in the only place where it is retained, and introduce a Mussulman dialect in its stead. At least, there is no probability of their being induced to do so. The best course, therefore, is to revive as much as possible the knowledge of the ancient tongue, and in the mean time to introduce translations of the Church services for common use among the people.

At Tocat, during my first visit, I noticed a little incident which struck me, at the moment, as a singular proof of the honesty of the people, or of the terror inspired by government. Two Tatars arrived from Erzroum with several loads of specie, destined for the Royal Treasury. The horses were unladen in the post-yard, and the bags containing the money were thrown down in the middle of the yard. There they remained one day and two nights. Hundreds of perThe yard opened

sons were in the yard during this time.

upon the street, and there was free access by day and night. No one dreamed of their being insecure; no one guarded them. On going out at midnight, I observed that every body was abed, the gates were open, and the bags lying un

I have heard an intelligent Greek of Konieh (Iconium) read a page of Greek with the greatest fluency, when he was not able to tell the meaning of a single word. This arises from the fact that in those districts the reading of the ancient language is preserved in the Churches, while the meaning of it is entirely lost. In other regions, where a modern dialect of the ancient tongue is spoken, the case is hardly much better, both on account of the difference between the two, and because of the rapidity and indistinctness with which the services are read.

Such an

molested within twelve feet of the public street. incident I imagine to be of rare occurrence in our Western World, but whether it is because we have less respect for the powers that be, or are a less honest race, I will not venture to say. The Turks, generally, in the interior, have a sort of dogged indifference to gain, lawful or unlawful, which sometimes stands them instead of more active virtues, but I doubt whether such things as this can be traced to any positive moral principle.

I spent the night at Tocat, and left on the morning of the 3d of August. I speak now of my second visit, during which, all that I saw of the town was in riding through it; and of the people, at the coffee-house where I alighted. The observations which I have recorded, were made in March, 1838, when I spent some days in the town. I had now but three days in which to reach Samsoun, if I would be there on the morning of the 6th. My disease had been gaining upon me throughout the journey, and had brought on a dropsical swelling which had pervaded all my limbs and almost destroyed their sensation. My legs and feet especially were so distended that I could hardly use them at all. For several days all my efforts at walking were to go from the place where I lay at night to the door of the house, there to mount my horse, and again, when the day's stage was over, from the door where I dismounted to the place within where my bed was spread. Besides this, I probably did not walk six rods during all the journey from Diarbekir to Samsoun,

We reached Turkhal in eight hours from Tocat, and pushed on to a guard-house in the mountains, two or three hours beyond, which I reached more dead than alive. The only eatable to be found there was fresh beans, of which the guards cooked us a large pot full, and set us to work upon them without bread, salt, or any accompaniment whatever. Late in the evening my fever subsided, and I did

ample justice to the beans, thankful that I had met with something besides milk and yo-oort, two articles that had haunted me all the way, and would have been very welcome if they had not been forbidden.

Close by this guard-house there is a gallows, from the cross-beam of which project upwards long sharp irons for transfixing the bodies of robbers caught in the mountains. The guard said that they had authority to execute a man in this way as soon as he was caught, without judge, jury, or any form of law. I was glad to hear that they had found no opportunity for exercising their office of late years. Near by was a small kioshk, or summer-house, which they reported to have been made by a retired Tatar for the accommodation of travellers. The whole scene, as I had seen it in 1838, struck me as exceedingly romantic; the little guard-house nestled in a wild gorge of the mountains, and overshaded by an old weather-beaten oak, upon which hung the arms of the guards, and beneath it seats arranged for the traveller, the rough mountain sides, the kioshk and the gibbet, gave an air of wildness and terror to the scene, which made it seem more like the haunt of brigands than the abode of these rude justices of the peace.

CHAPTER XXI.

Amasieh. Incident at a Mosque.-Medresseh.-Mosque of Bayazid.-Mussulman School. The Christians.--Population of the Oriental Christians.-Leave Amasieh.-Ladik.-Singular Sights.-How to act in Doubts. Interposition of Providence.-Last Stage.--Arrival at Samsoun.-Steamer.-Kindness of new Friends.—Constantinople.—Quarantine. Obligations to Dr. John Davy.-Narrow Escape.-The End.

WE left the guard-house at day-break, and after a short but hard day's journey over the mountains and through the valleys, reached Amasieh, a beautiful town on the banks of the Yeshil Irmak, (Green River,) which here rolls its tide between lofty crags, near whose summit, on the left side of the river, are apartments cut out of the solid rock, said to be the summer-houses of ancient princes; but I never surveyed them. My business now was to get to the post-house before the ague came on, in which happily I succeeded. The postmaster, unlike those of Tocat and Sivas, was most prodigal of his attentions, and endeavored to make me comfortable and contented. I will not stay to describe Amasieh, although I had formerly spent a day or two in the place, but will add here an incident which belongs more properly to my narrative. I was wandering about the town on the 25th of March, 1838, looking at the mosques and medressehs, which I found no difficulty in entering, when we came upon an old and decayed building which I supposed to be a mosque. Without were several turbehs, or tombs, which belong, it is said, to