DANCING AT THE AGA'S HOUSE.

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dancing of this country, which was being exhibited for the amusement and relaxation of his Excellency after the hours of business.

The

The Aga was seated on a divan smoking his pipe, regarding with satisfaction the evolutions of the dancers, who elicited occasional loud bursts of merriment from the delighted spectators. dancers were Greeks, two men, the one in his proper character, the other dressed up as a Turkish female. The man held in one hand a lighted candle, and accompanied the music with singing in a strong nasal twang, while the sham woman beat time with castanets, and moved in a circle round the man with those peculiar gestures not to be conceived by those who have not been in the east. The scene, I recollect, ended by the man and the pretended woman being seen sprawling together on the floor with the light puffed out, amid peals of laughter from the spectators. I took the opportunity to make my escape, fearful lest the Aga should have asked my opinion of his delightful way of spending his time.

Voluptuous dancers are the chief amusement of the Turkish women; they are generally females of the lowest class, and most depraved morals; but the richer of the Turkish ladies generally have

their own slaves professionally educated in these passion inspiring movements; and I do hear that this peculiar style of dancing, exhibited in the recesses of the harem by a group of fine Georgian and Circassian slaves, is very attractive.

The music is monotonous, but pleasing rather than otherwise; the airs mostly admired are Persian; they have no notes, but employ letters to indicate the different sounds and the time. The general instrument appears to be a sort of guitar, played with a quill or piece of wood.

July 24th. We are at present favoured with a large encampment of Turcomans in the plain to the west of the village, wandering tribes, who carry their tents and provisions on mules and horses; they encamp sometimes for months together on the same spot; the mules and horses tied together by long strings are left to browse the dry grass and shrubs, attended by hundreds of dogs. On approaching the encampment, the incessant barking of dogs, the braying of jackasses, and the crowing of cocks were distracting. The whole encampment was surrounded by an inclosure, which we walked round, earnestly watched by some wild figures in tattered shirts, with a piece of linen wound round their heads and matchlocks in their

hands. Their huts are arched, and formed of bent twigs, covered with tarpaulin or leaves, and earth and dry grass.

The presence of these wild people is a source of alarm and anxiety to all the neighbouring villages, from their thievish propensities. They made the round of the houses of Boujah with a pretended view of telling fortunes, but with the real design of making off with the moveables of the inhabitants, in which they succeeded to a great extent.

These Turcomans are a portion of the great Tartar tribe, and spring from the same stem as the Turks. Pastoral, like the Bedouin Arabs, they traverse immense tracts to procure subsistence for their numerous herds of camels, buffaloes, goats, and sheep. They breed horses and sell them, together with milk, butter, and meat to the different towns and villages, and take in return, arms, clothes and money. Their women spin wool and make carpets. Each camp is under a chief, whose power is regulated by custom and circumstance, and the abuse of it is restrained by public opinion. In the summer, they come northward, where they find pasturage in greater abundance, and pay so much a tent to the different governors for pasturing their cattle over the uninclosed, uncultivated districts. These tribes, which, like

VOL. I.

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the Bedouins, have led the same mode of life from time immemorial, are supposed to be alluded to in the 14th verse of the 27th chapter of Ezekiel.

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They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules."

CHAPTER XIII.

RUINS OF EPHESUS. A PIC NIC.-THE GROTTO OF HOMER. TURKISH HAREM. CARNIVAL COSTUMES. ASCENT OF VISIT TO SEDEKUY.-THE

MOUNT TAKHTALI. -FATIMA.

GARDENS OF SMYRNA.-EXCURSION TO NYMPHEU.-CARAVANS OF FIGS.

"Magnificentiæ vera admiratio exstat Templum Ephesiæ PLINY, LIB. XXXVI. 14.

Dianæ,"

JULY 26th. The ruins of Ephesus are two short days' journey from Smyrna.

Beyond the pretty village of Sedekuy, two hours distant from Boujah, the country is everywhere solitary and unpicturesque; the ground is covered with burnt up grass and thorny bushes, mostly dead at this season of the year.

One hour from Sedekuy is the village of Gumbarbashee, lying in the plain, consisting of a few wooden houses, surrounded by a few green trees, above which may be seen a tapering minaret;