Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/128

 they will be first in favour with Mahomet, and able to obtain an easy access to him for other Turks.

The common Turks have also a very large number of superstitions, and, amongst other things, we observed that, when a Turk saw a piece of paper on the ground, he immediately took it up with reverence, and thrust it into a crevice, just as with us, when a piece of bread lies on the ground, many people kiss it and place it on one side that it may not be trodden upon. When we asked the reason of this honour paid to the paper, our janissaries told us that it was because the name of God was written upon it; and they firmly believe that at the last judgment, when Mahomet summons the Mussulmans, his followers, to heaven out of the places where they are enduring punishments for the sins they have committed here, in order to make them partakers of eternal felicity, it is impossible to get to him by any other way but over a large red-hot iron grating, over which each must go with bare feet. Here, it is said, a great miracle will take place; for every piece of paper which has thus been preserved by their instrumentality will suddenly betake itself thither, spread itself under their feet, and prevent them from feeling any harm or pain from the heated iron. The janissaries, therefore, considered it most wicked in us when they saw how the whole suite used paper for the most odious and contemptible want, and begged us to beware of doing so. Neither do the Turks permit even a rose to lie on the ground, because, as formerly the ancient pagans said that the rose came into existence through Venus, so these superstitious people have allowed themselves to be persuaded and believe that the rose grew