Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/66

 there was a Calvinistic preacher instead of a regular parson. Attached to that church is a tolerably high tower, in which you go up 150 steps to the bell; but it is not allowed to be rung. There is also a striking clock on that tower, which was the first and last we saw in Turkey; for the Turks have no clocks at all, except small striking ones, which are sent them by Christian potentates, and they do not even know how to manage these. Some of them regulate themselves by the sun in the daytime, and by the moon at night; and more especially in the towns they have their talismans, or priests and chaplains, who divide the different parts of the day by certain measures of water, and who, knowing the hour from these, have to call out from time to time, with a loud voice, from high towers built of a circular shape close to the churches, and summon the people to divine service. They call or scream on the towers for the first time when day is about to dawn; next, instead of ringing bells, they summon the people to their churches in the middle of the space between sunrise and noon; thirdly, at noon; fourthly, at vespertime; and they call the people together for the last time at sunset, using for that purpose a loud voice with all their might and main, and stopping their own ears. Living in peace and leading an idle life, as they do at Constantinople, they are summoned to prayers seven times a day by talismans or priests, although none but courtiers, unoccupied persons, and persons of high rank, and also merchants, are in duty bound to attend them. Artizans are not obliged to pray more than five times a day, if they do not wish it. Whoever cannot pray in a church, prays, when he pleases, at home, at work in