Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/29

 get any soft Feather-beds or Pillows for them, or other Blandishments for Sleep; the Wine was instead of all: As for myself, I had some Flagons of choice Wine in my Chariot, so that I wanted none; thus I and my Family were provided for, as to Wine.

, there was one Inconvenience, which troubled us more than the Scarcity of Wine, and that was, our Sleep was miserably interrupted; for we being to rise betimes in the Morning, and sometimes before Day, that we might come the sooner to our Inns at Night; our Turkish Guides being deceived by the Light of the Moon, would sometimes call us up at, or about Midnight, with a great deal of Noise and Clamour. For the Turks have no Clocks to distinguish Hours, nor Miles to shew the Distance of Places: Only they have a sort of Ecclesiasticks, which they call Talismans; this sort of People use a kind of Admeasurement by Water, and when they perceive thereby, that 'tis Morning, then they cry aloud from an high Tower, built on purpose, exhorting them to arise and worship God. They make the same Noise in the middle between Sun-rise and Noon, and likewise, between Noon and Sun-set; and, last of all, when the Sun is set, they cry out with a very shrill Voice, which hath no unpleasant Modulation, and which is heard farther than any Body would think. Thus the Turks divide the Day into four Spaces, longer or shorter, according to the Season of the Year: But for the Night-time, they have no certain Rule at all.

our Turkish Guides being deceived by the exceeding Brightness of the Night they called us up before Sun-rising, and we started out of our Beds in great Haste, that so they might not impute any unlucky Accident, upon the Way, to