Page:Collection of notable things worth knowing.pdf/11

11 others names, when they meet them with faces uncovered. When I go out I have the ambassador’s sedan chair, which is like mine in London, only gilt and varnished like a French eoachcoarch [sic], and six Turks carry it, as they fancy it impossible that two or four men can carry one; two Janissaries walk before, with high fur caps on. The Ambassadors here have all Janissaries as guards allowed them by the Porte. It is well, I have but a little way to go in this pomp, fearing every moment the Turks should fling me down, they are so awkward; for the platform, where people land and embark from and to Pera, is not far from this house.

I saw a Turk the other day lying on cushions, striking slowly an iron which he was into a horse-shoe, his pipe in his mouth all the time—nay, among the higher orders of Turks there is an invention which saves them the trouble of holding the pipe—two small wheels are fixed on each side of the bowl of the pipe, and thus the smoker has only to puff away, or let the pipe rest on his upper lip, while he moves his head as he pleases. Perhaps, it is lucky for Europe that the Turks are idle and ignorant—the immense power this empire might have, were it peopled by the industrious and ambitious, would make it mistress of the world. At present it only serves as a dead wall, to intercept the commerce and battles which other powers might create with another.

The Turks in their conduct towards our sex are an example to all other nations; a Turk has