Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/144

138 simply because the drivers stopped for some rest in a coffee-house on the route, and the policy of "yavash, yavash," detained them for several hours; and when they reach the city in the afternoon, say three or four o'clock, the officials put the mail bags away for the next morning and the anxious waiters (mostly merchants) are sent back because the postmaster declares "ajeleh yock; yavash, yavash" (there is no hurry; slowly, slowly). The writer once received mail four days after its arrival in the city. Registered letters are delivered later than the others as a rule.

On the ordinary business days the members of the Turkish court come late and irregular. The ice cream sellers are always ready at the hall of the court in hot weather and the coffee pot is there in the winter. The shoemaker comes at the office hour to get the measure of the cadi's foot; the tailor comes to fit the coat of the chief clerk. Soon a dervish enters the courtyard and begins his work of singing, as "Padishah does not lodge in a palace unless it is well finished; no man can reach to the truth unless he is far from the world." Before he has finished his verses a mob may rush in dragging a Jew or a Christian who is accused of having cursed a mollah's turban or Mohamet's tomb, which may cause such an uproar as to consume the whole day and cost much money to the falsely accused giaour.

Fridays and Sundays, the two weekly holidays, are the best pretexts to put the engagements off. If Ramazan (the fasting month) is near you can not