Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/325

Rh of the castle, and a long string of uncouth-looking Albanians and Bashi Bozooks, shambling along with that peculiar inimitable swagger which belongs to the cavass from Asia Minor. They all went to the mosque, and after an interval of prayer, returned to the Pasha's kiosk; the next part of the ceremony was the sacrifice of a number of sheep, which are always distributed on this day to the poor: they were brought to the door of the kiosk; holes were dug in regular Homeric fashion to receive the blood, and their throats were cut in a very workmanlike manner. It is customary for the Pasha either to perform this operation with his own hand or to delegate it to his representative, who is solemnly appointed for this purpose before the Cadi. I went home from this ceremony full of Mussulman associations. About the middle of the day I was invited with the other vice-consuls to attend the funeral of a rich Greek who had died that morning, and had bequeathed one-third of his property to found an hospital for the Mytileniotes. The bequest is supposed to amount to 200,000 piasters, a large sum in Mytilene. Such acts of patriotism, if they should become more frequent, would do much to redeem the Greek character, and raise it to a higher estimation. A bequest of this nature could hardly have been made before the Tanzimat was established; a Greek would not have been allowed either to accumulate so large a sum, or to dispose of it after his death as he liked, at least not in Mytilene.

When I arrived at the funeral, I found all