Gloomy and uninviting
The avenue of the money-changers is gloomy and uninviting, save to those that can really feel a pleasure in listening to the ring of the dear metals, which matches on hour after hour, because the solemn-looking bankers go heaps of coin, or bars of unwrought gold, from scale to scale, to check their weight and high quality. This department of commerce, additionally, is nearly entirety monopolised by Armenians, lots of the principal males of that nation resident at Constantinople being sarafs, or bankers to the completely different Pashas, and noteworthy for his or her excessive precept and honesty. There are few Turkish money-changers,—because the Osmanlis will not be naturally speculative of their industrial undertakings, and like a much less unsure and anxious occupation,—and nonetheless fewer Greeks ; I imagine, merely from the issue they discover in acquiring shoppers. The nice mass of Constantino- politan bankers are, consequently, Armenians and Jews, and lots of the latter are extremely respectable and reliable; the pursuits of their employers being additional ensured from the identified extent of their wealth, and the fixed vigilance which is exercised by the Turkish authorities over that degraded and oppressed individuals.
Parts of the. Tcharchi
One of the attention-grabbing parts of the. Tcharchi, is that generally known as the Armoury Bazar, the place, in 5 minutes, an individual might, just like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, be—Okay Armed from high to toe,”— within the garb and with the weapons of virtually each interval and nation. The partitions on both aspect are lined with items of armour;—vintage shields, from that of the. paladin to the extra fashionable buckler of the crescent; horse-gear, embossed and studded with shining metals; warlike ornaments, so ponderous that they may, apparently, solely have been wrought for giants; helmets of all varieties and sizes, a lot of them surmounted with units which recall one of the best days of chivalry ; spears, as gentle as fairy-wands, and virtually as glittering; fits of mail, dimmed by the rust of centuries; the English musket, the American rifle, and the Indian bow, hold aspect by aspect; whereas Damascus swords, Egyptian scymitars, and Turkish handjars, arc heaped collectively in picturesque confusion. Leopard skins, saddle-worn and venerable, are there additionally ; and resting towards them maj’ incessantly be seen the heavy match-lock, crusted with embossed silver in these lovely arabesques peculiar to the East.
Travelling 