Constantinople: First impressions, Galata, walls, towers and bazaars

I joined the bezesteins, or in our opinion, the ranks. They are exactly the same as ours in Moscow, and are divided in exactly the same way, according to the type of goods sold in each one. They are covered, but wider and seem much richer. I believe that our ranks have definitely been strengthened since the time when we opened rich stores and shops separately, in different parts of the city, and sold the best goods. Consequently, the wealth of our shops was distributed throughout the city, but among the Turks everything is concentrated in the stores, and it is impossible to buy anything anywhere else. Another difference is that people travel to Constantinople on horseback, and even horses with packs walk through them; That’s why they are much wider sewn. These rows are especially interesting: with weapons of all kinds, shoe ones, and the one where they sell silk and brocade mats. You can always find a lot of Turkish women in these two. They sit, sometimes for a long time, near a familiar shop, and often the merchant tides them over with coffee and sorbets. It happened to me one day to buy women’s shoes, embroidered with gold and pearls, which I wanted to bring home as a gift from the east. At that time, two women were sitting at the bench: one old, the other young and very pretty; Behind them stood two slave girls. The old woman said that I buy shoes of different sizes, and asked through Jew, who was standing right there: who am I buying shoes for? I told her to tell her that I was eating their wives. “Yes, he’s a Christian,” she objected, “he can’t take many wives, but he buys shoes of different kinds.” Then I dared to ask: does her husband have many wives? - DvB, she said. - And the female slaves) - Seven. - “Ah. I, madam, have one wife, and I have hundreds of slaves.” She immediately fainted, spat and walked away; the young woman chuckled (). We are intoxicated by the terrible captivity of Turkish women, their constant imprisonment, the impossibility of accessing them, introducing them to them and even seeing them. Moms depict terrible dangers at the slightest attempt, and they come up, usually heard or seen, examples of severity and punishment. But in reality this is worth a lot of work in Constantinople; It is necessary to know how to tell, although for me, all the rows seemed curious: the armory and the bookshop! In the first of them, a hunter of rare weapons will find everything he can think of in this region and in the eastern taste. However, saber choirs are little by little, speak Turkish; Nowadays, getting to know women is always almost impossible. Turkish women in his condition walk everywhere freely. and one, I myself walked them on the streets, in barren shops, especially in shoe and silk rows: this is their favorite party! Whether from idleness, from incessant solitude, or from his deep love of women, but he was willing to look at Europeans, and a young, handsome man was not reluctant to draw their attention to himself. Even if you sit down on secluded walks along the river valleys, you will spend these harem hermits with black slaves, and the Turk’s glance will not frighten them, 10 often their veils will unfold, and you will see a pretty face, expressing to you an eager readiness to throw away all the prejudices of the East. The most difficult thing. in svilava, reduce ordinary surroundings and bring together familiarity. I was told by a long-lived zdfs, and our compatriot, experienced in such troubles, Mr. F....., to whom you can shave what the Gurychanka, burying you, wants, passing by, without even looking at you, say in a low voice: Is there revenge? (make sense for a date). 'Then, if you, also without looking at her, say: Yes, she will go for the moose and here they become rare and extremely expensive. A good messir, from the ancient Egyptian strip, is hard to find; old Damascus is also difficult. For such a strip they often pay up to three thousand shastras. New Damascus can be taken wherever you want. Nitols are dangerous in this case! These are usually poor tramps, Turks, who, without spending a penny, are looking for something to rip off: they try to inform their peers that a gyaur entered such and such a house with a Muslim woman. But it is very easy to take precautions against this, and in case of misfortune, almost all the danger falls on the woman. If she is caught, without any trial, she is thrown into the sea! Europeans can still, belonging to whichever family you belong to, be saved by the protection of the Envoy of their Sovereign. Greek, Armenian, and Jewish traders have donas for dating. You prepare such an apartment for yourself in advance, and when passing through one of the houses, it’s not unusual for anyone other than the beauty behind you to point to the back of the house: she will immediately enter; You walk, without looking back, past, and in a few minutes, along another road, enter another door and meet your new acquaintance. Often he stays with you until the next morning. This will seem surprising only to those who do not know the custom of the Guretskys. Here the husband, nly father, has no way of knowing whether it was his wife or daughter; When she left home, she said that she was going to see her relatives - Ts Zuroyatyao was spending the night with a man: it was very cheap to buy, but he was despised and worthless. Samarkandek Factories were famous, but they no longer exist. Now the best steel is Persian, and therefore nel sabers and daggers are preferred to all others. I saw guns and pistols there, richly decorated with stones, pearls and gold; but they are good only for amateurs’ offices, and are not suitable for wars or hunting.