| Transcript |
WITH, THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR. 31
descending with such loads. It is brought to a promontory near Moudania, called from
thence Booz Bournou, or " the Cape of Ice," whence it is embarked for the capital, and
in such abundance, that the poorest hummel cools his sherbet with it during the hottest
season of the year.
The illustration presents all the objects of interest peculiar to the place. In the
foreground is a caravan crossing an antique bridge, thrown over one of the snow-
dissolved currents which intersect the plain. On one side buffaloes are dragging the
ponderous arrhuba; on the other, they are grazing on the low pastures, or cooling
themselves in the water. The horse, in Turkey, is never degraded to a servile use:
the drudgery of labour is thrown upon the buffalo. It is a singular species of ox, of
immense strength, but of a structure so coarse and rude, that it seems " as if Nature's
journeymen had made it, and that not well." Its ponderous body, its clumsy limbs, its
flatted horns, and lustreless eyes, like dull glass, give it a singular appearance of obstinacy and stupidity; but it drags the greatest burdens, through places impassable to other
animals, with irresistible force. On the left is the city of Brusa, with its minarets,
domes, and regal tombs; and in the background are the rugged ridges of Olympus, with
its snows, forests, and precipices.
EMIR SULTAN, BRUSA.
ASIA MINOR.
When the conqueror of Constantinople recrossed into Asia, and was preparing to
attack his enemies, the sultan of Caramania, the shah of Persia, and the soldan of Egypt,
who had conspired against him, he was overtaken by death near Brusa, and was brought
to be buried, not in his new conquest in Europe, but in the ancient capital of his race. A
magnificent mosque was erected at Emir Sultan, and his body deposited in a mausoleum
beside it. This is represented in the back-ground of the illustration. The time is that
of the Ezzan, when the muezzin invites the people to pray, represented by the human
figures in the galleries of the minarets. When the prophet fled to Mecca, he did not
neglect the five periods of daily prayer: his followers wished that all the faithful
should offer up theirs to Allah at the same moment, and that it should be publicly
announced; but the manner of the announcement was a subject of controversy. Flags,
bells, trumpets, and fires, were already used by various sects, but they were all exceptionable : the first, as not comporting with the grave sanctity of devotion—the second,
as a Christian practice, and to be abhorred—the third, as a Jewish profanation—and the
last, as a symbol of idolatrous worship. In this indecision they separated; but during
the night one of the party had a vision of a celestial being, clothed in green, who
ascended to the top of the house, and called the people to prayer. This was communicated to the Prophet, who adopted the human voice as his signal. |
