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Willi illl IIES OF ASIA MINOR. 45
The next object that presents itself is the village of Hasskui, the favourite residence
of the Jews. It is computed, that there are 50,000 of these people living here, and in
other districts, in or near die capital They ha\e a cemetery in this place, of considerable
extent; and though the dead are assigned a residence on a healthful, breezy eminence, decor-
ateawith sculptured tombs and monuments of marble, inscribed with epitaphs in high relief,
the abodes of the living are even more wretched than in any other place. They inhabit
a valley shut out from the winds of the north by a high ridge of hills, and open to the sultry
heat of the south ; while the pestilential effluvia arising from the vegetable decomposition of
the marsh, the suffocating smoke of brick and tile kilns, and the metallic vapours of the
silver foundery, form the atmosphere they breathe. Their own habits are singularly-
dirty, and the streets are filled with putrid water stagnating into offensive pools, without any current of air to disperse the foul accumulation of gases in the atmosphere
They are a prey, therefore, to all the diseases resulting from such a combination of evils.
Their houses are small, low, damp, dark, and unventilated; yet they contain a crowded
population. The women living in such abodes are generally a deterioriated race. They
marry at an early age, and bring forth children, diminutive, pale, bloated, and rickety.
On every Saturday, their day of rest, they are seen swarming about the open doors, to
breathe, as it were, a pure air; and a passing stranger is astonished at so wretched a
population. The adult males are distinguished by dirty ragged garments. Small mean
hats, bound round with a coarse cross-bar cotton handkerchief; trousers which scarcely
reach to the leg, exposing stockings full of holes. The people here, like the Ephraimites,
seem doomed to a sibboleth—a pronunciation so imperfect, that they are scarcely
understood in any language they attempt to speak. They snatch with avidity at things
rejected by others as unfit to be used. Their soiled ragged clothes are the refuse of
other men's dress; and their food, whatever withered vegetables or stale meat are cast
away as improper for human consumption. They exercise all callings by which money
can be made, and make no exception to the vilest; but particularly delight in the sale of old
clothes, a propensity which seems to mark them in every country where they are scattered.
Such are the characteristics which distinguish this people in whatever district they are
established, forming a striking contrast with all about them, and evincing the indelible
impression of a peculiar nation. Above Hasakui is the village of Halish-oglon, inhabited
by Armenians; and while these robust, comely, healthy, and well-dressed people breathe
the pure air in fine spacious houses above, the miserable Jew is thrust down below,
grovelling in dirt, disease, and misery.
Near this is a mosque, distinguished by an extraordinary circumstance. The minarets attached to every other, are always seen of a pure white, and carefully kept so,
particularly those of Imperial edifices: but the minaret here is red, and displays the
only one so coloured, perhaps, in the Turkish empire. The reason assigned for it is
characteristic of a Turk. When Constantinople was beseiged by Bajazet, a despe
conflict took place in this valley, and the effusion of blood was so great from the slaughter of the Greeks, that it rose to the height of the minaret; and when it subsided,
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