Volume 2 — PART. I. (continued 2)

By the way we met with a great deal of rain, which commonly begins at that time of the year, and continueth almost all the winter long; this kept us so much back, that we reached not to Damant, which is in the mid-way from Tripolis to Aleppo, before the fourth day. There we lodged in one of their great Champs, call’d Carvatscharas, where we had a chamber assign’d us, in which we found neither table nor chairs, nor bench, nor bed, only upon the floor was laid a Stromatzo, twisted of canes, which was to serve us instead of them all. There we bought in their Batzar some victuals according to our pleasure, and staid there all night long. The town, which some take to be the old Apamia, is pretty big, and pretty well built; it lies in a valley between hills, so that you can see nothing of it, the castle only excepted, which lieth on the hill, and guardeth it very well, before you are just come to it. Round about it there are many orchards and kitchen-gardens, which they water out of the river Hasce, which is pretty large, and runs thro’ the town. The water they lift up with wheels, fix’d in the river for that purpose, that pour it into channels that carry it into the gardens, and so water them in the great heat of the sun, to refresh them. These gardens had been worth my seeing, but my fellow-travellers were in haste, and so we put on the next morning for Aleppo.

By the way we saw very good corn-fields, vineyards, and fields planted with cotton, which is brought from thence, and sold to us under the name of the place where it grew, and also silks and other goods that are bought there at the first hand. In these countries are a great many wild asses, call’d Onagri, the skins of them are very strong to wear, and as they prepare them, finely frock’d on the outside as strawberries are, or like the skin of the Sepia, or cuttle-fish, wherefore they commonly make their scabbards for their scymiters, and sheaths of their knives thereof. Their blades are water’d on both sides very subtilly; they are made of good metal, well harden’d, and so sharp, chiefly those that are made in Damascus, that you may cut with them a very strong nail in pieces, without any hurt to the blade. They wear rather knives than daggers, which they tie to their girdles with finely wrought tapes, by their backs.

When we went on and came to the promontory of mount Libanus, we saw abundance of villages by the way, which for the most part are inhabited by Christians, viz. Syrians, Maronites, &c. with whom we did lodge sometimes over-night; these entertain’d us very civilly, and gave us such wine to drink as grew on the mountains, than which I hardly remember I ever drank better. Amongst the rest of the villages we came to one call’d Hanal, lying high in a fruitful country, where, as I am inform’d, in former days a very fine city stood, which is so desolated, and in process of time decay’d to that degree, that in our days there is almost nothing left of it but a small village, and here and there in the fields some small ruins of old houses.

We went on farther between the mountains, where we spy’d a little town upon the hills, and above it a strong castle, which it is said the French did formerly build, that lieth in a very convenient place between the mountains, so that you must go just by it; but because it is haunted with evil spirits and hobgobblins, it remaineth unrepair’d and uninhabited. We left it on our left hand, and came out into a spacious corn-field well till’d, where on our left we saw the town Sermin at a great distance, and near to it and about it, great woods of Pistacio-trees, which are gathered there, and sent to Tripolis, and so by the merchants to us: Some of them grow also near the high-ways, chiefly in the village of Basilo, where we stay’d all night.

In our way we found nine or ten Champs, call’d Caravatscharas: these are open inns, where the caravans and travellers go in, commonly towards evening, to stay there all night; they are free to any body, but you find neither meat nor drink there, if you will have it you must bring it along with you, and must be contented to lie upon straw, if you can have it, upon the lower wall, which goes round about the sides, on purpose to give to horses, asses, and camels their food upon it. They are generally three miles distant from one another; they are large and stately, and as strong in walls as castles, commonly built four-square, and have within a large yard, and round about it are stables which are quite open, just like cloisters. Some of them have a garrison of nine or twelve Janisaries, to keep the roads clean, and to protect the travellers from assaults of the inhabitants and Arabians.

When we had travell’d over several rough mountains, and came almost near to Halepo, we saw at last the city just like Damand, of the bigness of Strasbourg; at the gates we dismounted, because in Turky no outlandish man hath liberty to ride thro’ a city, and so we went into it, and I went into the French Fundique to take my lodgings, as all Germans use to do.

CHAP. VI.

Of the situation of the potent city of Halepo, of the buildings thereof, and also of the delicate fruits, and fine plants that grow there within and without the gardens.

The town of Halepo, which is the greatest and most potent in Syria, anciently call’d Nerea, is in some places well fortify’d with ditches and walls, only they are not quite round it, so that one may (the same it is with Tripolis) at any time of night go in and out; neither are the gates, as used in our country, chiefly in cities of account, beset with soldiers, but you will only see two or three waiting at the head-gates, where the highways go through, which are rather there to take custom, than to keep the gates, neither have they any arms. But in the middle of the city there is a castle on a high hill, which is strong, large, surrounded with walls and ditches, and well beset with a good guard. Concerning their other buildings, which are flat at the top, and cover’d with a sort of pavement, that one may walk on the tops of them, they are like unto them of Tripolis. Amongst the rest there is a very magnificent building, which they say hath cost a great deal of money, which hath for it’s entrance a very low and small door, so that one must bend himself very low that will go into it, but when you come in, you find there delicate large halls, high open arches, very pleasant and cool to sit underneath in the summer, water-works, orchards, and kitchen-gardens, where among the rest was one of these Ketmy’s: Besides these there was also some fine Mosques with steeples, which were round and small, but very high; some of them had a balcony at the top, like unto a garland, whereupon the waits are, and their priests go about at the time of prayers, to call people in. But for other stately buildings, that might be erected for the memory of some potent King or Prince, there is none.

Without the city they have here and there some country-houses; among the rest one built for the Turkish Emperor, at four miles distance from the city, where he used to be sometimes, chiefly when he is at war with the Sophy, King of Persia, that he may presently assist his army in case of necessity; this is very large, but not built so stately as so great a monarch deserveth. In the great garden is a chapel built by the river that runs through it upon pillars, where the Great Sultan used to hold conferences with his Privy-counsellors and Visier-bashaws. It happen’d in the reign of Solyman the Great, as the gardiner did relate to us, that when they were assembled, to consult whether it was more profitable to him to suffer the Jews in his provinces, or to root them quite out; after every one had given his opinion, and most of them were of the opinion, that they ought not to be tolerated, because of their unsufferable usury wherewith they oppressed his subjects; and after the Emperor had heard every ones sentiment, he gave them also to understand his, and that in this instance, viz. He bad them look upon a flower-pot, that held a quantity of fine flowers of divers colours, that was then in the room, and bid them consider whether each of them in their colour, did not set out the other the better; and that if any of them should decay, or be taken away, whether it would not somewhat spoil the beauty of the rest. After every one had heard the Sultan’s opinion, and did allow of it to be true; the Emperor did begin to explain this, and said, The more sorts of nations I have in my dominions under me, as Turks, Moors, Grecians, &c. the greater authority they bring to my kingdoms, and make them more famous. And that nothing may fall off from my greatness, I think it convenient, that all that have been together so long hitherto, may be kept and tolerated so still for the future; which pleased his council so well, that they all unanimously agreed to it, and so let it remain as it was.

Without the city of Halepo are abundance of quarries, where they dig great free-stones of a vast bigness, almost as white and soft as chalk, very proper for building: There are also about the town some walks or grotto’s under ground, which are above an English mile long, which have the light let into them by holes made near the highway, so that a man must be very careful (chiefly at night) that he may not fall into them, or that he may not be trapann’d by the Moors that live in them in great numbers. The ground about it being very chalky, it causeth to the soles of our feet, chiefly at night, although one be very well provided with strong shoes, a very considerable driness and heat, as one may also see by the Moors, that, for the most part go bare-foot, which causeth the soles of their feet to be so shrifled, that into some of their crevises you may almost put your little finger. Yet notwithstanding that, Halepo is surrounded with rocky hills, and the valleys thereof are chalky; they have no want of corn, as barley, wheat, &c. but rather it is very fruitful, and their harvest beginning commonly in April or May: But they have but few oats, and less grass or hay; for the driness is so great, and it is so sandy, and the hills are so rough and full of bushes, that they make but very little hay. Wherefore they feed their cattel with barley, and with straw, which is broken in pieces by threshing waggons, that are drawn by oxen. The valley is also full of Olive-trees, so that yearly they make several thousand hundred weight of oil for to make Soap. There is also a great quantity of tame and wild Almond-trees, of Figgs, of Quince, and white Mulberry-trees, which are very high and big: Pistacies-trees, which they call Fistuc, are hereabout very common; they have underneath very strong stems, which have outwardly an ashen-colour’d bark, and are adorned with handsome leaves of a sad green colour, like unto their Charnubis, and behind them grow many small Nuts like Grapes in clusters together. In the spring when they first put out, they send forth long shoots, which the Moors gather in great quantity for their sallad, and dress them as we do Asparagus. There are also abundance of delicate orchards, that are filled with Oranges, Citrons, Lemons, Adam’s-Apples, Sebesten, Peaches, Morelloes, and Pomegranates, &c. and amongst them you find sometimes Apples and Pears, but very few, nor so many sorts, nor so big, nor so well coloured as ours. There grow many Myrtles, which bear roundish berries of the bigness of our Sorbus or Services, of a blewish grey colour, very good to eat, which have white seeds of the shape of our jumping cheese-magots; they propagate them diligently, because they are beautiful, and remain long green, to put about their graves. Moreover there are many Sumach-trees, which they plant for their seeds sake, which is much used by them; but Cherries, Amelanchier and Spenleny I have not seen there, and very few Goosberries, or Currans; Weychseln they have, but very few, wherefore they esteem them, and keep them choice, as a foreign plant, to shew them to others, and to present great persons with them; this may suffice of trees.

Concerning their garden plants: those that are common, are Endives, Lettice, Keal or Coleworts, Colliflowers, Cauloropa, Rauckelen, Apium, Tarcon, whereof Rhasis describeth two sorts, one with long small leaves, by us call’d Taragon, and the other with broad leaves, which I reckon to be our Lepidium, by the inhabitants call’d Cozirihan. Ravos Serap; or our common Hartichokes. But beyond all they plant Colocasia in such plenty as we do Turneps, whereof they have also great plenty. They are also very well provided with Horseraddishes, Garlick, and Onions, which the inhabitants still call Bassal. Of Pumpions, Citruls, and Cucumis anguinus, which they call Gette, they plant as many as they have occasion for; but many more Angurien an Indian Muskmillion, or Water-mellons, which they call Batiechas, but Serap. Dullaha, they are large, of greenish colour, sweet and pleasent to eat, and very cooling, wherefore they esteem them to be their best fruits; but chiefly those, which have more red than white within; they are very innocent and harmless, and keep so long good, that they sell them in their Batzars all the winter long. Moreover, there are three sorts of those plants which the Arabians call Melanzana, Melongena, and Beudengian, as ash-coulour’d, yellow, and flesh-colour’d, which are very like one another in their crookedness and length, and like unto the long Gourds. There are two other sorts, which are call’d Bathleschain, viz. oblong and round ones, which are much bigger, of a black colour, and so smooth and glaz’d that they give a reflection. They eat these oftener boil’d (chiefly after the way which Averrhoës mention’d) than raw. Without their gardens are two other strange plants, which also (being they eat them commonly with others) may be reckon’d among the Kitchin-herbs; whereof one is call’d by them Secacul, which I found about the town in shady places, and among trees, and in the corn; it’s roots are of an ashen colour without, and white within, smooth, mellow or tender, of one inch thick, and one and a half long; it hath instead of fibres, little knobs like unto warts, and a sweet taste, not unlike to our Carrots in stalk, herb or head, saving only the flowers, which are yellow; the herb-women carry them strung upon strings about the streets to sell them. The other sort is also very plentiful, and is found in dry and rough places, which the inhabitants to this day, with Serapio, call Hacub, whereof he maketh mention in his 295th chapter, under the name of Hacub Alcardeg, whereof they cut in the spring the young shoots or sprouts, that grow round about it, boil and eat it as we do Asparagus, corruptly call’d Sparrowgrass; the whole plant is very like to our Carlina, only this hath bigger, higher and more prickly heads, whereon appear flesh-coulour’d flowers. It being that it is every way like it, and that also the root hath the same virtue, for if you steep it in water, and drink of it, it maketh you vomit and fling up; therefore I am of opinion, that without doubt it must be the true Silybum Dioscorides; besides this there grow also in the road and on old walls such plenty of Capers, that they are not at all esteem’d; they take these flowers before they open, and pickle them, and eat them for sauce with their meat. I had almost forgot another herb, which I found in their gardens, that beareth roundish smooth stalks about two foot high; the leaves are two and two equally distant from one another, and one above the other; they are long, crenated at the sides, like unto our Mercurialis; between them sprout out in harvest-time yellow flowers, which produce long aculeated cods, which open themselves when they are ripe; within them are six distinctions, and in each of them a little black seed placed in very good order; the herb is of a sower taste, like Sorrel, wherefore it is to every body, chiefly the Jews, known, who boil the leaves thereof with their meat to eat them; wherefore some take it to be Olus Judaicum Avicennæ, and others take it for Corchorum Plinii, whether it be or no I suspend my judgment.

They have abundance of Pulses in these countries, which they feed upon, so that you see several in their Batzars which sell nothing else but them. Among the rest you will find abundance of Phaseoli, or Kidney-beans, little and great ones, very white; and many sorts of Cicer, which they call Cotane, and, with Avicenna, Hamos. Whereof they have as many as we have Pease in our country, and boil them for their daily food, and oftentimes they eat them raw, chiefly if they be roasted, till the outward shell falls off; they often call for them thus dressed when they are a drinking in their coffee-houses, and have them brought to table with cheese after their meals instead of preserves or fruit, as Cibebs, Hasel-nuts, and the like, for they eat very mellow, and have a fine saltish taste. They dress the Orobus after the same manner, which they call now Ades and Hades, but whether right or no I leave to the learned; they are somewhat less and rounder, and not unlike the Cicers in their colour, only that these are reddish and white, and the other white and yellow. These put me still in mind of another strange plant, by the Arabians call’d Mas, whose leaves and cods are pretty like our Phaseolus, and the cods contain little round seeds, something less than our pease, of a dark green colour, and are so smooth and shining that they reflect again. Serapio maketh mention of them in his 116th chap. under the name of Mes. And Avicenna in his 488th chapter under the name Meisce; and the very learned and experienced Botanist, Carolus Clusius, calleth it, in his Epitome of the Indian plants, by the name of Mungo. The Turks love these Pulses very well, chiefly to eat them among their rice. So much I thought convenient to mention here of their Kitchen-herbs and fruits that grow in gardens and about Aleppo; of others that belong not to the kitchen I shall make mention hereafter.

In this city of Aleppo the Merchants buy great store of drugs, brought from several parts by the caravans, as Rheubarb, Galbanum, Opoponax, Styrax, Laser, Sagapenum, Scammony, &c.

CHAP. VII.

Of the high places and authority of Bashaws, what great courts they keep, and how they administer their offices; as also of their way of living, of their privileges, of their manners and conversation.

The city of Aleppo, which some, considering the name and situation, believe to be the town Chalibon of Ptolomæus situated in Chalibonitis, is subject unto the Turkish Emperor, together with all the adjacent places, wherefore he keepeth a Bashaw in it, which is to rule it, and the whole province according to his will and pleasure. Now as the Bashaws are almost the chiefest and heighest under the Emperor, so they keep according to their station and dignity their courts as great as the Princes do in our country, according as they have great or small provinces. So they have under them their chief commanders, as Sangiacks, Bolucs-bashaws and others, which are continually with them, go with them to their temples, or any other place where-ever they have a mind to go in great numbers, both on foot and on horse-back, which by their several habits are to be distinguish’d, but chiefly the Bolusc-bashaws, who as captains have an hundred Janisaries under them, which in costly cloaths, and high heads with feathers, run on foot like lackies by their master. They have also besides their court, as well as the Emperor himself, peculiar lodgings for their concubines, which they either have pick’d up here and there out of towns and countries, or else taken in time of war by sea and land from Christians and other nations; wherefore they keep many eunuchs to attend them constantly. They take great delight in hunting, and go often several days journeys after it; if they take wild boars, they give them to Christians, because they are by their laws forbid to eat them, which makes the Turks, often to mock them in the streets, crying out and calling them Chansir quibir, that is, great Boars or Hog-eaters. Although the Bashaws are great persons, that command over cities and countries, yet they are reckon’d to be like others, but slaves to their master, that have nothing of their own that they can bequeath to their heirs or posterity after their decease, as our Princes can; because the Emperor, after their decease, taketh possession of all their visible estates, and allows only to their children an annuity; nay, if their Sultan commands them to go from one place to an inferior one, or to leave their dignity quite and clean, they must obey immediately, if they will not run themselves into greater inconveniences or dangers. This is the reason that such persons, though rich, seldom build great buildings, so that you see none in all the country, except it be a chapel, or a champ, which they build to be remember’d by. They rather keep their riches in gold and silver, which can be hid, and so secretly given to their posterity. They bestow but very little upon jacks, for they are too covetous, neither have they many workmen that are able to set them. These Bashaws being altogether for their own advantage, that strive to get wealth, their subjects must needs suffer very much under them, but chiefly strangers, that live there to traffick, as Italians, French, &c. whereby between them and the Bashaws, that mind their own and not the public good, arise often great differences, and they must have suffer’d great damage, if their sovereigns, to prevent these things, and that their subjects may deal securely, had not taken care to send them discreet and prudent men, which are call’d Consuls, endew’d with great privileges from the Grand Signior, to hear their complaints, and to protect them against any assaulters. It happen’d in my time, while I staid there, that great differences arose between the Consul of Venice and the new Bashaw who was sent thither instead of the deceased one, in the year 1575, the 6th of March, who came in to take possession with a great number of horse and foot. At his arrival, the Consul of Venice went, accompany’d with a great number of merchants in great state, to meet him, to bid him welcome, and presented him with fourteen cloaths richly wrought of silk, desiring him to take his countrymen into protection; that they might trade and deal safely under him. The Bashaw looking upon the cloaths, behaved himself very unkindly, and thinking them to be very inconsiderable, he not only refused them, but answer’d the Consul very scornfully. So it often happens that these great persons come to differ, and pursue their differences so far, that at last it must be brought before the Emperor and his court. If they find that the Bashaw is in the wrong, he is immediately punish’d, not regarding his great authority, according to the default, either in money, or else, if it be a great crime, he must loose his life for it; which is the oftner done, because they depend very much upon traffick, which bringeth the Emperor in yearly a great revenue. Yet notwithstanding they are punish’d so severely, sometimes the pride and ambition of the Bashaws is so great, that to uphold their greatness they will not cease to strive by any means after riches and very great wealth, which their subjects, not to speak of strangers, find daily, whom they squeeze and press, chiefly if they find them rich, to that degree, that they cannot come to any thing, nor thrive under them; moreover they draw, after the decease of their rich subjects, for the most part the greatest share of what they leave, into their own purses; so that such persons do not take pains, nor bestow any great cost to build their houses, or to till their grounds, as we do in our country. They have commonly in market-towns and villages low houses or halls, whereof many are so cover’d with hills, that you cannot see them before you are quite at them. When you come into them, you find neither chairs, nor stools, nor tables, only a couple of pieces of tapestry spread, whereon they sit after their fashion; and instead of feather-beds, whereof they make no use at all, they have mats and quilts, which they fold together in the day, and hang them up in a corner, at night they spread them out again to sleep on them. They have no occasion for sheets to cover themselves as we do, nor for any towels neither, for instead of them they use long pieces of rags, which they hang about their naked necks, or hang them at their girdles. We see sometimes in their houses, above all in the country, several strange shaped earthen vessells, which cover whole sides of the wall in their rooms, which their relations use to present them with at their wedding, which to please them, they use to put up, and to keep there, rather for their remembrance than to make any other use of them. In their kitchen they have very few utensils, perhaps a few pipkins, pans, and trenchers, for they boil all their victuals in one pot together, that their maids may not have many to cleanse, or to put up.

Concerning their cloaths: They bestow not very much upon them, although they be well to pass, for they love money so well, that they will rather spend a whole day in contending for a penny, than pay it willingly. Wherefore a man that will travel through these countries, must have his purse well stored, and keep it very close, that no body may know it’s worth, but chiefly he must have a care of the Jews, who are not to be trusted, if you will escape great danger: They will not only do nothing for you without reward, but if they suspect you to have any money, they will endeavour to get it from you. Wherefore those that take a pilgrimage into the Holy Land, and go in pitiful cloaths, are not much troubled by them. The courtiers of the Bashaws, and amongst the rest chiefly the eunuchs and dwarfs, &c. whereof they have several, go in their taffety and sattin cloaths, which are long, and very well trimmed, wherewith their master furnisheth them, being gifts from others, which he distributeth among them. The Soldiers, Spahees, Janisaries, &c., commonly have blew woollen cloaths from the court, and they live on their pay, that is, four, five, six, seven, or eight Medins, (which are about three farthings apiece) more or less (according as their places are) which are paid them daily, as well in peace as in war time: If they can get any thing else, by excursions and fighting from their enemies, it is well for them. The Soldiers commonly wear white turbants on their heads, and so do all Turks, and put painted paper underneath them, chiefly when they go into the war, believing if they wear them they cannot be hurt nor wounded. On their turbants they commonly wear cranes feathers, that others may believe them to be valiant soldiers, and that by their number people may guess that either they have been in so many campaigns, or else killed so many Christians. Besides these turbants the Janisaries have also hats with high crowns, called Zarcellus, made of white felt, which they wear instead of helmets, when they are in waiting, or go out to the war; these have before, on the forehead, a gilded sheath, set without with granats, rubies, Turkey-stones, and other jewels, yet of no great value, wherein they put their feathers. They and also other Turks and Moors let no hair grow upon their heads, but as soon as it grows they shave it again, only behind they keep a lock, which hangs down a pretty way; they let their beards grow now, which they used formerly to cut off, so that now for some years they have worn huge great mustachies. In war time they carry musquets, and in peace, chiefly when they are in waiting, their long poles. They are also allow’d to marry, and besides their wives, to keep any they take prisoners in war, or else to sell them to any body. When they are at home they are lovers of wine, and when they can come at it, that no body sees them, they will drink more without mixture than any other nation; but in time of war, when they are in expedition, they can live very sparingly, and will march all day long before they will refresh themselves. Yet to speak the truth, these and almost all Soldiers, because they are as well paid in peace as in war, are no more so ready to take the field, and to change a quiet life for a troublesome one, or a secure one for a dangerous, as they have been in former ages, being used to laziness for a great while together. Besides the power and strength of the Turks is reckon’d much inferior to that of the Christians, for we are better arm’d with muskets and pikes, to keep them off at a distance, that they may not be able to come in with us to club-law, and so over-power us; for if their enemy doth not give way at their first on-set, they turn their backs and run away. But that notwithstanding all this, we gain nothing from the Turks, but they rather from us; the reason is, not to mention our manifold transgressions, rather our great divisions and contentions, which hinders us from going out with such an army as is necessary, and we might otherwise do. Wherefore the Turks come out the bolder, to frighten and to plague us, and make use of all sorts of stratagems to amuse us, or to draw us into an ambush by pursuing them, and when they think we are almost tired, they fall upon us with a multitude of fresh men, to surround and to beat us. Nor do they value it, if they loose one regiment or another, because there is enough of them, and they know how to have in the room of the slain others again, that will be very glad to accept of it, because of their pay that they receive daily of their Prince out of his provinces. It being then so that he doth not only maintain his own provinces, but rather gains others, and enlarges his dominions daily, we ought to be very careful; for the more he increaseth the more we are in danger. Thus he taketh one town, country, or kingdom after another with his sword, as we have seen hitherto in Europe, not to mention any thing of Asia, not without great detriment and damage to all Christians. So he cometh daily the longer the nearer to us, that at length we must expect no better than Greece, Thracia, Servia, Bosnia, Hungary, and Wallachia, &c. which are brought into slavery, under which some persons of quality still groan to this day. So I found at Aleppo an ancient Queen of Wallachia with her sons, whereof the youngest was born after the King his father’s death, who is maintain’d by a very small allowance from the Turkish Emperor. She is a very discreet woman, and well skill’d in the Turkish and Arabian languages. Her subjects still hope for her, that God Almighty will restore her to them again, that so their slavery may have an end.

After the Turks have obtained a great victory, they lift up their hands, thank and praise God, and the prophet Mahomet, God Almighty’s dearly beloved messenger; and pray farther, that God may send differences and quarrels among us (that are against the book Jugilis, as they call it, that is the book of the Gospel) that the magistrates may quarrel with the subjects, and the Clergy with the Seculars, that from thence may arise such disorders, that we may go on to transgress the laws of God still more and more; that our belief in Messias may be extinguished, and that all good orders and policies may be dissolved: So that God may take from thence occasion to make them farther our punishers to afflict us. And when they see that the rich men oppress the poor, that the magistrates do not protect the just and innocent, but that the chief and heads do strive to ruin one another, then they rejoice at our misfortune and misery, and do not fear us in the least to do them any mischief (which might easily be done if we were unanimous) but rather threaten what mischief they will do us.

When the Turks have taken a strong town, or a whole country by the sword, that they may keep them the easier in subjection without a great garrison, pains, or danger, they demolish the places that are not very strong, and send away the nobility and chief persons, which otherwise might do them a great deal of mischief; and in the room of these they bring in Sangiacks, with their souldiers, to keep the strong places, and to take care of the Emperor’s revenue. So that in these places there is no nobility, that come from any ancient races, and have their own estates hereditary and descending from heir to heir: Which one may also suppose when he considereth that the law of Mahomet alloweth to those that adhere to it, to have four wives at a time, besides concubines or slaves as many as they please: I will say nothing of the liberty they have to divorce them upon any small occasion, and to take others in their room; from whence flow such disorders and uncertainties, that very few children know who are their parents, and so there is but little love shewn between them as one may easily suppose. And this is no disgrace to them, but rather reputed to be an honour, because they conclude from thence that those that keep many wives, behave themselves diligently according to their laws: Wherefore they sooner trust them, prefer them before others, in places and salaries, and esteem them to be true Tschelebiis, that is, noblemen. Although these and other Turks have several wives, that are not all equal in their birth and extraction, yet they all have in family affairs their equal share and power, and they all are equally provided for with meat, drink, cloaths, &c. and they have also their work and business equally among them: And that because they bring their husband no portion, but he must rather buy them from their Parents, sometimes for a considerable sum of ready money, and give them cloaths and other necessaries to boot: wherefore the matrimonial tye (which they call Chebia) is more in the power of the husband than the wife, so that he may marry one three times and reject her again; but farther he must not go, except he will be accounted a scandalous base fellow: As you may perceive by the words of the Turkish Emperour Bajazet, which he did send to Temyry, who is also called Tamerlane, saying, that he had better to take a wife again after he was three times divorced from her, than to go to war with him; which scornful language he might well have forborn; for Tamerlane did not only beat him in a cruel and bloody battle, but took him prisoner, and carried him about in an iron cage like a wild beast of the forest.

But that I may return from whence I digressed, the marriages of the Turks are never look’d upon to be ratified before they are married by one of their priests. Their wives must agree together, and live peaceably and amicably, and must not resist their husbands, except he maketh inequality among them: If any should appear (which happens very often) they do not forbear to complain of their husband to the Cadi or Judge. So that daily very strange transactions (which are not strange to him) come before him: If so be that the husband is convicted, and the wife absolved, they are divorced immediately in the same hour.

The Turkish women are pretty handsom, and well shaped, very civil in their discourses, and other behaviour. When any of them is married, and carried to her bridegroom’s house, their relations go along with her, that are invited to the wedding, and begin to make a noise immediately in the streets, and extol their voices more and more as they go along, that you may hear them a great way off.

The Turks that are of some condition, and rich and able men, have at their weddings several diverting shews; in the day-time they have dancing, running, actings, singing, jumping, and leaping, and dancing on the ropes, &c. After sun-set, and at night, they let off rockets, and fire-works of several sorts, made artificially. These are let off in publick and open places, that every one may see them, and they last often till break of day. The rope-dancers have three ropes one above the other, whereof the uppermost is the longest; upon every one of them they have their peculiar lessons, which they perform exactly and dexterously, with dancing, jumping, running, gesticulating, going upon stilts, &c., which is pleasant to look upon. Their children when they are married, soon forget their parents, they dare not see them again in a great while, nor do they desire to do it.

When they have children born, they do not justly circumcise them on the eighth day, but let them be 8, 9, or 10 Years old, until they can make their confession: There are some, chiefly among the Arabians, that imitate their patriarch Ishmael, who was not circumcised until the thirteenth year of his age. It is commonly performed in the house of their parents. If rich mens sons are circumcised, they make a feast, and roast a whole entire bullock, into his belly they put a wether, and into his belly a pullet, into the pullet’s belly an egg, and so they roast them all together, what remaineth they give to the poor. When the children grow up, and begin to go, they cloath them in loose flying coats of fine stuff, woven of several colours, which are pleasant to look upon; and they put upon the heads of those that are not yet circumcised, coloured caps, which are wrought with flowers, and very common to be sold in their Batzars. After they are circumcised, they begin to wear white turbants, which are made of cotton, and rolled about their caps after a peculiar manner, and are commonly twenty yards long.

They have still another strange custom, which young and old, men and women, use in these Countries, viz. They make a thin paste of galls and calcined copperas, (to beautify themselves, and to keep their eyes from rheum) with it they blacken their lips, and make a ring round about their eyes, in the same manner as our ring-doves have about their necks. These paintings they have had anciently, and some of them they have prepared of Stibium or Antimony: Of these paintings of the eye we read in several places, chiefly (that I may not mention others) in the 23d. Chap. of Ezekiel, the 40th verse, where the Lord says by the prophet, And lo, they came, for whom thou didst wash thy self, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thy self with ornaments.

Concerning the education of their youth: They only learn in schools to read, and to write the Arabian Alphabet, the characters or letters whereof are common both to the Turks and Arabians, although their languages are very differing: Besides these, there are other schools, wherein the young men are instructed in the Emperor’s laws, and those that go on in their learning, and take it well, are soon called to high offices, as Cadi’s and Cadileschiers. But in liberal arts and sciences, such as we teach in our countries, they are not instructed, for they have not only none of these learned men, but esteem learning of these sciences a superfluity, and loss of time; they rather love old rhimes and ballads that speak of and commend the mighty deeds of their ancient Emperors, and other Champions; or other fancies that make foreign nations, or any of their enemies, ridiculous: And such things they put either themselves into rhimes, or else hear those that have been put into rhimes by others already, which they say daily with peculiar actions, out of town in pleasant greens, (where also other divertisements are performed with singing, dancing, leaping, &c.) So that they are rather pleased with the reading of these frivolous silly writings, than to learn arts and sciences: Which you may evidently see, in that they do not esteem, nor will admit of that Noble Art of Printing Books, that might inform them in any thing: Which the clerks, whereof there is a great number up and down in the cities, like very well, because they daily take a great deal of money for the writing of their prophet Mahomet and others, which maketh them generally very rich, and wear greater turbants than the rest, that they may be distinguished from others. Their paper is generally smoothed and glazed, and they comprehend their letters in very few words: When they will make them up, they fold them up until they come to be no broader than an inch, the outward crevise of the paper they fill all along with wax within, and so glue it as it were to the other, or else they take any other paste made for that purpose, and so imprint their name upon it with their seal that is done over with ink, so that nothing remaineth white but the letters: These seals are generally made at Damasco, where the best artists live that cut in steel, and they put nothing more in it but their name. They do not make any use of paper that is writ on, although they have great quantity thereof, neither to put things up in, nor for any other use, and yet if they find any of it in the street, they do not let it lie, but take it up carefully, fold it together, and put it into the next crevise they meet with, for they are afraid that the name God may be written on it: Instead thereof the Grocers make use of great leaves of Colocasia, whereof they have great store.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the great trading and dealing of the city of Aleppo; as also of several sorts of their Meats and Drinks, of their Ceremonies, and their peculiar way of sitting down at Meals.

Having heretofore treated of the buildings and situation of that excellent town of Aleppo; and of the customs, manners, and offices of the Turks, as much as I could apprehend of it, I cannot but speak, before I leave it, of the dealings and merchandizing that are daily exercised there, which are admirably great. For great caravans of pack-horses and asses, but more camels arrive there daily, from all foreign countries, viz. from Natolia, Armenia, Ægypt, and India, &c. with convoys, so that the streets are so crouded, that it is hard to pass by one another. Each of these nations have their peculiar Champ to themselves, commonly named after their master that built it, viz. Champ Agemi, Champ Waywoda, Champ Abrac, Sibeli, Mahomet’s Bashaw, and which are kept for them, that they may make them their inns, and live in them, and to keep or sell their merchandizes according to their pleasure. So among the rest of the nations there are French-men and Italians, &c. which have also there their peculiar buildings (which, as is before said, are called Fundiques) wherein some live together, and others (chiefly the Italians that are married) live without in lodgings; they have very small habitations, and live sparingly like the Turks. In these Champs you may meet with several sorts of strange merchandizes, before all in Champ Agemi, where you have all sorts of cotton-works, viz. handkerchiefs, long fillets, girdles, which they roll about their loins and heads, and other sorts, by the Arabians called Mossellini (after the country Mussoli, from whence they are brought, which is situated in Mesopotamia) by us Muslin; with these do the Turkish gentlemen cloath themselves in summer. There is delicate tapestry, artificially wrought with all manner of colours, such as are sometimes brought over by us. From Persia they bring great quantity of an unknown Manna in skins, by the name of Trunschibil, which is gathered from a prickly shrub, called by the Arabians, Agul and Albagi, which is the reason that it is mixt with small thorns and reddish chaff. This Manna hath grains something bigger than our Coriander-seeds, so that, to all appearance, it is very like unto our Manna, which we gather from the Larix. It might also very well be taken to be the same that the Israelites did eat, had not God the Almighty fed his people and maintained them miraculously and supernaturally. But that it falls upon thorns, is also attested by Serapio and Avicen. in those chapters where they treat of Manna, which they call Theceriabin and Trangibin, and that very learned and experienced Botanist Carolus Clusius saith the same in his Epitome of Indian plants. I found some of these shrubs that grew about Aleppo, which were about a cubit high, which shout out into several roundish stalks, and divide and spread themselves from the stem into several sprigs like unto a flower (part whereof were quite over-grown with Epithymum, as Thymus used to be) and had abundance of long thin and soft prickles, from whence grew out flesh-coloured reddish flowers, that bore small red cods, very like, and of the same shape with the cods of our Scorpioides (whereof I have found many at Montpelier) wherein are seeds of the same colour. The root thereof is pretty long, of a brown colour, it’s leaves long, like unto those of Polygonum, of an ash colour; those that grow at the bottom of the thorns are of a warm and dry quality. The people use the herb for a purge, they take a handful thereof and boil it in water. Besides this they have another Manna like unto that, that cometh to us from Calabria by the way of Venice, and is the concreted Saccarine Exudation of the Ornus.

Among the rest they also shew costly stones, by the Arabians called Bazaor, which are oblong and roundish, and smooth without, and of a dark green colour. The Persians take these from a peculiar sort of bucks, and use the powder against mortal and poisonous distempers. There are some that are very like unto these in form and figure, but not to be compared for goodness: Wherefore a man must have great care that he be not cheated. But there are some proofs to know whether they are good or no, which a Merchant communicated to me as infallible. Take quicklime and mixt it in powder with a little of this stone, and with water make them up into a past, when that is dry grind it, if it then remaineth white it is esteemed false, but if it turns yellow it is good, and brought from Persia. They also bring hither Turkey stones, that grow almost only in their country, and their King, the Sophy, has an incredible treasure of them together: Lately so many of them were brought to us that the prices fell very much; but when the King heard of this, he immediately forbid that any should be exported in seven years time, that so they might come to their former price again, which seven years as I am informed are now expired. There are also put to sale many chains of delicate oriental pearls, which are for the greatest part taken or found in the Persian seas, near to the island called Babare, situated not far from that great trading city of the Turkish Batzora, or Balsara.

From India they bring hither many delicate spices, Cinnamon, Spikenard, Long Pepper, Turbith, Cardamoms, Nutmegs, Mace, and China Roots, which the Arabians make more use of than of Guaiacum, and delicate China cups and dishes, Indico: and in very great quantity they bring that noble root called Rhubarb. And moreover, they sell several sorts of precious stones, viz. Garnets, Rubies, Balasios, Saphires, Diamonds, and the best sincerest Musk in little cods. These precious stones are hid by the Merchants in the great caravans that come from India, and they bring them secretly, because they dare not pay custom for them, that the Bashaws, Sangiacks and others, may not rob them of them on the high-ways, for they use to do so if they find any. I will cease to discourse any longer of these and other drugs, and several merchandises, which the Merchants convey thither from foreign places daily, and from thence to other places again, because it is none of my business to deal in them. With the spices are sometimes by the Merchants brought from the Indies delicate canes, which are very long, solid, or full within, flexible and bright without, of a yellowish colour; they are almost every-where alike thick, only a little tapering; but few joints, far distant from one another, and are hardly seen in them. There are two sorts of them, great and small ones; the great and stronger ones are used by old and lame people instead of crutches to walk with, but the lesser (which are very like the former) are made into arrows and darts, for which they are very fit, the Turks wind them about with silk of many sorts of colours, which they are very proud of when they make their entries. You find also in the shops another sort of canes to be sold, which are small and hollow within, and smooth without, a brownish red colour, wherewith Turks, Moors, and the Eastern people write, for to write with goose quills is not in use with them; wherefore these may be esteemed to be the true Syringas or Fistularis of Dioscor. Besides these there is another bigger sort of canes, almost of the same colour, but full of joints; the Pilgrims that go to see their Mahomet bring these with them from Meccha, and the people of that country carry them along with them on horseback instead of short pikes, chiefly the Arabians, for they are long, strong, and light, and yet solid or full within; with these they come running on upon their enemies, or else they (lifting it up above the middle in one of their hands) fling it at them, with such force, that they penetrate deeper with their sharp iron (wherewith they are tipt before and behind) then their arrows. Theophrastus maketh peculiar mention of them in his fourth book and, the 11th chapter, and Pliny in his sixteenth book and the 36th chapter.

We see very few of these in our country, for the Christians are forbidden under great penalties to carry any of them (the same it is with any other arms that they make use of in their wars) out of the country, if any doth and is found out, he exposes himself to infinite troubles and dangers, as did happen to one in my time, who after a scimiter was found about him, was very highly accused, and fined seventy ducats to be paid in two days time, and if he had not paid it, they would certainly have circumcised him, and made him a Turk.

Besides these above-mentioned Champs, there are a great many more without and within the city, where also all sorts of merchandizes are sold, viz. Quibir the great, Sougier the little, Gidith the new, Atich old, &c. And besides all these they have a great exchange called Batzar by the inhabitants, which is in the middle of the town, and is bigger then Friberg in Bavaria, in it there is many alleys, and each of them divided for several wares and handycraft trades; first the grocers and mercers, then those that sell tapestry and other soft woollen cloaths, and also Turkish Machyer, Camlet, Taffety, and other silks and cottons delicately wrought. There are also good Cardavon, delicate furrs of Martins, and chiefly Wild Cats, whereof abundance run about in these countries.

There are also jewellers that sell all manner of jewels, precious stones, pearls, &c. All sorts of handy-craft tradesmen, as shoe-makers, taylors, sadlers, needle and pin-makers, painters, goldsmiths, brasiers, locksmiths, &c. that have their shops in the Batzars where they work, but their work is chiefly that of the goldsmiths, painters and locksmiths, is so silly, that it is by no means to be compared with ours. There are also turners, fletchers that make arrows and darts, and bow makers, that have besides their shops small butts, that any body that goes by may exercise himself, or try his bow before he buyeth it. These bows are sometimes plain work, and some inlaid with ivory, buflers horns, &c. which maketh them of a different price. The archers wear a ring upon their right thumbs as our merchants wear their seals wherewith they draw the string on when they are going to shoot, these are made of wood, horn, or silver, and some are set with precious stones. Besides these you find in great Batzars some barbar-surgeons, which, (when they have no body to trim) use to go about the streets with their instruments and a flask of leather to look out for Work; if they find any that will be trimmed they do not come back to their shops, but go to work in the streets, or in the next Champ if any be near, and there begin to lather him, and shave all the hair off his head; save only one long lock which he leaves to hang down his back. There are also places where they sell slaves of both sexes, old and young, which are sold dearer or cheaper, according to their strength or handsomeness, &c. But in all these countries I saw neither wheel-wright nor cart-wright, because neither waggons nor carts are in use with them: Neither could I find (for all it is so great a city) a gunsmith that understood how to mend the least fault in a gun-lock. Because there is a great trade daily driven in these Batzars, you shall find there at all times of the day a great number of people of several nations walking up and down, which makes a crowd as if it were a fair. Amongst them you will often see drunken Turks which use to push people that do not give them the way immediately, chiefly if they be Christians; but the Christians are not afraid of them for all that, but prepare themselves (when they perceive some of them to approach among the people) and stand upon their guard to be even with them, and when the Turks come and push them, they make them rebound again to one side, or to one of the shop-boards. Sometimes also the Turks will lean themselves backwards against the shops, and when they see a Christian go by they let him fall over their legs, and so laugh at them, but then the Christians again when they perceive this, they kick up the other leg of the Turk whereon he rests and so make him fall down himself. For it is usual with the Turks to try the Christians what metal they are made of, whether they have courage or no, wherefore they oftentimes before they are aware of them, assault the Christians with rough words, and if they find them to be afraid they laugh at them to boot, but if they resist them, they give over immediately, as soon as they find them in earnest (just like some dogs that sooner bark than bite) and esteem them afterwards the more for it, and call them brave people that are fit for the war.

You find also in this crowd several that are in orders, called Sacquatz, (which commonly are pilgrims that have been at Meccha) that go about with skins full of water, and for charity give to any, nay, even to the Christians that desire it: (because the Mahometans are forbid to drink Wine in their Koran.) Wherefore you see many in their peculiar habits (moved thereunto by devotion) that go all day long among the people to exercise a work of love and charity to those that are thirsty. They have in one hand a fine gilded cup whereinto they pour the water out of their skins, wherein they have commonly laid chalcedonicks, jaspirs, &c. Sometimes also delicate tasted fruit, to keep the water fresh, and to recreate the people. When they give you to drink out of it they reach you also a looking-glass with this admonition, That you shall look your self in it, and remember that you are mortal and must die. For this service they desire nothing of you, but if you give them any thing they take it and thank you, and spirt into your face and beard to shew their thankfulness some fragrant water which they have in glasses, in a great pouch tip’d with many brass clasps. The Turks and Arabians also esteem it to be a great charity and love, if they let their marble troughs or great pots that stand every where about their doors be filled up with fresh water every day, that travellers or any that are dry may quench thirst as they pass by; in it hang little kettles to drink out of: If one goes to it, others that see him go also, and drink rather for company’s sake than to quench their thirst: So you find often a whole multitude about a pot. If you have a mind to eat something or to drink other liquors, there is commonly an open shop near it, where you sit down upon the ground or carpets and drink together. Among the rest they have a very good drink, by them called Chaube (Coffee) that is almost as black as ink, and very good in illness, chiefly that of the stomach; of this they drink in the morning early in open places before every body, without any fear or regard out of China cups, as hot as they can, they put it often to their lips but drink but little at a time, and let it go round as they sit. In this same water they take a fruit called Bunru, which in it’s bigness, shape, and colour, is almost like unto a bay-berry, with two thin shells surrounded, which, as they informed me, are brought from the Indies; but as these in themselves are, and have within them, two yellowish grains in two distinct cells, and besides, being they agree in their virtue, figure, looks, and name, with the Buncho of Avicenna, and Bancha of Rasis ad Almans. exactly; therefore I take them to be the same, until I am better informed by the learned. This liquor is very common among them, wherefore there are a great many of them that sell it, and others that sell the berries, every where in their Batzars: They esteem it as highly as we do in our Country wormwood wine, or that that is prepared with several herbs and drugs: Yet they love wine better if their law would allow them to drink it, as we have seen in the reign of the Emperor Selymus, when he gave them leave to drink it, that they met together daily in drinking-houses, and drunk to one another, not only two or three glasses of strong wine not mixed with water but four or five of such as came from Venice to them so quickly one after another with such eagerness, as I have often seen it that they would not allow themselves to eat a morcel or two between it; and so as you may easily guess, they become to be sordid presently, and so hoggish, that they excel all other nations in it. But after Selymus was dead, and his son Amurah succeeded him in his right, he immediately forbad them to drink wine in the very beginning of his reign, and looked after it with such severity, that any body that did but smell of wine was imprisoned immediately, put out of his place, and a great fine put upon him according to his capacity, or for want of it, punished severely with many blows under his soals. During this prohibition it happened, that when the Bashaw of Aleppo had a mind to go abroad and met in the court-yard one of his men that was drunk, and perceived it by his staggering, he drew his scymeter and cut off his head, and so left him dead upon the place. But yet notwithstanding all this severity, and be it never so peremptorily forbid, they do not only not mind such prohibition, chiefly the Renegadoes, being very much used to it, but long and linger the sooner after it with that eagerness, that in the summer time they use to carry in privately, just like the ants, great quantities of wine, and lay up good stores that they may meet at night and drink together until they have their bellies full, and so rest after it all night that they might not smell of wine the next day. In that time when they were prohibited to drink wine, we Christians fared very well and bought our wine very cheap, until afterwards they had leave to drink it again: Their wines are generally red, very good and pleasant, they keep it in skins; they are brought to Aleppo from several places, but chiefly from a famous town called Nisis, which lieth two days journey distant from it upon the borders of Armenia: The use of skins is still very great with them as it was in former ages, as we may see by the similitude of Christ, when in St. Matthew Chap. ix. verse. 17. he says, No man put new wine into, &c. Seeing that the Christians have leave to drink wine, therefore they sell and buy most of it, they also plant it, and have whole villages in their possessions, with abundance of vineyards. But the Turks not being allowed to drink wine by their laws do not keep or cultivate many vineyards, and if they do they press the grapes after several ways, for some they make into Cibebs, chiefly these people that live in and about Damascus, where indeed the best groweth; others boyl the juice of the grapes up to the consistence of honey, which they call Pachmatz, chiefly those that live at Andeb, a town between Bir and Nisib. They have two sorts of this rob, one very thick, and the other somewhat thinner, the former is the best, wherefore they put it up into little barrels to send into other countries, the latter they use themselves, mix it sometimes with water and give it to drink (instead of a julep) to their servants, sometimes they put it into little cups, to dip their bread in it, as if it were honey, and so eat it. Besides these they have other sweet drinks which they prepare out of red berries called Jujubes, or of Cibebs, which, when boiled in water with a little honey, the inhabitants call Hassap, and others call’d still by the old name of Berberis, of which they bring great quantities down from mount Libanus. Among other liquors they have a special one called Tscherbeth, which boiled of honey tasteth like unto our mead; they have another made of barley or wheat, by the ancients called Zychus and Curmi: These two last make the Turks so merry and elevated, that, as our clowns do when they drink beer, they sing and play on their hautboys, cornets, and kettle-drums, which their musicians make use of every morning when the guards are relieved: All these liquors are sold in their great Batzars, where they have baskets full of ice and snow all the summer long, whereof they put so much into the drink that it maketh their teeth chatter and quake again. Thus much I thought convenient to mention of their liquors or drinks.

Concerning their food: Their bread is nourishing and good, and so white, chiefly at Aleppo, that none is like it in all Turky: They have several sorts of it, of several shapes and mixtures, whereof some are done with yolks of eggs; some mix’d with several sorts of seeds, as of Sesanum, Romish Coriander, and wild Garden Saffron, which is also strewed upon it. Meat is cheap with them and very good, by reason of the precious herbs that grow thereabouts, chiefly upon mount Tauri, which extendeth itself very far eastwards, from whence they have abundance of cattel, as rams, weathers, and sheep with broad and fat tails, whereof one weigheth several pounds. They have also great store of goats, which they drive daily in great numbers through that city to sell their milk, which every one that hath a mind to it drinks warm in the open streets; among them there are some that are not very big, but have ears two foot long, so that they hang down to the ground, and hinder them from feeding; when one of them is cut off, which is commonly done, they turn themselves always upon that side that the other ear may not hinder them from feeding. They have no want of beefs and buffles, for they are very common there, and the butchers kill the beasts in the fields without town, where they have their slaughter-houses; thereabouts are a great many dogs that live of the offels, and have their young ones in holes and cliffs, where they bring them up, and these become so ravenous and wild, that they run about in the night after their prey, as I am inform’d, like wolves in our country; and this may very well be, for the Turks do not only not kill any dogs, but rather carry them home when they are young, and there feed them till they are grown up, and able to shift for themselves; and they believe that they do a deed of charity that is very acceptable to God Almighty; like unto the divines in the Indies, call’d Banians, which serve the birds in the same manner as these do dogs and cats. These wolves are more like to our dogs, both in shape and bigness; and so says Pliny, that the wolves in Egypt are less and lazier than these towards the north. Being there are no inns in Turkey, where, as with us, travellers may lodge and have their diet, therefore there is a great many cake-shops kept in the Batzars, where all manner of victuals are cleanly dressed, viz. butchers meat, fouls, and all sorts of sauces, and broths, and soups, where every body buys what he hath a mind to, according to the capacity of his purse. Among the rest nothing is so common as rice, which they boil up to such a stifness that it crumbleth. A great many other sorts you shall see in copper basons upon their shop-boards, prepared after the same way; amongst the rest peculiarly a very common one, call’d Bnuhourt, made of barley and wheat, which were first broke in a mill, and perhaps dry’d, and so boil’d with or without milk, into a thick pap. Dioscorides, in the eighty third chapter of his second book, maketh mention of this by the name of Crimnon; and also Avicen. and Rhasis ad Almans. in Synonymis, calleth it Sanguick and Savick. The Turks provide themselves with good store of this, chiefly in war-time, by water and by land, that when they want provision, they may make use of it instead of bread. Besides these, they have more dishes amongst them; I remember one call’d Trachan, when it is dress’d it is so tough, that you may draw it out like glue; this they make up into little pieces, which being dry’d, will keep a good while, and is very good and pleasant food after it is boil’d; wherefore they lay up great stores of this in their strong fortifications as we do of corn, that in case of necessity they may eat instead of biskets, or other food. That such sorts of foods, by the Latinists call’d Puls, have been very well known to the ancients, and that in case of necessity they use to make a shift with it, Pliny testifieth in his eighteenth book, and the eighth chapter.

They have also all manner of poultry in great plenty, viz. pullen, snipes, partridges with red bills, woodcocks, &c. but very few fishes, because they have only a small rivulet, which is full of turtles, so that at Aleppo they are very scarce; neither do they esteem them much, because most of them drink water instead of wine, which is prohibited by their law, wherefore there are but few brought thither from foreign places, as Antiochia, and the great river Euphrates, &c. distant from thence two or three miles. Besides this they have little by-dishes, as keal, colliflowers, carrots, turneps, french-beans, besides trees and codded fruits, and many more; but yet they are not so well skill’d in the dressing of them, as we are in our country.

Lastly, They put also up with their Cheese, Cibebs, Almonds, dry’d Cicers, Pistacho’s, and crack’d Hasel-nuts, which, altho’ they are carry’d thither from our country, are better tasted and pleasanter than ours. They have many sorts of preserves, very well done with sugar and honey, very artificially, chiefly those they carry about to sell upon plates very well garnish’d, made up and set out with several colours and shapes, very beautiful to behold. For the rest they live very sparingly, and bring the year round with small and little expences, for they do not make so great feasts, nor have so many dishes, nor bestow so great cost as we do in our country.

In these eastern countries they eat upon the plain ground, and when it is dinner-time they spread a round piece of leather, and lay about it tapestry; and sometimes cushions, whereupon they sit cross-leg’d before they begin to eat, they say grace first, then they eat and drink hastily, and every one taketh what he has a mind to, and do not talk much. The rich have fine cotton-linnen about their necks, hanging downwards, or else hanging at their silk girdles, which they use instead of napkins; their wives or women do not eat with them, but keep themselves in their peculiar apartments. After they have done, they rise altogether with a jerk, swinging themselves about, which our countrymen cannot easily imitate, till after they have been there a long while, for the limbs are numbed in sitting cross-legg’d, so that one hath a great deal to do to bring them to themselves again. At last they take up the leathern table with bread and all, which serveth them also instead of a table-cloth and bread-basket, they draw it together with a string like a purse, and hang it up in the next corner.

CHAP. IX.

A short and plain relation of plants, which I gather’d during my stay at Aleppo, in and round about it, not without great danger and trouble, which I glued upon paper very carefully.

Being I undertook this long journey, chiefly on purpose to see myself those fine outlandish plants, whereof authors so often make mention, growing in their native soil, and to gain a more clear and perfect knowledge of them. I was very glad to have an opportunity to stay longer than I intended, that I might the ofner go out with my friends and comrades into the fields, among the Turks and Moors, not without great pain and danger of being knock’d on the head, to fetch in more and greater variety of plants; wherein my comrade Hans Ulrich Krafft, who came into these parts along with me, very often hath faithfully and honestly assisted me. But having heretofore made mention of the garden herbs and fruits, I will only in this place write of them which grow abroad without the gardens, and that with all possible shortness; and begin with the Poplar-tree, as the commonest of all, which the inhabitants still call by the ancient Arabian name Haur; they grow very high in these countries, and abundance of them grow about the rivulet near Aleppo, which make very shady walks underneath in the heat of the summer. There is also a peculiar sort of Willow-trees, call’d Safcaf, &c. these are not all alike in bigness and height, and in their stems and twigs they are not very unlike unto Birch-trees, which are long, thin, weak, and of a pale yellow colour; they have soft ash-coulour’d leaves, or rather like unto the leaves of the Poplar-tree, and on their twigs here and there are shoots of a span long, like unto those of the Cypriotish wild Fig-trees, which put forth in the spring tender and woolly flowers, like unto the blossoms of the Poplar-tree, only they are of a more drying quality, of a pale colour, and a fragrant smell. The inhabitants pull of these, because they bear no fruit, great quantities, and distill a very precious and sweet water out of them, very comfortable and corroborating to the heart. The Arabians call these trees Zacneb and Zacnabum; Rhasis in his 353d and Avicen. in his 749th chapter; and after the same manner maketh Serapio mention of them in his 261st chapter, by the common name of Zucumbeth; and Theophrastus in his fourth book, and eleventh chapter, where he treats of Elæagnus which this is very like unto, and may be taken for the same, although they differ in bigness, which often and easily happens according to the soil and place where they grow. Hereabouts are other small trees, which I rather take to be thorny shrubs; they are very like in leaves unto the others, and are call’d by the Moors, Scisesun. They love to grow in moist places and in hedges; from the root shoot several stems, cloathed with a smooth brown-colour’d bark; they bear at the top pretty long and strong twigs, which here and there are beset with a few prickles, whereon grow small flowers, white without and yellow within, whereof three and three sprout out between the leaves. I did not see any of their fruit, but yet I do believe that they are like unto the Olives of the Bohemian Olive-tree, to which this plant is very like, which is very naturally delineated in the herbal of the learned Matthiolus. These trees cast forth such an odour in the spring, that any body that goes by must needs be sensible of it presently; wherefore the Turks and Moors cut many of their branches, and stick them up in their shops.

On the banks of the above-mention’d rivulet, chiefly about the stone bridge, as you travel to Tripoli, grow many Agnus Castus’s, of the lesser sort, and on the other side in the fields, many Pistacho nut-trees.

Within and without the city grow also many sorts of trees, viz. that which Avicen. calleth Azederack, but Rhasis, Astergio; white Mulberry-trees, Date-trees, and Cypresses, by the natives call’d Sacub, which hereabouts grow very big and high, Turpentine-trees, &c.

About the fences and hedges you will find wild Pomegranat-trees, with fine double flowers, wild Almond-trees, the fruit whereof the Moors carry about in great plenty to sell to the poor; and near it in old decay’d brick-walls and stony places, you shall see Caper-bushes: among the rest there groweth a very strange bush, by the inhabitants call’d Morgsani, which is very green and thick, hath a long woody coat, whereout sprout several stalks, with round leaves, like unto Caper-leaves, only with this difference, that four of them stand together all opposite to one another like unto our beans; between them there appear small flowers, red within and white without, whereout grow long pods, like unto those of the Sesamum. This plant hath a very unpleasant scent, wherefore the inhabitants use it frequently to destroy worms; but what the ancients formerly call’d it, I know not, but really am of this opinion, it must be according to the description the Ardifrigi of Avicen. and Aadiccan of Rhasis; he that pleaseth may read more thereof in the quoted places. In these places are also found the thorny Acacia, by the inhabitants call’d Shack, and by the Arabians, Shamuth, which are very small and low, chiefly those that stand in the fields, which give as much trouble to the plowmen as the ferns and rest-harrow do here; the twigs are of an ashen colour, crooked, full of prickles, like unto those of the Rose-bush, and have very small feather’d leaves, like unto Tragacantha, which are almost divided like unto our female fern, the flowers of them I have not seen, but the cods that grow out of them are without brownish, in their shape thicker and rounder than our beans, spongy within, and containing two or three reddish seeds.

I have, besides these, seen in shops pods of a chestnut-brown colour, sold under the name of Cardem, which have two or three little distinct cells or baggs, in each whereof is a reddish seed, in the figure of our male Balsam; these are brought from Egypt, and by some thought to be the true Acacia Diosc. whether it be so or no I cannot well tell, because I never saw the plant. Very near it, in untill’d places, groweth Galega; Sisynrichium Theophrasti, which is very curiously delineated in the book of Rempert. Dodon. de herbis & floribus coron.

There is also found another fine plant, by the inhabitants call’d Tharasalis, which hath seven or eight waved leaves, which stand about a round stalk, almost as it is to be seen in Sisynrichium, only they are a great deal broader, and not so long, when the stalk thereof, which is not above a cubit long, is grown, through and above them; it gets at top a white flower, not very unlike unto the low blue Flower de Luce which blow early in the spring; it has a roundish root, like unto that of Narcissus, and also has many long white fibres. Not far from thence, when you get upon the hill, there groweth in the rough places others, viz. Bistorta, still by the inhabitants call’d Zuph, a fine sort of Verbacum; Scorzonera with purple flowers, Saffron with small little leaves, and a delicate yellow flower; also Arisarum, Homaid. and Arum, call’d by them Carsaami, whereof there are four sorts, among the rest a strange one, with long ears, wherefore they call it in their language Ouidae.

There also are about the rivers some Anemones of several sorts and colours, very beautiful, as red, purple colour, yellow, &c. all which they call with a common name Sakaick, and give an additional name according to the colour of it, viz. Schakaick achmar, Sakaik assar, Aserack, &c. that is to say, red-yellow, of a violet colour, &c. which would be too long and tedious to describe all here; chiefly if I should at length relate the common ones, as, wild Rue, Asphodelus albus; Rheseda Plin. Flos solis foliis minoribus serpilli, wild Onions, and other innumerable more. As you come down by another way back again, nearer to the corn-fields, you find other fine herbs, as the wild new Harmala, a delicate sort of Astragalus foliis hedysari minoris, and by it another which is very like unto Astragalus of Dioscor. so that I really believe it to be the same. There appear a great many of them upon the height; it is a low herb, with a long brownish root, as big and long as the root of horse-raddish, which puts out at the sides some strong fibres, which are almost blacker and harder to cut than the root itself; some of them go downwards, and others the greater part upwards, and bended like unto horns. These contain, together with their sweetness, also a driness; they shoot out at the top into several branches of the same colour, yet not above the length of a finger, which incline towards the earth, whereout grow nine or ten small leaves, like Lentil-leaves, not very unlike to those of Orobus, and distributed after the same manner. Between them sprout out purple-brown flowers, after them come long and thick and full bladders, whereof some are as big as those of the Colutea.

All these and several other herbs have I preserved and glued to some paper, with great and peculiar care, so that they are to be seen in their natural colours so exact, as if they were green.

About the river up a hill, I found a tender and fragrant herb with long and white roots, of a pretty acrimonious taste, it’s leaves were like unto our Coriander, only somewhat rounder, and not so much cut, but only a little about the edges; I found no stalks nor flowers, for it was early in the year, and about Easter, which is the time of their first springing, these they call’d Zarneb Melchi, and the inhabitants dig so many of these roots, that they send yearly several chests full into Persia, where they use them, as I am inform’d, very frequently in pains of their backs, and all other accidental pains: As far as I can see, when I look upon the leaves, I reckon it to be the third sort of Daucus of Diosc. A little lower, as you come to the plow’d fields, I found also the second kind of Chondrilla of Diosc. with round roots of a smooth and dark yellowish colour, perhaps at the top half an inch thick, and five or eight long, whereon at the end where it is thinnest, hangs another round root of the bigness of a Chest-nut, which are so full of milk, that they are ready to crack; at top, where it is divided into three parts, sprout out many long and small grass leaves together, which lie flat upon the ground; between them come out yellow flowers like unto those of auricula muris, each whereof hath it’s peculiar stalk.

Not far from it, yet in rougher and stonier ground, groweth another Chondrilla, which is like unto that former in all parts, only the leaves thereof are broader, and more woolly, and of an ash colour, very like unto the Holostium of Montpellier. As you go to the Grand Signior’s garden, about a small mile from the town, at the road, I found a good many plants, viz. Draba Dioscorid. call’d Orobanche Halinu, Spina solstitialis, a kind of Carduus Mariæ; wild Cucumbers, by them call’d Adiural hamar; Xyphium, Peplium, Heliotropium tri coccum Caroli Clusii, and also his Paronychia Hispanica, and his third Lichnis, with pale and red purple-colour’d flowers; Coris Matth. with yellow flowers; two delicate sorts of Geraniums; and upon old walls I found a little Rauckel with pale-colour’d flowers, Umbilicus Veneres, and a great many more. I cannot leave unmention’d those that grow round about in the fields, and chiefly amongst them a Medica, with dissected trifoliated leaves; and many more, whereof some have long and streight, and others many bended pods, in a cluster together. I also found one with many white and hoary heads, which look’d almost like unto Lagopodium, and another little one with green-colour’d pods pressed together, so long and so broad as those of Senna, which were a great ornament to the whole plant. And also thereabouts are found many sorts of corn-flowers, quite different from ours; Papaver erratic, in their language call’d Schuck, of which they make a conserve with sugar, and use it in coughs; Papaver corniculatum with stately purple flowers. I found also there Eryngium, with blewish tops and starr’d heads; two sorts of Henbane, whereof one that groweth in the fields hath red and purple-coulour’d flowers, the others which I found in the town upon the old walls had white ones, by the Latins call’d Apollinaris. Much thereabouts in the corn grew the less Melampyrum, by them call’d Paponesck, which at the top beareth thick, yellow flowers, very like unto the Melampyrum Tragi; Item the second kind of wild Cumin, with yellow flowers, and long bended pods; Poterion Matth. by the inhabitants call’d Megasac, which they stick up in their chambers, to keep them from being bewitch’d. A delicate sort of Horminum, with small woolly and dissected leaves, a Garden-cypress with gold-colour’d flowers; Scabiosa, Anchusa, and a Salvia, which hath many roundish leaves, and about their square stalks grow purple-coloured bells, wherein is it’s black seed, like unto that of Melissa Molucca, whereof I have made mention above. In the corn also groweth Leontopetalon, in their language Aslab, with it’s brown-colour’d round root and large leaves, which are roundish and very near divided like unto those of our Pæonia; the stalk hath at the top, which is about a foot high, and hollow, more twiggs, whereof the point of each of them beareth several small purple and yellow flowers, which make roundish bladders, that contain one, two, and sometimes three seeds, the children use to play their tricks with them as they do with the flowers of Papaver erraticum in our country. The great roots they bruise, and rub with it spots in cloaths, which, as they say, they draw out immediately.

By these in the corn groweth also the true Chrysogonum of Diosc. which is as high as the former, and also in flowers, stalks, and roundish root, which is redder within, very like it, only the stalk is slenderer, and hath more and longer by-shots, or germina, at the end whereof you see stately yellow flowers, so that it is thicker, and more spriggy than the other; it’s pennated leaves, whereof there are commonly four that come from the root with long foot-stalks almost as slender as a thread, lie close to the ground, as you may easily imagine, and have every one their ribs, two and two leaves growing together on each side, one after another, so that four of them stand together in a cross; they are darkish green, and at the out-side, where they are broader, very like unto Oaken leaves. Now, as these and others, that grow in these countries, are as yet very little known, so may also the following, that groweth in plow’d fields, be reckon’d among the unknown, which is very like unto the Lycopsis of Diosc. for which, in my opinion, it ought to be taken.

This plant hath a red coat, and a straight stalk about two foot high, from whence round about below spread themselves many strong and rough leaves in a circle, as if it were from one center; not unlike the wild Bugloss, they decrease a little by degrees, as they grow higher and higher; out of each of them, close to the stalk, sprout out many twigs, with their peculiar small leaves, as you see in Echium; between them shoot out very tender purple-coulour’d flowers, which are whole within, and divided into six small or longish leaves, almost like unto these of the Caryophillus montanus. In the beginning of February I have seen several sorts of Hyacinths, and the Oriental one in the greatest quantity, which they call Zumbel in their language. In April I saw another very delicate one, known to them by the name Ayur, with long and very small leaves of our Philangium; it groweth pretty high, and beareth at the top four stalky flowers; the leaves thereof are very like in shape and colour unto the three leaves that stand up in our Flower de Luce; the root is very like to that of a Tulip, wherof I have also seen a great number in these grounds of all sorts of colours. I have also found some Daisies like unto our own, and also another sort of them with nine or ten white Saffron-flowers, which sprout sooner in the spring in the corn, not so bare as ours, but between the leaves. The leaves are pretty thick, but narrower, longer, and narrower pointed than the before-mention’d; they also spread more about upon the ground, and come from a white coat with a brown-red skin, surrounded and divided in the middle, it is call’d Kusan in their tongue, but by some others it is still call’d Surugen.

These and a great many more strange herbs have I found, but because they were unknown to me, I forbear to mention any more of them. But yet I cannot but describe to you one more, for the taking of which I and my two comrades fell into great danger, as we often did, both of Turks and Moors, which needs not all to be related here; this is call’d by the inhabitants Rhasut and also Rumigi; it hath a strong yet unpleasant savour, and about four stalks of a whitish colour, and so tender towards the root, and so small as a pack-thread, whereon at each side grow seven or eight tender ash-colour’d leaves one against the other, distributed like unto those of Osmond-royal, only they have round ears towards the stalk, like unto the small Sage, and between the lowermost, which are a little more distant, flowers like unto our Aristolochia, yet a great deal bigger, of a more brownish colour, and hanging on longer stalks. The root striketh very deep, and is very like unto our Pellitory, of a drying quality, and somewhat hot, as the bitter taste intimates. When I was busy about this tender plant, and strove to get it out whole, which took me up the more time, because I had no proper tools by me, a Turk well arm’d came galloping upon us, to see what we were doing; but when we perceived him to be fuddled, and that he earnestly set upon us, to make booty of us, each of us gave him something, according to his desire, seeing that he would not leave us without, that so we might get rid of him; then he rode very well pleased out of our sight, and we took no farther care of him. But before I could get the root quite out, he came back again with full speed upon us, so I bid my comrades to run to the next Olive-trees, and I would follow them presently; but when I saw him come pretty near me, and found I could not get the plant whole, I pull’d it up as well as I could, and so ran to my companions. But when I came to the Olive-trees, I found they were run several Olive-trees farther, which stand row by row, and found myself quite alone and destitute, and that I must defend myself behind the tree; so he came down upon me with his scymeter drawn, and fetch’d one blow after the other at me, which I still declined, running from one side of the tree to the other, so that they went into the tree and mangled it mightily. In the mean time defending myself thus unarm’d against him, I took a resolution, that if he should take hold of his bow and arrow to shoot at me, which he could not do, except he left his scymeter, to run in upon him, and struggle with him; but this fight during very long, and perhaps his anger did not give him leave to think of it, I found out another way; knowing them to be very covetous, to make myself free again with a piece of money, and to give him a small silver piece, which in their language they call Saict, worth about three pence or a groat, so pull’d it out, and shew’d it him, still standing behind the tree; as soon as he saw it, he gave over, and beckon’d to me to give it him so I stepp’d to him, and when I reach’d it to him, he took it. But my table-book fell out of my pocket when I pull’d out the money, upon the ground, wherein I had recorded many things, which when he saw he would have it also, but I refusing it, he grew mad, and began to renew the same game again; then I repented that I did not dismount him when I gave him the money; yet I consider’d that if I should have done him a mischief, as he deserved, yet although I had never so good a cause, I was sure I must be cast, and perhaps to come to a greater mischief and hurt; so I gave it him, and after he had received it he was pacify’d and rode away.

But to come to my former purpose again: I found about the river the other Tragium Diosc. in the plough’d ground, and afterwards also in abundance upon the hill, but generally in moist places, near to the spring that runs down the hill; it’s root is whitish, pretty long and slender, from thence spread themselves some woody stalks, not above a little finger long, whereon grew towards the top many leaves together, which were long, and had of each side of their ribs small leaves, one opposite to the other, which were divided, just like the Trichomanes, only somewhat longer, about the bigness of those of Asplenium, and are, as they, delicately green within, but without, and against the ground, of an ash-colour, and woolly, chiefly the small ones, that are just sprouting out between the others. Out of these first-mention’d stems come first naked long stalks, upon which grow at the top violet-brown flowers close together, as if it was an ear of corn; the inhabitants call it Secudes, and so did the ancient Arabians, chiefly Avicenna in the 679th chap. where he also attributeth this Virtue, that it is very proper in the bloody-flux.