Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/167

THE GREEKS UNDER TURKISH BONDAGE. 145 Christians were not admitted as witnesses against Turks. If, however, Christians were wealthy they could buy Turkish witnesses, who were never wanting to call God to witness to any- ^ thing so long as a suitor was able and willing to pay them to do so. If the suitor possessed the funds which were needed for securing the favor of the judge his case stood very well. We will not go into details in regard to Turk- ish jurisprudence, which was obscure and often inconsistent. Capodistria has given an account of it in the statement already mentioned. " It may be remarked," says Eton, "that there is not one instance of a fetra which declares the mur- der of a Christian to be contrary to the faith; or of any argument drawn from justice or re- ligion, used to dissuade the sultans from perpe- trating such an enormity. But, on the other hand," remarks the same writer, "a Christian may not kill a Mohammedan even in self-defence ; if a Christian only strikes a Mohammedan, he is most commonly put to death on the spot, or at least ruined by fines and severely bastinadoed ; if he strikes, though by accident, a sheriff (emil in Turkish, i.e., a descendant of Mohammed, who wears green turbans), of whom there are thou- sands in the cities, it is death without remission."