CHAPTER V.
Infidel Smyrna.
Smyrna, or Giaour Izmir, as the Mussulmans call it, is the main point of commercial contact betwixt Europe and Asia; you are there surrounded by the people, and the confused customs of many, and various nations—you see the fussy European adopting the East, and calming his restlessness with the long Turkish pipe of tranquillity—you see Jews offering services, and receiving blows[1]—on one side you have a fellow whose dress and beard would give you a good idea of the true oriental, if it were not for the gobe-mouche expression of countenance with which he is swallowing an article in the National, and there, just by, is a genuine Osmanlee, smoking away with all the majesty of a Sultan, but before you have time to admire sufficiently his tranquil dignity, and his soft Asiatic repose, the poor old fellow is ruthlessly "run down" by an English midshipman, who has set sail on a Smyrna hack. Such are the incongruities of the "infidel city," at ordinary times; but when I was there, our friend Carrigaholt had imported himself, and his oddities, as an accession to the other and inferior wonders
- ↑ The Jews of Smyrna are poor, and having little merchandize of their own to dispose of, they are sadly importunate in offering their services as intermediaries; their troublesome conduct has led to the custom of beating them in the open streets. It is usual for Europeans to carry long sticks with them for the express purpose of keeping off the chosen people. I always felt ashamed to strike the poor fellows myself, but I confess to the amusement with which I witnessed the observance of this custom by other people; the Jew seldom got hurt much, for he was always expecting the blow, and was ready to recede from it the moment it came; one could not help being rather gratified at seeing him bound away so nimbly with his long robes floating out in the air, and then again wheel round, and return with fresh importunities
