Sketches From My Life: By The Late Admiral Hobart PashaHobart-Hampden, Augustus Charles
History
Sketches From My Life: By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha
Hobart-Hampden, Augustus Charles
Adventure and adventurers; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Blockades
For example, the islands of Mitros, Lemnos, and Mytelene abound in
partridges, and the shooting there is really capital.
Either by bringing a yacht from England, or by hiring one at
Constantinople, the real sportsman may have great amusement while
shooting, with Constantinople as headquarters. He will find in Asia
Minor deer of all descriptions, wild boars and wolves. Then he will have
capital sport with geese, ducks, woodcocks and partridges, and snipe.
Occasionally he must rough it somewhat while sleeping in villages some
little distance from the sea-coast for a night or two, instead of
retiring on board his floating home, and on this head I would give a
word of advice to the sportsman. Always take up your quarters in a
Turkish village, if possible, in preference to a Greek village. At the
former you will find the traditional hospitality of the Oriental, even
among the very poor people, practised in every sense of the word; whilst
in the latter you will be _exploité_ (there is no English word that
signifies as well what I mean) to the last degree, even to the pilfering
of your cartridges.
I have seen on arriving at a Turkish village every one vie with the
other, and doing their very utmost to make the sportsman and his party
comfortable. I have seen 'harems,' such as they are, cleaned out and
prepared as a sleeping apartment, all the inmates huddling together in
some little corner. I have remarked one old woman arrive with a couple
of eggs, another with what was perhaps her pet fowl, to be sacrificed at
the altar of hospitality--in fact, only one idea seemed to animate them,
namely, hospitality, and it is touching to see how they shrink from the
proffered reward made by the sportsman on leaving these kind though poor
and long-suffering people.
There are different kinds of deer to be found in Asia Minor, which
strangely enough imitate the habits of the inhabitants, Greek, Turk, and
Armenian, by not herding together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account