Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Social life and customs
at Eski-Shehir that I will try to give an account of it, in her own
words.
“It was before your uncle was taken ill,” she said, “and he was
considering starting some local industries in Anatolia. He chose
Eski-Shehir on account of the railroad facilities it offers and we
went there. Only a few men who had been prevented from going to war
on account of old age or infirmity were left in the country. But the
people who had heard that a pasha from Constantinople was coming with
his wife, sent a delegation to meet us at the station. They insisted on
our being their guests and they informed us that they had especially
prepared a house for us. To refuse would have hurt their feelings.
They had chosen the best available house in the whole neighbourhood.
It was located far in the country at an hour and a half's ride in a
carriage from the station. We arrived in the evening and by the time
the customary greetings had been exchanged with the delegation it was
already dark. The whole delegation insisted on forming an escort of
honour and accompanying us to our lodgings. We took a carriage and
the ten or twelve peasants which formed the delegation got on their
horses, two preceding us, the rest forming a semi-circle around our
carriage. In the dark night we went through valleys and hilltops
escorted by this most picturesque cavalcade; mostly old men with white
beards, but sitting straight on their horses. Of the only two young
men who were there, one was blind in one eye, and the other was lame.
They all wore their country costumes: trousers cut as riding breeches
but worn without leggings, wide belts of gay colour wrapped from hips
to the middle of the breast and tight-fitting tunics crossed by
cartridge-bearing leather thongs. With their turbaned heads and their
rifles swinging from their shoulders they made a martial picture in
contrast with their courteous demeanour, their subdued voices and their
most peaceful eyes. I must say, however, that it was a reassuring
escort to have for crossing the country at night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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