As we approached Balouclè, the features of the scene became still more striking. The low wall that skirted the road was covered with Turkish women, squatted upon their rugs and carpets, with the arabas in which they had travelled ranged along behind them. Seridjhes were walking droves of horses to and fro, and waiting for customers to hire them; travelling merchants were retailing yahourt and mohalibè to the hungry and the weary; Bulgarians were playing their awkward antics to attract the attention of the idle, and the piastres of the profuse; and the halt and the blind were seated by the wayside, to invoke the paras of the charitable. Parties of Persians, with large white turbans, silken robes, and eyes as black as midnight, were walking their well-trained horses through the crowd; and a detachment of the Irregular Troops, with their jester at their head, in a cap made of sheepskin, adorned with three fox-tails, and a vest of undressed leather, drove back the people on either side, as they made their way through the throng with a sort of short run. They had precisely the appearance of banditti, each being dressed and armed according to his own means or fancy; while their huge mustachioes, and the elf locks that escaped from beneath their turbans, added to the ferocious character of their aspect. The plain on which the Church is situated is thickly wooded in its immediate neighbourhood, and on this occasion was covered with a dense crowd of merry human beings. The same amusements as I have described at the Armenian festival were in full career; but the heavy meaningless dance of the Champs des Morts was here exchanged for the graceful romaïka, which was going forward in every direction. For every other female whom I saw on the ground, I remarked at least a hundred and fifty Turkish women; and the astonishment excited by the appearance of the Greek lady by whom I was accompanied, and myself among these latter, was most amusing. As the greater number of them had never before seen a Frank lady on horseback, they concluded that we had each lost a leg; and the “Mashallahs!” with which they contemplated our gaiety were innumerable. But as a Turkish woman never scruples to address a stranger in the street; and as our being actually crippled was a matter of uncertainty; they were resolved to satisfy their minds on this very important point; and several of them accordingly addressed themselves to the gentlemen of our party, in order to resolve the doubt; exclaiming with an energy worthy of the occasion: “For the love of God, tell us if your wives have lost a leg, or not!”