Travels into Turkey: Containing the most accurate account of the Turks, and neighbouring nations, their manners, customs, religion, superstition, policy, riches, coins, &c.Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de
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Travels into Turkey: Containing the most accurate account of the Turks, and neighbouring nations, their manners, customs, religion, superstition, policy, riches, coins, &c.
Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de
Turkey -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
This is all I can inform you of, concerning the _Colchians_ and their
Manners; let me now proceed to answer your Demands concerning my self,
and my own way of Living. I seldom go abroad, unless I receive Letters
from my Master to be delivered at the Court; or, unless I am commanded
to expostulate with the _Bashaws_ concerning the Rapines and Cruelties
of the _Turkish_ Garrisons, which is ordinarily twice or thrice a Year.
Perhaps, if I would desire leave to ride about the City with my Keeper,
it would not be denied me: But I have no mind to be so much beholding to
them; for I would have them think that the strictness of my Confinement
or Imprisonment is not valued at all by me; and, to speak Truth, what
Comfort can I have to ride up and down among a parcel of _Turks_, who
will either slight, or else jeer and reproach me? No, I like the Country
and the Champaign better than the City; especially that City which is so
full of Ruins, and which retains nothing of its ancient Glory, besides
its Situation. ’Tis true, it was once a Rival to _Rome_ it self; but
now, alas! it is shamefully inslaved; who can without Pity behold it?
Who so hard-hearted, as not to be affected with the mutability of human
Affairs? And who knows how near we are to the same Fate? I keep my self
within my own Doors, conversing with my old Friends, I mean, my Books, in
which is all my Delight. ’Tis true, for my Health’s Sake, I have made a
Bowling-Green, where, before Dinner, I use to play; and, after Dinner, I
practise the _Turkish_ Bow.
The _Turks_ are wondrous expert at shooting with the Bow; they accustom
themselves to that Exercise from 7 or 8, to 18 or 20 Years of Age, and
hereby their Arms grow stronger, and their Skill so great, that they
will hit the smallest Mark with their Arrows. Their Bows are not much
stronger, but for their shortness much handier than ours; they are not
made of plain Wood, but of a String and Ox’s Horn, fastened with much
Glew and Flax. These sort of Bows, though never so strong, the _Turks_,
who are used to the Sport, can easily draw even to their very Ear; and
yet one that is not accustom’d thereto, though never so strong a Man,
cannot draw to that height, so as to strike a piece of Money, set upright
between the Bow and the String, in the Angle where it is put into the
Notch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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