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
History
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
and not unhandsomely built, for they have several distinct Apartments
for Lodgings in them. There is no Man forbid the Use of them, either
_Christian_ or _Jew_, Rich or Poor, they are open equally to all. Even
the _Bashaw_’s and _Sanziacs_, when they travel, make use of them. In
these I thought myself lodg’d as well as in the Palace of a Prince.
The Custom of these Inns, like Hospitals, is this: They allow Victuals to
every particular Man, that comes in as a Guest: So that when Supper-time
came, there was a Servant that brought in a great wooden Dish almost as
big as a Table; in the middle of it was a Platter full of Barley boiled
to a Jelley, with a little Piece of Flesh, and about the Platter were
some small Loaves, and here and there a Piece of an Honey-comb. When
I saw this, at first, out of Modesty, I refused it, saying, that my
Servants were preparing my own Supper for me, and therefore, advised
them to give it to the Poor: He took it amiss, and prest it upon me, and
alledging, that I should not scorn their slender Provision, that the
Bashaw’s themselves us’d to eat it; it was the Custom of their Country
so to do; they had enough left to give to the Poor, and if I would not
eat it my self, I should give it my Servants; hereupon, I was enforced
to take it, that I might not be counted uncivil by them; and after I
had tasted a little of it, I gave him Thanks. The Relish of it pleased
me well, for that kind of Gruel, as it is commended by _Galen_, so it
is very wholesome, and not unpleasing to the Taste. Travellers may be
entertained with that kind of Diet for three Days; but when that Time is
expired, they must pack up and be gone. Here (as I told you) I was well
entertained; but I met not always with such good Quarters. Sometimes,
when I could not light upon an House, I lodged in a Stable; my People
enquired after a large and capacious one, in one part whereof was an
Hearth and a Chimney, and the other part was design’d for the Herds of
Cattle; for that is the Make of the _Turkish_ Stables, that the Herd and
the Herdsman lodge under the same Roof. I divided that part where the
Fire was from the rest, by the sides of my Tent, and then I put my Table
and my Bed by the Fire-side, and liv’d like an Emperor: As for my Family,
they wallowed in a great deal of clean Straw, in the other part of the
Stable: But some of them fell a Sleep by the Fire-side in the adjoining
Orchard or Meadow where a Supper was preparing; the heat of the Fire was
their guard against the coldness of the Night, and they had as great a
care not to let it go out, as the _Vestal Virgins_ had of old at _Rome_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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