Journal 40, page 04

God Mother the Virgin Mary."- -When he goes to a house-which only extreme urgency of business permits, he must as he raps on the door shout "Let nobody be there"! When the oldest woman will pull the latch string from above & tell him where the husband is? If he should not call out before entering the woman would probably throw water down on his offending head. (Husbands go to the coffee house always to meet their friends)

Armenian quarter-grates disappear from the windows-Turkish houses grated like prisons-Turkish carriages & sedan chairs- Walls in Byzantine style-brick between courses of stone & mortar [?] having in it pounded brick. Seven Towers-Mahommed II. I think these the highest walls I have ever seen & of stone most venerably grey-4 walls one within the other. Each 60 ft apart. Towers in the 4th. Sweet lettuce garden-kind used in medicine for nervous [?] diseases

Double line of telegraph around these old walls-the modern & the more invulnerable fortifications of modern times.

Saw my first magpie & recalled the witty story of "The Basket of Flowers" that I read when a little girl & had forgotten for twenty years!

-Another funeral-man borne by 4, on a bier at each corner of which is a bunch of box [?]. He is dressed as in life, wears a moustache & fez & doesn't look ghastly. Tents being erected in the cemetery preparing for festivities of Easter this is the last day.

Magnificent grove of cypresses.

[written in right margin:] Theophile Gautier tells the story 382 "L'Orient."(Legend of half cooked fish.

It was broiling when the infidels took the city. It jumped out into this spring where it comes to the surface when a silver piece is thrown in. A convent is here built & people come in great numbers to wash in this miraculous spring & be healed of their infirmities.

[........ ] to whom Dr. L. gives a piastre.

Tomb stones of women-gilt & enclosed in a little place decorated with flowers. Dr. L.: "Ah that tells a story of affect & sorrow- the way in wh. that is decorated." Tombs, deep red with gilt letters-very gaudy.

Puffy Turkish women in poppy-colored dress riding in queer light carriage drawn by a yoke of oxen-talk about dervishes-About misapprehensions of even the most intelligent travelers. They jump at conclusions & are often misinformed. Bp. Thompson even, makes many mistakes in his book on the East. Anecdote of a S. School book & a travelers letter-both of wh. commit the following: "The Russians drink a strong decoction of tea called Samovar."

(samivar=self-boiler. Name of their kettle. Translated into English: "The Russians drink a very strong decoction of tea called tea kettle."

Great guarded tree growing in the top of the wall. Great masses