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TUBKEY IN ASIA. — IONIA AND THE GREEKS. 373
glibly as the Christian minister produces other passages from
this apostle to bear against woman.
No good Mohammedan touches swine's flesh, or wines of
any kind : these alcoholic drinks he terms " fire-draughts of
hell." If you reprove them for polygamy, thej^ at once
refer you to the practices of Abraham, Jacob, Solomon, and
other biblical characters praised by Christians.
The government of Turkey is an absolute monarchy.
The sultan's will is law. He is the supreme head of the
Mohammedan faith. These Mohammedans believe that the
Koran came direct from heaven, through the Angel Gabriel,
and that divine inspirations came to Mohammed from Allah
the same as in past times to Jesus and Moses.
I visited a large number of mosques.
Taking off the shoes before entering is expected and
demanded. The imams (priests), facing Mecca, lead in the
prayers to the one God, — Allah. Their sermons are highly
moral, explaining the Koran, and its relation to the Old and
New Testaments. Mohammed, though permitting a plurality
of wives in imitation of the Hebrew patriarchs, recommended
but one.
Extravagance is thinning the ranks of the harems. Few
Turks care to support more than one wife to display her
richly-colored garments in the bazaars. Though silks, satins,
and fine plain merino cloths, are worn, the Levantine women,
as well as those of the extreme East, are as fond of gay trimmings
as they are of their ease. French styles are rapidly
creeping into all Turkish countries.
The muezzin's calls sound from the minarets of the
mosques five times a day, — at the break of morning, at twelve
o'clock, at two hours before sundown, at the going-down of
the sun, and again two hours after sunset. We recollect
ascending the minaret of a mosque, that, like most of the
ancient structures of the East, had long passed its age of
beauty. The Oriental coloring had faded ; the pavements
were sunken, and the mosaics crumbling, and dropping from