YENI DJAMI.       29

The mosque stands near the edge of the harbour, and its court stretches down almost to the water. It is overshadowed by two of the most majestic maple-trees in the city, whose gnarled and knotted trunks and fantastically twisted branches bespeak them of a date coeval with that of the gleaming temple which they so greatly embellish. Beneath their long cool shadows congregate groups of idlers, attracted thither by the calm stillness and refreshing breezes; and there they loiter for hours, erecting in the court their awnings of striped cotton, and spreading their mats for the mid-day siesta; while the melon and sherbet-venders ply their fragrant trade, and the perfumed vapour of the Salonica tobacco exhales from many chibouque.

The court of Yeni Djami generally presents the characteristic scene which have here described; and of the mosque itself, the Turks have a popular tradition, that it was built from the produce of one of the Sultana-mother's diamond-studded slippers, piously disposed of for the purpose of its erection; a legend which doubtless owes its origin to the probable fact of the expenses having been defrayed from the bishmalik (or slipper-money) of the imperial lady - a national grant to the female members of the reigning family, bearing some analogy to the "privy purse" in England.

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PLATE: GREAT AVENUE IN THE TCHARTCHI.

THE TCHARCHI, OR BAZÂRS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

"Richly furnished with plate and gold;
Basons and ewers, ------
My hangings all Tyrian tapestry:
In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns;
In cypress chests my arras counterpanes,
Costly apparel, tents, and canopies,
Fine linen, Turkey cushions bost with pearl,
Valance of Venice gold in needle-work,
Pewter and brass -------"
SHAKESPEARE.

THE Bazârs of Constantinople have ever been to home-staying Europeans as a vision of the "Arabian Nights;" travellers have lost themselves in hyperbole in their descriptions of them; and the antique glories of the Atmeidan, and even the solemn grandeur of St.Sophia, do not subject the returned pilgrim to half the questioning curiosity which is elicited by the great exchange of the City of the Three Seas.