BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS. 138
A horse, gallopped rapidly round the enclosure, produces precisely the effect upon the ear of a distant charge of cavalry; and a peal of laughter is so extraordinarily prolonged, as almost to turn wonder into pain.
The village of Bebec is principally inhabited by Greeks.
PLATE: A PUBLIC KHAN.
A PUBLIC KHAN
A place where merchants congregate - where wealth
Takes many forms - is bartered, bought, and sold;
Is earned by labour, flung away on chance,
Exchanged, computed, watched with eager eyes,
Weighed, balances, won, and scattered o'er the globe - - MS.
THE Khans, or Caravanserais of the East, are as purely oriental in their character as the Mosques in whose immediate neighbourhood they are generally situated, or the Bazārs which they supply with merchandise.
The Caravanserai, or lodging of the caravan, is a large quadrangular court, surrounded by stone buildings, solidly massed, and presenting much the appearance of the inner cloisters of a monastery. The apartments on the basement serve as counting-houses for the merchants, one only being reserved as a coffee-kiosque, for the accommodation of the tenants of the Khan, which always has a fine fountain in the centre of its paved court, and is closed two hours before midnight by a pair of massive gates; beside one of which is the little hut of the Khanjhi, who is answerable for all comers and goers after that time, until day-break; a precaution rendered highly necessary by the immense value of the merchandise which is frequently contained in these establishments.
The upper story of the building is faced by an open gallery, supported on arches, which stretches round the entire square, and is reached by exterior flights of stone steps, situated at two of its angles; and from this gallery open the store-rooms of the merchants, which are generally filled with bags of raw silk, European cottons, bales of rich stuffs, tobaccos, spices, arms - and, in short, all the most precious articles of Eastern traffic.
It must not, however, be imagined that the articles here described are to be found promiscuously in every Khan; on the contrary, the silk-merchants have their own peculiar rendezvous; the hyperbolic Persians pile their gold and silver stuffs apart; and the gebeli-dealers sort their various tobaccos in a caravanserai of their own;