palace of the Grand Seignior, on the Bosphorus.

The state of the springs is sometimes such as to make it necessary to regulate the consumption of water. Visiting different hydraulic works, in particular the Long Aqueduct, and the aqueduct of Justinian, we perceived that, for want of keeping in repair, a great waste of the water occurs. This leakage, besides, will bring along with it the dilapidation of these noble structures. The Turks think not of the ravages of time; their own existence is so uncertain, so precarious! They construct, but they are little careful to preserve. The dependents, eager to grasp the receipts of to-day, avert the sums appropriated for the repairs of these works; they thus deceive the government, and, when at length some repairs are unavoidable, these same dependents are in their turn deceived by the khalfa (Greek, Armenian, or Jewish architects), who intentionally introduce some defect into the works, that they may the sooner be called again to repair them. A most respectable individual, M. Ruffin, who will not soon be forgotten in the Levant, a détenu at the Seven Towers during our expedition to Egypt, remarked to the khalfa of that castle, that it was singular the house of the dizdar, or commandant, should be built of wood, whilst the ruins of four towers, fallen through decay, offered building materials of stone suitable for a superior and more convenient dwelling. The khalfa entreated M. Ruffin not to speak of it, from compassion to him as the father of a family, who drew his livelihood from the annual repairs of this house.

CHAPTER IV.

The Aqueduct of Valens. STANDING in Constantinople, in the defile between the third and fourth hills, is the aqueduct of Valens; a beautiful edifice constructed of hewn stone, the appearance of which is most imposing. It was originally formed of two tiers of arches: a part of those of the upper story were destroyed, to give a view of the royal Mosque Chèh-Zadè, subsequently constructed. It however, in its present mutilated state, conveys the streams collected on the higher part of the counterfort, dividing the western valley of the Fresh Water from the Sea of Marmora. But instead of a direct and regular conduit, conduits on souterazi have been

substituted, and a tak çim has been created at the western extremity of the aqueduct; its use is to subdivide the water supplied from the springs of Kalkali, the greater part of which is conveyed to the seraglio of the Grand Seignior. This water always limpid and pure, is more particularly intended for the use of the Harem.

The length of what remains of the aqueduct of Valens is three hundred and fourteen fathoms, and its height eleven fathoms four feet. The length of the whole fabric may be reckoned at least at six hundred fathoms.

The higher part of this aqueduct commands the two valleys that terminate, the one at the Sea of Marmora, whose waves are discernible, and the other at the port. These valleys, covered with an immense number of houses, standing among the large trees, with which the gardens in the interior of the city are planted, present one of the most beautiful prospects in Constantinople. It is heightened, in every direction, by a perspective of the public buildings of the captital and its suburbs, rising in an amphitheatre beyond the port. To have a good view of the position and extent of the aqueduct of Valens, one ought to stop half-way down the hill, descending the Echelle-desMorts, near the outer wall of Galata, to the west of this suburb. The flight of stairs just mentioned is that where the Turks embark the dead bodies to convey them to the great cemetery of Scutari, on the Asiatic coast.

The aqueduct of Valens, built at first by Hadrian, before the foundation of Constantinople, rebuilt by Valens, destroyed by the Avarians, during the reign of Heraclius, again restored by Constantine Iconoclastes, was, according to M. le Chevalier, once more entirely rebuilt by Solyman the Magnificent.

This last assertion appears not to be well founded; for in the aqueduct of Valens is remarked a part more ancient, but of better construction than the new. This latter has had so little care taken of it that it is fallen into ruins; it was not, besides, constructed on the same plan as the older part, whose arcades are Gothic arched; whilst those of the new are round arched.

The period of the construction of the aqueduct of Valens can be ascertained with sufficient accuracy.

Ladder, steps (iskèle). By this name are designated the different points appropriated to landing from vessels and boats.

Valens was raised to the empire in 364. Historians assert that this emperor, having ordered the demolition of Chalcedonia, to punish the city for the part it took in the revolt of Procobius, decided that the stones from the ruins should be used for an aqueduct to convey water to Constantinople for the use of its inhabitants; and that an oracle had foretold that, after this demolition, the barbarians should be defeated. This event took place in 368, and the death of Procobius had occurred two years before. There is reason then to fix the first construction of the aqueduct of Valens between the years 366 and 368. The oracle alluded to was contained in the following inscription, related by Zonarus (a Greek historian and monk of the twelfth century), found, according to this author, in destroying the walls of Chalcedonia:

"When the nymphs shall form dances in the liquid element in the midst of the city-when they shall play together in the public squares-when the reverberating walls shall enclose the circumference of the baths, then shall appear swarms of divers barbarous nations. These cruel tribes, proud of their brute strength, having passed the Ister (Danube), shall ravage Moesia and Scythia; but when without other support than their audacious hopes, and, led away by their irresistible destiny, they shall have put foot on the soil of Thrace-death awaits them."

Constantinople having been supplied with water for the baths and other uses, great rejoicings were held in acknowledgment of the benefit: the basin which received the water, constructed in the Square of Theodosius by Clearchus, then prefect of the city, took the name of Dapsilehydor, or Abundant Water. Valens built likewise for the public, thermae, or warm baths, finished in 375, and to which he gave the name of his daughter Carosa.

at least on traditionary practices giving definite results. Such a body, however, exists at Constantinople, and to it is entrusted the charge of collecting, conveying, and distributing the water necessary for the wants and conveniences of life.

The body of Sou-Yoldji is at present composed of three hundred Turks, taken from the inhabitants of the capital, and about a hundred Greek Albanese, chosen exclusively from certain families of the canton of Drinopolis in Epirus, of which Argyro-Castro is the capital, and distinguished by the denomination of Loundjidès, or inhabitants of the district of Riza, in the canton of Loundjiara. They expatriate themselves, to exercise at Constantinople, and in the principal cities of the Ottoman empire, the trade of Sou-Yoldji. This industrious tribe appear to be of Greek origin, although speaking spontaneously the "Schrype:" their works have been known in Epirus from remote antiquity; for to them is ascribed, though without proofs, the honour of having constructed the aqueducts and canal that formerly carried the waters from Saint George to Nicopolis. But it is beyond dispute, that to them is due the building of the aqueduct of three hundred and sixty-six arches, that brought the water from springs across an arm of the sea to the citadel of Saint Maura, during the period when the Turks were masters of Leucadia. Under the Greek Emperors, the Loundjides found themselves in the sole possession of the privilege of being conduitmakers in the capital; and the Ottomans who afterwards employed them, continued to them certain rights which they still enjoy.

No Greek Albanese can be chosen in preference to the Loundjides for the office of conduit maker, which always passes from father to son. If the son inheriting the post, be not old enough to exercise the craft, the company name a guardian for him, until he shall be of sufficient years. When a conduit maker dies, leaving behind him no son, the company is then authorised to sell the place, and the purchase money, generally as much as four or five hundred pounds, is placed at the disposal of his widow, for the benefit of herself and her other children.

The conduit makers by a Hatti-sherif are exempted from paying the poll-tax. The inspector of the water works, upon whom alone they are dependent, furnishes them with a written protection

that frees them from imposts; an advantage which the other rayahs do not enjoy This Hatti-sherif was granted as far back as the time of Sultan Murad the Fourth, the conqueror of Bagdad; hé bestowed it in favour of several conduit makers of Upper Albania, who following in the train of his army during his expedition, rendered him valuable services. The Sou-Nazari, or Inspector of the Water-works, is named by the Grand Seignior; he is generally chosen from among the subaltern officers of the palace. His annual salary is three thousand piastres. He has in addition the revenues and command of twelve villages, in which the works belonging to the water-conduits are situated. The Sou- Nazari has no connexion with the district entrusted to his administration. The Greek conduit-makers do not themselves receive any theoretical instruction; but rules and traditionary practices are inherited by oral transmission in their families. What they know, they know well; they explain their ideas with much clearness, and operate upon the soil with equal dexterity and exactness.

The Greeks of Argyro-Castro whom we have mentioned, had preserved from father to son, from time immemorial, traditions respecting conduits on souterazi. The Turks subsequently imitated them, and established themselves as conduit makers and miners, rather to profit by the revenues of these officers, than for the execution of great structures. The works done under the Turkish emperors unite both classes of conduits; those of aqueducts on arches, and of souterazi; the water conduit from Baghtche-Keuïu to Pera is an instance of this. But the Greek families of Argyro-Castro remain equally in possession of the means to concur in the erection of works of this kind in the capital; and it is still to individuals of these families that the charge is entrusted of constructing the water-conduits presenting the greatest difficulties. Under the Greek emperors, the general system of the water-conduits was completed by the use in Constantinople of cisterns, of which one only still communicates with the primitive water-conduit of Belgrade and Aïvat-Bendi, whilst the rest are either deserted, or alienated to other purposes than that of the conservation of the water. These cisterns are constructions of a higher order, not less interesting than the Bend, the Aqueducts, the Takçim, and other structures distinguishing the remarkable system of water

works for the supply of the capital of the Ottoman empire, and its suburbs beyond the port. Bedford.

B. E. M.

A NIGGER WEDDING AT BERMUDA.

LAST Sunday (says Miss Lloyd in her sketches of Bermuda), I witnessed the amusing ceremony of a negro wedding; and as the parties were well known, many of their kinsfolk came to have a peep. The bride was attended by à train of paranymphas, all attired in transparent muslin dresses; and the glimmering of their black arms had a strange effect amid the profusion of white satin ribbons, flowers, etc. There was such a display of white gloves and favours-such shifting of sides-such crowding around the bride to enjoy the privilege of ungloving such whimsical blunders between the right hand and the left, that, though I wished the good people all possible felicity, I could with difficulty preserve my gravity, especially when the bridegroom, in a very hearty tone, cried out, "I Cupid take thee Venus for my wedded wife!" Though these names had now become familiar to my ear, the effect of this association was more ludicrous than I can describe. A wedding is quite a grand affair among the negroes, and the women are at infinite pains to dress themselves in the most becoming fashion. Poor Blanche, who, I must tell you, is as black as jet, was found by her mistress, on her bridal morning, standing before the glass, and reviewing the labours of her toilet with intense interest. She seemed pleased with the effect of a bunch of red coral flowers which were placed beneath her bonnet, and once more adjusting the folds of her long white veil, was about to retire, when turning round, she exclaimed, with a desponding air, “ Ah! how beautiful I should be if I were white!" Marriages are not published by banns, and the poorest persons must have a license, for which it is necessary to apply to the governor. They are commonly celebrated in the evening, and most frequently at the house of the bride. The marriage of a great heiress with the colonial secretary, which has just taken place, was, however, contrary to the usual fashion, performed at church. There are two or three rich heiresses in Bermuda, but the people in general are not opulent; for all the wealth of the colony is in the hands of four or five individuals, who made large fortunes during the last war.

2

GENERAL ALLARD'S PILGRIMAGE TO THE EAST.

FROM THE FRENCH.

(For the Parterre).

For the last month, General Allard has been the theme of conversation in the Parisian salons. The daily papers, and the reviews have given to public curiosity, a number of peculiarities of this astonishing man, who has carried the French name and flag to the centre of the Indian continent.

There arrives in Paris, every now and then, some eastern personage, who absorbs the attention of this great city, always so eager to listen to, and to see all that come from afar. In the reign of Louis XIV, a Persian ambassador arrived, who dazzled all Versailles, and even turned, for a moment, the public attention from one of Corneille's chefs d'œuvre. When Orientals have been wanting for Parisian curiosity, authors have been found who have invented

them; and the public has then granted to these imaginary heroes the same favour which it did to the real ones. Voltaire's Usbeck, and Ricca de Montesquieu ; his Zadig and Princess of Babylon, enriched the publishers, and caused an innumerable family of rather awkwardly imitated Persians and Babylonians to spring up. Galand has lulled us sweetly to sleep with those fables he relates so well: thanks to him, we have had dreams, sparkling with precious stones; we have known Asia before we knew France; the caliphs of Bagdad, before the magistrates of our own department; and have visited the wives of the Sultan of Cashmere on descending from the winged horse. On leaving college, our first friendship was given to Nourredin Ali and Bedreddin Hassan. All this explains clearly enough, why in 1825 the oriental, Sidi Mahmoud, obtained so much notice when he shewed off his turban at the Basilique at RheimsParis loves the East; and for want of Bagdad, she is contented with Tunis. We owe to this frivolous passion the preservation of our conquest in Africa:

it is a shred of the East which Paris holds in her hand. Should railroads or steam be brought a little more to perfection, it would require but two days to bind together the towers of NotreDame and the Minarets; the city magistrates and the cadis. The North has always had a great predilection for the East-it is the order of nature. The North has only her aurora borealis: the East has her sun. Light never came from the North, although the North has said, in her vanity, Those that have enlightened the world have turned, like the planet Mercury, within the rays of the sun."-Moses, Confucius, Zoroaster, Homer, Mahomet! honour to him then, who comes from the East!

In the last century, the ladies of rank used to say, "How can one be a Persian?" We know now that it is easier to be a Persian than to turn Indian, like General Allard. In my opinion, his is the most wonderful of all cotemporary dramas. The Lahorite General has seen our theatres and our melodramas of Paris; his motto was that of Lord Bolingbroke-niladmirari. In fact, what could he be astonished at? "I pass from one dream to another," he would say to me sometimes, in his Provençal idiom; "but I know I do not sleep." It is really enough to confuse you to think that the fate of Lahore, perhaps of India itself, is bound up in a bloody scene acted in 1815, at an inn at Avignon. Allard was a brave and intelligent officer. Marshal Brune was assassinated at his side. Allard heard the noise of the brigands' steps, who were seeking for him also; he was saved by the devoted affection of his host, a soldier of the Italian army; he escaped from this bloody Avignon, where the murder of a marshal was only concealed by giving his corpse a watery grave. He arrives in Paris to demand justice and protection; in answer, he receives an order to leave Paris immediately. Allard then understood that France was no longer his country; he takes the first road which offers, and commences his march; any roof will afford him protection. There are not two Avignons. He soon after found himself in Egypt, and the Arab offered him milk beneath his tent. "The old soldiers of Mourad-Bey lived as brothers with the soldier of Napoleon. The fellahs of the Nile are more humane than the green uniforms of the Rhone. Soon, his travelling mania urges him to take up his staff, and mount his knapsack, and, not long afterwards, the exile

of Avignon stops before an immense city, which rose to his view like a vast amphitheatre, piercing the azure firmament with its spires and cupolas; a magnificent bay watering its feet. And there, darts upward the spire of many an aerial kiosk, kept cool by its Persian blinds, and shadowed by the palm treeit is Constantinople. Our pilgrim looks upon Stamboul as but an inn on the high road of the world; he will walk on, like Regnard, as long as the universe fails not beneath his feet-ubi deficit orbis. Persia smiles on him-he is now in the odoriferous avenue-a slip of those sandy deserts which lead to the lovely Hindostan. He breakfasts on the melancholy ruins of Persepolis; on dates, and water from the rock, like Paul and Macarius, the hermits of the desert. But he is still too near France. The traveller crosses the Himalayan mountains, seeking still some more mysterious city, where he may relate our glory, and deposit his conquered eagles. One evening, when he felt fatigued, for Asia is very large, he perceived on the horizon a town, girt about with walls, standing in a plain as verdant as a beautiful garden

it was the capital of Punjaub, the kingdom of the Five Rivers-it was Lahore, which commands the Indus, the Hydaspes or Djelim, the Tchenab, the Ravi, and the Sutledje. The wonderful fertility of this country made our pilgrim from France rejoice; this corner of the world invited him to rest; he pitched on the banks of the Ravi the stakes of his imperial tent, and slept. On awaking, a genius crowned with rays, conducted him by the hand before a throne all dazzling with carbuncles; an Indian king gave him his sword, with one of his daughters; the Arabian tales were beginning to be realized; one night more was added to the Thousand and One-our tricolor flag had served, instead of the wonderful lamp, to the new Aladdin.

A soldier of the Empire alone could reach so high, so singular a summit of fortune. The soldier of Napoleon was accustomed to look on the globe as his property; he knew that he should everywhere find attentive ears and friendly hands, by giving as his pass-word-Napoleon! he knew that the names of Marengo and Austerlitz had been translated into the polar languages, on the icebergs of Eaheinomauwe, and of Tavaï Poënammoo, those two islands of New Zealand, the boundary of the universe. With this right confidence in his heart