All the while that I stayed at Constantinople the plague was
prevailing, but not with any degree of violence.
Its presence,
however, lent a mysterious and exciting, though not very pleasant,
interest to my first knowledge of a great Oriental city; it gave
tone and colour to all I saw, and all I felt - a tone and a colour
sombre enough, but true, and well befitting the dreary monuments of
past power and splendour. With all that is most truly Oriental in
its character the plague is associated; it dwells with the faithful
in the holiest quarters of their city. The coats and the hats of
Pera are held to be nearly as innocent of infection as they are
ugly in shape and fashion; but the rich furs and the costly shawls,
the broidered slippers and the gold-laden saddle-cloths, the
fragrance of burning aloes and the rich aroma of patchouli - these
are the signs that mark the familiar home of plague. You go out
from your queenly London - the centre of the greatest and strongest
amongst all earthly dominions - you go out thence, and travel on to
the capital of an Eastern Prince, you find but a waning power, and
a faded splendour, that inclines you to laugh and mock; but let the
infernal Angel of Plague be at hand, and he, more mighty than
armies, more terrible than Suleyman in his glory, can restore such
pomp and majesty to the weakness of the Imperial city, that if,
WHEN HE IS THERE, you must still go prying amongst the shades of
this dead empire, at least you will tread the path with seemly
reverence and awe.
It is the firm faith of almost all the Europeans living in the East
that Plague is conveyed by the touch of infected substances, and
that the deadly atoms especially lurk in all kinds of clothes and
furs. It is held safer to breathe the same air with a man sick of
the plague, and even to come in contact with his skin, than to be
touched by the smallest particle of woollen or of thread which may
have been within the reach of possible infection. If this be a
right notion, the spread of the malady must be materially aided by
the observance of a custom prevailing amongst the people of
Stamboul. It is this; when an Osmanlee dies, one of his dresses is
cut up, and a small piece of it is sent to each of his friends as a
memorial of the departed - a fatal present, according to the opinion
of the Franks, for it too often forces the living not merely to
remember the dead man, but to follow and bear him company.
The Europeans during the prevalence of the plague, if they are
forced to venture into the streets, will carefully avoid the touch
of every human being whom they pass. Their conduct in this respect
shows them strongly in contrast with the "true believers": the
Moslem stalks on serenely, as though he were under the eye of his
God, and were "equal to either fate"; the Franks go crouching and
slinking from death, and some (those chiefly of French extraction)
will fondly strive to fence out destiny with shining capes of
oilskin!
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