No one had
ventured to touch these; even in death she seemed able to protect
herself. At midnight her countryman and the missionary carried her
out by torchlight to a spot in the garden that had been formerly
her favourite resort, and here they buried the self-exiled lady. -
From "THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS," by Eliot Warburton.
Footnotes:
{1} A "compromised" person is one who has been in contact with
people or things supposed to be capable of conveying infection. As
a general rule the whole Ottoman Empire lies constantly under this
terrible ban. The "yellow flag" is the ensign of the quarantine
establishment.
{2} The narghile is a water-pipe upon the plan of the hookah, but
more gracefully fashioned; the smoke is drawn by a very long
flexible tube, that winds its snake-like way from the vase to the
lips of the beatified smoker.
{3} That is, if he stands up at all. Oriental etiquette would not
warrant his rising, unless his visitor were supposed to be at least
his equal in point of rank and station.
{4} The continual marriages of these people with the chosen
beauties of Georgia and Circassia have overpowered the original
ugliness of their Tatar ancestors.
{5} There is almost always a breeze either from the Marmora or
from the Black Sea, that passes along the course of the Bosphorus.
