This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter iii. the "menu" of A princely breakfast. The palace of Salih-Bazar is admirably situated on the sea-shore, exactly facing the entrance of the port of Constantinople. One of its fronts look upon the road leading from Top-hane" to the palace of Dolma-Batche; another faces the sea of Marmora, and snow-covered Olympus looms in the distance like the spectre of the dead gods of paganism. On the right rises the Old Seraglio, with the cupolas of its mosks and the needles of its minarets mingled with tall cypresses; on the left, the double shores of Europe and Asia enclose the Bosphorus as far as the Black Sea; and in the centre of this gorgeous frame so marvellously sculptured by nature, so richly gilded by the sun, crowds of barks, ca'iks, and white-winged vessels glide swiftly over the blue water. What a picture for a poetic soul! Blessed must be the women who dwell behind the grated windows which command a view without its equal in the world! Although not a cormorant, that privileged Bosphorus bird which makes its nest over the sculptured windows of the palace and on the capitals of its columns, the reader may penetrate into the very chamber of Her Highness Alieh-Sultana, the august mistress of Salih-Bazar. One afternoon in the month of Sapher (corresponding in that year to February), she was seated lost in thought, her idle fingers toying with the amber beads of her chaplet.1 A few slaves leaning with folded arms against the door-posts or squatting upon the Smyrna carpet dared not interrupt the silence of their haughty mistress. The winter's cold was hardly felt in this large room hung with Broussa silk and heated by a beautifully-chased brass mangal, in the shape of a vase set on a pedestal, containing glowing coals whence arose the...