ed heartily at the discomfiture of his Frankish allies; and when we
asked him how he liked them, (for he understood Italian, though he could
not speak it,) making every sign of contempt, he spat upon the ground,
pronouncing the word Rusky; as much as to say, he spat in their faces,
and called them some very unpolite names in Turkish. But the Inglez--oh!
and then he shook our hands--they were good fellows, he liked them
exceedingly. When our midshipmen visited the Russians, they did not
offer them any refreshment; but on their arrival at the Turkish
encampment they were immediately taken to the officers' tent, and
regaled with ices, coffee, pipes, lemonade, &c.; and it was with
difficulty that they got away from their hospitable entertainers. When
it became dark, there came down a reinforcement of Cossacks, and after a
short chase the horses were caught. [Sidenote: RUSSIAN HORN BANDS.] The
Russian and Turkish bands play every evening for a couple of hours. The
latter also chant hymns at meal-time and at sunset; and the sound of so
many voices, pealing forth these solemn and beautiful airs, and swelling
and modulating as the breeze wafts them over the waves, diffuses over
the mind a sensation of tranquillity which it is difficult for language
to describe.

_Thursday, 23d._--Went to the other side of Pera, to visit a garden
established by a Frenchman for vegetables and the cultivation of the
vine. He makes a delicious wine from the Chious grape, called
Altintash, resembling the white lachryma of Vesuvius, but neither so
strong nor so highly flavoured. He also manufactures an effervescing
liquor, in imitation of champagne, but very inferior to that sparkling
elixir, of which many of the Turks are, in secret, decided worshippers.

[Sidenote: ANECDOTE.] This evening, while sitting under the cypresses
near the walls of Galata, upon the grass-covered tomb of an old Turk,
our guide, Guiseppino, amused us with some Venetian tales, of which the
following is a specimen:--"Many years since, there arrived in Venice a
traveller of commanding exterior, and very magnificently dressed. He
appeared exceedingly inquisitive respecting the curiosities of the city,
and spent all his time in visiting the palaces, the museums, cathedrals,
&c. One day, he called a gondolier, desiring that he might be carried to
the church of a certain saint. The boat accordingly plied through
several canals, and pulled up, at length, near the stairs of a church.