s, not settled into a Turkish gravity. His
beard was long and hoary, and such a one as any other Turk would have
been proud of; nevertheless, he, who was more occupied in attending
to his guests than himself, neither gazed at it, smelt it, nor
stroked it, according to the custom of his countrymen, when they seek
to fill up the pauses in conversation. He was not dressed with the
usual magnificence of dignitaries of his degree, except that his high
turban, composed of many small rolls, was of golden muslin, and his
yataghan studded with diamonds.

He was civil and urbane in the entertainment of his guests, and
requested them to consider themselves as his children. It was on
this occasion he told Lord Byron, that he discovered his noble blood
by the smallness of his hands and ears: a remark which has become
proverbial, and is acknowledged not to be without truth in the
evidence of pedigree.

The ceremonies on such visits are similar all over Turkey, among
personages of the same rank; and as Lord Byron has not described in
verse the details of what took place with him, it will not be
altogether obtrusive here to recapitulate what happened to myself
during a visit to Velhi Pasha, the son of Ali: he was then Vizier of
the Morea, and residing at Tripolizza.

In the afternoon, about four o'clock, I set out for the seraglio with
Dr Teriano, the Vizier's physician, and the Vizier's Italian
secretary. The gate of the palace was not unlike the entrance to
some of the closes in Edinburgh, and the court within reminded me of
Smithfield, in London; but it was not surrounded by such lofty
buildings, nor in any degree of comparison so well constructed. We
ascended a ruinous staircase, which led to an open gallery, where
three or four hundred of the Vizier's Albanian guards were lounging.
In an antechamber, which opened from the gallery, a number of
officers were smoking, and in the middle, on the floor, two old Turks
were seriously engaged at chess.

My name being sent in to the Vizier, a guard of ceremony was called,
and after they had arranged themselves in the presence chamber, I was
admitted. The doctor and the secretary having, in the meantime,
taken off their shoes, accompanied me in to act as interpreters.

The presence chamber was about forty feet square, showy and handsome:
round the walls were placed sofas, which, from being covered with
scarlet, reminded me of the woolsacks in the House of Lords. In the
farthe