CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NIGHT OF PREDESTINATION.
Constantinople in Ramazan — The Origin of the Fast — Nightly Illuminations — The Night of Predestination — The Golden Horn at Night — Illumination of the Shores — The Cannon of Constantinople — A Fiery Panorama — The Sultan's Caïque — Close of the Celebration — A Turkish Mob — The Dancing Dervishes.
"Skies full of splendid moons and shooting stars,
And spouting exhalations, diamond fires."
Keats.
Constantinople, Wednesday, July 14, 1852.
Constantinople, during the month of Ramazan, presents a very different aspect from Constantinople at other times. The city, it is true, is much more stern and serious during the day; there is none of that gay, careless life of the Orient which you see in Smyrna, Cairo, and Damascus; but when once the sunset gun has fired, and the painful fast is at an end, the picture changes as if by magic. In all the outward symbols of their religion, the Mussulmans show their joy at being relieved from what they consider a sacred duty. During the day, it is quite a science to keep the appetite dormant, and the people not only abstain from eating and drinking, but as much as possible from the sight of food. In the bazaars, you see the famished merchants either sitting, propped back against their cushions, with the shawl about their stomachs, tightened so as to prevent the void under it from being so sensibly felt, or lying at full length
