pretty vessels called 'Caiques.' They rest so lightly on the water,
that you are never certain of being 'safely stowed.' The rowers are
splendid-looking fellows from two to four in number, each man with
two light sculls, and they sit lightly on thwarts on the same level
with the gunwale of the caique. Their costume is beautiful; the head
covered with the crimson tarbouche, and the long silk tassel
dangling over the shoulders; a loose vest of striped silk and
cotton, fine as gauze, with wide open collar, and loose flowing
sleeves; a brilliant-colored shawl envelops the waist, and huge
folds of Turkish trousers extend to the knee; the leg is bare, and a
yellow slipper finishes the fanciful costume. In the aft part of
this caique is the space allotted for the 'fare,' a
crimson-cushioned little divan[3] in the bottom of the boat, in
which two persons can lounge comfortably. The finish of the caique
is often extraordinary--finest fret-work and moulding, carved and
modelled as for Cleopatra. The caiques of the Sultan are the richest
boats in the world, and probably the most rapid and easy. They are
manned by twenty or thirty oarsmen, and the embellishment, and
conceits of ornament are superb. Nothing can exceed the delightful
sensation of the motion; and the skill of the rowers in swiftly
turning, and avoiding contact with the myriads of caiques is
astonishing. My next scrap is about the Hellespont,[4] situated
between the Sea of Marmora and the Archipelago: it is broader at the
mouth than at any other part; about half-way up, the width is not
more than a mile, and the effect is more like a superb river than a
strait; its length of forty-three miles should also give it a better
claim to the title of a river. In the year 1810, on the 10th of May,
Lord Byron accompanied by a friend, a lieutenant on board the
'Salsette,' swam across the Hellespont, from Abydos to Sestos, a
distance of four miles; but this was more than the breadth of the