the other on the Asiatic, side of the Bosphorus. The former is more
frequented by the Greek and other Christian populations, while the
latter is chiefly resorted to by the higher classes among the Turks
and the veiled ladies of their hareems, and is often visited by the
sultan himself.

To the Asiatic Sweet Waters you must go by boat, or rather by
_caique_, a peculiar little frail cockle-shell of a conveyance, rowed
by the most truculent-looking and unmitigated ruffians, Turkish
or Grecian, to be found on any waters or in any land, Christian or
heathen. Picturesque in costume and exceedingly ragged and dirty,
with the most cut-throat expression of face possible to conceive of,
when you entrust your person and purse to their tender mercies you
involuntarily remember with satisfaction that you insured your life
for a good round sum before leaving your native country, and that this
is one of the risks it covers.

To the European Sweet Waters you may go by carriage, but if wise will
go there also by caique; for even the corduroy roads of our Southern
country, so famous for their dislocating qualities, can be paralleled
by the so-called road over which once (and once only), for our sins,
we suffered ourselves to be shaken, not driven. It is the fashion at
Constantinople to visit the Asiatic Sweet Waters only on Friday (the
Mussulman Sabbath), and the European Sweet Waters on Sunday; and
on those days all that may be seen of Turkish ladies is on full
exhibition.

If you select the Asiatic Sweet Waters for your visit, you go down to
the wharf at Tophane, where the rival boatmen (caiquejees) raise as
loud a din and make as fierce a fight for your person and piastres as