through the narrow, dirty streets, we returned to the Golden Horn. I do
not wonder, after what I have seen of this part of Stamboul, that the
cholera made such ravages here a few years since. I should think it
would remain a constant scourge. Calling a caïque, we were rowed up the
Golden Horn to the Sweet Waters, but its tide floated only our own boat,
and the banks lacked the attraction of the gay groups which render the
place so lively on Fridays. We were served with coffee by a Turk who
with his little brasier of coals was waiting under a wide-spreading tree
for any chance visitor, and after a short stroll on the bank opposite
the sultan's pretty palace we floated gently down the stream till we
reached the Golden Horn again. On a large meadow near the mouth of the
Sweet Waters some Arabs were camped with an immense flock of sheep. They
had brought them there to shear and wash the wool in the fresh water,
and the ground was covered with large quantities of beautiful long
fleece. The shepherds in their strange mantles and head-dresses looked
very picturesque as they spread the wool and tended their flocks. Our
_caïquegee_, as the oarsman of a caïque is called, ought not to be
overlooked. His costume was in keeping with his pretty caïque, which was
painted a delicate straw-color and had white linen cushions. He was a
tall, finely-built fellow, a Cretan or Bulgarian I should think, for he
looked too wide awake for a Turk. The sun had burned his olive
complexion to the deepest brown, and his black eyes and white teeth when
he smiled lighted up his intelligent face, making him very handsome. He
wore a turban, loose shirt with hanging sleeves and voluminous trousers,
all of snowy whiteness. A blue jacket embroidered with gilt braid was in
readiness to put on when he stopped rowing. It must have taken a ruinous
amount of material to make those trousers. They were full at the waist
and knee, and before seating himself to his oars he gracefully threw the
extra amount of the fullness which drooped behind over the wide seat as
a lady spreads out her overskirt.