Emperor is a god upon eart

Then, surveying the city’s situation, the movement of ships coming and going, the splendid fortifications, the crowded population made up of various nationalities, like streams coming from different directions to gush from the same fountain, the well-ordered troops, he exclaimed, “ Verily, the Emperor is a god upon earth; whoso lifts a hand against him is guilty of his own blood.” Upon the death of Athanaric, which occurred about a fortnight after he reached Constantinople, Theodosius buried the body of his guest with royal honours in the Church of the Holy Apostles, and, by this act of chivalrous courtesy, bound the Goths more firmly to his side.

The barbarians, however, were by no means the only disturbers of the peace of the Empire with whom Theodosius found it necessary to deal. Society in the Roman world was distracted by the conflict between pagans and Christians on the one hand, and by the keener strife between Christian sects on the other, and it was the ambition of Theodosius to calm these troubled waters.

Empire was comparatively an easy task

For this laudable end he employed the questionable means of edicts for the violent suppression of heathenism and heresy. To destroy the old faith of the Empire was comparatively an easy task, although it involved him in a war with the pagan party in the West But to uproot the tares of heresy was a more formidable undertaking; they were so numerous, vigorous, and difficult to distinguish from the true wheat For the space of forty years, the views of Arius on the Person of Christ had prevailed in Constantinople, and the churches of the city were in the hands of that theological party.

Only in one small chapel, the Church of Anastasia, was the Creed of Nicaea upheld there by Gregory of Nazianzus, and despite his eloquence he was a voice crying in the wilderness. But Theodosius, having been won over to the Nicene Creed, determined to make it the creed of the State.

History of electrification

That was mainly due to the increased share of industry, mainly due to the high energy-intensive character of metallurgical and chemical industries.

Industry

The other economic branches, such as transport, communications, agriculture and construction, had a small share in electricity consumption. The Bulgarian railways electrification started in 1963 and all main railways were electrified during the years that followed.

It is worth noting that by the end of the period reviewed (1970) all settlements in the country had been electrified. 5298 population centers (93.9%), giving residence to 99.6% of the Bulgarian population, were electrified.

In terms of operation, at the beginning of the fifties a dis-patching service was created. Over the years that fol-lowed, it developed at three levels: National Dispatching Center in Sofia, regional dispatching centers (Sofia, Plovdiv and Gorna Oryahovitsa), and district dispatching units at the electricity supply enterprises and their branches. An automatic dispatching service and a telecommunication system covered 35 of the most important sites. Automatic frequency control system and exchange capacity control system were modeled.

By 1970, with the overall electrification of the country, the daily load curve of the electrification system consid-erably changed by seasons and time of the day.

The ratio between maximum and minimum loads signifi-cantly increased. In December 1970 the average monthly load minimum was 48°/o of the maximum, and the average annual load was about 40%. That necessitated the construction of load-following power plants, including pumped-storage hydro power plants.

Load curves on typical days in August and December I 971

During the reviewed period 1948-1970 the electrification in Bulgaria developed at a considerably high rate thanks to the following four main factors:

1.Nationalization of electrification.

2.Increasing the number of graduates of the State Technical University-engineers and architects of all specialties, as well as opening of technical schools for technicians training.

3.Faster development of national electrical industry in order to meet the requirements of the country and exports to other countries.

4.Establishment of Energoproject in 1948 – research institute of project investigations and engineering design. This institute became the center for training experts not only for the Bulgarian electrification, but for project engineering and construction abroad, as well. A number of other specialized research institutes also appeared in that field, closely connected with electrification, such as the Research and Design Institute of Electrical Industry, Techenergo.

Bulgarian hands and Bulgarian attacks

The strategic value of Yeles was fully appreciated by the Bulgarian commanders, and heavy reinforcements were evidently poured into the Yardar trench at that point. All efforts of the Allied armies failed to achieve their purpose; Yeles remained in Bulgarian hands and Bulgarian attacks on the poorly equipped Serbs defending Katchanik gorge proceeded without serious interruption. When it became apparent that the Katchanik position could not long be held, the Serbian armies at the north and east fell back toward the Ipek basin, while those farther south retired on the Monastir basin.

All danger to the Teutonic occupation of the Morava- Yardar trench north of Yeles was thus removed, and the remainder of the campaign consisted in squeezing the remnants of the shattered Serb forces and their Montenegrin allies westward through Albania and southward through Montenegro to the sea; and in driving the Anglo-French army and the Serbs near Monastir back upon the Saloniki defenses. The first of these movements progressed with exceeding slowness because of the difficult character of the country; and the terrors of the Serbian retreat over rugged mule paths and through wild mountain gorges in the cold and snow of winter can scarcely be imagined. But from the standpoint of strategic geography the second movement alone merits special consideration.

Yardar valley toward Veles

When the French and English pushed up the Yardar valley toward Veles they seized as their base for a great armed camp the triangle of mountainous ground lying between the Yardar Biver and one of its tributaries known as the Tsrna, the latter a stream which must not be confused with the river of same name emptying into the Trinok in northeastern Serbia. The position had certain topographic advantages which enabled it to be held for a long time in the face of superior forces; but suffered from one serious disadvantage which ultimately compelled its evacuation. Both the mountain ridges and the river trenches afforded admirable natural defenses. The gorge of the Tsrna is steepsided and the stream unfordable.

The only practicable bridge, a few miles above the river’s mouth, was destroyed by the French after they had failed in an effort to move westward and join the Serbs, who were fighting at Babuna Pass to prevent the Bulgars from getting into Monastir basin. For defensive purposes the larger Yardar Biver, protecting the east side of the triangle, was strategically important, because it is both wide and unfordable and its valley is steepsided,—in one place a veritable gorge.

Napkin carried by the same person twice

I said everything I could to testify my gratitude, and presented him at the same time with a remarkable telescope, with which he was very much delighted ; the more so, as he had lately broken the only one in his possession, and had not had an opportunity of replacing it. I likewise presented him with a pistol which from its peculiar construction could fire seven balls one after another, with one loading; it cost me one hundred guineas. But Capitan Pasha, not wishing to be behind hand with me in point of generosity, sent me the following day a most beautiful pelice, and a whole bottle of otto de rose, which in England as well as in Turkey is worth four hundred pounds, as it required no less than twelve acres of roses to produce that quantity.

We were then served by a vast number of attendants with fifty different kinds of refreshments, such as cakes, sweetmeats, etc. Each article was served by a different servant, all dressed in the richest robes of embroidered satin : another slave carried an embroidered muslin napkin richly ornamented with gold and silver fringe and spangles : nor was a napkin carried by the same person twice, and this was changed as often as a different kind of sweetmeats was offered ; this sort of luxury being carried so far that we were not permitted even to wipe ourselves a second time with the same napkin. There could not be less than two hundred attendants, all armed with a fine case of pistols, and a sabre large and sharp enough to cut off the head of an ox.

After this procession of sweetmeats, coffee was served, and then otto of roses to perfume the beard. Pipes came afterwards, and I having by this time learned to smoke, shewed myself quite an adept in the art. Having stayed about an hour and a quarter, we took our leave and asked permission to see the Pasha’s stables, which he readily granted, and which was considered as the greatest honour he could pay us ; as the Turks, among other superstitious notions, firmly believe that if a Christian cast his eyes on their children and horses, the two principal objects of their affection and attention, they are thereby exposed to the danger of losing their eyes.

Assistance of ropes

We descended from this first great apartment, by the assistance of ropes, about sixty fathoms lower, where we landed ourselves in nearly the same kind of chamber we had left above. Having provided ourselves with straw, we had it lighted, and in a few moments the whole place was illuminated. Reversed pyramids of petrified water, thirty and forty feet in length, hanging from the ceiling everywhere, and reflecting the light in different colours, had the most beautiful appearance, and struck the imagination with the most sublime ideas. The air still retained its salubrity, and the only unpleasant circumstance that occurred to us was the number of bats, which everywhere flew against us and interrupted our solitary meditations.

We remained in this second chamber till all our straw was consumed, and then proceeded on our journey by the help of ropes which were fastened at the entrance. We descended almost perpendicularly fifty fathoms. I now began to find my body rather heavy for my arms to support much longer ; and with some impatience asked my guide below me whether we should soon get to the bottom. He answered me that we had already reached it. I made haste to follow him, and soon found myself on my legs. I remained some time panting for breath and much exhausted. As soon as my friend W— had joined me, the rest of the party having already deserted us, we proceeded to the spot which our guide informed us was the bottom.

This last apartment was not half the size of the other two, and the crystallizations had totally altered their form. Instead of the long petrified icicles, the whole ceiling and sides of this chamber appeared covered with large bunches of grapes, of different colours, red, white and blue, as exact as if the fruit itself had been hung up everywhere. I broke off several, and have kept them since as a great curiosity.

Our guide now told us that we had seen all that was worth visiting, and advised us, on account of the foulness of the air, to go no lower. I asked him if he had ever known anyone to have gone farther. He said he had himself gone about twenty feet lower, and afterwards found it impossible to proceed, as the passage became too small for a man’s body. I was however determined to go on, and lighting a new torch, I ordered him to lead the way. We descended with much difficulty, as the air began to be quite mephitic. Our torches went out, but happily we had left a large flambeau burning at the entrance of the second cave, which my guide was obliged to fetch, leaving me all the time in the dark. I began to be much incommoded with the damp, as we were in the most violent heat, occasioned by the hard exercise of lowering ourselves by ropes.

Greater abundance

I saw nothing here so curious as what we left some hundred feet above our heads : the crystallizations were smaller, and the water in greater abundance, dropping from all quarters. Our guide was pressing us to return, when I perceived a small aperture, which he wished to prevent my seeing. I asked him why he had not shewn it. He said that no one had ever been lower, except the two soldiers, who two years ago, had attempted to force themselves into this hole ; that, indeed, they had succeeded in getting in, but never found their way back.

On examining the size of the hole, I thought it sufficiently large for the dimensions of my body. I thrust my head and shoulders into it medicine and art, and perceived that at the distance of five or six feet it took a different direction, and appeared to go perpendicularly downwards. I ascertained this fact by throwing my torch into it, which disappeared suddenly : we heard it for some seconds falling with a hollow noise, which at last subsided, and on looking into the hole, I perceived a very clear light at a great distance. I was therefore determined to endeavour to proceed a little farther, and if possible to go to the bottom.

When we examined our rope we found that we had only about the sixth part of the two hundred fathoms remaining. I fixed it round my shoulders and between my legs, and began to let myself down : the hole grew so small that it required much strength and resolution to proceed. I did not lose courage, but forcing myself forward I found I was, after a struggle of a few minutes, as low as the torch, and to my great surprise at the bottom, where no human being had ever yet been.

Supplementing and completing Whaley’s

The second additional MS. has an interest and importance of quite another kind, being an independent account of the Journey to Jerusalem written by Capt. Hugh Moore, Buck Whaley’s travelling companion from Gibraltar to the Holy City, and from thence back to Dublin. This MS. was written on board ship, as the writer mentions, and it has been preserved in the author’s family ever since. Mr. H. Armytage Moore, of Rowal lane, co. Down, the grandson of the writer, has generously lent it to me for the purpose of supplementing and completing Whaley’s own account of this portion of the Memoirs.

A peculiar value is given to this MS. by the fact that in it there is no attempt to conceal the names of the persons with whom the travellers came in contact ; and with its assistance I have been enabled to fill up a large number of blanks which occur in Whaley’s narrative, or to confirm conjectural additions which I had already made from other sources of information. Some extracts from the original will be found in the Appendix. It commences at Gibraltar on the 6th November, 1788, and covers much the same ground as Whaley’s journal as far as St. Jean d’Acre on the return journey from Jerusalem. Here it comes to an end somewhat abruptly. That it is incomplete is shown by the interesting Itinerary which is found on one of its last pages, and which contains a resume of the entire journey, with dates and distances, from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from thence to Dublin.

Quite different from Whaley’s

The language used in this journal of Capt. Moore is quite different from Whaley’s ; but now and again there are passages which show that one of the writers must have copied from the other, or that both had incorporated material derived from a common source. Moore’s account of Constantinople, its public buildings, antiquities, and other objects of interest, occupying some forty pages of the MS., is all in French, transcribed, as he says himself, from “ an Itineraire ” made by Mons. Grand, “ a young Frenchman of observation ” to whom he had been introduced by Sir Robert Ainslie, the British Ambassador at the time.

By way of explanation for its insertion, he states that he had himself been prevented from getting more than a cursory view of the Turkish capital owing to his constant attendance upon his comrade Whaley, who was an invalid during most of the time they spent there. Whaley’s own description of much that he saw in Constantinople must necessarily have been derived largely from second-hand information, as he was obviously less able to go about the city than Capt. Moore.

People to Christianity

Ultimately he was defeated; then followed the conversion of his people to Christianity, which for a period restrained their barbarous rapacity; after this, for two centuries, they were under the yoke and bondage of the Tartars; but the prophecy, or rather the omen, remains, and the whole world has learned to acquiesce in the probability of its fulfilment. The wonder rather is, that that fulfilment has been so long delayed. The Russians, whose wishes would inspire their hopes, are not solitary in their anticipations: the historian, from ‘ whom I have borrowed this sketch of their past attempts, writing at the end of last century, records his own Gibbon.

expectation of the event. “ Perhaps,” he says, “ the present generation may yet behold the accomplishment of a . . . prediction, of which the style is unambiguous ana^unquestionable”. The Turks themselves have long been under the shadow of its influence; even as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, when they were powerful, and Austria and Poland also, and Russia distant and comparatively feeble, a traveller tells us, that “ of all the princes of Christendom, there was none whom the Turks so much feared, as the Czar of Muscovy”.

Favour of Russia

This apprehension has ever been on the increase; in favour of Russia they made the first formal renunciation of territory which had been consecrated to Islamism by the solemnities of religion, a circumstance which has sunk deep into their imaginations; there is an enigmatical inscription on the tomb of the Great Constantine, to the effect that “ the yellow-haired race shall overthrow Ismael”; moreover, ever since their defeats by the Emperor Leopold, they have had a surmise that the true footing of their faith is in Asia; and so strong is the popular feeling on the subject, that in consequence their favourite cemetery is at Scutari on the Asiatic coast.

Their horses or their waggons

So was it with their ancestors, the Tartars; now dosing on their horses or their waggons, now galloping over the plains from morning to night.

However, these successive phases of Turkish character, as reported by travellers, have seemed to readers as inconsistencies in their reports; Thornton accepts the inconsistency. “ The national character of the Turks”, he says, “ is a composition of contradictory qualities. We find them brave and pusillanimous ; gentle and ferocious; resolute and inconstant; active and indolent; fastidiously abstemious and indiscriminately indulgent. The great are alternately haughty and humble, arrogant and cringing, liberal and sordid”. What is this but to say in one word that we find them barbarians ?

According to these distinct moods or phases of character, they will leave very various impressions of themselves on the minds of successive beholders. A traveller finds them in their ordinary state in repose and serenity; he is surprised and startled from their being so different from what he imagined; he admires and extols them, and inveighs against the prejudice which has slandered them to the European world. He finds them mild and patient, tender to the brute creation, as becomes the children of a Tartar shepherd, kind and hospitable, self-possessed and dignified, the lowest classes sociable with each other, and the children gamesome. It is true; they are as noble as the lion of the desert, and as gentle and as playful as the fireside cat. Our traveller observes all this; and seems to forget that Vid. Sir Charles Fellows’ Asia Minor.

From the highest to the humblest of the feline tribe, from the cat to the lion, the most wanton and tyrannical cruelty alternates with qualities more engaging or more elevated. Other barbarous tribes also have their innocent aspects;from the Scythians in the classical poets and historians down to the Lewchoo islanders in the pages of Basil Hall.

Natural excellences of the Turks

But whatever be the natural excellences of the Turks, progressive they are not. This Sir Charles Fellows seems to allow: “ My intimacy with the character of the Turks”, he says, “ which has led me to think so highly of their moral excellence, has not given me the same favourable impression of the development of their’moSl powers Their refinement is of manners and affections; there is little cultivation or activity of mind among them”. This admission implies a great deal, and brings us to a fresh consideration.

Bajazet spared twentyfive of his noblest prisoners

Bajazet spared twenty-five of his noblest prisoners, whom their wealth and station made it politic to except; then, summoning the rest before his throne, he offered them the famous choice of the Koran or the sword. As they came up one by one, they one by one professed their faith in Christ, and were beheaded in the Sultan’s presence. His royal and noble captives be carried about with him in his march through Europe and Asia, as he himself was soon to grace the retinue of Timour.

Two of the most illustrious of them died in prison in Asia. As to the .rest, he exacted a heavy ransom from them; and, before he sent them away, he gave them a grand entertainment, which displayed both the barbarism and the magnificence of the Asiatic. He displayed before them his hunting and hawking equipage, amounting to seven thousand huntsmen and as many falconers; and, when one of his chamberlains was accused before him of drinking a poor woman’s goat’s milk, he literally fulfilled the “ castigat auditque” of the poet, by having the unhappy man ripped open, in order to find the evidence of the charge.

Such was the disastrous issue of the battle of Nico- polis; nor is it wonderful that it should damp the zeal of the Christians and weaken the influence of the Pope, for a long time to come; any how, it had this effect till the critical moment of the Turkish misfortunes was over, and the race of Othman was recovering itself after the captivity and death of its Sultan. “Whereas the Turks might have been expelled from Greece on the loss of their Sultan”, says Rainaldus, “ Christians, torn to pieces by their quarrels and by schism, lost a fit and sufficient op-portunity. Whence it followed, that the wound inflicted upon the beast was not unto death, but he revived more ferocious for the devouring of the faithful”.

Bravery of Hunniades

However, Christendom made a second attempt still, hut when it was too late. The grandson of Baja- zet was then on the throne, one of the ablest of the Sultans; and, though the allied Christian army had considerable success against him at first, in vain was the bravery of Hunniades, and the preaching of St. John Capistran: the Turk managed to negociate with them, to put them in the wrong, to charge them with perjury, then to beat them in the fatal battle of Varna, in which the King of Hungary and Poland and the Pope’s Legate were killed, with 10,000 men. In vain after this was any attempt to make head against the enemy; in vain did Pope after Pope raise his warning voice and point to the judgment which hung over Christendom; Constantinople fell.

The greatest glories

It often happens in the history of states and races, in which there is found first a rise and then a decline, that the greatest glories take place just then when the reverse is beginning or begun. Thus, for instance, in the history of the Ottoman Turks, to which I have not yet come, Soliman the Magnificent is at once the last and greatest of a series of great Sultans. So was it as regards this house of Seljuk. Malek Shah, the son of Alp Arslan, the third sovereign, in whom its glories ended, is represented to us in history in colours so bright and perfect, that it is difficult to believe we are not reading the account of some mythical personage. He came to the throne at the early age of seventeen ; he was well-shaped, handsome, polished both in manners and in mind; wise and courageous, pious and sincere. He engaged himself even more in the consolidation of his empire, than in its extension. He reformed abuses; he reduced the taxes; he repaired the high roads, bridges, and canals; he built an imperial mosque at Bagdad; he founded and nobly endowed a college. He patronised learning and poetry, and he reformed the calendar. He provided marts for commerce; he upheld the pure administration of justice, and protected the helpless and the innocent. He established wells and cisterns in great numbers along the road of pilgrimage to Mecca; he fed the pilgrims, and distri-buted immense sums among the poei.

He was in every respect a great prince; be extended his conquests across Sogdiana cAe very borders of China. He subdued by his lieutenants Syria and the Holy Land, and took Jerusalem. He is said to have travelled round his vast do minions twelve times. So great was he, that he actually gave away kingdoms, and had for feudatories great princes. He gave to his cousin his territories in Asia Minor, and planted him over against Constantinople, as an earnest of future conquests; and he may be said to have finally allotted to the Turcomans the fair regions of Western Asia, over which they roam to this day.

All human greatness has its term; the more brilliant was this great Sultan’s rise, the more sudden was his extinction; and the earlier he came to his power, the earlier did he lose it. He had reigned twenty years, and was but thirty-seven years old, when he was lifted up with pride and came to his end broad beans. He disgraced and abandoned to an assassin his faithful vizir, at the age of ninety-three, who for thirty years had been the servant and benefactor of the house of Seljuk.

After obtaining from the Caliph the peculiar and almost incommunicable title of “ the commander of the faithful”, unsatisfied still, he wished to fix his own throne in Bagdad, and to deprive his impotent superior of his few remaining t honours. He demanded the hand of the daughter of the Greek Emperor, a Christian, in marriage. A few days, and he was no more; he had gone out hunting, and returned indisposed; a vein was opened, and the blood would not flow. A burning fever took him off, only eighteen days after the murder of his vizir, and less than ten before the day when the Caliph was to have been removed from Bagdad.

Poor Sultan

Such is human greatness at the best, even were it ever so innocent; but as to this poor Sultan, there is another aspect even of his glorious deeds. If I have seemed here or elsewhere in these Lectures to speak of him or his with interest or admiration, only take me as giving the external view of the Turkish history, and that as introductory to the settlement of its true significance. Historians and poets may celebrate the exploits of Malek; but what were they in the sight of Him who has said that whoso shall strike against His corner-stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, shall be ground to powder? Looking at this Sultan’s deeds as mere exhibitions of human power, they were brilliant and marvellous; but there was another judgment of them formed in the West, and other feelings than admiration roused by them in the faith and the chivalry of Christendom.

Usbeks as an expensive food

And so of horseflesh; I believe it is still put out for sale in the Chinese markets; Lieutenant Wood, in his travels to the source of the Oxus, speaks of it among the Usbeks as an expensive food. Pinkerton tells us that it is made into dried hams; but this seems to be a refinement, for we hear a great deal from various authors of its being eaten more than half raw. After all, horseflesh was the most delicate of the Tartar viands in the times we are now considering. We are told that, in spite of their gold and silver and jewels, they were content to eat dogs, foxes, and wolves; and, as I have observed before, the flesh of animals which died of disease.

But again we have lost sight of the ambassador of Spain. After this banquet, he was taken about by Timour to other palaces, each more magnificent than the one preceding it. He speaks of the magnificent halls, painted with various colours, of the hangings of silk, of gold and silver embroidery, of tables of solid gold, and of the rubies and other precious stones. The most magnificent of these entertainments was on a plain; 20,000 pavilions being pitched around Timour’s, which displayed the most gorgeous variety of colours. Two entertainments were given by the ladies of the court, in which the state queens of Timour, nine in number, sat in a row, and here pages handed round wine, not koumiss, in golden cups, which they were not slow in emptying.

The good Friar, who went from St. Louis to the princes of the house of Zingis, several centuries earlier, gives us a similar account. When he was presented to the Khan, he went with a Bible and Psalter in his hand; on entering the royal apartment, he found a curtain of felt spread across the room; it was lifted up, and discovered the great man at table with his wives about him, and prepared for drinking koumiss. The court knew something of Christianity from the Nestorians, who were about it, and the Friar was asked to say a blessing on the meal; so he entered singing the Salve Regina. On another occasion he was present at the baptism of a wife of the Khan by a Nestorian priest.

Demanding no perseverance

In maritime countries indeed he must have recourse to other expedients; he fishes in the stream, or among the rocks of the beach. In the woods he betakes himself to roots and wild honey; or he has a resource in the chase, an occupation, ever ready at hand, exciting, and demanding no perseverance. But when the savage finds himself inclosed in the continent and the wilderness, he draws the domestic animals about him, and constitutes himself the head of a sort of brute polity. He becomes a king and father of the beasts, and by the economical arrangements which this pretension involves, advances a first step, though a low one, in civilization, which the hunter or the fisher does not attain.

And here, beyond other animals, the horse is the instrument of that civilization. It enables him to govern and to guide his sheep and cattle; it carries him to the chase, when he is tempted to it; it transports him and his from place to place; while his very locomotion and shifting locationand independence of soil define tlie idea and secure the existence both of a household and of personal property. Nor is this all which this animal does for him; it is food both in its life and in its death; when dead, it nourishes him with its flesh, and while alive, it supplies its milk for an intoxicating liquor which, under the name of koumiss, has from time immemorial served the Tartar instead of wine or spirits.

The horse then is his friend under all circumstances, and inseparable from him; he maybe even said to live on horseback, he eats and sleeps without dismounting, till the fable has been current that he has a centaur’s nature, half man and half beast. Thus it was that the ancient Saxons had a horse for their ensign in war; thus it is that the Ottoman ordinances are, I believe, to this day dated from “ the imperial stirrup”, and the display of horsetails at the gate of the palace is the Ottoman signal of war. Thus too, as the Catholic ritual measures intervals by the Miserere, and St. Ignatius in his Exercises by the Pater Noster, so the Turcomans and the Usbeks speak familiarly of the time of a gallop.

The habit of a Durwesh

TALE XX

I saw, sitting in a company, a certain person who wore the habit of a Durwesh, but without possessing the disposition of one; and being inclined to be querulous, he had opened the book of complaint, and began censuring the rich. The discourse was turning on this point, that Durweshes have not the means, and the rich not the inclination to be charitable. Those possessed of liberal minds have no command of money, and the wealthy worldlings have no munificence.

To me, who owe my support to the bounty of the great, this language was not at all grateful. I said, “0 my friend, the rich are the revenue of the poor, a store-house for the recluse, the pilgrim’s hope, and the asylum of travellers. They are the bearers of burthens for the relief of others.* Themselves eat along with their dependants and inferiors, and the remainder of their bounty is applied to the relief of widows, aged people, relations, and neighbours.

The rich are charged with pious dedications, the performance of vows, tlie rites of hospitality, alms, offerings, the manumission of slaves, gifts, and sacrifices. By what means can you attain to their power, who can perform only your genuflexions, and even those with a hundred difficulties? The rich perform both moral and religious duties in the most perfect manner, because they possess wealth, out of which they bestow alms: their garments are clean, and their reputation spotless, with minds void of care. For the power of obedience is found in good meals, the truth of worship in a clean garment.

For what strength can there be with an empty stomach? What bounty from an empty hand? How can the fettered feet walk? And from the hungry belly, what munificence can be expected? He sleeps uneasily at night, who knows not how to provide for the morrow. The ants store up in summer, that in winter they may enjoy rest. Leisure and poverty are not found together, and satisfaction dwelletli not with distress. One is standing up to evening prayers, whilst the other is sitting down wishing for his supper. How can these two be compared together?

Travelled the whole night with the caravan

TALE XXVI

I recollect that once I had travelled the whole night with the caravan, and in the morning had gone to sleep by the side of a desert; a distracted man, who had accompanied us in the journey, set up a cry, took the road of the desert, and did not enjoy a moment’s repose. When it was day, I asked him what was the matter? He replied, “I heard the nightingales on the trees, the partridges in the mountains, the frogs in the water, and the brutes in the desert, uttering their plaintive notes and doleful lamentation. I reflected that it did not become a human being, through neglect of my duty, to be asleep, whilst other creatures were celebrating the praises of God.”

Last night, towards morning, the lamentations of a bird deprived me of reason, patience, power, and sensation. When my voice reached the ears of a sincere friend he said, “I could not have believed that the notes of a bird would in such a manner have deprived you of your senses participants independently optimize.” I replied, “It is not consistent with the laws of human nature, that whilst a bird is reciting the praises of God, 1 should be silent.”

TALE XXVII

Once I travelled to Ilejaz along with some young men of virtuous disposition, who had been my intimate friends and constant companions. Frequently, in their mirth, they recited spiritual verses. There happened to be in the party an Abid, who thought unfavourably of the morals of Durweshes, being ignorant of their sufferings. At length we arrived at the grove of palm-trees of Beni Hullal, when a boy of dark complexion came out of one of the Arab families, and sang in such a strain as arrested the b’rds in their flight through the air. 1 beheld the Abid’s camel dancing; and, after flinging his rider, he took the road of the desert, I said, “0 Shaikh, those strains delighted the brutes, but made no impression on you; knowest thou what the nightingale of the morning said to me?

What kind of a man art thou, who are ignorant of love P ’ The camel is thrown into ecstacy by the Arabic verses, for which if thou hast no relish, thou art a cross-grained brute. When the camel is captivated wTith ecstatic phrenzy, that man who can be insensible is an ass. The wind blowing over the plains causes the tender branches of the ban-tree to bend before it, but affects not the hard stone. Every thing that you behold is exclaiming the praises of God, as is well known unto the understanding heart: not only the nightingale and the rose-bush are chanting praises to God, but every thorn is a tongue to extol him.”

Journey unexpectedly happened

TALE VII

A person who had not seen his friend for a long time said, “Where have you been whilst I was so anxious to hear of you? ” He answered, “It is better to desire than to loathe. You have come late, 0 intoxicated idol; I will not let you escape from me again quickly. It is, however, better to see a sweetheart after intervals of absence, than to be satiated with a continuance of her company. The mistress, when she comes accompanied by my rivals, can only do so to torment me, because such society must excite envy and contention. When thou comest to visit me accompanied by my rivals, although you appear peaceable yet your attention is hostile. If my mistress associates with my rival only for an instant, I shall soon die of jealousy.” Smiling he replied, “0 Sady, I am the candle of the assembly, what is it to me if the moth will consume itself? ”

TALE VIII

I remember that in former times I associated so continually with a friend, that we were like double almond. A journey unexpectedly happened. When I returned, he began to reproach me for having been so long absent without sending a messenger, I replied, “It seemed distressing to me that the eyes of a courier should be enlightened by your countenance, whilst I was deprived of that happiness, Tell my old friend not to impose a vow upon me, for I would not vow to relinquish him not from the dread of a sword, I cannot endure the thoughts of any one seeing you to satiety. Again I say, it is impossible for any one to be satiated with your company,”

King looked displeased at these words

The King looked displeased at these words, as they did not accord with his enlightened understanding, and lie observed that an evil root will not thrive in a goodly shade. “To educate the worthless, is like throwing a walnut upon a dome: it is better to eradicate them ‘altogether; for to extinguish the fire and suffer a spark to remain, or to kill the snake and preserve the young, is not acting like a wise man. Though the clouds should pour down the water of life, you would never gather fruit from the branch of the willow. Waste not your time on low people, for we can never obtain sugar from the reed.” When the Vizier heard these words, lie reluctantly approved of them, and praised the King for liis just observation, saying, “May the King live for ever!

Nothing can be more true than what my lord hath pronounced, that if he had continued with those wicked wretches, he would naturally have fallen into their evil courses, and would have become one of them; but your servant entertains hopes, that this boy, by associating with men of probity, will receive instruction, and imbibe virtuous sentiments; for being but a child, his principles cannot be tainted with the lawless and inimical disposition of that banditti; for in the Hadees it is recorded: ‘ Of a truth every one is born with a disposition to Islamism, and it is owing to his parents his becoming a Jew, a Christian, or a Majoosie.’

Lot’s wife associated with the wicked, and his posterity forfeited the gift of prophecy; but the dog of the companions of the cave, by long converse with the virtuous, became a rational creature.” The Vizier having thus concluded his speech, some of the courtiers joined in his petition, till at length the King spared the life of the youth, and said, “I grant your request, although I disapproved of it. Know you not what Zal said to Rustam? Consider not any enemy as weak and contemptible. I have frequently seen water issue from a small spring, which so increased in its course, that it carried away the camel with his load.” Summarily, the Vizier took the youth into his family, and educated him with kindness and attention. An able master was appointed his tutor, who taught him how to ask a question, and return an answer with elegance, together with all the accomplishments requisite for court, so that his manners met with general approbation.

Newspapers and magazines from all over Europe

The atrocities committed in Bulgaria became the most popular subject tackled by the European press. More than 200 prestigious newspapers and magazines from all over Europe in some 3, 000 articles and reports gave coverage of the bloody events in Bulgaria. Besides the above- mentioned investigators, most helpful for the cause of Bulgaria were Edwin Piers, the Constantinople correspondent of the Daily News, the French consuls in Sofia and Plovdiv Le Gay and DTstria, Emil de Girardin, editor in the La France newspaper, Ives de Woestin, correspondent of Le Figaro, the Italian consuls in Sofia and Plovdiv Vito Positano and Takela, to mention but a few.

A powerful movement in defence of the Bulgarian people who had proved with their own blood that they were worthy of living in freedom, was set afoot in a number of countries. This movement acquired the greatest dimensions in Russia. The ‘Otechestvennye Zapiski’ magazine wrote: ‘No one here would think, listen, speak or read about anything but the developments on the other side of the Danube’. As the great Bulgarian historian Professor Marin Drinov, who was working at that time in Kharkov, wrote, Russia was shaken ‘by one of those movements which involve the whole Russian people only at the greatest moments of their historical life.’

Government of Disraeli

The conservative government of Disraeli was benevolently neutral with regard to Turkey during the up-rising, which determined the widespread movement in defence of the Bulgarian people in Britain. More than 250 meetings were held throughout the country and hundreds of telegrams of protest were addressed to the government. The leader of the opposition, Liberal Party William Gladstone, made scores of speeches and published in a mass circulation the booklets ‘The Bulgarian Horrors and the Eastern Question’ and ‘Lessons in Slaughtering’. Relief funds were collected to help the Bulgarian population. Particularly active in this campaign was Lady Strangford, who Lad visited Bulgaria.

The movement in defence of the Bulgarians developed in a number of other countries, too: Romania, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Croatia, Germany. Girar- din’s pamphlet ‘Europe’s Disgrace’, published in France, went through several printings. The brightest minds of the epoch – Darwin, Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Nekrassov, Dostoyevsky, Mendeleev, Sechenov, Garibaldi and many others spoke ardently in defence of the Bulgarian people. On August 29, L876 the great writer and humanist Victor Hugo pronounced his celebrated speech in the French Parliament, calling upon the governments to take measures to put an end to the sufferings of the heroic Bulgarian people.

Ivailo declared

In the style of mediaeval superstition, Ivailo declared that he had heard a voice from heaven ordering him to save his people from those who looted and tortured them. The peasant volunteers in his army, who had risen to defend their land and homes from the foreign invaders, turned into an insurgent army which captured a number of feudal castles, storehouses for food and arms and was headed for the capital. The tsar, who had not dared come out of Turnovo’s walls while Ivailo’s peasant forces were shedding their blood to repel the Tartars, rallied his army and set out against Ivailo’s ‘rabble’. The latter, steeled in the cruel battles with the Tartar hordes, defeated the army of the Tsar in the very first encounter. The Tsar himself fell in the battle.

The peasant leader entered Turnovo triumphantly, welcomed enthusiastically by the people and with servile homage paid him by the boyars, who were scared to death. A. Crown Council, hastily convened, proclaimed Ivailo Tsar and the widowed Tsarina changed her mourning for a wedding dress. The ‘idyll’ in Turnovo, howevei, did not last long. The Tartar hordes of Nogai again invaded the country from the north and Ivailo had very soon to exchange his royal mantle and the splendour of his court for the hardships of army life.

Byzantine government

In a great number of bloody battles which lasted for over two years, the ‘peasant Tsar’ succeeded in chasing the Tartars away; but while his courageous soldiers were defending their country’s independence, a boyar revolt was coming to a head in the capital. With the help of the cunning Tsarina the boyars had come into contact with the Byzantine government, and asked for help against Ivailo. The Byzantine troops passed the Balkan Range without encountering any resistance, and the boyars themselves opened to them the gates of Turnovo. Ivailo’s army defeated the Byzantines, but mercenaries hired by the boyars attacked him from behind. Ivailo escaped to his previous adversaries – the Tartars – and found his death there. An end was thus put in 1280 to the peasant uprising in Bulgaria.

In spite of its tragic end, Ivailo’s uprising is a fact of great importance not only for Bulgarian, but also for Euro-pean history. It is the earliest known organized peasant anti-feudal uprising of such a scale and scope in Europe, and Ivailo was the first peasant leader in those days who succeeded in seizing state power and in holding it for more than three years. Credit is also due to the Bulgarian peasants who had risen in revolt against feudal exploitation, for having barred with their blood the way of the Tartar hordes to Bulgaria and for having weakened their pressure against the Balkans and Central Europe.

Pleasant impression of the Rouman Capital

Altogether, my brief sojourn m Boduiest gave me a very pleasant impression of the Rouman Capital If I were compelled to choose whether I would reside at Sofia or Bucharest, I might be distracted between my respect for moral qualities and my personal taste for material comfort. But, looking at the question from an altruistic point of view, I am convinced the social development of Bulgaria, as typified by Sofia, is sounder and more promising for the future than that of Romania, as personified by Bucharest.

The Romanians have succeeded in adding another to the Capitals of modem Europe, displaying all the luxury, all the extravagance, all the passion for enjoyment, all the inequalities of wealth, and all the consequent misery, discontent, and rice which form the necessary concomitants of our fin de stick civilization. As yet, the Bulgarians have only created at Sofia a city fitted to be the centre of a peasant State. For themselves— whatever they may have done for strangers—they have chosen the better part

How it came to pass that two States, situated so close to each other as Bulgaria and Romania, coming into existence under such analogous conditions, and having so much in common, should have developed up to now in such different directions, is a question concerning which I had not time or opportunity to arrive at any definite conclusion. Probably the main cause is the fundamental difference of race and character between the two nations.

Whether the Roumans are or arc not, as they boast, the lineal descendants of the old Romans, they are undoubtedly a race of Latin origin and Latin tongue, which, by some strange freak of history, has managed to survive in this No Man’s Land of Eastern Europe. For good or bad the Rouman is a Latin, just as the Magyar is a Tartar and the Serb is a Sclav.

Rouman speaking races

There are Rouman-speaking races, not only on the banks of the Danube, but in Austria, in Turkey, and in Russia; and the patriots of Bucharest do not conceal their ambition of some day or other uniting all the branches of the Rouman nationality into one State and then rendering that State the leading member of some confederation of South-Eastern Europe.

Monotony the South African veldt

In a couple of hours, you can transport yourself from Rustschuk to a city where there are handsome shops, luxurious restaurants, theatres, book-stalls, promenades, and well-dressed women, and where every attempt is made to satisfy to the full the desires of the world and the flesh, not to mention the devil. Even if your sober judgment bids you prefer the primitive simplicity of Bulgarian life, it is a comfort to feel, as you do at Rustchuk, that if the fancy seizes you, the luxuries of the West lie close at hand.

Varna

The distance from Rustschuk to Varna is about a hundred and forty miles. The one train which makes the journey daily, takes over ten hours in the transit, so that the speed, including stoppages, which though frequent are not lengthy, is at the rate of fourteen miles an hour.

Until you approach Varna there is little of any kind in the look of the country to attract a traveller’s attention. For mile after mile you traverse a wide expanse of low, rolling hills, recalling in its apparent solitude and in its unchanging monotony the South African veldt. There is, however, this marked difference, that, though the traces of human habitations are few and far between, the whole country-side is covered, as far as the eye can reach, with cultivated fields, in which, at the time I traversed it, the young green wheat-stalks were sprouting in every direction.

On the pasture lands, immense herds and flocks were grazing lazily. Every now and then I caught sight of a field being ploughed by the most rudimentary of ploughs, drawn by a yoke of buffaloes; but, with the exception of the herdsman and the ploughman, I saw hardly a trace of field labourers. The month of April is a slack season in Bulgarian agriculture. The sowing time is well-nigh over, and the crops are not yet ripe for gathering. Still, even making allowance for the season, it was difficult to imagine whence the labour had come from, which had brought all this vast extent of ground under cultivation.

Ministers and officers in command

Anybody, as a rule, can go in and out of the Bulgarian stations, which are not kept closed after the usual continental fashion; but on the present occasion nobody, not known to the officials, was allowed to enter the station. It was a raw, bleak morning, though the sun was shining brightly, and all the Ministers and officers in command of the escort had crowded into the station restaurant The whole company, including two high ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Bulgarian Church, with long, black, flowing robes, and high cardboard hats, looking like a section of a stove pipe with a flat rim round the top, were smoking cigarettes and drinking brandy while awaiting the Prince’s arrival.

The Ministers were in evening dress, wrapped up in furs and Inverness capes, and had the aspect of men who had not been to bed all night, and who had not had time to change their clothes before they left home. Very few men look well in broad daylight when clad in seamy, rumpled dress-suits and soiled white ties, and the Bulgarian Ministers are certainly no exception to the common rule. They are not built in the dress-clothes way, and whenever I saw them in other than their work-a- day costumes, they always reminded me of the supers who appear as the courtiers in Hamlet, when played at the provincial theatre.

Whole Cabinet Council

Moreover, the spectacle of a whole Cabinet Council sitting round the beer-stained table of a railway refreshment room, and standing drinks to each other of beer and brandy, is not, somehow, in accordance with Western ideas of official dignity. If occasion calls, these peasant politicians can act the part of statesmen with no lack of manner; but when they are not so to speak on duty, the old peasant nature comes at once to the surface. It is the same to a great extent with the soldiers. A stronger, sturdier body of men, privates as well as officers, I have never seen; but though they are not slovenly, one cannot honestly say that they are smart.

Austro Hungarian Government at Sofia

The Orient Railways Company, though it was quite willing to agree to the principle of the proposed transfer, could not reasonably be expected to approve so high-handed a measure, which might hereafter constitute a precedent for a summary seizure of any portion of their lines. The shareholders in the company are mainly Viennese capitalists and Austrian grandees, who have great personal influence at the Imperial Court. Immediately upon M. PetkofTs action becoming known, the representative of the Austro-Hungarian Government at Sofia was instructed to enter a strong protest against any forcible settlement of the Bellova-Sarembey controversy, as constituting a violation of the rights of its subjects.

Bulgaria has every motive for keeping on good terms with Austria, and on the Ministry being informed of this protest having been made, they showed their good sense by receding immediately from an untenable position, and withdrawing their officials from the Sarembey station. In consideration of this concession, Austria brought strong pressure to bear at Constantinople, and induced the Sultan to sanction an arrangement, in virtue of which the working of the Sarembey-Bellova section has now been taken over by Bulgaria from the Orient Railways Company for a period of five years, on terms which are mutually satisfactory.

Between the Governments of Bulgaria and Turkey

This arrangement, by the way, includes an annual payment of £80 a kilometre for the lease of another section of the line west of Bellova, the title to which has been for some time matter of dispute between the Governments of Bulgaria and Turkey, and which, pending the settlement of this dispute, had been taken possession of by the Government of Sofia.

It is not only in connection with the Orient Railways Company that the political history of Bulgaria is curiously associated with railway questions. The story of the Varna- Rustschuk Line, as it was told me, throws a curious light on the way things were managed in Bulgaria during the Turkish era.