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5
Transactions at Fochia from Sat. Nov. 5 to Tuesday Nov: 8 9
The little harbour of Fochia is bounded on the North by a point of
land in the shape of a pear, the connected with the mainland
by the stalk. On this peninsula stands the town:
it is walled round, and covers the town peninsula exactly, leaving no
room for gardens. The streets are in this little town, as in
all the others I have seen in the Levant, Smyrna not excluded,
exceedingly narrow, and the houses small and of a
ruinous appearance. The little hovels that go by the name
of Shops, are here as elsewhere in the Levant collected together
in streets, distinct from those which are occupied
by the somewhat bigger hovels that serve for dwelling-houses
Some of the latter are occupied by men, who if the report
of one of the townsmen may be credited may pass
for wealthy, by comparison with the general run of Turkish
fortunes: he mentioned several who might be worth
from 2 to 3,000 piastres, that is from 200 to 300
£St. a year. As a proof that there was wealth in the
place, in spite of the total absence of every external
sign of it, the author of this intelligence, no less a personage
than a Greek Barber, asked our Interpreter
whether we had any watches to sell, offering himself as
a purchaser for his own use for any thing in that way not exceeding
100 piasters = 10£St. value. This however must have been
at last twice as much as his shop could be worth in
the estimation of any country, stock and furniture included.
Whether all this wealth was amassed or pretended
to be amassed by the mere exercise of his profession, I
did not learn. Four paras about 2d 1/2 I found was the ordinary
fee: for this much was taken of our Interpreter who
was too poor in appearance to be expected to be generous, and
too well acquainted with the country to be imposed upon.
This pay, if a man had full business might afford some savings
in a country where I wants are so few, the stile of living
so simple, and necessaries so cheap. Mutton we found
about 1d 1/2 a lb: bread, nearly as much as there is in a
twopenny loaf for a halfpenny.
We were eager to get on shore, all hands, in order
to make a comfortable dinner upright and in the open fresh air
We thought we had found an excellent place for the
purpose in a half enclosed space with a large
oblong stone at the farther end, rough indeed and
of coarse materials, but in other respects not unlike
the marble slabs you have in England for side-tables.
A burying ground was near adjacent, but there was a
road between. We had spread out our provisions,
and already made some advance in our dinner, when
the appearance of a number of Turks who by this time
had collected together with visible marks of dissatisfaction
in their countenances, shew'd that by some means
or other we had given umbrage. They said something
to us, which of course we did not understand: all we
could do was to call to our old interpreter, who happen'd
to be at some distance, but hobbled up to us as soon as
he could. Through him we learnt that the slab had
something stored in it, which they apprehended would
be profaned by our repast. We immediately assured them
that pork formed no part of it: this we were enabled to
do
do in Turkish by a sentence we took care to be provided
with (Domroz yok brorda) in order to convey a similar
assurance to our Turkish Captain who had exacted it as a condition
precedent to our admission into his vessel. At this
they seemed to be in some measure satisfied: but lest the
satisfaction should not fail of proving compleat or universal, we
thought it best to remove change our quarters, and accordingly
removed to a broad low wall which though it formed
part of the fence which half encompassed this sacred
stone did not seem liable to the same objections. A
Mahometan Algerine, who had come into the port a stranger
like ourselves, accepted without hesitation our invitation
to join us in a glass of wine: an invitation, which
we have found some reason to think there are few Turks
but would accept, some with more some with less
ceremony: some only in private, some in the face of
their comrades without scruple. At present the chief
effect of the precept seems in this as in other instances
among us, to give a zest to the violation of
it. As to the sacred stone the reason of its possessing this
quality became apparent enough the next day, when we saw
the body of a child laid on it for a considerable length of
time, while a sort of funeral service was performing
previous to its internment.
What shall I give the preference to, the description of
this funeral, the Greek inscriptions, the aqueduct, or the
visit to Achmet Effondi? For the inscriptions I had not
far to look: against you pay a visit to Fochia
you where you may find them. As soon as you have
enter'd at the gate which is nearest the beach, turn
short upon your right hand: at the end of a winding
lane you will find yourself in an irregular kind
of area, which being about big enough to swing
a cat in bears about the same proportion to the adjacent
streets & houses as Grosvenor or Cavendish Square
may do to the streets and houses in their neighbourhood.
About the center of this area stands a kind
of pedestal which fronts you as you enter from the
above lane: the j side which then fronts you faces the West nearly:
on that side is an inscription in Greek capitals,
which I have copied in part, and which another opportunity
at a proper time of day would I believe
have enabled me to compleat. I say at a proper
time of day: for it was only in the afternoon when
the sun shone full upon it, that I could get a tolerable
view. A few feet to the right of this, stood
a similar pedestal in a direction at right angles
to that of the former, and accordingly nearly facing
the South. This had also an inscription on it, but
much considerably shorter consisting of only 4 short lines, the
words of which I made out I believe pretty exactly,
though the total import will I believe be difficult
to decypher with the assistance of collateral information
which has not fallen within my cognizance.
I will subjoin it by way of a rebus
with which you
may amuse any of your antiquarian friends. I understood
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Identifier: | JB/540/215/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1785-11-05 |
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540 |
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215 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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