<h2><SPAN name="FROM_CONSTANTINOPLE" id="FROM_CONSTANTINOPLE"></SPAN>FROM "CONSTANTINOPLE."</h2>
<p class="ac"><span class="sc">Edmondo de Amicis.</span></p>
<p>CONSTANTINOPLE has one
grace and gayety peculiar to
itself, that comes from an
infinite number of birds
of every kind, for
which the Turks nourish a warm
sentiment and regard. Mosques, groves,
old walls, gardens, palaces all resound
with song, the whistling and twittering
of birds; everywhere wings are
fluttering and life and harmony abound.
The sparrows enter the houses boldly,
and eat out of women's and children's
hands, Swallows nest over the café
doors, and under the arches of the
bazaars; Pigeons in innumerable
swarms, maintained by legacies from
sultans and private individuals, form
garlands of black and white along the
cornices of the cupolas and around the
terraces of the minarets; Sea-gulls dart
and play over the water; thousands of
Turtle-doves coo amorously among the
cypresses in the cemeteries; Crows
croak about the Castle of the Seven
Towers; Halcyons come and go in long
files between the Black Sea and the
Sea of Marmora; and Storks sit upon
the cupolas of the mausoleums. For
the Turk, each one of these birds has
a gentle meaning, or a benignant
virtue: Turtle-doves are favorable to
lovers, Swallows keep away fire from
the roofs where they build their nests,
Storks make yearly pilgrimage to
Mecca, Halcyons carry the souls of the
faithful to Paradise. Thus he protects
and feeds them, through a sentiment
of gratitude and piety; and they
enliven the house, the sea, and the
sepulchre. Every quarter of Stamboul
is full of the noise of them, bringing
to the city a sense of the pleasures of
country life, and continually relishing
the soul with a reminder of nature.</p>
<hr class="small" />
<p>There are several kinds of animals,
points out Cosmos, that have never
swallowed water. Among these are
the Lamas of Patagonia and certain
Gazelles of the far east, and a considerable
number of reptiles—Serpents,
Lizards, and certain Batrachians—that
live and flourish where there is no
moisture. A kind of Mouse of the arid
plains of western America also exists
where moisture is said to be unknown.
In the London Zoological Gardens a
Paroquet lived fifty-two years without
drinking a drop, and some naturalists
believe that Hares take no liquid
except the dew that sometimes forms
on the grass they eat. Even Cows and
Goats in France, in the neighborhood
of the Lozère, almost never drink, yet
they produce the milk from which is
made the famous Roquefort cheese.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</SPAN></span></p>
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