THE EAST: BEING A NARRATIVE OF PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS OF A TOUR IN EGYPT, PALESTINE, AND SYRIA. WITH NUMEROUS REFERENCES TO THE MANNERS AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE BY WILLIAM YOUNG MARTIN. "The domestic life of Turkey is still best illustrated by 'Bluebeard and his Wives ;' LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. [All rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserved.] PREFACE. Ar present any new book on the East will naturally be looked upon as got up in view of the existing excitement on the subject of the "Turkish Atrocities." Hence a few lines of preface may be necessary. This book was originally written more than a year ago, and was in the publishers' hands before the Bulgarian massacres were made public; but I have since had time to add a Chapter and several Notes still farther illustrating Turkish character, as well as Mahomedan domestic, religious, and political life. I think that in the present crisis every little fact and observation, even of an ordinary Eastern tourist, may add to a knowledge of what has I fear been too long-not inten tionally, but inadvertently-concealed from the general reader. Prominence is given to the inevitable results of Moslem domestic life-the slavery and imprisonment of women. Industry, art, and patriotism have disappeared, as also national probity, and even the fertility of the land! Turkey has no Shakspeare, no Burns, no Béranger, because the sentiment of tenderness, in which all poetry has its root, is extinct. Need we be very much surprised if such a people should become fiendlike? In view of the important events now transpiring in Eastern Europe, I have not hesitated to express an opinion of the Turkish Govern ment and the condition of that unhappy country, but have been careful to avoid a political tone. To act otherwise would, I feel, be entirely out of place; and besides, I think that either both political parties are to blame for the present condition of Turkey, or that neither party really is so. |