The tabys or garçons of the Kahvés even excel their Parisian competitors in alertness and general ubiquity--serving scores of customers at once with coffee, chibouk, and narghillés.
The boatmen, who transport the pashas and others to their homes, after the adjourning of the Porte, and closing of the Bazaars, delight to compete with each other in speed, and linger on their course until they meet with an antagonist, when the race sometimes extends the whole length of the Bosphorus.
Their sports and national games, consisting of horsemanship, wrestling, chasing, cricket, etc, all tend to show their love of activity.
There is none of the bustle, or American go-a-headism, in the Oriental character and habits; none of that nervous excitement which has so much the air of great progress, too often, like the whirlwind among the natural elements, creating prodigies of human noise and commotion, which subside and leave no sign; or it may be, only havoc and destruction. In all the machineries of Eastern life, public or domestic, steady and quiet perseverance rules the motion, the oil of gentleness falling drop by drop upon the rolling wheels, suffices for the friction; while in the land of modern adventure, by increasing the pressure to a tremendous degree, the whole structure is often crushed to atoms. This giddy rushing to a certain point is too apt to wear out human energy, and most surely annihilates self-possession, which is the keystone to success. Leave then, we say, the Oriental sometimes to sit amid the fumes of his favorite chibouk; for while external things are beclouded, often a mighty scheme is in conception, and the sunshine of matured judgment suddenly bursts upon the dim atmosphere, in full power and glory, ready to fructify and yield all manner of increase.
The apparent idleness which some persons have attributed to the natives of this country, is more the effect of a spirit of resignation to external circumstances, than of a desire to be unemployed.
Taking for a basis the idea that the interest of the people is but secondary, and under the pretence of increasing the revenue of the country, and thus benefiting the state as it were, but with the secret hope of self-aggrandizement, all advantageous projects are seized upon by the officials; thus an effectual check is thrown upon all private and public enterprise.