So the next day, when this simple son of Armenia presented his account to his master, at the foot of the bill there was an item, which seemed not quite intelligible to him. He therefore called for an explanation; when the servant, in all his native simplicity, informed him that, that item was the Khamin, or the sum total of his cheating, which his companions assured him was customary, and allowed to all servants in their daily purchases! How fortunate and consoling it would be, if, instead of being drugged in small doses, we could thus be informed of the sum total of all the cheatings to which we are subjected!
The most unlimited confidence is stamped upon all their reciprocal transactions, and they intrust each other with any amount of goods, without demanding a receipt, check, or counter check. In the exercise of their avocation as hamals, they are often intrusted with bags of money untold; they are generally the watchmen or guardians to the stores and mercantile houses of the Franks, and in any deficiency or robbery, their character and integrity are never questioned or suspected.
The Osmanlis possess the domestic virtues of kindness and affection in a remarkable degree; their love of offspring is very great, and their patient endurance of the whims and caprices of their women quite exemplary.
Merhamet, or compassion, is an essential component in their character, and induces them to extend a most unlimited patronage even to the lower orders of creation. Hence the streets in Turkey swarm with dogs, the roofs of the houses with cats, and the domes of the mosques with venerated pigeons, which, one and all, are objects of special charity.
The thousands of cayiks that ply up and down the Bosphorus, acting as aquatic omnibuses, besides their designated load of passengers, make a point to carry one or more boys gratuitously, as an act of charity; and how astonished would they be at the cry of "cut behind," which so often greets the ears of beggars in more eminent Christian lands, who mistaking wishes for horses might otherwise chance to ride.
Yet a Turk is a singular being, apparently composed of contrarieties, of savage traits, as well as domestic virtues, and this contrariety is to be attributed solely to his fanaticism. Social and humane until you touch his religious prejudices, when he becomes implacable.