The greatest number of streets occupied by the followers of any one trade are those inhabited by the makers of shoes and slippers.  A degree of magnificence is displayed in their shops such as a stranger would scarcely expect to see.  There are slippers which are worth 1000 piastres {53} a pair and more.  They are embroidered with gold, and ornamented with pearls and precious stones.

The Bazaar is generally so much crowded, that it is a work of no slight difficulty to get through it; yet the space in the middle is very broad, and one has rarely to step aside to allow a carriage or a horseman to pass.  But the bazaars and baths are the lounges and gossiping places of the Turkish women.  Under the pretence of bathing or of wishing to purchase something, they walk about here for half a day together, amusing themselves with small-talk, love-affairs, and with looking at the wares.

The mosques.

Without spending a great deal of money, it is very difficult to obtain admittance into the mosques.  You are compelled to take out a firmann, which costs from 1000 to 1200 piastres.  A guide of an enterprising spirit is frequently sufficiently acute to inquire in the different hotels if there are any guests who wish to visit the mosques.  Each person who is desirous of doing so gives four or five colonati {54} to the guide, who thereupon procures the firmann, and frequently clears forty or fifty guilders by the transaction.  An opportunity of this description to visit the mosques generally offers itself several times in the course of a month.

I had made up my mind that it would be impossible to quit Constantinople without first seeing the four wonder-mosques, the Aja Sofia, Sultan Achmed, Osmanije, and Soleimanije.

I had the good fortune to obtain admittance on paying a very trifling sum; I think I should regret it to this day if I had paid five colonati for such a purpose.

To an architect these mosques are no doubt highly interesting; to a profane person like myself they offer little attraction.  Their principal beauty generally consists in the bold arches of the cupolas.  The interior is always empty, with the exception of a few large chandeliers placed at intervals, and furnished with a large number of perfectly plain glass lamps.  The marble floors are covered with straw mats.  In the Sofia mosque we find a few pillars which have been brought hither from Ephesus and Baalbec, and in a compartment on one side several sarcophagi are deposited.

Before entering the mosque, you must either take off your shoes or put on slippers over them.  The outer courts, which are open to all, are very spacious, paved with slabs of marble, and kept scrupulously clean.  In the midst stands a fountain, at which the Mussulman washes his hands, his face, and his feet, before entering the mosque.  An open colonnade resting on pillars usually runs round the mosques, and splendid plantains and other trees throw a delicious shade around.