around the island, or to dine aboard the yacht as
she rides at anchor before the town. But the
advent of the " Americanish Velocipediste " and his
glistening machine, a wonderful thing that Prinkipo
never saw the like of before, creates a genuine sensation,
and becomes the subject of a nine-days’ wonder.
Prinkipo is a delightful gossipy island, occupied
during the summer by the families of wealthy Constantinopolitans
and leading business men, who go to and fro daily
between the little island and the city on the passenger-boats
regularly plying between them, and is visited every
Sunday by crowds in search of the health and pleasure
afforded by a day’s outing. While here
at Constantinople I received by mail from America a
Butcher spoke cyclometer, and on the second visit to
Prinkipo I measured the road which has been made around
half the island; the distance is four English miles
and a fraction. The road was built by refugees
employed by the Sultan during the last Russo-Turkish
war, and is a very good one; for part of the distance
it leads between splendid villas, on the verandas
of which are seen groups of the wealth and beauty of
the Osmanli capital, Armenians, Greeks, and Turks
— the latter ladies sometimes take the privilege
of dispensing with the yashmak during their visits
to the comparative seclusion of Prinkipo villas —
with quite a sprinkling of English and Europeans.
The sort of impression made upon the imaginations
of Prinkipo young ladies by the bicycle is apparent
from the following comment made by a bevy of them
confidentially to Shelton Bey, and kindly written out
by him, together with the English interpretation thereof.
The Prinkipo ladies’ compliment to the first
bicycle rider visiting their beautiful island is:
“O Bizdan kaydore ghyurulduzug em nezalcettt
sadi bir dakika ulchum ghyuriorus nazaman bir dah
backiorus O bittum gitmush.” (He glides noiselessly
and gracefully past; we see him only for a moment;
when we look again he is quite gone.) The men are
of course less poetical, their ideas running more
to the practical side of the possibilities of the new
ox-rival, and they comment as follows: “Onum
beyghir hich-bir-shey yemiore hich-bir-shey ichmiore
Inch yorumliore ma sheitan gibi ghiti-ore,”
(His horse, he eats nothing, drinks nothing, never
gets tired, and goes like the very devil.) It is but
fair to add, however, that any bold Occidental contemplating
making a descent on Prinkipo with a, “sociable”
with a view to delightful moonlight rides with the
fair; authors of the above poetic contribution will
find himself “all at sea” upon, his arrival,
unless he brings a three-seated machine, so that the
mamma can be accommodated with a seat behind, since
the daughters of Prinkipo society never wander forth
by moonlight, or any other light, unless thus accompanied,
or by some; equally staid and solicitous relative.