Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/144

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Men for Carriage, but to make use of their Service on Foot, certainly he had run a great Hazard thereby, if when Ariovistus's choice Horse were within a Stone's Call of the Romans, and might have fallen upon them, the Legion was then to dismount their Horses, to be disposed of, and ranged into a Foot-Tertia, or Brigade, in an instant: With us, this would seem very absurd. However it be, this is certain, that experienced Soldiers will manage a Fight after a different Order than we do; so the Romans did of old, and so the Turks do at this Day, with too good Success. So much for that Subject.

I return, further to acquaint you, how induldent the Turks are to all irrational Animals. 'Tis true, a Dog is counted an obscene and nasty Creature by them, and therefore they will not harbour him in their Houses; but they nourish a Cat as a chaster and modester Creature, in their Judgments. This Custom they received from Mahomet, their Law-giver, who was so much in love with a Cat, that, when one of them fell asleep upon his Sleeve, as be was reading at a Table, and the time of his Devotion drew near, he caused his Sleeve to be cut off, that he might not awake the Cat by his going to the Mosque.

However, though the Turks have so ill an opinion of Dogs, that they wander up and down the City of Constantinople, and have no certain Masters, so that they are Keepers of Streets and Lanes, rather than of any certain House, and they live upon the Offal which is cast out of their Houses; yet, if they see any Bitch great with young, in their Neighbourhood, they give it Bones, and some Relicks of their Table: This they count an office of Pity amongst them. When, on this Account, I blamed them for performing such Of-