CHAPTER IV.
SHOWING HOW SEIGNEUR KÉRABAN, MORE HEADSTRONG THAN EVER, CAME INTO COLLISION WITH THE TURKISH AUTHORITIES.
However, as it proved, the caïdji had arrived, and he came to inform Kéraban that his caïque was waiting at the steps.
These "caïdjis" may be numbered in hundreds on the waters of the Bosphorus, and the Golden Horn. Their boats are impelled by two rowers, one in front, the other astern, and can be rowed in either direction at will. They are about fifteen or twenty feet long, made of beech or cypress wood, carved and painted, It is astonishing with what rapidity these graceful boats glide about and cross each other’s course on the splendid stretch of water that separates the two continents. The influential corporation of watermen (caïdjis) is charged with maintaining the service from the Sea of Marmora as far as the Château d'Europe and the Château d'Asie, which face each other at the mouth of the Bosphorus.
The caïdjis are generally respectable men, dressed in a kind of shirt of silk—a many-coloured "yelek" embroidered with gold, and short white cotton drawers. They wear a fez, and shoes, their arms and legs are naked.
If the caïdji daily employed by Seigneur Kéraban to row him from Scutari to Constantinople had been harshly received for his delay, one must not be surprised. The phlegmatic boatman did not make any complaint; he knew very well he had an excellent customer, and made no answer. He merely indicated the steps at which the boat was moored.
Then Kéraban, accompanied by Van Mitten and followed
