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ONCE UPON A TIME…
The British:
People mostly got married in June. Because they had their yearly bath in the month of May, in June they started smelling bad and for the purpose of stopping a bad smell emanating from their bodies, brides carried a bouquet in their hands.
Ottoman:
We didn´t use to spit on the roads. Comte Marsigil, the man who introduced the Military Organization of the Ottoman Empire to Europe, comments on our ancestors; "The Turks never spit on the roads. They always swallow. For this reason, the heat collected in their body cause their hair, beard and eyebrows to fall out."
- We were civilized: English ambassador to Turkey in the 1740s, Sir James Porter, says these: "The Turks are very civilized people".
- We were polite: Italian traveller names Edmondo de Amicis, described to us "us" of the 1980s: "Turkish people in Istanbul are Europe´s most polite and most refined people". Quarrels/fights on the streets are very rare. Raised voices are rarely heard. They are so permissive that, at the time of worship one can even tour the mosques, that we saw in our churches ....
- We were honest: At one time the London Chamber of Commerce in the most visible plase hung a sign to this effect:
- "Do business with Turks, you can´t go wrong".
- We were charitable: Let´s listen to the Count of Marsigli again: "In the summer, while going from Itansbul to Sofya, I witnessed on the main road from the mountains your villagers handing out free ayran to tranvelers."
- We were influential: At one time at the meetings of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce when equal vote came from the Ottoman businessmen, the vote of the merchant counted as two, what they said used to happen.
- We were a model to the world: The statemend that is in the famous Du Loir´s 1650 Guidebook to Turkey says: If on your house´s chimney´s starks were to make a nest, it would be known that that house is a Turkish house.
- We were straight (honest, fair?): From the French general, Count de Bonneval, this statement is given: "Offenses such as injustice, usury, monopoly and theft, are unknown among the Turks. They show such honesty that, a person many times admires the uprightness of the Turks.
A lot of sophistication: In the Ottoman people, when one´s money got lost, the first person around seeing the money used to draw a circle, second person also one circle, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th person used to draw circles. Within that time the money was untouchable. If the 7th person had the need, he took the money, if not, the money was given to the the person who needed it.
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