CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2787, 19 January 1878, Page 3

CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY.

A correspondent writes : " As we are all talking and thinking of Turkey aud the Turks, I am reminded of an anecdote related to mo by Belzoni on Shrove Tuesday, 1823, at tho Hotel Beauveau (still existing) at Marseilles, on the eve of his departure for his fiual and fatal expedition to Timbuctoo. As our conversation naturally turned upon the Carnival, whos» exit was being celebrated* by the usual masks and mummers under our windows, he told me that a few years before, at Lisbon, where the usual saturnalia were being indulged in, a mask in the gay crowd threw an orange at the carriage of the Turkish. Ambassador, winch struck him in the face; upon which the Ambassador, after a slight delay, proceeded to tho Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs to complain of the indignity thus publicly offered him. ' Oh,' said the Portuguese Minister, 'such is tho custom of the country on these occasions, and I hope jour Excellency will pardon it.' 'Be it so,' exclaimed the Turk; • but I wasabout to add, when you interrupted mo, that I immediately drew my pistol and shot the felloe? dead, for that is the custom of our country; and I have no doubt, from the remark you have just made, that you will overlook it.' "-— Globe.

world.