A Steam Voyage down the Danube, Volume 1 by Michael J. Quin

♦ A WHITE COCK ♦

I sauntered about Silivria for some time, amused by the novel and animated scene which it presented. Several large charcoal fires were made up in pans in the street, on which kettles containing pieces of meat, onions, and other vegetables were boiling, surrounded by groups of soldiers who fanned the fires occasionally with a turkey's wing. Here a baker was as busy as he could possibly be, serving out cakes of bread, just taken from the oven, to soldiers who passed in single file before his window. A beautiful white cock was a conspicuous character all day: he seemed to think that the whole of these preparations were going on for persons very much inferior to himself in all the requisites of dignity. Flies swarmed in all directions. The balconies of the caffinés were filled with Turks, who as usual sipped their nectar, smoked and continued for hours gazing at vacancy. I was honoured by a look from a Mussulman who was idling about like myself, one hand in his breeches pocket, while the other wielded his pipe and a switch. A boy walking along with a pitcher of water on his head, seemed also very much astonished at my appearance in Silivria, a feeling in which he was joined by a shoemaker who was taking home a pair of mended slippers to a customer hard by.