He at once granted me permission to see the castle, with the
remark, "Your seeing it can do us no good and no harm, Belgrade
castle is like a bazaar, any one can go out and in that likes." In the
course of conversation he told us that Ushitza is the principal
remaining settlement of the Moslems in Servia; their number here
amounting to three thousand five hundred, while there are only six
hundred Servians, making altogether a population of somewhat more than
four thousand souls. The Vayvode himself spoke Turkish on this
occasion; but the usual language at Sokol is Bosniac (the same as
Servian).
We now took our leave of the Vayvode, and continued ascending the same
street, composed of low one-storied houses, covered with irregular
tiles, and inclosed with high wooden palings to secure as much privacy
as possible for the harems. The palings and gardens ceased; and on a
terrace built on an open space stood a mosque, surrounded by a few
trees; not cypresses, for the climate scarce allows of them, but those
of the forests we had passed. The portico was shattered to fragments,
and remained as it was at the close of the revolution.
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