text:  These sounds weakened by distance; the songs of the sailors in the vessels; the stroke of the oars in the water; the drums of the military bands in the barracks; the songs of the women who lulled their children to sleep; the cries of the muetzlim who from the summits of the minarets called the faithful to evening prayers; the evening gun which boomed across the Bosphorus the signal of repose to the fleet--all these sounds combined to form one confused murmur which strangely contrasted with the perfect silence around me and produced the deepest impression