Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/129

 from the sweat of Mahomet. But I will now stop, that I may not busy myself overmuch with such empty nonsense.

When we had seen everything in the city, some of the attachés obtained leave to sail across the arm of the sea to the city of Galata, which is for the most part inhabited by Christian merchants, Greeks, Italians, and others of divers nations. The ambassadors of the French and English kings, the Venetian, Ragusan, and other ambassadors, have also their hotels in that city. I, too, not wishing to be last, asked leave along with the rest, and my lord the legatus ordered them to take care of me, as I was the youngest of all, for youth is there in great danger. As we sailed across the strait we saw various fish swimming about; and when we arrived at the town, with two janissaries in attendance upon us, we entered the house of a certain Hanslong, a German goldsmith, who had settled there, and was employed, as a tradesman, by the sultanas. This person gladly welcomed us, and saw our arrival with pleasure. He had a Greek cook, a very handsome person, who was his concubine. For, without a certain permission and payment, a man may not maintain any woman openly, and take her for wife. Nay, in order for permission to be given him to marry, after the Turkish form, he must make application before the cadi, or judge, and pay well for it. In obtaining such a permission the following custom is observed:—the person who desires to take a wife comes with her before the judge, declares his name and hers, and must declare before him what he is willing to give her as alimony, should he divorce her, and what furniture and goods she brings to him; all which the cadi orders to be