Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/54

 and they deferred the matter till such time as they should meet in battle. They were both very eager to try each other’s strength, but, though we should have liked to see the fight, we did not allow them to proceed to such extremities.

After dinner we took leave of our Christian friends, and placed ourselves under the protection of the Turks. Lashing their boats to ours, they towed us down the Danube as far as Gran. Here Mahomet the sangiak (so called from a banner on the top of which is a gilt horsetail, the ensign of knighthood) sent us three janissaries, as a guard for our protection.

The janissaries are much regarded in all the Turkish dominions, as being the Turkish emperor’s household troops. They are infantry, and attend on the Sultan’s person, to the number of 12,000; the rest are dispersed through almost all his territories, whether placed in castles and fortresses as garrisons against enemies, or stationed for the protection of the Jews and Christians against the illegal violence of the mob. They wear long garments down to the instep, but of cloth, not of silk, which never comes upon them. Instead of hats they wear a kind of sleeves, into the wider end of which they put their heads; these are different at each end, and one end hangs down the neck as far as the back, whereas there is a tube of silver gilt, set with pearls and the more ordinary precious stones, in front over the forehead. In this in war time they place feathers.

These janissaries are for the most part kidnapped persons, or children of Christian peasants living under the Turkish sway. Some hundreds of these latter are assembled every third year, bringing with them their