Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/85

 like most beautiful maidens, in gold brocade, with broad girdles set with precious stones. The beglerbeg himself had on his head a large cap, and at the back of it a handsome plume of cranes’ feathers. He was a particularly clean-made man, of good stature, of handsome and cheerful aspect, and we had not seen a better-looking Turk upon our journey. According to the Turks’ account he was to marry a daughter of the Turkish emperor. When my lord the ambassador presented the letter to him, he received it very reverently, conversed cheerfully with my lord, cut several jokes, and it was immediately apparent that he was a courtier. After this my lord the ambassador delivered to him the presents from his Imperial Majesty, viz. two silver-gilt bottles, after that a large gilt striking-clock, shaped like a Turkish turban, upon which stood a chamois, which turned its eyes backwards and forwards, and when the hour struck pawed with its foot and opened its mouth, and under this gilt serpents and scorpions twisted about.

After our return to the inn, the beglerbeg sent to us, requesting my lord the ambassador to present him, according to former custom, with 200 broad dollars, and asking whether he was inferior to his predecessors. But my lord excused himself, saying that he had at that time no money for him, but only for the Sultan, but the deficiency should be made good for him. The beglerbeg was thus avaricious and greedy of money because he had not long obtained this office, and had been obliged to pay well for it. In this town we stayed in a very handsome and lofty inn, with galleries inside, and clean private apartments; nowhere else during our