Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/125

 *ter amongst us, and therefore you should seldom see them without a whole Ring of my People about them, delighting to observe their antick Tricks and Gestures. I also bred up some Wolves, some Bears, some broad-horned Stags (vulgarly miscalled, Bucks) and common Deers; also Hinds, Lynx's, Ichneumons or Indian Rats, Weesels of that sort which you call Ferrets and Fairies: And, if you would know all, I kept also a Hog, whose noisome Smell was wholsome for my Horses, as my Grooms persuaded me: So that, in my Nomenclature of other Creatures, 'tis not fit I should omit my Hog, which made my House to be mightily frequented by the Asiaticks. They came thick and three-fold to see that Creature, which is counted unclean by them, and by the Books of their Religion they are forbid to eat it, so that, it being a prohibited Animal among them, they never saw one before. Yea, all Turks are as much afraid to touch a Hog, as Christians are to come near to those who are infected with the Plague. This Humour of theirs being known, we put a pretty Trick upon them; when any body had a mind to send me a secret Message, which he would not have my Chiaux know of, he put it into a little Bag, together with a Roasting-Pig, and send it by a Youth: When my Chiaux met him, he would ask, what he had there? Then the Boy, being instructed before, whisper'd him in the Ear, and say, that a Friend of mine had sent me a Roasting-Pig, for a Present: The Chiaux, thereupon, would punch the Bag with his Stick, to see whether the Boy spake Truth or no; and when he heard the Pig grunt, he would run back as far as ever he could, saying, Get thee in, with the nasty Present! Then, spitting on the Ground, and turning to his Fellows, he would say; 'Tis