Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/148

 *dies is open to Man's View; for they have this Tradition among them, that it is impossible for a Man to look on a Woman, especially if she be young and handsome, without desiring to enjoy her; and by that Desire the Mind is excited, and therefore they keep them all covered. Their own Brothers have Liberty to see them; but their Husband's Brothers have not the same Permission. The nobler and richer sort, when they marry, do it with this Condition, that their Wives shall never set a Foot out of Door; and no Person living, either Male or Female, be the Cause what it will, shall ever have leave to see them; no, not their nearest Alliance in Blood, except only the Father and Mother, who, at Easter, (their Bairam) are permitted to see their Daughter; and, in lieu of this Strictness, if the Wife have Parents of the better sort, and she bring her Husband a large Dowry, the Husband, on his part promiseth, that he will never have any Concubines, but will keep to her alone.

other Cases, the Turks have as many Concubines as they will, besides their lawful Wives; and the Children of both are equally respected, and have as much Privilege one as the other. Their Concubines they either buy, or take them in War, and, when they are weary of them, may sell them in the open Market; only if they have Children by them, then they obtain their Liberty. This made Roxolana stand upon her Terms with Solyman, in having brought him forth a Son, when she was a Slave, and thereby obtain'd Manumission. Hereupon she refused to submit to his Will any longer, unless he married her; which he, doting for Love, wou'd do, against the Custom of the Ottoman Princes.