e of all spirituous liquors. At many of these fountains
servants are stationed, whose only duty is to keep ten or twelve
goblets of shining brass constantly filled with this refreshing
nectar, and to offer them to every passer-by, be he Turk or Frank.
Beer-houses and wine-shops are not to be found here. Would to
Heaven this were every where the case! How many a poor wretch would
never have been poor, and how many a madman would never have lost
his senses!

Not far from the Osmanije mosque is the

SLAVE-MARKET.

I entered it with a beating heart, and already before I had even
seen them, pitied the poor slaves. How glad, therefore, was I when
I found them not half so forlorn and neglected as we Europeans are
accustomed to imagine! I saw around me friendly smiling faces, from
the grimaces and contortions of which I could easily discover that
their owners were making quizzical remarks on every passing
stranger.

The market is a great yard, surrounded by rooms, in which the slaves
live. By day they may walk about in the yard, pay one another
visits, and chatter as much as they please.

In a market of this kind we, of course, see every gradation of
colour, from light brown to the deepest black. The white slaves,
and the most beautiful of the blacks, are not however to be seen by
every stranger, but are shut up in the dwellings of the traffickers
in human flesh. The dress of these people is simple in the extreme.
They either wear only a large linen sheet, which is wrapped round
them, or some light garment. Even this they are obliged to take off
when a purchaser appears. So long as they are in the hands of the
dealers, they are certainly not kept in very good style; so they all
look forward with great joy to the prospect of getting a master.
When they are once purchased, their fate is generally far from hard.
They always adopt the religion of their master, are not overburdened
with work, are well clothed and fed, and kindly treated. Europeans
also purchase slaves, but may not look upon them and treat them as
such; from the moment when a slave is purchased by a Frank he
becomes free. Slaves bought in this way, however, generally stay
with their masters.

THE OLD SERAIL

is, of course, an object of paramount attraction to us Europeans. I
betook myself thither with my expectations at full stretch, and once
more found the reality to be far below my anticipations. The effect
of the whole is certainly grand;