THE SLAVE MARKET AT BUDA-PESTH.
In the middle of the sixteenth century, Haji Baba, the most celebrated
slave-dealer of Stambul, having been secretly informed beforehand, by
acquaintances in the Seraglio, that a great host would assemble that
summer beneath Pesth, hastily filled his ship with wares before his
business colleagues had got an inkling of what was going to happen; and,
steering his bark with its precious load through the Black Sea and up
the Danube, reached Pesth some time before the army had concentrated
there.
Casting anchor in the Danube, he adorned his vessel with oriental
carpets and flowers, and placing a band of black eunuchs in the prow of
the vessel with all sorts of tinkling musical instruments, he set about
beating drums till the sound re-echoed from the hills of Buda.
The Turks immediately assembled on the bastions of the castle of Buda
right opposite, and perceiving the bedizened ship with its flags
streaming from the mast and sweeping the waves, thereby giving everyone
who wanted to know what sort of wares were for sale there, got into all
sorts of little skiffs and let themselves be rowed out thither.
The loveliest damsels in the round world were there exhibited for sale.
As soon as the first of the Turks had well intoxicated himself with the
sight of the sumptuous wares, he hastened back to get his money and come
again, telling the dozen or so of his acquaintances whom he met on the
way what sort of a spectacle he had seen with no little enthusiasm, and
in a very short time hundreds more were hastening to this ship which
offered Paradise itself for sale.
Hassan Pasha, the then Governor of Buda, perceiving the throng from the
windows of his palace, and ascertaining the cause, sent his favourite
Yffim Beg to forbid the market to the mob till he, the general, had
chosen for himself what girls he wanted; and if there was any one of the
slave-girls worthy of consideration, he was to buy her for his harem.
Yffim Beg hastened to announce the prohibition, and when the skiffs had
departed one by one from the ship, he got into the general's curtained
gondola and had himself rowed over to the ship of Haji Baba.
The man-seller, perceiving the state gondola on its way to him, went to
the ship's side, and waited with a woe-begone face till it had come
alongside, and stretched forth his long neck to Yffim Beg that he might
clamber up it on to the deck.
The Beg, with great condescension, informed the merchant that he had
come on behalf of the Vizier of Buda, who was over all the Pashas of
Hungary, to choose from among the wares he had for sale.
Haji Baba, on hearing this, immediately cast himself to the ground and
blessed the day which had risen on these hills, and the water and the
oars which had brought the Beg thither, and even the mother who had made
the slippers in which Yffim Beg had mounted his ship.
Then he kissed the Beg's hand, and having, as a still greater sign of
respect, boxed the ears of the eunuch who happened to be nearest to the
Beg, for his impertinence in daring to stand so near at all, led Yffim
into the most secret of his secret chambers. Heavy gold-embroidered
hangings defended the entry to the interior of the ship; after this came
a second curtain of dark-red silk, and through this were already audible
sweet songs and twittering, and when this curtain was drawn aside by
its golden tassels, a third muslin-like veil still stood in front of the
entrance through which one could look into the room beyond without being
seen by those inside.
Fourteen damsels were sporting with one another. Some of them darting in
and out from between the numerous Persian curtains suspended from the
ceiling, and laughing aloud when they caught each other; one was
strumming a mandoline; five or six were dancing a round dance to the
music of softly sung songs; another group was swinging one another on a
swing made from costly shawls. All of them were so young, all of them
were of such superior loveliness, that if the heart had allowed the eye
alone to choose for it, mere bewilderment would have made selection
impossible.
Yffim Beg gazed for a long time with the indifference of a connoisseur,
but even his face relaxed at last, and smilingly tapping the merchant on
the shoulder, he said to him:
"You have been filching from Paradise, Haji Baba!"
Haji Baba crossed his hands over his breast and shook his head humbly.
"All these girls are my pupils, sir. There is not one of them who
resembles her dear mother. From their tenderest youth they have grown up
beneath my fostering care; I do no business with grown-up, captured
slave-girls, for, as a rule, they only weep themselves to death, grow
troublesome, wither away before their time, and upset all the others. I
buy the girls while they are babies; it costs a mint of money and no end
of trouble before such a flower expands, but at least he who plucks it
has every reason to rejoice. Look, sir, they are all equally perfect!
Look at that slim lily there dancing on the angora carpet! Did you ever
see such a figure anywhere else? How she sways from side to side like
the flowering branch of a banyan tree! That is a Georgian girl whom I
purchased before she was born. Her father when he married had not money
enough for the wedding-feast, so he came to me and sold for a hundred
denarii the very first child of his that should be born. Yes, sir, not
much money, I know, but suppose the child had never been born? And
suppose it had been a son! And how often too, and how easily I might
have been cheated! I am sure you could not say that five hundred ducats
was too much for her if I named that price. Look, how she stamps down
her embroidered slippers! Ah, what legs! I don't believe you could find
such round, white, smooth little legs anywhere else! Her price, sir, is
six hundred ducats."
Yffim Beg listened to the trader with the air of a connoisseur.
"Or, perhaps, you would prefer that melancholy virgin yonder, who has
sought solitude and is lying beneath the shade of that rose-tree? Look,
sir, what a lot of rose-trees I have all about the place! My girls can
never bear to be without rose-trees, for roses go best with damsels, and
the fragrance of the rose is the best teacher of love. That Circassian
girl yonder was captured along with her father and mother; the husband,
a rough fellow, slew his wife lest she should fall into our hands, but
he had no time to kill his child, for I took her, and now I would not
sell her for less than seven hundred ducats; there's no hurry, for she
is still quite a child."
Here Yffim Beg growled something or other.
"Now that saucy damsel swinging herself to and fro on the shawl,"
continued the dealer, "I got in China, where her parents abandoned her
in a public place. She does not promise much at first sight, but touch
her and you'll fancy you are in contact with warm velvet. I would let
you have her, sir, for five hundred ducats, but I should charge anyone
else as much again."
Yffim Beg nodded approvingly.
"And now do you see that fair damsel who, with a gold comb, is combing
out tresses more precious than gold; she came to me from the northern
islands, from a ship which the Kapudan Pasha sent to the bottom of the
sea. I don't ask you if you ever saw such rich fair tresses before, but
I do ask you whether you ever saw before a mortal maid with such a
blindingly fair face? When she blushes, it is just as if the dawn were
touching her with rosy finger-tips."
"Yes, but her face is painted," said Yffim Beg suspiciously.
"Painted, sir!" exclaimed Haji Baba with dignity. "Painted faces at my
shop! Very well! come and convince yourself."
And, tearing aside the muslin veil, he entered the apartment with Yffim
Beg.
At the sight of the men a couple of the charming hoydens rushed
shrieking behind the tapestries, and only after a time poked their
inquisitive little heads through the folds of the curtains; but the
Georgian beauty continued to dance; the Chinese damsel went on swinging
more provocatively than ever; the beauty from the northern islands
allowed her golden tresses to go on playing about her shoulders; a
fresh, tawny gipsy-girl, in a variegated, elaborately fringed dress,
with ribbons in her curly hair, stood right in front of the approaching
Beg, eyed him carefully from top to toe, seized part of his silken
caftan, and rubbed it between her fingers, as if she wanted to appraise
its value to a penny; while a tiny little negro girl with gold bracelets
round her hands and legs, fumigated the entering guest with ambergris,
naively smiling at him all the time with eyes like pure enamel and lips
as red as coral.
The robber-chapman was right, there was not one of these girls who felt
ashamed. They looked at the purchaser with indifference and even
complacency, and everyone of them tried to please him in the hope that
he would take them where they would have lots of jewels and fine
clothes, and slaves to wait on them.
Haji Baba led the Beg to the above-mentioned beauty, and raising the
edge of her white garment and displaying her blushing face, rubbed it
hard, and when the main texture remained white, he turned triumphantly
to the seller.
"Well, sir! I sell painted faces, do I? Do you suppose that every
orthodox shah, emir, and khan would have any confidence in me if I did?
Will you not find in my garden those flowers which the Sultana Valideh
presents to the greatest of Emperors on his birthday, and which in a
week's time the Sultan gives in marriage to those of his favourite
Pashas whom he delights to honour? Why, I don't keep Hindu bayaderes
simply because they stain their teeth with betel-root and orange yellow,
and gild their eyebrows; accursed be he who would improve upon what
Allah created perfect! The black girl is lovely because she is black,
the Greek because she is brown, the Pole because she is pale, and the
Wallach because she is ruddy; there are some who like blonde, and some
who like dark tresses; and fire dwells in blue eyes as well as in black;
and God has created everything that man may rejoice therein."
While the worthy man-filcher was thus pouring himself forth so
enthusiastically, Yffim Beg, with a very grave face, was gazing round
the apartment, drawing aside every curtain and gazing grimly at the
dwellers behind them, who, clad in rich oriental garments, were
reclining on divans, sucking sugar-plums and singing songs.
Haji Baba was at his back the whole time, and had so much to say of the
qualifications of every damsel they beheld, that the Turkish gentleman
must have been sorely perplexed which of them to choose.
He had got right to the end of the apartment, when unexpectedly peeping
into the remotest corner, he beheld a damsel who seemed to be entirely
different from all the rest. She was wrapped in a simple white
wadding-like garment, only her head was visible; and when the Beg
turned towards her, both his eyes and his mouth opened wide, and he
stood rooted to the spot before her.
It was the face of the Queen in the Kingdom of Beauty. Never had he seen
such a look, such burning, glistening, flashing eyes as hers! The proud,
free temples, beneath which two passionate eyebrows sparkled like
rainbows, even without a diadem dispensed majesty. At the first glance
she seemed as savage as Diana surprised in her bath, at the next she was
as timorous as the flying Daphne; gradually a tender smile transformed
her features, she looked in front of her with a dazed expression like
betrayed Sappho gazing at the expanse of ocean in which she would fain
extinguish her burning love.
"Chapman!" cried the Beg, scarce able to contain himself for
astonishment, "would you deceive me by hiding away from me a houri
stolen from heaven?"
"I assure you, sir," said the chapman, with a look of terror, "that it
were better for you if you turned away and thought of her no more."
"Haji Baba, beware! if perchance you would sell her to another, or even
keep her for yourself, you run the risk of losing more than you will
ever make up again."
"I tell you, sir, by the beard of my father, look not upon that woman."
"Hum! Some defect perhaps!" thought Yffim to himself, and he beckoned to
the girl to let down her garment. She immediately complied, and,
standing up, stripped her light mantle from her limbs.
Ah! how the Beg's eyes sparkled. He half believed that what he saw was
not human, but a vision from fairy-land. The damsel's shape was as
perfect as a marble statue carved expressly for the altar of the Goddess
of Love, and the silver hoop encircling her body only seemed to be there
as a girdle in order to show how much whiter than silver was her body.
"Curses on your tongue, vile chatterer!" said Yffim Beg, turning upon
the chapman. "Here have you been wasting an hour of my time with your
empty twaddle, and hiding the beauties of Paradise from my gaze. What's
the price of this damsel?"
"Believe me, sir, she won't do for you."
"What! thou man-headed dog! Dost fancy thou hast to do with beggars who
cannot give thee what thou askest? I come hither to buy for Hassan
Pasha, the Governor of Buda, who is wont to give two thousand ducats to
him who asks him for one thousand."
At these words the damsel's face was illuminated by an unwonted smile,
and at that moment her large, fiery eyes flashed so at Yffim Beg that
_his_ eyes could not have been more blinded if he had been walking on
the seashore and two suns had flashed simultaneously in his face, one
from the sky and the other from the watery mirror.
"It is not that," said the slave merchant, bowing himself to the ground;
"on the contrary, I'll let you have the damsel so cheaply that you will
see from the very price that I had reserved her for one of the lowest
_mushirs_, in case he should take a fancy to her--you shall have her for
a hundred dinars."
"Thou blasphemer, thou! Dost thou cheapen in this fashion the
masterpieces of Nature. Thou shouldst ask ten thousand dinars for her,
or have a stroke on the soles of thy feet with a bamboo for every dinar
thou askest below that price."
The merchant's face grew dark.
"Take her not, sir," said he; "you will be no friend to yourself or to
your master if you would bring her into his harem."
"I suppose," said the Beg, "that the damsel has a rough voice, and that
is why she is going so cheaply?" and he ordered her to sing a song to
him if she knew one.
"Ask her not to do that, sir!" implored the chapman. But, already, he
was too late. At the very first word the girl had laid hold of a
mandolin, and striking the chords till they sounded like the breeze on
an aeolian harp, she began to sing in the softest, sweetest, most ardent
voice an Arab love-song:
"In the rose-groves of Shiraz,
In the pale beams of moonlight,
In the burning heart's slumber,
Love ever is born.
"'Midst the icebergs of Altai,
On the steps of the scaffold,
In the fierce flames of hatred,
Love never can die."
The Beg felt absolutely obliged to rush forthwith upon Haji Baba and
pummel him right and left for daring to utter a word to put him off
buying the damsel.
The slave-dealer patiently endured his kicks and cuffs, and when the
jest was over, he said once more:
"And again I have to counsel you not to take the damsel for your
master."
"What's amiss with her, then, thou big owl? Speak sense, or I'll hang
thee up at thine own masthead."
"I'll tell you, sir, if only you will listen. That damsel has not
belonged to one master only, for I know for certain that five have had
her. All five, sir, have perished miserably by poison, the headman's
sword, or the silken cord. She has brought misfortune to every house she
has visited, and she has dwelt with Tartars, Turks, and Magyars. Against
the Iblis that dwells within her, prophets, messiahs, and idols have
alike been powerless; ruin and destruction breathe from her lips; he who
embraces her has his grave already dug for him, and he who looks at her
had best have been born without the light of his eyes. Therefore I once
more implore you, sir, to let this damsel go to some poor mushir, whose
head may roll off without anybody much caring, and do not convey danger
to so high a house as the palace of Hassan Pasha."
The Beg shook his head.
"I thought thee a sharper, and I have found thee a blockhead," said he,
and he signified to the damsel to wrap herself in her mantle and follow
him.
"Allah is my witness that I warned you; I wash my hands of it,"
stammered Haji Baba.
"The girl will follow me; send thou for the money to my house."
"The Prophet seeth my soul, sir. If you are determined to take the
damsel, _I_ will not give her to you for money, lest so great a man may
one day say that he bought ruin from me. Take her then as a gift to your
master."
"But I have forgotten to ask the damsel's name?"
"I will tell you, but forget not every time that name passes your lips
to say: 'Mashallah!' for that woman's name is the name of the devil, and
doubtless she does not bear it without good cause, nor will she ever be
false to it."
"Speak, and chatter not!"
"That damsel's name is Azrael ... Allah is mighty!"