Over against my Lodgings there is a tall Plane-tree, whose spreading Boughs make a delightsome Shade; under that Tree, sometimes Fowlers sit with abundance of such Birds to sell in Cages. You shall have the Turks buy several of these Birds for a small Matter; and when they have bought them, they’ll let them fly out of their Hands. The Bird presently flies up to the Tree; there she picks her Feathers, and cleanseth them from the Filth contracted in the Cage, and then she spreads abroad her Wings, and chirps. The Turks that bought them, say, don’t you hear how glad this Bird is, and how he gives me Thanks for his Liberty?
If this be so, you’ll say, What! are the Turks such Pythagoreans, that they count all Brutes sacred, and will eat none of their Flesh? I lay not so; but, on the contrary, they’ll eat any Flesh set before them, either boil’d or roasted; only they count Mutton the properest Meat, because Sheep are made for the Shambles, as they say; yet they would not have Men to make a Sport at killing of them, as if they rejoyced in their Torment. Some of them will by no means be persuaded to kill small Birds which sing in their Fields and Woods; nay, they think it some Injury done them, to restrain their Liberty by caging them up. But all Turks are not of that Mind; some of them keep Nightingales in their Houses, for the Melodiousness of their Tunes, and in Spring-time they let them out to hire, to sing. I knew some, that carried Linnets about, so well instructed, that if a Man shew’d them a piece of Money out of his Chamber, though it were at a great distance from them, yet they would fly up to fetch it; and if the Man would not let it go, they would sit upon his Hand, and so accompany him from one Room to another, still pulling at the Money; and when they had got it, as if they remembred their Errand on which they were sent, when their Master whistled to them in the High-way, down they would fly to him again; and, as a Reward for the Money in their Bills, he would give them a little Hemp-seed. But I shall proceed no further in such Stories as these, lest you should think me a second Pliny, or an Ælian, and that I were designing to write an History of Animals.
I preceed then to other Matters, and shall give you an Example of the Chastity of Turkish Women. The Turks take more Pains to have their Wives modest, than any other Nation; and, therefore, they ordinarily keep them close up at home, and hardly suffer them to see the Sun; but if any necessity calls them abroad, they go so hooded and veil’d, as if they were Hobgoblins or Ghosts. ’Tis true, they can see Men through their Veils or Hoods, but no part of their Bodies 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.
In 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.
A lawful Wife, with them, differs from a Concubine, only upon the account of her Dowry, which a lawful Wife hath, but a Concubine hath not. And when once her Dowry is assigned her, then she is a Mistress; Governess of the House, and all the other Women under her. And yet the Husband hath leave to lie with which of them he pleases at his Choice; and when he makes known his Pleasure to his Wife, she bids the Maid of his desires prepare herself for his Bed; and she obeys; perhaps, more joyfully than her Mistress commands her. Only Friday Night, which is their Sabbath, the Wife claims as her due, and she thinks herself wrong’d, if her Husband defraud her thereof; other Nights he may lie with which of his Slaves he pleases.
Divorces are made among them for many Causes, which Men easily pretend; and when a Wife is divorced, her Dowry is restored, unless she be put away on a dishonest Account: But Women have but few; to instance some among those few, this is one, if their Husband do not allow them due Maintenance; and if they offer to abuse them against Nature, (a Crime usual among them) then the Wife goes to the Judge, and tells him, she can no longer endure to live with her Husband; when he asks the Cause, they say nothing, but pull off their Shoe from their Feet, and turn it up and down, which is a Sign among them of the unlawful use of Copulation. The greatest sort among them, that have abundance of Women, set Eunuchs to guard them, not such as have only their Stones taken out, but such whose Yards are also impaired; because other wise they think, such as have lost their Stones only, may desire the use of a Woman, tho’ not for Generation, yet for Pleasure. The great Men also have Baths at their own Houses, wherein they and their Women do wash; but the meaner sort use public Baths.
A Turk hates bodily Filthiness and Nastiness, worse than Soul-Defilement; and, therefore, they wash very often, and they never ease themselves, by going to Stool, but they carry Water with them for their Posteriors. But ordinarily the Women bathe by themselves, Bond and Free together; so that you shall many times see young Maids, exceeding beautiful, gathered from all Parts of the World, exposed Naked to the view of other Women, who thereupon fall in Love with them, as young Men do with us, at the sight of Virgins.
By this you may guess, what the strict Watch over Females comes to, and that it is not enough to avoid the Company of an adulterous Man, for the Females burn in Love one towards another; and the Pandaresses to such refined Loves are the Baths; and, therefore, some Turks will deny their Wives the use of their public Baths, but they cannot do it altogether, because their Law allows them. But these Offences happen among the ordinary sort; the richer sort of Persons have Baths at home, as I told you before.
It happened one time, that at the public Baths for Women, an old Woman fell in Love with a Girl, the Daughter of a poor Man, a Citizen of Constantinople; and, when neither by wooing nor flattering her, she could obtain that of her which her mad Affection aim’d at, she attempted to perform an Exploit almost incredible; she feign’d herself to be a Man, changed her Habit, hired an House near the Maid’s Father, and pretended she was one of the Chiauxes of the Grand Seignior; and thus, by reason of his Neighbourhood, she insinuated herself into the Man’s Acquaintance, and after some time, acquaints him with the desire of his Daughter. In short, he being a Man in such a prosperous Condition, the Matter was agreed on, a Portion was settled, such as they were able to give, and a Day appointed for the Marriage; when the Ceremonies were over, and this doughty Bridegroom went into the Bride-chamber to his Spouse; after some Discourse, and plucking off her Headgeer, she was found to be a Woman. Whereupon the Maid runs out, and calls up her Parents, who soon found that they had married her, not to a Man, but a Woman: Whereupon, they carried the supposed Man, the next day, to the General of the Janizaries, who, in the Absence of the Grand Seignior, was Governor of the City. When she was brought before him, he chide her soundly for her beastly Love; what, says he, are you not asham’d, an old Beldam as you are, to attempt so notorious a Bestiality, and so filthy a Fact?