Constantinople : and the scenery of the seven churches of Asia Minor . to the caprice or suspicion of the successor to the throne; and hundreds atonce, in the prime of life and splendour of beauty, are consigned to a watery grave. The merchants who purchase slaves are usually Jews. When a female of greatbeauty is not accomplished in the arts of pleasing, the Jew undertakes her is taught, by competent masters, music, dancing, and other personal attractions—thecultivation of the mind is never thought of. When her value is thus enhanced by heracquirements, the most extravagant pri
Constantinople : and the scenery of the seven churches of Asia Minor . to the caprice or suspicion of the successor to the throne; and hundreds atonce, in the prime of life and splendour of beauty, are consigned to a watery grave. The merchants who purchase slaves are usually Jews. When a female of greatbeauty is not accomplished in the arts of pleasing, the Jew undertakes her is taught, by competent masters, music, dancing, and other personal attractions—thecultivation of the mind is never thought of. When her value is thus enhanced by heracquirements, the most extravagant price is exacted and given. The usual purchase ofa young white slave is 6000 piastres, or about £100: for a black, merely intendedfor the domestic drudgery which a Turkish woman will not submit to, 1200 piastres,or £16. * To this the Greek girls form an exception. Refined by education, strongly attached to theirfamilies, and abhorrent to slavery, their natural vivacity is overcome by their state, and they appearsad and dejected amid the levity that surrounds WITH, THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR. 39 The illustration represents the act of sale. On one side are females purchasingblack servants. A slight examination as to health and strength is all that is used. Thegirl starts up, draws her scanty coarse garments about her, and, with a merry laugh andcheerful countenance, trips away after her mistress. The severe decorum of a Turk atonce changes her half-nakedness for a more suitable dress: her head and feet are nolonger bare—her dark visage is dignified with a snow-white veil—and she feels pride andgratification in her new and altered state. On the other side are white slaves, who are exa-mined not by females, but by a master, of whose happiness they are hereafter to constitutea part. He is attended by his black eunuch, and the slave-merchant is pointing out allthe personal charms of his purchase, and eulogising those which escape his the gallery above
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Keywords: ., bookauthorallomtho, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1830, bookyear1839
