The Owners
Raised Various Objections To The Display Of Their Ware, And Well
They Might, For I Had Not The
Least notion of purchasing; some
refused on account of the illegality of the proceeding, {35} and
others declared that all
Transactions of this sort were completely
out of the question as long as the plague was raging. I only
succeeded in seeing one white slave who was for sale but on this
one the owner affected to set an immense value, and raised my
expectations to a high pitch by saying that the girl was
Circassian, and was "fair as the full moon." After a good deal of
delay I was at last led into a room, at the farther end of which
was that mass of white linen which indicates an Eastern woman. She
was bid to uncover her face, and I presently saw that, though very
far from being good looking, according to my notion of beauty, she
had not been inaptly described by the man who compared her to the
full moon, for her large face was perfectly round and perfectly
white. Though very young, she was nevertheless extremely fat. She
gave me the idea of having been got up for sale, of having been
fattened and whitened by medicines or by some peculiar diet. I was
firmly determined not to see any more of her than the face. She
was perhaps disgusted at this my virtuous resolve, as well as with
my personal appearance; perhaps she saw my distaste and
disappointment; perhaps she wished to gain favour with her owner by
showing her attachment to his faith:
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