[269] ["The slave-market is a quadrangle, surrounded by a covered gallery, and ranges of small and separate apartments." Here the poor wretches sit in a melancholy posture. "Before they cheapen 'em, they turn 'em about from this side to that, survey 'em from top to bottom.... Such of 'em, both men and women, to whom Dame Nature has been niggardly of her charms, are set apart for the vilest services: but such girls as have youth and beauty pass their time well enough.... The retailers of this human ware are the Jews, who take good care of their slaves' education, that they may sell the better: their choicest they keep at home, and there you must go, if you would have better than ordinary; for 'tis here, as 'tis in markets for horses, the handsomest don't always appear, but are kept within doors."--_A Voyage into the Levant_, by M. Tournefort, 1741, ii. 198, 199. See, too, for the description of the sale of two Circassians and one Georgian, _Voyage de Vienne à Belgrade_, ... par N.E. Kleeman, 1780, pp. 141, 142. The "lowest offer for the prize Circassian was 4000 piastres."] [er] _The females stood, till chosen each as victim_ _To the soft oath of "Ana seing Siktum!"_[*]--[MS.] [[*]If the Turkish words are correctly given, "the oath" may be an imprecation on "your mother's" chastity.] [es] _For fear the Canto should become too long._--[MS.] CANTO THE FIFTH.[270] I. WHEN amatory poets sing their loves In liquid lines mellifluously bland, And pair their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves, They little think what mischief is in hand; The greater their success the worse it proves, As Ovid's verse may give to understand; Even Petrarch's self, if judged with due severity, Is the Platonic pimp of all posterity. II. I therefore do denounce all amorous writing, Except in such a way as not to attract; Plain--simple--short, and by no means inviting, But with a moral to each error tacked, Formed rather for instructing than delighting, And with all passions in their turn attacked; Now, if my Pegasus should not be shod ill, This poem will become a moral model. III. The European with the Asian shore Sprinkled with palaces--the Ocean stream[271] Here and there studded with a seventy-four, Sophia's Cupola with golden gleam,[272] The cypress groves, Olympus high and hoar, The twelve isles, and the more than I could dream, Far less describe, present the very view Which charmed the charming Mary Montagu. IV.