A WIFE DRAGGED FROM HER HUSBAND'S HOUSE AND SOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6147, 30 July 1881, Page 7

A WIFE DRAGGED FROM HER HUSBAND'S HOUSE AND SOLD.

A curious instance of the way in which the anti-slavery laws arc carried out here has recentlycome to light. Some months since a family of Mussnlmau refugees arrived in Constantinople, the father ofwhom had a nicelooking young daughter. He came across a rather respectable-looking Turk, to whom I shall give the pseudonym of Mebmed Agha, and proposed to him that he, Mehmed Agha, should marry his daughter. Mehmed Agha, being an admirer of the fair sex, consented to marry thegirl, andlhemarriageceremony took place in due legal form before the imam of the quarter. Mehmed Aghar took his newly married wife home, but going out of the house he found on his return that the young lady had vanished. Being a determined man, and, moreover, being enamored of the girl, he left no stone unturned to find her, and at last he did find her in the harem of a wellknown Marshal of the Empire. He found out that her father,, acting through certain slave-dealers, who had bribed him, had consented to her sale for 30 liras, and had assisted in abducting her. I say abducting, for it appears that she was fond of Mehmed Agha, and did not go away from him of her own free will. Now comes the curious part of the story. Mehmed brings the matter before the Sheikh-ul-Islam, and in the most determined manner claims his wife. An attempt is made to find out the slave-dealers who sold her, but they in- the meantime disappears 'The father of the girl does not deny the aale, the girl. on being called up, proclaims her- readiness to re-enter the marital roof; the proofs of the marriage are shown. Mehmed Agha urgently demands his rights, and claims his wife, but Sheikh-ul-Islam gives no decision, and the girl is still in the harem of the Marshal. Mehmed Agha, driven to despair, after repeated attempts to get the ear of the Sheikh-ui-Islam, uses strong language against him and tells him publicly, "You judge not according to God's law, but for the hatir.of. the Marshal," upon which he is threatened with the police and is turned but. There the matter ends for the present. It is a curious commentary on the anti-slavery laws of Turkey, if thoy ever existed, that actually a man's wife can be abducted and sold, and that he cannot get her back again. 1 should advise the Marshal of the Empire not to go about in lonely places.—Constantinople Letter. . ' - !