fall through the basket. Others, on the other hand, who are most unequal they place together—old men and young girls, young men and old women. One stands upright, and the other bends downward, and yet they say that they may be joined; how is this?" He answered: "Thou dost not see everything. It is true that some old man or old woman may not be worth a pound of tow,[1] yet if they have either a fat pouch or a hat before which other hats are lowered, or something similar (for all these things are weighed in the scales), the matter does not stand as it appears to your judgment."
(The Fashion in which they sit together is unalterable.)
3. Entering after those whom they allowed to pass, I see at the gate men who seemed smiths; these clasp on each couple awful fetters, and only when fettered allow them to pass. Many people were present at this fettering who (as they said) were invited for the purpose of being witnesses. These played and sang before them, and bade them be of good cheer. But watching carefully, I remarked that they did not fasten up these fetters with a padlock as with other prisoners, but that they immediately forged, welded, soldered them together, so that, as long as their lives in this world lasted, they could not unbuckle them or tear them off. This frightened me, and I said: "Oh, most cruel captivity! if anyone once enters it, for all
- ↑ A proverbial expression in Bohemia.
