hangings came a sharp, shrill screaming as were of many gaudy parrots.

In front of this waggon two men rode, unlike in stature and mien, and a
loutish fellow led the horses. Now, we all knew this wain right well.
Heretofore, in the life-time of old Lorenz Waldstromer, the father of my
Uncle Conrad, it had been wont to come hither once or twice a year, and
was ever made welcome; if it should happen to come in the month of August
it was at that season filled with noble falcons, to be placed on Board
ships at Venice, inasmuch as the Sultan of Egypt and his Emirs were so
fain to buy them that they would give as much as a hundred and fifty
sequins for he finest and best.

Old Jordan Kubbeling of Brunswick, the father of he man who had now come
hither, was wont to send the birds to Alexandria by the hand of dealers,
to sell them for him there; but his son Seyfried, who was to this day
called Young Kubbeling, albeit he was nigh on sixty, would carry his
feathered wares thither himself. Verily he was not suffered to sell any
other goods in the land, inasmuch as the Republic set strait bounds to
the dealings of German traders. If such an one would have aught from the
Levant he may get it only through the Merchants' Hall or Fondaco in
Venice; and much less is a German suffered to carry his wares, of what
kind soever, out of Venice into the East, inasmuch as every German trader
is bound to sell by the hand of the syndicate all which his native land
can produce or make in Venice itself. And in no other wise may a German
traffic in any matters, great or small, with the Venice traders; and all
this is done that the Republic may lose nought of the great taxes they
set on all things.

As to Seyfried Kubbeling, the great Council, by special grace, and
considering that none but he could carry his birds over seas in good