"Ibn al-Taj al-Hafiz al-Multani said to me: I asked how a slave girl could reach this price in spite of the cheapness (in the country). Each one of them informed me severally in interviews that the difference was caused by the grace of her deportment or the refinement of her manners and that a great number of these slave girls knew the Quran by heart, they could write, recite verses and stories, excelled in music, played the lute and chess and backgammon (nard) and so on. The slave girls take pride in things like these. One of them says: I shall capture the heart of my master within three days; the other says: I shall captivate his heart in one day, a third says: I shall captivate his heart in an hour, another says I shall captivate his heart in the twinkling of an eye. They say that the pretty Indian girls are superior as regards beauty to those of the Turks and Qipchaks besides their good breeding manifold accomplishments and attainments which give them distinction. Most of them are of golden colour some of them are of brilliant whiteness mixed with red. In spite of the great number of Turks and Qipchaks and Byzantines and other nationalities that are there everyone gives preference to none but the Indian pretty girls on account of their perfect beauty and sweetness and other things which words cannot describe."