Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A66798
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A description of the grand signour's seraglio or Turkish emperours court [edited] by John Greaves.
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Bon, Ottaviano, 1552-1623.; Withers, Robert.; Greaves, John, 1602-1652.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing W3214; ESTC R28395
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85,011
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200
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This Eunuch hath many servants under him and stayes for the most part within the Seraglio his pension is a * thousand aspars a day besides vests and other such gifts which are given him in abundance from time to time he also is much favoured and graced by the King for that he is to succeed the Hazineâ—…dar Bashawe in case the said Hazinehdar should die or change his place and is well esteemed of and reverenced by all as well without as within the Seraglio The fourth and last which is the Sarai Agasee hath charge to look unto the Seraglio nor doth he ever go out of it especially in the Grand Signors absence but is very vigilant not only in seeing all things prepared for the daily service of the same but also to look over all the rooms and see that they be well kept and to eye the officers and servants of the house marking whether they exercise themselves or no in tâ—…ir several functions Now because he is ancient and his businesses great he hath liberty to ride within the Seraglio about the courts and gardens and by the sea-side as the three former Agas are also permitted to do for which purpose they have a stable of horses in a garden for their use alone His pension is * eight hundred aspars a day besides an allowance of vests and furs as many as he can well have occasion to wear and his succeeding the Keelergee Bashawe and so by course the Capee Aga if he out-live the rest And although all these four Eunuchs may wear Turbants in the Seraglio and ride being the chief next the King himself in authority within the Seraglio and are reverenced and respected of all men yet the three last viz. Hazinehdar Bashawe Keelergee Bashawe and Sarai Agasee may not of themselves when they list speak to the Grand Signor but only answer when any thing is asked of them howbeit they alwayes attend with the Capee Aga the person and service of the King with all the Eunuchs under them and the aforesaid Agas and Itchoglans already spoken of but these four onely govern and mannage the Kings houshold affairs giving order for all things needful and necessary aswel for the dayes as for the nights provision All the Eunuchs in the Seraglio may be in number about two hundred what with old ones middle aged and young ones they are all of them not onely gelt but have their yards also clean cut off and are chosen of those Renegado youths which are presented from time to time to the Grand Signor as aforesaid Few or none of them are gelt and cut against their will For then as the master workmen in that businesse affirm they would be in great danger of death Wherefore to get their consent they promise them fair and shew unto them the assurance they may have in time to become great men All which must be done when they are very young at their first coming into the Seraglio For it is a work not to be wrought upon men of years They are brought up with the Itchoglans and are instructed in many things aswel as they being removed also from one Oda to another and are last of all taken out by turns from the fourth Oda for to serve the Grand Signor aswell as those which are not Eunuchs His Majesty likewise employes some of these his white Eunuchs in the government of all the other Seraglios and Seminaries of of youth aswel in Constantinople as in Adrianople Bursia and in divers other places in each of which there are commonly two or three hundred youths that so by their diligence and care over them together with the help of other Ministers they may be brought to an excellent discipline by which they may afterwards prove to be men of good manners and learning And it so falleth out many times that the Grand Signor to give way to the other inferiour and younger Eunuchs who expect that they succeed in order the aforesaid offices sendeth forth some of the ancientest richest and of the highest rank in great employments as to be Bashawes of Cairo Aleppo or of some other cities and provinces in Asia and sometimes Uizirs of the bench For the Eunuchs generally prove subjects though not of great courage yet of the greatest judgement and fidelity their mindes being set on businesse rather then on pleasure And for that the Eunuchs are more trusty then any other servants of the Seraglio the Capee Agha their patron doth commonly commit such things as the Grand Signor would have kept for curiosity unto their custody who for that end have closets made of purpose to lay up such rarities as are presented to the King as great pieces of AmberGreese sent from the Bashawes of the Morea Musk Treacle Mithridate of Cairo Terra sigillata Balsame and other such things of great value cups also of Agat Christal and Jasper Turkesses and other precious stones all which are so curiously kept that it seemeth to be admirable They likewise lay up his Indian presents of Zeva and Civett of all which things his Majesty and his Sultana's make daily use Hard by the Eunuchs lodgings in the Seraglio there is a very large place in which are kept all such goods as fall to the King aswell by them which are put to death as by those which die of natural diseases of which the King is Master Now the goods being brought into the said place by the chief Defterdar who receives them from the * Be it il mawlgee and is to bring them thither the Grand Sâ—…gnor in presence of his chief servants having seen and well viewed all maketh choice of what he thinks fit to reserve and to give away the rest is cryed in the Seraglio to the end that if any one there have a will to buy he may have a good penny worth and the remainder of that is at last carried into the publick Bezisten where each parcel is cried up and down the cryer still naming the most that hath been already offered and is at length sold to him that bids most nor may any that offers a price go from his word at least if he be able to perform and stand to it The money made of the said things is delivered to the Hazinehdar Bashawe and is put into the outward Hazineh or treasury And although the goods did come out of the houses of such as died but the day before of the Pestilence the Turks neverthelesse do willingly buy them and use them as if the disease were not infectious at all affirming that their end is written in their forehead and that it is a vain thing to seek to prevent it by any humane rule or policie as either avoiding the company of infected persons or the not wearing of the clothes of them that died CHAP. VIII Of the Black Eunuchs and Black-moor girles and women of the Physitians and