'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎66] (615/1024)

66 A Relation of the Grand Seignor s Seraglio
which
who are con
fin'd within
the Seraglio.
vvuica is HOC hail fi. foot, or link more above tlje. ground. That hole is cover'd
with an Iron plate, which rifcs and falls by^ 4 Spring, and turning one way or .
other ar the falling of the leaft weight upon itf it comes to the ftauon it was in
before, afloon as the ordure is fallen from i/. I have obferv’d^ elfewhere, that
the Turks > and generally all the Mabumtans, do not ufe paper in fuch cafes, or
upon any 3 unde cent occafion, and when they, go to thofe kinds of places, they
carry along with them a Pot of water, to wafh themfelves withal,.and the Iron-
plate is alfo made clean at the fame time. And fd the hole being alwaies cover’d,
and the Iron-plate always kept clean there can be no ill fmeil in the place, and
that the rather, for that a fmall current of water, which paffes under that place,
carries away all the Ordure. ; ' , , . „
Tie Caufys of But it were to fee wifli’d, that they would not fo much concern themlelvesm
the abominable keeping thofe places fo clean, provided they could forbear polluting them with
Sin committed thofe deteftable impurities, which I fhould gladly have left unmention’d, did I
by the Turks nQt ^ t h e reproach might be made to me, of my having been defe&ive in point
ofexadbnefe. I have already faid fomething of it, in the Second Chapter of this
Relation, and it is a fubjed, which is to be flightely pad over, that fo there may
be but impeffed Haas left of it. It is therefore in thofe places, that the Pages
make their nodurnal affignations, in order to the committing of the word of all
crimes which yet they find it very difficult to put in execution, becaufe they are
fb-narrowly watch’d; and if they are taken in the very ad, they are puniflied
with fb great feverity, that fometimes they are even drubb’d to death ; of which
chaftifement, I have elfewhere given an account. # In like manner, to prevent the
committing of that infamous ad, in the places where they take their repofe,there are
two Torches lighted, which laft all the Night, and three Eunuchs are ever and
anon going their Rounds, by > which means the Pages are depriv’d of the oportu*
nicies, which otherwife they might have, to offend. .
But we need not go far, to find out the Source of this Evil: the Itridneis or
the reftraint they are in, and iheir being depriv’d of the fight of Women, induce
thofe Young Men to pradife fuch defilements, and hurry the Turks into a Gulpbj
to which they, by an execrable paffion, are, naturally but too much inclinable.
The Ichoglans, who are brought very young into the Seraglio, know not what a
Woman is, but by the inftind of Nature; and there are fome of them, who, for
one day’s fight and enjoyment of a Woman, would be content to dye the next.
All thofe Nations generally have fo great a bent to lubricity, that it feems im-
poffible they fhould quit it, but with their lives; what they cannot do one way,,
they endeavour to do another; and they of the Seraglio do all they can to elude
the infpedion of their Overfeers. The Reader may call to mind the Adion of the
two Rages , who hid themfelves in the Mofquey , and that Tingle Example is
enough, to fhew, how they feek out all the ways imaginable, to fatisfie their brutiin
^The Quarter of the Kafnadar-bachi, as alfo that of his Companion, or Subflitute,
isadjoyning to that of the Pages of the Treafury, and from their Chambers, they
have a Profpeb! into a little Flower-Garden, which belongs to them. We nave
yet fome other Chambers to view, before we come to that, which they call me
Haz-Oda^ which is the Appartment of the Forty Pages of the Chamber, ana tn
entrance to that of the Grand Seignor.