A Relation of the Grand Seignors Seraglio* i< 



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have kuTd an Elephant, it is a place for them to feait in. This confider'd, we need 

 not wonder at the lnort lives of thofe miferable people, whofe bodies are detfroy'd in 

 thofe Voyages,and who for the raoft part do not exceed forty years of age.The cafe is the 

 fame with thofe, who trade with the Portugueses, on the Coaftsof Melinda andMo- 

 zambico, the corrupt waters they areforcM to drink' in their way make them hydropi- 

 cal at five and twenty years at age, and generally, all the feveral peoples of the King- 

 dom of Sabour, have the right Leg fwelfd, and twice as big as the left, and (eldom 

 exceed five and thirty years. 



Tis a miraculous thing to fee the fidelity wherewith thofe poor Aby fines demean ne Bnierity f 

 ihemfclves in trading, as well thole of the Southern parts, who are Cbrijlians, as thofe tbt Abyttiacs. 

 of the North, who border upon Egypt, and are Mahumetans. For after they have 

 taken the Commodities they like for the Gold they have brought, if the Merchant they 

 deal with will fupply them wiih any thing further, to be paid at their return, and up- 

 on their own words, he is fure enough of it, and need not break his fleep for it. For 

 if it happen that one of thofe Aby fines, who is a Debtor, fliould die by the way, 

 fome of liis Relations, or Friends, whom he acquaints with his affairs, brings the 

 Gold at the next return, for the Commodity which had been taken up •, and it could 

 never hitherto be found, that any Merchant could complain, that ever he had loft 

 ought by any one of them. All that is to be fear'd, is, that they mould fall into the 

 hands of their Enemies, who rob, and kill them, and particularly on the South-fide, 

 there being lefs danger, towards the North. 



The foreign Coins of Cold in Turkgy are the Vucates of Germany, Hollandjimgary^ 

 and Venice. They are very much fought after, and they arechang'd, at fix Livers and 

 a half, and fometimes at fix Livers and fifteen Sols \ and that is done in order to the 

 fending of them to the Indies, where they drive a great Trade with them, as I (hall 

 make it appear in my Relations of the Levant. Sometime fincc. there has been (bme 

 abatement made in the Vucates of Venice, upon a difcovery of their not being of Co 

 good an alloy, as thofe oi Germany* 



There will be often mention made of Purfes, in that Relation of the Seraglio. A 

 Furfe implies as much as the fum of rive hundred Crowns, and it is of thofe Purfes 

 that the Grand Seignor makes his ordinary Prefents. But a Furfe of Gold, wherewith 

 he regales his Sultanelfes, and his peculiar Favourites, amounts to fifteen thoufand Se~ 

 quins, or thirty thoufand Crowns. A Kize is alfo a bag of fifteen thoufand D«- 



catesi 



! 



In all the Ottoman Empire, there is not any Money of Copper to be feen, and the 

 Species current there mult be either of Silver or Gold. True it is, that there are fbme 

 pieces of Silver taken there, of a very bafe alloy, efpecially _ke Roup, which are quar* 

 ter-Ryals, coinM in Poland; and with the afliftance of the Jews, the Bafla\ in their 

 feveral Governments, counterfeit certain foreign Coins, which are all much different 

 from thofe which they are intended to imitate. j 



The cafe is the fame as to Silver-Coins in Turkey,^ it is with thofe of Gold. There 

 are fome coin'd in the Countrey, as the After, and the Parafi, which are the leafi of 

 all. And there are fome forrcign Moneys, as the Spaiiijh Ryal, and the Rix-doUars of 

 Germany and Holland, 



An After is the leaft of all the Moneys, which heretofore was worth eight Vetikrs, 

 French Money, that is about \ of the Englifh Penny, as being of good Silver, and the 

 value (et upon them was after the rate of 80, for the Crown-piece. But in the more 

 remote Provinces, the Baffas, and the Jews caufe fuch an abundance of counterfeit 

 ones to be made, that at pre(ent, a Crown-piece will yield one hundred and twenty 

 Afters* 



A Parafi is another kind of fmall Money, which is worth four Afters, and coiri'd 

 at Cairo* 



Groch$ 



