A Relation of the Grand Seignors Seraglio. 15 



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

 not wonder at the (hort lives of thole miferable people, whofe bodies are deftroy'd in 

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

 fame with thofe, who trade with the Portuguefes, on the Coafts of Melinda and My- 

 zambico, the corrupt waters they are fore'd 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 Saboter, have the right Leg fwelfd, and twice as big as the left, andfeldom 

 exceed five and thirty years. 



Tis a miraculous thing to fee the fidelity wherewith thofe poor Abyjftnes demean tht fmerity of 

 themfelves in trading, as well thofe of the Southern parts, who are Cbrifiians, as thofe tht Abyilincs. 

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

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

 deal with will fupply them with 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 deep for it. For 

 if it happen that one of thofe Abyftnes, who is a Debtor, mould die by the way, 

 fome of his 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 (hould 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 Gold in Turkey are the Vucates of Germany. Holland,Hungary, 

 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 fince there has been fome 

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

 good an alloy, as thofe of Germany, 



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

 Purfe implies as much as the fum of five hundred Crowns, and it is of thofe Purfe9 

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

 he regales his Sultaneflés, and his peculiar Favourites, amounts to fifteen thoufand Se- 

 quins, or thirty thoufand Crowns. A Kizé is alfo a bag of fifteen thoufand Du~ 

 cates. 



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

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

 pieces of Silver taken there, of a very bafe alloy, efpecially the Roup, which are quar- 

 ter-Ryals, com'd in Poland => and with the affiftance of the Jews, the Baffas, in their 

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

 from thofe which they are intended to imitate. 



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

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

 all. And there are fome forreign Moneys, as the Spanifb Ryal, and the Rix-doHars of 

 Germany and Holland. 



An Ajper is the leaft of all the Moneys, which heretofore Was worth eight Deniers, 

 Trencb Money, that is about \ of the Englifb Penny, as being of good Silver, and the 

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

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

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

 Afters. 



A Parafx is another kind of fmall Money, which is worth four Afters, and coinM 

 at Cairo. 



Grocbe 



