68 A Relation of the Chap. XIII. 



The caufes of But it were to be wifh'd, that they would not fo much concern themfelves in keep- 

 the abominable j n g ftfog. places fo clean, provided they could forbear polluting them with thofe de- 

 Wbe tSs tdtable impurities, which I ftiould gladly have left unmention'd, did I not fear the 

 who an can* reproach might be made tome, of my having been defective in point of exadnefs. 

 pCi -within I have already faid fomething of it, in the Second Chapter of this Relation, and it is a 

 the Seraglio, fubject, which is to be (lightly pall over, that fo there may be but imperfect Idaa s left 

 of it. It is therefore in thofe places, that the Pages make their nodurnal affignations, 

 in order to the committing of the worft of all crimes, which yet they rind it very dif- 

 ficult to put in execution, becaufe they are fo narrowly watch'd ; and if they are taken 

 in the very ad, they are punifh'd with fo great feverity, that fometimes they are even 

 drubb'd to death h of which chamfement, I have elfewhere given an account. In like 

 manner, to prevent the committing of that infamous adr, in the places where they take 

 their repofe, there are two Torches lighted, which lad all the Night, and three Eu- 

 nuchs are ever and anon going their Rounds, by which means the Pages are depriv'd 

 of the opportunities, which otherwife they might have, to offend. 



But we need not go far, to find out the Source of this Evil : the ftridnefs of the 

 reltraint they are in, and their being depriv'd of the light of Women, induce thofe 

 Young Men to praftife filch defilements, and hurry the Turkj into a Gulph, to which 

 they, by an execrable paffion, are, naturally but too much inclinable. The Ichoglans, 

 who arc brought very young into the Seraglio,know not what a Woman is, but by the 

 inftindt of Nature \ and there are fome of them, who,for one day's light and enjoy- 

 ment of a Woman, would be content to dye the next. All thofe Nations generally 

 have fo great a bent to lubricity, that it feems impoilible they mould 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 Action of the two Pages, who hid themfelves in the Mofquey,- 

 and that fingle Example is enough, to fhew, how they feek out all the wayes imagin- 

 able, to fatisfie their brutilh paifion. 



The Quarter of the Kafnadar-bachi, as alfo that of his Companion, or Subftitute, is 

 adjoyning to that of the P<igcs of the Treafury, and from their Chambers, they have 

 a Profpeét into a little Flower-Garden, which belongs to them. We have yet fome 

 other Chambers to view, before we come to that, which they call the Haz-Odajxhkh 

 is the Appartment of the Forty Pages of the Chamber, and the entrance to that of the 

 Grand Seignor. 



CHAP. 



