Chap.XVL Grand Seignors Seraglio. 8 1 



a nd the perfon who prefents the Petition be extremely opprefs'd and injur'd, he holds 

 a lighted Torch over his head, which is ordinarily pradris'd in Yirffay, upon the like 

 occa lions, and by that myfterious comportment, intimates to the Prince, That if he 

 does not do him juliice, his Soul (hall burn in the other World, as that Torch does in 

 this. 



Upon the Empcrour's going out of the Seraglio, the principal Sultancjfes, his Mo- 

 ther .his dearelt Conformer his Sifters,are in a Room over the great Gate of that Palace, 

 with Bags full of Afpers, which they fling among the people, that they may pray, 

 That God would gradoully hearken to the Devotions, which the Grand Seignor is go- 

 ing to perform. His March is after the fame Order, and with an obfervance of the 

 Pomp, as that of the ancient Greeks Emperours, and I queftion not, but that thofe 

 Authors, who have written of the Ottoman Empire in general, or particularly of the 

 City of Cnnftantinople, have made fumcient defcriptions of that Ceremony, and there- 

 fore I thall think my felf difpens'd from the obligation of giving a new one of it. I 

 Ihall only fay this of it, That it is very Magnificent, and that there is not any Monarch 

 in the World, who makes fo great an expofal of Gold and precious Stones together, 

 wherewith the HamcfTes and Trappings of moft of the Horfes, as well of the Grand 

 Seignor-, as thofe of the vujjas are all cover'd. 



At their return from the Mofquey, the Moufti, on Horiè-back, and at the head of a Ife wicked 

 wretched Crew of GreekJZbrijlians, of the meaneff fort of people ( for there are very contrivances <f 

 few Armenians among them) exped the Grand Seignor, at the Gates of the Seraglio, ^ \ M ^ y t0 

 and telling his Highnefs, That thofe people were Mis-believers, who had embrae'd the 

 good Law, intreat him to relieve them, and to make fome provifion for their liveli- 

 hood. Upon this exhortation, the Sultan orders twenty or thirty Purfes to be diltri- 

 buted amongft them nay fometimes his Charity is fo great, as to amount to twen- 

 ty thoufànd Crowns, which are receiv'd by the Moufti, and the ditfribution thereof 

 is made, as he pleafes. But the greater part of it he converts to his own ufe, and 

 holds an infamous correfpondence with moft of that wretched Crew, who though 

 they often prefent themfelves for that Benevolence, he pretends not to have any know- 

 ledge of at all. By this Impofture, which is fo palpable, and fuits well enough with 

 the followers of Mahomet, does that High Prieft of the Mabumetan Law, put yearly 

 into his Purfe, a confiderable Sum of Money, which is no fmall augmentation to his 

 Revenue. But the cafe is the fame with him as with the Bafias : that is, he is not 

 exempted from refunding, and we mall, by and by produce a very late Example o£ 

 it. 



And this may ferve for a general account of the ordinary lives of the Ottoman Mo- 

 narchs, while they are within the Seraglio. In their Armies, they have other Em- 

 ployments, efpecially they, who have Military Souls, as there have been fbme amon^ 

 them, of whom Hiftories have given us a very noble Chara&er.' 



I come now to the prefent ftate of the Ottoman Family, and to the particular incli- Tbe prefist 

 nations of the Grand Seignor, who now Reigns. Mahomet, the Fourth of that Name, state °f ^ 

 the Son of Ibrahim, and a Circajlian Lady, was born in the Year 1643. an< ^ ne is, by p^T 311 

 that account,' got into the Thirty fourth year of his Age, an,d the Twenty fourth of his 

 Reign. He has two Brothers, Bajazet, and Orchan, but they are by another Mother, 

 who is ftill living, and is perpetually ftudying how to preferve them. He has alio a 

 third Brother, named Solyman, who is the fécond of the Sons of Ibrahim, according to 

 the order of their Nativities. But the Mother of the laft mentioned Son is dead \ and 

 thence it comes, that the Souldiery, who conceive greater hopes of that Prince, than of 

 either Bajazet, or Orchan, his Brethren, pity him the more, and have the greater afc 

 fedtion for him, upon that very fcore of his having loft the fupport, which he might 

 have expected from a Mother. 



Ever fince the time of Bajazet the Second, who firft introdue'd that inhumane and 

 cruel Cuftome, of fecuring the Throne of the Sultan-Regmt, by the death of his Bre- 

 thren, few of thofe unfortunate Princes have efcap'd the Barbarifme of their Elder- 

 Brother, and they, amongft them, who have been treated with fomewhat lefs of inhu- 



inanity. 



