Chap.XVII. Grand Seignor's Seraglio. 



CHAP. XVII. 

 Of the Womens Appartment. 



The Principal Heads; 



Tlx imfofiibility of having a full knowledge of the Womens appart- 

 ment, in the Seraglio. The Commerce between the Jewefles and 

 the Sulcanefles. The doleful Story of Two Famous Wrefllers. 

 Tl?e great Severity of the 5Wta?i-Amurath. How to dislinguijb 

 between D?hat is true, and lohat fabulous, in reference to the Sul- 

 tanefles. A frange Story of an old Woman. Polygamy pre- 

 judicial to the propagation of Children. The great Secrecy of the 

 Grand Seignor's Amours. 



I Make a Chapter by it felf of the Appartment of the Women, only to entertain % t impfltiiii. 

 the Reader, with the impolfibility there is, of having a perfect knowledg of it, ty of having an 

 or getting any exac/t account, either what the accommodations of it are => or how ixa & account 

 the Perlons, who are confin'd therein, behave themfelves. There is not in all A Ll!flfnt S 

 Chriftendome any Monaftery of Religious Virgins, how regular and auftere fo- ' 

 ever it may be, the entrance whereof is more ftri&ly forbidden to men, than is that of 

 this Appartment of the Women : infbmuch that my white Eunuch, who has fupply'd 

 me with fo particular a defcription of the inner part of the Seraglio, could give me no 

 certain information of this Quarter of it, where the Women are lodg'd. All I could 

 get out of him, was, 1 hat the Doors of it are kept by Negro-Eunuchs, and that, befides 

 the Grand Seignor himfelf, and fometimes, the Phyfician, in café of great neceffity, 

 there never enters any man into it, no nor Woman, befides thofè who live in it, and 

 they are never permitted to go out of it, unlefs it be in order to their confinement in 

 the Old Seraglio. But we mult except, out of that number, the Sultanejfes, and their 

 Maids, or Ladies of Honour, whom the Grand Seignor allows, when he pleafes, to 

 come into the Gardens of the Seraglio, and whom he fometimes takes abroad with 

 him, into the Country -, yet fo as that they cannot be feen by any perfon whatsoever. 

 Four Negro-Eunuchs carry a kind of Pavilion, under which is the Sultanefs , and the 

 Horfe upon which (he is mounted, all fave only the kead of the horfe, which is feen 

 on the out-fide of the Pavilion, the two fore-pieces of which, taking him about the 

 Neck, are dofe faften'd, above, and below. 



And as to the Phyfician, he is never admitted, as I faid, but in cafe of extream ne-» 

 ceflity, into the Appartment of the Women, and with fuch precautions, that he can 

 neither fee the perfon who is indifpos'd, nor be feen by her, but to feel her Pulfe 

 through a piece of Lawn, all the other Women having retir'd from her Bed-fide, and 

 the Negro-Eunuchs having taken their places. Thus you fee what precautions they ufe, 

 to deprive the Women, of the Seraglio, of all means of having any accefs to Men,or in- 

 deed Co much as a fight of them : And if it happen that fome Jewcfs has entrance into ' 

 their Quarter, to Trade with them, and to fell them fome little Rarities, they are 

 firi&ly (earch'd by the Negro-Eunuchs, left there flhould happen to thruft in fome Man s 

 difguis'd in Woman's Cloaths, in which cale immediate death would enfue. And 

 when the Cunofity of fome Chrijiian Ladies has inclin'd them to fee the Snltanejfes. 

 they feldome cfcap'd without the receiving of fome affront i and I could produce fome 

 examples of it, did I think it convenient. 



C M 2 ) U 



