COMMUNICATIONS. 
appointed by the Crown; and the expences of the Sovereign 
are partly defrayed by his hereditary lands, and partly by taxes 
levied on tlockpeople. 
The prefent Sultan, whofe name is Alii, is a man of an un- 
oftentatious plain appearance ; for he feldom wears any other 
drefs than the common blue fliirt of cotton or of filk, and the 
iilk or muflin turban, which form the ufual drefs of the country. 
Such, however, is the magnificence of his feraglio, that the la- 
dies who inhabit it are faid to be five hundred in number ; and 
he himfelf is defcribed as the reputed father of three hundred 
and fifty children, of whom three hundred are males ; a dif- 
proportion which naturally fuggefts the idea that the mother, 
preferring to the gratification of natural affection, the joy of 
feeing herfelf the fuppofed parent of a future candidate for the 
empire, fometimes exchanges her female child for the male off- 
fpring of a ftranger. 
Equally fplendid in his fi:ables, he is faid to have 500 horfes 
for his own ufe, and for that of the numerous fervants of his 
houfehold. 
In many of the neighbouring kingdoms, the Monarch himfelf 
is 
