417 
clumsy wooden spoon with which they eat their 
rice, and which thus forms an essential part of their 
costume. 
The men charged with inflicting the punishment 
ordered by their superiors upon the janissaries, are the 
distributors of water; who are armed with a stick to 
which long thongs of leather are attached. 
Each orta possesses some tablets, more than a foot 
square, fixed upon poles, and daubed with paintings, 
which are the emblems of the orta. These tablets ac- 
company the stew-pans. 
When the orta takes the field, some young men 
entirely covered or wrapped up in large haiks, march 
behind the stew-pans; they are called el harem> being 
considered as a sort of talisman or sacred pledge 
They are always escorted by a special guard, and are 
placed in a tent close to that of the stew-pans; they 
are not subject to any labour or service; and the janis- 
saries would fight to the last drop of their blood to 
defend or save them from the hands of the enemy, for 
to lose them would bring the greatest shame upon the 
corps. 
The janissaries pass from one division to another 
according to their caprice. 
It will be seen from all I have said, that the janis- 
saries, so far from being the troops of the sovereign 
of the country, are in fact a revolutionary and turbu- 
lent body, which takes the law into its own hands, 
even at the expense of the prince whom it serves. 
Some janissaries, it is true, receive a sort of mili- 
tary education from their childhood, but the number 
is so inconsiderable, that it does not at all influence 
the general body of this corps. The same may be ob* 
Vol. II. 3 G 
