SECTION XXVII.
Of the Barracks (Bekár oda).
The most extensive barracks are those called Yolgechen, which consist of four hundred rooms, and, in case of necessity, can hold one thousand armed men. The odas of Sultán Murád IV. are eight in number, and, like the former, have their officers and inspectors. Sultán Soleïmán one day being offended with the Janissaries, said to them: “Be silent, or I will subdue you by the shoe-makers at Merján-chárshu (the coral-market). This threat having spread, forty thousand Janissaries assembled instantly, armed with clubs and bludgeons, and with cries of “Allah! Allah!” entered the imperial court. The Emperor, roused by these shouts, came out, and said, “Well, my brave fellows, what is the matter?” They replied, “You have this day declared your intention of putting down the Janissaries by the shoe-makers, and we now wait for your orders. We have on the instant assembled forty thousand men, but if you will wait till to-morrow we shall have forty thousand more.” Pleased with their bravery, the emperor told them they might ask for a favour. They, therefore, asked that the price of a pair of pápújes and mests (slippers and leather-socks) should be fixed at between one and two hundred akcha, which was immediately granted.
The odas of the armoury are near the Mahmúd Páshá; those of Pertev Páshá and Hiláljí, near the Soleïmáníeh; forty odas for unmarried men on the At-maidán; forty at Búyúk Karamán; the odas of Yedek Páshá; and seven odas of Gharíbs, near the corn-market. Each of these barracks can contain from one to two thousand men.