More than 200 carriages of every description were kept in the palace. These were for the most part presents from the Viceroy of Egypt, but the expenses of the 150 coachmen and footmen with their rich liveries are paid by a civil list, also the harness-maker’s accounts, and other items of this department.
The annual expenditure for pictures, porcelain, etc., was never less than £140,000, and in one year Sultan Abdul-Aziz spent £120,000 for pictures only. As for jewels, the purchases attained the annual sum of £100,000, and the expenses of the harem for presents, dresses, etc., absorbed £160,000 per annum.
Besides these items, the allowances to the mother and sisters of the Sultan, to his nephews and nieces, and to the heir-apparent, amounted to £181,760. This gives a total of at least £1,300,000 annually. To this must be added £80,000 for keeping in repair the existing Imperial kiosks and palaces, and £580,000 for the construction of new ones. The Imperial revenue in the civil list was £1,280,000. The expenditure was really over £2,000,000.
I am unable to give an estimate of the expenses of the seraglio of the present Sultan, but I have been informed on good authority that his Majesty personally superintends the management of the palace, and regulates its expenditure with great wisdom and economy; it will take some time, however, to put an end to the disorder, corruption, and irregularity that have become so rooted in the whole system, and caused the extravagance and waste that prevailed in the households of former sultans. A Turkish proverb says, “Baluk bashtan kokar,” “The fish begins to decompose at the head;” accordingly, if the head be sound there is every hope that the body will also keep fresh.
The haremlik of the Seraglio contains from 1000 to 1500 women, divided among the Sultan’s household; that of his mother, the Validé Sultana; and those of the princes.
This vast host of women of all ranks, ages, and conditions are, without exception, of slave extraction, originating from the cargoes of slaves that yearly find their way to Turkey from Circassia, Georgia, Abyssinia, and Arabia, in spite of the prohibition of the slave-trade. These slaves are sold in their native land by unnatural relations, or torn from their homes by hostile tribes, to be subsequently handed over to the slave-dealers, and brought by them into the capital and other large towns. All these women are the offspring of semi-barbarous parents, who seldom scruple to sell their own flesh and blood. Born in the hovel of the peasant or the hut of the fierce chieftain, their first condition is one of extreme ignorance and barbarism. Possessed with the knowledge of no written language, with a confused idea of religion mixed up with the superstitious practices that ignorance engenders; poorly clad, portionless, and unprotected, they are drawn into the seraglio by chains of bondage, and go under the denomination of Adjemis (rustics). No matter how low had been their starting-point, their future career depends solely upon their own good fortune. Their training in the seraglio is regulated by the vocations for which they are destined; those chosen to fulfil domestic positions, such as negresses and others not highly favored by nature, are put under the direction of kalfas, or head-servants, and taught their respective duties.
The training they receive depends upon the career to which their age, personal attractions, and color entitle them. The young and beautiful, whose lot has a great chance of being connected with that of his Imperial Majesty, or some high dignitary to whom she may be presented by the Validé or the Sultan as odalisk or wife, receives a veneer composed of the formalities of Turkish etiquette, elegance of deportment, the art of beautifying the person, dancing, singing, or playing on some musical instrument. To the young and willing, instruction in the rudiments of the Turkish language is given; they are also initiated in the simpler forms of Mohammedanism taught to women, such as the Namaz and other prayers and the observance of the fasts and feasts. Most of them are, however, left to pick up the language as best they can, and for this they display great aptitude, and often succeed in speaking Turkish with a certain amount of eloquence, although their native accent is never lost, and the extraction of a seraili can always be discovered by her particular accent. Many of these women possess great natural talent, and if favored with some education, and endowed with a natural elegance, become very tolerable specimens of the fair sex.
All the seraglio inmates, on their entrance to the imperial abode, do not belong to this class of Adjemis; many of them have been previously purchased by Turkish hanoums of high station, who, from speculative or other motives, give them the training described, and when sufficiently polished sell them at high prices, or present them to the seraglio with the view to some object.
An ex-seraili of my acquaintance had herself undertaken this task and had offered as many as fourteen young girls to the seraglio of Abdul-Aziz, after having reared each for the duties that would probably devolve upon her. This lady said to me, “What other gift from a humble creature like myself could be acceptable to so great a personage as his Imperial Majesty?” At the time this conversation took place she had a fresh batch of young slaves in hand. They were all smart-looking girls, designated by fancy names such as Amore, Fidèle, Rossignole, Beauté, etc. Their dress was rich, but ludicrous in the extreme, being composed of cast-off seraglio finery of all the colors of the rainbow; some children were even dressed in the Turkish military uniform, which contrasted strangely with the plaits of their long thick hair tied up with cotton rags. Their politeness, half saucy, half obsequious, was very amusing; on entering the room they all stood in a row at the lower end, and when some jocose observations were made to them by their mistress, a ready and half impudent reply was never wanting. The youngest, about eight years of age, was dressed in a miniature colonel’s full uniform; on being addressed by her owner by the name of “Pich,”[16] and asked, “Will you have this lady’s little son for your husband? I mean to marry him to you when you grow up!” the little miss laughed, and seemed perfectly well acquainted with the meaning of the proposal, and by no means abashed at it.
The treatment these girls received seemed to be very kind, but sadly wanting in decency, morality, and good principle.