The Sultan's Seraglios

In the time of the sultan'a prede cessor the seraglios' building stretched along the banks of the Bospcrus fot a mile and a half and contained some 4,000 persons, the household order and arrangement being much as they are at present, says thr New York Tribune. The suitan's mother, when he has a mother, receives a servile obedience from all its inmates; then comes the hasnadar ousta, or nr istress of the treasury, generally a shrewd okl woman, promoted from the ranks of the servants for her talent ior housekeeping and gossip. If the sultani valide dies, the hasnadar sucoeeds her. Under Abdul Medjid the seraglio was long ruled by a washerwoman, whose chief adviser was a baltadic, or hewer of wood, who coulrl not read, but had the power of dismissing viziers. The suitan's four kadiiïes come next, who rank as spouc; til] he dlvorcea them and marries them to some of the pashas. Then there are flve or six ikbals, or favoritos-; then the guieuzedes (from guieuz, eye- giria who have attracted the maater'B glánce). Every woman who marries fvom the seraglio takes wiih hor, besides a large portion in cash, her clothing, jewels, furniture. carriages and servants. After them come the kadines-effendis, the mothers of the suitan's children; then the unmarrled princesses of the royal blood, then the foster mothers and foster sisters of the sultana or princss or princesses. Among the attendanta are chambeiiains, secretarles, gaard s, eunuchs, scullions, cooks, pages, urnsicians, daccing girls, dwarfs, buffoons, priests, astrologers, barbers and shampooers, tasters of the suitan's food, athletes, eock fighters, ram fighters, jugglers, and grooms to look after the 500 horses contained in the Imperial stables. Tales of victory from the Thessalian mountain passes now thrill this extensive household, making it buzz and hum like a swarm of Paphlagonian bees; its note of exultation is likely to strike into another key whenever the inconstant bird of victory changes its ptrch frvm one standard to the other.