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cnmcised. Those who had performed hard labourwere made janizaries. Those who were educated inthe seraglios became either spahis, or higher officersof state. Both classes were kept under a strict dis-cipline. The former, particularly, were accustomedto privation of food, drink, and comfortable clothing,and to hard labour. They were exercised in shootingwith the bow and harquebuss by day, and spent thenight in a long lighted hall, with an overseer, whowalked up and down, and permitted no one to stir.When they were received into the corps of the jani-zaries, they were placed in cloister-like barracks, inwhich the different odas or ortas lived so entirely incommon, that the military dignities were called fromtheir soups and kitchens. Here not only the youngercontinued to obey their elders in silence and submis-sion, but all were governed with such strictness, thatno one was permitted to spend the night abroad, andwhoever was punished was compelled to kiss thehand of him who inflicted the punishment. Theyounger portion in the seraglios were kept not lessstrictly, every ten being committed to the care of aninexorable eunuch. They were employed in similarexercises, but likewise in study.

The grand seignior permitted them to leave theseraglio every three years. Those who chose toremain, ascended, according to their age, in the imme-diate service of their master, from chamber to cham-ber, and to constantly greater pay, till they attained,perhaps, to one of the four great posts of the inner-most chamber, from which the way to the dignity ofa beglerbeg, of a capitan deiri (that is, an admiral),or even of a vizier, was open. Those, on the con-trary, who took advantage of this permission, entered,each one according to his previous rank, into the fourfirst corps of the paid spahis, who were in the imme-diate service of the sultan, and in whom he confidedinyre than in his other body guards. This institutionfully satisfied expectation. An Austrian ambassadorat the court of Soliman, Busbequius, whose accountsare to be perfectly relied on, speaks of the strict dis-cipline of these janizaries, which made them appearat one time like monks, and at another like statues,of their simple dress, with only a few herons’ feathersfor an ornament to their heads, and of their temperatelife. They would not suffer one among them whohad grown up in the indulgences of home. This corpshas in many instances been the salvation of theempire. The battle of Varna, the foundation of theOttoman greatness, would not have been gainedwithout them.

At Cassova, the Rumelian and Natolian troopshad already fled before the devil, as they called JohnHunniades, yet the janizaries obtained the victory.It was their boast that they had never fled in battle ;and Lazarus Suendius, for a long time a Germangeneral against them, confessed the truth of this asser-tion. In all accounts they were called the nerve andthe sinew of the Ottoman army. It is worthy of remark,that this invincible infantry of the East was formedabout the same time (in 1367) as the not less invincibleSwiss infantry. The former, however, was composedof slaves, and the latter of free mountaineers. Thewhole body was divided into four squadrons, eachcontaining a certain number of ortas (troops). Eachorta, in Constantinople, was supposed to have 100men ; elsewhere, 200 or 300. In time of war, thecomplement was 500 men. The regimental rolls pro-duced on the pay days made the whole number of the

ARIES.

corps 120 , 000 ; but those lists were never correct, and

they comprehended all in actual service, the supernu-meraries who lived by their trades and callings, andsucceeded in case of vacancies, arid the honorarymembers. Three years’ service gave a right to pavin time of peace. As the government furnished onl’va small allowance of provisions, and clothing for12,000 men, the privates were suffered to work attheir trades. All the men of one regiment werebakers, all those of two others were butchers ; others,again, were all boatmen, masons, &c., and they werenamed accordingly. The kutah, or cap of dirty whitefelt, with a long strip hanging down behind, was thedistinctive part of a janizary’s dress. The Turkishtroops were required to find their own arms, but, intime of war, fire-arms were furnished to such soldiersas had none, from the arsenal at Constantinople. Afirelock, pistols, mace, and axe, were the arms carriedby the infantry; and the janizaries prided themselvesin having not only well-tempered, but also richlyornamented arms.

Besides the standards and horse-tails placed beforethe tent of the aga, or commander-in-ehief, each ortahad its own particular ensign. But a more importantdistinction, in the estimation of these troops, werethe caldrons attached to each orta, two or three innumber, placed under the care of the subaltern offi-cers. The loss of these was considered as the greatestmisfortune which could befal the regiment; and, ifthey were taken in war, all the officers were irome-mediately cashiered, and in many cases the regimentwas publicly disgraced. In these caldrons the brothwas carried daily from the barracks to the differentguard-houses. The police of the capital and thelarge towns was intrusted principally to the jani-zaries. Lampoons and seditious papers affixed to thegates of the mosques, and conflagrations in variousparts of the city, were the means by which this for-midable body made its displeasure known to the sul-tan ; but that discontent was seldom excited by anything except the power of some unpopular minister,or the revival of a more rigid discipline.

In various instances, sultans were deposed, insultedand murdered by the insurgent janizaries. This corpsoffers the only example in Turkish history of a publicanathema or bann. After the dethronement of OsmanII., a janizary of the 65th company dared to raise hishand against his fallen monarch, and strike him in thestreets of the city. Amurath 111, punished the crimeby cutting off the whole company. The memory ofthe crime and the punishment was renewed twiceevery month. On Wednesday, when the lights weredistributed to the different barracks, the 65th companywas called to receive their portion, but, at the secondcall an officer replied, “ Let their voice be silent; letthem be wholly extinguished.” The reforms whichwere attempted in this corps met with the greatestopposition on the part of the members, and producedseveral revolutions. It was finally entirely broken upin 182(>. In May, I8'26, the janizaries hail declaredthemselves willing to have a new militia formed, buton the I4th of June of that year, they rebelled on tinsaccount; but the sultan and aga Hussein Pacha, atthe head of the grand seignior’s troops, repulsed therebels; their barracks were burnt, and many wereexecuted. The proclamation of June 17, in that year,abolished the corps for ever, and laid a curse uponthe name. Tiie new troops are disciplined m l* lCmanner of the Christian nations.