By The Help Of Thick Clothing They
Hide Their Leanness; But Their Bony Features Are So Prominent, That They
Can Be Distinguished At First Sight.
Their voice, however, undergoes
little, if any change, and is far from being reduced to that fine
feminine tone so much admired in the Italian Singers.
The chief of the eunuchs is called Sheikh el Haram; he is also the chief
of the mosque, and the principal person in the town; being consequently
of much higher rank than the Aga, or chief of the eunuchs at Mekka. He
is himself a eunuch, sent from Constantinople, and usually belonging to
the court of the Grand Signor, who sends him hither by way of punishment
or exile, in the same manner as Pashas are sent to Djidda. The present
Sheikh el Haram had been formerly Kislar Agassi, or prefect of the women
of the Emperor Selym, which is one of the first charges in the court.
Whether it was the dignity of his former employ, of which the eastern
grandees usually retain the rank through life, even if they are
dispossessed of it, or his new dignity of Sheikh el Haram, that gave him
his importance, I am unable to say; but he took, on every occasion,
precedence of Tousoun Pasha, whose rank was that of Pasha of Djidda, and
of three tails; and the latter, whenever they met, kissed the Sheikh's
hands, which I have
[p.344] seen him do in the mosque. He has a court composed in a manner
similar to that of a Pasha, but much less numerous.
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