ICHOGLANS, the grand signior's pages serving in the seraglio.
Those are the children of Christian parents, either taken in war, purchased, or presents from the vice-roys and governors of distant provinces: they are the most sprightly, beautiful and well-made that can be met with; and are always reviewed and approved of by the grand signior himself, before they are admitted into the seraglios of Pera, Constantinople, or Adrianople, being the three colleges where they are educated, or fitted for employments, according to the opinion the court entertains of them.