The _mufti_ were dressed in white, the viziers in pale green, the chamberlains in scarlet; dark blue indicated one of the six chief justices, the chief of the _emirs_, and the judges of Mecca, Medina, and Constantinople; the head _ulema_ wore violet, the _murdâs_ and _sheikhs_ light blue, while pale sky-blue denoted a feudal _sciaù_ or vizier’s _agha_; deep green was reserved for the aghas of the imperial staff and sacred standard-bearers; Nile green was the uniform of the imperial stables; generals of the army wore red shoes, officials of the Porte yellow, members of the _ulema_ turquoise-blue. To all this careful scale of color exactly corresponded the degree of reverence shown in the obeisances. The _bostangi-basci_, chief of the Seraglio police force and commander of an army of jailors and executioners, the mere sound of whose name or echo of whose footfall spread terror and consternation, strode across the courtyard between two ranks of heads bowed to the very earth; the chief eunuch and grand marshal of the court, both internal and external, approached, and down went all those turbans, plumes, and helmets as though struck by a hundred invisible hands. The grand almoner made his progress amid a flutter of obsequious bows. Every one in personal attendance upon the Sultan--such as the master of the stirrup, who assisted him to mount; master of the bed-chamber, who brought him his sandals; the _silidar agha_, who cleaned his armor; the white eunuch, who licked the pavement before spreading out his lord’s rug; the page, who poured out the water for his ablutions; he who handed him his arquebuse during the hunt; and those who had charge of his turbans and robes of black fox skin and dusted off his jewelled plumes--were the objects of special curiosity and veneration. A subdued murmur of voices preceded and followed the passage of the _imâm_ of the court, and the grand master of the wardrobe, who was charged with the distribution of money among the people during the imperial fêtes; while envious glances followed that fortunate Mussulman to whose lot it fell every ten days to shave the head of the Sultan of sultans. The crowd fell back with marked alacrity before the head surgeon, who circumcised the imperial princes; the chief oculist, who prepared washes and unguents for the eyelids of the _kadynas_ and odalisques; and the grand master of the flowers, whose life was passed in carrying out the capricious fancies of a hundred spoiled beauties, and who carried beneath his caftan his diploma of poetry ornamented with gilded roses. The head cook received his adulatory greetings, while smiles and salutations were showered upon the keeper of the nightingales and parrots, to whom the doors of the most secret kiosks were thrown open.