The original homes of the captives have been described.[94] By the Sacred Law the sultan was entitled to one-fifth of all captives taken in war;[95] and he chose as his share, through agents, such young men as seemed suitable for a place in his system.[96] Since by special Ottoman regulation the sultan’s fifth belonged to the church, he was accustomed to pay twenty-five aspers to the church for each slave that he took.[97] His officers also purchased in the public slave-market of the capital such youths as were available.[98] These came from the captives that the Tartars of the Crimea took in great numbers, from the quasi-slave-farms of the Caucasus,[99] from the irregular raids in Austria, and from the corsair expeditions. The sultan received a large number of boys as gifts, since it was well known that no presents were more acceptable.[100] Those who desired his favor kept a lookout for such as would please him. THE TRIBUTE BOYS Although the levying of tribute boys in the Christian provinces of the empire seems not to have produced the majority of neophytes for the system, the practice has always received a share of attention far beyond its numerical importance. Several reasons for this suggest themselves. In the first place, it rested on a unique and almost unparalleled idea; then, it involved an extraordinary disregard of human affection and of the generally acknowledged right of parents to bring up their children in their own law and religion;[101] and, finally, it produced the ablest and highest officials of the system.[102] In the latter respect its youth seem to have borne some such relation to those obtained by capture as the cultivated fruits of the garden do to those gathered in the woods.