The levying was accomplished by a regular process, the _devshurmeh_. Normally every four years, but oftener in case of need,[103] a body of officials more skilled in judging boys than trained horse-dealers are in judging colts were sent out by the government to the regions from which tribute was taken.[104] The whole of the Balkan Peninsula, Hungary, the western coast of Asia Minor, and the southern and eastern shores of the Black Sea were included in the territory visited; but the strongest and ablest youths came from the mountain regions inhabited by Albanians and the Southern Slavic peoples.[105] The recruiting officers were commissioned each to bring in a certain number, which had been apportioned to them out of a total determined at the capital.[106] There was no principle of tithing, and no fixed proportion or number of boys was levied from each village or family;[107] the quota desired from each district was obtained for the government by selection of the most available youths. The recruiting officers sometimes collected a larger number than was asked for, and sold the surplus on their own account to high officials or wealthy private citizens.[108] A regular procedure was followed. The officers obtained from the Christian priest of the village a list of the boys whom he had baptized, and who were between the ages of twelve and twenty years or thereabouts.[109] All these were brought before the officers, who selected the best.[110] Parents who had strong and well-favored sons might lose them all, while those who had weaklings would lose none.[111] On leaving each village, the officer took with him the boys whom he had selected; and, when his quota had been gathered, he took them to the capital.[112] ESTIMATE OF THE SYSTEM This levying of boys as tribute has always elicited a great amount of moral indignation, as representing an extreme of oppression, heartlessness, and cruelty. The religious factor has increased the odium of the custom. Certainly no argument can be found which will justify it to those who believe in the liberty of the individual, the absolute right of parents over minor children, and a complete withdrawal of human beings from the category of property,—principles which seem in the sixteenth century to have had no place in Ottoman philosophy or jurisprudence, at least as regards Christian subjects. It may be said at once that the custom cannot be brought into harmony with Western ideas. So much being granted, how did the system bear upon the parents who were despoiled and the boys who were taken?