The term _ajemi-oghlanlar_ signifies “foreign youth,” and was sometimes applied to all the young recruits. Ordinarily, however, it was given only to the remainder left after the pages had been selected. These, for the most part destined to become Janissaries, probably numbered about twenty thousand.[239] Their training was largely physical, industrial, and military, with oral instruction in the Turkish language and the principles of the Mohammedan system. The _Ajem-oghlans_ usually passed through two or three stages. Unless they knew Turkish and something of Turkish ways, they were first scattered through Asia Minor in the service of Moslem country gentlemen.[240] There they were set at hard agricultural labor, to strengthen their bodies to the utmost. They were expected to learn to speak and understand the Turkish language and to learn the faith, the laws, and the customs of the Turks. The sultan allowed them no pay. The gentlemen whom they served, responsible for them to the sultan, supplied them with food and clothing and whatever else they were pleased to give.[241] The number of these _Ajem-oghlans_ of the first stage may be estimated as ten thousand.[242] At the end of two or three years, or perhaps at about the time for a new _devshurmeh_,[243] officers came to examine them. If they knew enough Turkish and were strong and well-grown, they passed to the next stage. Having been brought to Constantinople, and once more carefully inscribed and estimated,[244] the _Ajem-oghlans_ were again distributed, but now in groups. About two thousand were assigned to service with the fleet at Gallipoli.[245] Another two thousand, probably the most intelligent, were appointed as gardeners, or _Bostanjis_, to the sultan’s palaces in Stamboul, Adrianople, Brusa, and Magnesia;[246] and five hundred or more served in other capacities about the palaces, as wood-cutters, helpers in the kitchen, and the like.[247] Five or six thousand were kept in Constantinople and employed in the shipyards or on public buildings,[248] or were hired out in bands of one hundred or more to private citizens for hard labor of various sorts.[249] Some were hired out similarly in other cities.[250] In the midst of such a variety of occupations, two objects seem always to have been kept in mind,—the _Ajem-oghlans_ were to develop the utmost strength of body, and they were to learn some trade useful in war.[251] In this stage they were normally organized in groups or messes of ten. The gardeners were under the charge of an official of high rank and great authority, who bore the humble title of _Bostanji-bashi_, or head gardener; he was aided by under officers and an administrative staff. Those in Constantinople were under the orders of an _Agha_, or general officer, with a staff of under officials, clerks, and accountants.[252] Being filled with the spirit of youth, conscious of their superior physical strength and privileged position,