Among the _Ajem-oghlans_ the process seems to have been carried on by carefully observing and testing individuals, by advancing them from stage to stage on this basis, and by entrusting them in the later stages with greater and greater responsibilities. The financial reward began for the pages immediately upon admission to the school. It was then probably about equal to the daily wages of an unskilled laborer. This was increased regularly year by year, and in the _Khas Oda_ reached the proportions of a handsome salary.[263] The _Ajem-oghlans_ depended during the first stage on the rewards assigned by their temporary masters. After that stage they began to receive a small amount of pay from the sultan, which was gradually increased.[264] All were provided with food, lodging, and at least a part of their clothing, and individuals might hope to obtain special gifts. This double system was continued without a break through the entire institution. The lowest Janissary might hopefully aspire to promotion, either through the hierarchy of office in his own corps, or by being lifted out of it for service in the cavalry or the active administration.[265] The pages who had passed out of the school were already well up in the scale of advancement, and every place except the sultan’s own was within their grasp. The grand vizier, indeed, might wield almost the whole of the sultan’s power, a fact which Ibrahim, shortly before his fall, realized so fully that he added to his title of _Seraskier_ the word Sultan.[266] The losses occasioned by fierce and frequent wars, and by not infrequent depositions and executions, gave abundant opportunity for men to rise from below. Conquest was continually adding new offices and commands. The whole Ruling Institution was, so to speak, in a constant state of boiling, in which the human particles were rapidly rising to the top, and, alas, disappearing, while others rose as rapidly behind them.