CHAPTER XXXIV
EUNUCHS, HUMAN SACRIFICES, FOOD
Mention has been made of eunuchs, a class which seems to have
originated with the law's severity rather than from a callous
desire of the rich to secure a craven and helpless medium and
means for pandering to and enjoying the pleasures of the harem
without fear of sexual intrigue. Criminals whose feet were cut off
were usually employed as park-keepers simply because there could
be no inclination on their part to gad about and chase the game.
Those who lost their noses were employed as isolated frontier
pickets, where no boys could jeer at them, and where they could
better survive their misfortune in quiet resignation. Those
branded in the face were made gate-keepers, so that their
livelihood was perpetually marked out for them. It is sufficiently
obvious why the castrated were specially charged with the duty of
serving females in a menial capacity. One name for eunuch is
"cleanse man," and it is explained by a very old commentator that
the duty of these functionaries was to sweep and cleanse the
court; but it is perhaps as likely that the original idea was
really "purified man," or man deprived of incentive to certain
evils.
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