This insistence on shrouding the truth was intended to keep women and children in their place in a hierarchy of authority within the household. But another hierarchy also had to be invoked—that which separated slaves from the rest of the family. Sharawï respected one tradition begun by her grand- father and continued by her father, which was to make sure that one was loved by one's slaves and servants. But this love was more complicated for the children of the household, whom the slaves had to discipline in the name of the children's father and the slaves' master.The embodiment of this was the obedient yet authoritative black eunuch of Sultan Pasha's house- hold, Lala Saïd Agha, guardian of the children, the last word among the other servants, and the overseer of the children's education.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 850