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The authors depiction ofcourt eunuchs as “foul in speech and fond of silly stories” and as “spies for everything that goes on in secret” is significant, particularly as it reflects a perspective characteristic of narratives on the eunuch during the next three centuries.

Many of the stories told by Manucci portray the eunuch as a child wronged, rendered angry and miserable by an unwanted castration. Especially moving in this regard is a narrative about the faithful Daulat, who carried the bones of his deceased master Ali Mardan Khan all the way to Persia in order to bury them in the tomb of his forefathers, only to have his nose and ears cut off by the King of Persia in return (v. 2, 215-16). Hiding away in a house in Lahore fuli of shame, the deformed Daulat asks Manucci to make his nose and ears grow again, thinking that as a physician Manucci might be able to conjure a remedy. When Daulat finally comes to terms with the fact that there is no remedy for his deformity, he exclaims: “I know not what sins I have committed to be madę an out-and-out eunuch twice over, first in my inferior part, and, secondly, in my upper half. Now there is nothing morę to deprive me of, nor do I fear anything