Dilsiz, s. m. names of the mutilated mutes who usually accompany the great lord when he goes to the various apartment of the old and new serail. They are in particular the gellaks, i.e. the executioners whom he employs whenever he wants to kill someone in secret, such as brothers, or other relatives, sultanas, mistresses, great officers, etc. Then the dilsiz have the honour of being the privileged executors of his policy, his vengeance, his anger, or his jealousy. They preface their execution at some distance with a kind of owl-like howl, and immediately advance towards the unfortunate condemned man or woman, holding their silk cords [cordons de soie] in their hands, the fatal marks of a death as swift as it is infallible. This simple apparatus, but by that very fact even more sinister; the unforeseen mortal blow which is its effect; the beginning of the night, the time usually prescribed for the execution; the silence of these half-monsters who are the executioners, and who have for all use of the voice only a clear and fatal yelp which they tear from their own throat as they seize their victim; all this, I say, makes the hair stand on end, and freezes the blood of even those who know these horrors only by story. — L'Encyclopédie
