My Beautiful Life Quotes

“We hauled Nico up to the first stall we got to, and they looked at him. Five shillings, they said. Then Nico explained; he’d been cut, so the price was twelve and six. Let’s have a look, then, said the dealer, and Nico pulled up his tunic, and the dealer laughed. Sorry, son, he said, that doesn’t count. To be a proper eunuch, he explained, you had to cut the balls off. That’s what gives the eunuch his calm, docile, pleasant disposition, which is what people pay good money for. Simply docking the cock was no good; if anything, it reduced the price, since you couldn’t breed from a docked man. Then he asked; who was the clown who did this? And Nico said, I did it myself. The dealer stared at him. Four shillings, he said. Take it or leave it.”
― K.J. Parker, My Beautiful Life