him, this chief stretched himself, with an affectation of contempt, along the carpet on the ground, and threw his legs occasionally in the air. It was neither the attitude of weariness, or the rude carelessness of unpolished life; but a barbarian or savage notion of dignity, which consisted only in shewing to those around him how much he despised them.

It was just at this moment that the Hadjee contrived to lay before this Chief, with his own hands, and with an attitude of the greatest humility, a box of presents, containing a rich Cashmeer shawl, some female ornaments, an amber mouth-piece for a Turkish pipe, and other articles, amounting in value to at least fifteen hundred piastres, or fifty pounds sterling. These the brutal despot turned over, with a look of as much indifference as he had assumed from the beginning, and neither deigned to praise them, nor to seem even pleased with the gift. The list of our goods being then read to him, a certain sum was commanded to be affixed to each name, and, to judge from his manner of naming it, the amount of this was entirely arbitrary. The owners of the merchandize were then ordered to pay twenty piastres for each camel-load, fifteen for each horse or mule, and ten for every ass. The leader of the caravan was to pay a thousand piastres, to be levied by him in any way he thought proper on the persons composing it; the merchants were to give a thousand Spanish dollars for the members of their class; the Mokhōddesy, or pilgrims from Jerusalem, were to raise fifteen hundred piastres among themselves, which was a still harder condition than the preceding; and I was condemned to pay one thousand piastres, instead of five thousand, which it was contended would have been demanded of me, if I had not been under the protection of Hadjee Abd-el-Rakhman, who had smoothed his way by his presents to the Chief.

The sums named for the merchandize were instantly agreed to be paid; but the other assessments were not so easily to be obtained ; as their amount was not only exorbitant, but the persons named were really unable to raise it. The leader of the caravan reduced

his tribute to five hundred piastres, of which he paid the half himself, and raised the other half by subscription. The merchants compromised for two thousand, which was furnished by about ten of the principal ones; and the pilgrims could not raise altogether five hundred piastres, though they formed, in number, nearly twothirds of the caravan.

The two men who exercised the duty of collectors, and who, being on the look-out on that day, were perhaps interested by a specific share of the prize-money, behaved with the greatest insolence and cruelty. They ransacked the private baggage of such as they suspected to have any thing worth taking, and selected from amongst it whatever they pleased. When they came to mine, I trembled for the result, as, though consisting only of a pair of small khoordj or saddle-bags, and a portmanteau, these contained all that was necessary, not merely for my journey, but for the success of my views in the East. In them were the money with which Mr. Barker had furnished me for my journey, a gold watch, all my Indian letters and papers, which if seen would have made them think me a greater man than they had yet imagined me to be, and induced them to augment their demand; a thermometer, compass, and other instruments, all now crowded, by the advice of the Hadjee, into this small space, to escape observation, from the fear that if seen they would occasion my being taken for a magician, and this idea would be confirmed by their finding among the rest of the things some few medicines, and broken specimens of mineralogy, of which no one would have known or even imagined the use

I made all the efforts in my power to prevent the portmanteau from being opened, but, whenever I advanced to interfere, I was driven back by blows and insults, until, seeing them proceed to loosen the straps, I entreated the Hadjee to intercede for me, saying, that it had cost me much trouble to get the things there into a small space, and begging that they might not be ransacked. The motive was suspected, and occasion was taken of

it to say, that if I chose to pay the thousand piastres demanded of me, nothing should be disturbed. I had before declared, that I had no more money with me than the few piastres shewn to them in my purse, and said that, as I was poor, I hoped to get along by the help of the faithful, and by such sum as should be produced by the sale of my horse at the journey's end. All the money that I had, indeed, except these few piastres, which were necessary for the current wants of the road, was really within the khoordj, the greater amount being in a bill on a merchant of Bagdad, and the remainder in gold coin, carefully secured, and I could not pay it, if disposed to do so, without opening this package. I was allowed a moment to consult with the Hadjee, to whom I stated my wish rather to accede to these terms, hard as they were, than to have my baggage opened, which might, perhaps, lead to still worse consequences, as in it money would be found, which would betray my having deceived them, and other articles of still greater value, which would be, perhaps, taken from me altogether. He then, after fruitless efforts to reduce it lower, agreed to pay the sum required, on condition that my effects should not be disturbed; and it was of course understood, that I was to return this sum to him either on the road, or on our arrival at Mardin.

The poor pilgrims were treated even worse than I had been; for they had not only their effects taken from them, to make up for a pretended deficiency of tribute, but many of them were severely beaten into the bargain.

This duty of exacting and paying the tributes occupied all parties very busily until after El Assr, the hour of afternoon prayers. The chief of this robber-tribe had already washed and prayed, however, with all due formality, beneath the tent, during the time of the pillage: for prayer, among a very large portion of Mohammedans, is not so much performed as a duty of religion, as it is to imply manhood and consequence. What we mean in Europe by devotion, namely, a pouring out of the soul before an invisible Being, as much loved as feared, and a feeling of gratitude for his blessings,

is certainly very rare among them, though there is no people in whose mouths the name of God, or the expression of thanks to him, is more frequent.

As soon as all these revolting proceedings were ended, we were commanded, rather than invited, to go up to the camp to supper. I would willingly have staid behind; but, though I pretended incapacity from indisposition, I was not suffered to remain. I had seen the people of the tribe take a khandjar or dagger from one, and a brace of pistols from another; and although I had escaped having my musket taken from me, as that was a weapon not in general use among them, yet I was apprehensive for the fate of my sword, which was a very excellent old Damascus blade, and cost upwards of a thousand piastres in Egypt. As it was too large to have it packed away in any of the parcels of our baggage, I had contrived, by lifting it up between my shoulders, to conceal it behind my back, beneath my abba or cloak; but it was difficult either to mount, to dismount, or to change positions in any way, without risking its being seen.

I went up to the encampment, however, on foot, while most of the rest went on horseback; taking my sword with me in the position described, as I had no opportunity of leaving it behind, without the certainty of its being discovered and taken from me by those of the hostile tribe who were guarding our tents. When we arrived at the camp, we found about a hundred and eighty tents, all of black hair-cloth, and of a form neither purely Arab nor Turcoman, but combining the peculiarities of each. They were generally raised on several small poles; some consisted only of one apartment, others of two, and the partitions and outer enclosures were invariably of reeded matting. The tent of the chief was very large, and its roof was supported by at least forty poles it was of an oblong form, divided into two squares; one of these, being enclosed from the outer side, was appropriated to the females; the other was open on the two fronts, and closed at the centre for the harem.

We found in this tent two persons, superior even to the chief who had visited us below. These were seated on fine divans, lolling on rich cushions; and one of them, a corpulent man, with a long white beard, was dressed in silk cloths and furs, with a high cap, of a kind between that of a Delhi and a Tatar. We knelt humbly around on the earth, and were barked at by large dogs, stared at by dirty and ill-dressed children, and eyed by the women from the openings in the partitions of the tent; the whole presenting a greater mixture of the rudeness of Arab manners with the luxurious indolence of the Turkish, than I had ever before

seen.

Supper was served almost instantly after the first cup of coffee had been taken. This consisted of a whole sheep, two lambs, and two kids; the former set before us with its limbs unsevered, the four latter in separate dishes of a large size, cut into pieces, and boiled with wheat in the husk. We had warm bread, and an abundance of lebben or sour milk, for which last only spoons were used, the boiled wheat being eaten by handfuls. The whole was despatched with the haste of beasts devouring their prey, and fearing to lose it by delay; and as every one, after washing his hands and mouth, poured out the water on the ground before him, without using a towel or a basin, the whole space within the tent was speedily inundated. The earth at length, however, absorbed it; but so rudely was every thing done amidst this abundance, and even luxury, that hands and faces were wiped in the sleeves of shirts, or skirts of cloaks, or else left to dry in the air. Coffee was again served, and as the sun was declining we prepared to

return.

We were detained, however, by an affray that was likely to have proved fatal to many, and did indeed end in the wounding a considerable number, on each side, of the combatants.-During the supposed moment of security, while we sat beneath the tent of the chief, we observed a party of Turcoman horse, belonging, it was afterwards said, to another tribe, passing through the camp,