340 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



course, is British, but for some extraordinary reason 

 the shilling has been divided into nine copper 

 piastres, of the value of a penny and a third each. 

 Of course no more inconvenient number than nine 

 could have been hit upon, as it is only divisible 

 by three, being in this respect far worse than the 

 decimal, whilst our own twelve is the best of all. 

 We also engaged a camp cook — a Constantinople 

 Greek named Theodore, who proved a very bad 

 bargain, being both incompetent and insolent, and 

 whom I eventually turned out of camp after enduring 

 him for three weeks. 



On the second day of our stay the necessary docu- 

 ments arrived ; but instead of the four I had applied 

 for, I only received a licence to shoot two moufflon. I 

 had to pay a 25 per cent duty on my gun, rifle, and 

 cartridges, which sounds alarming, but three-fourths 

 of the money is returned on one's leaving the 

 island. 



We now made arrangements with a negro muleteer 

 to provide us with transport to the mountains. Un- 

 fortunately no European saddles w^ere at the moment 

 available, and we had to use the native ones. To 

 make these more comfortable, the muleteers coolly 

 opened our bedding valise and packed a number of 

 our blankets on them. What w^ould have occurred 

 under the circumstances if we had had a wet ride 

 into camp it is difficult to say, but fortunately the 

 weather was good to us. 



We were up betimes on Thursday the 19th, but 

 the usual delays of the East occurred ; and at last, 

 having paid an hotel bill by no means commensurate 

 with the accommodation the place had afforded us, we 

 walked on to the Police Lines, where our train of 



