8URRIGEE8 AND THEIR HORSES. 197 



the ground, in the different khans. I must not 

 attempt to call the khans clean, indeed I may 

 honestly confess they were always miserably dirty ; 

 but to this, as well as to other trifling inconve- 

 niences, in the shape of vermin of all kinds, we 

 soon became accustomed. 



I used to be much amused at the difference 

 between our surrigees. The first we had would 

 never allow the horses to drink, or even to wash 

 their mouths, and if at any time either of us trans- 

 gressed his rule, he used to call out lustily, that 

 we should kill the horses ; that it was the worst 

 thing in the world for them ; and that they would 

 do no work after it. The horses, however, ap- 

 peared to be always of a very different opinion. 

 Our next surrigee, to our astonishment, made us 

 allow the horses to drink whenever they pleased, 

 and really, I should say, gave them a great deal 

 too much ; I must confess, however, that both 

 sets of horses did a great deal of work, and were 

 never knocked up, so it is impossible to prove 

 from our experience which plan was the best. 



It was often very interesting to watch parties 

 of Albanians sitting together on the grass under 



