35 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



or shot, for though I had been in parts of India where 

 they exist, I had never come across them. I dis- 

 covered afterwards that the Ansaries in the hills, had 

 killed a lot of bustards, by knocking them on the head, 

 as owing to the intense cold, the birds were unable to 

 fly. When I went to Syria, I was told always to go 

 armed with revolvers, and to expect a man behind 

 every bush, ready to pot me. The Ansaries in 

 particular, bear a bad name, but except once when 

 marching to Aleppo, I never saw the ghost of a 

 bandit or a hostile person ; on the contrary, I met 

 with the greatest civility and kindness everywhere, 

 and I visited and lived with this people, and better 

 fellows I never wish to meet. Most of the Syrian 

 Arabs are armed with a double breechloader, 

 principally of French make, and excellent shots they 

 are too. Many of them, if they saw me out shooting, 

 would join, and once a cock gave me a difficult shot 

 as it flew round a boulder, at the edge of a steep hill. 

 I made a clean miss. The Arab on my right brought 

 it down like a man ! Some chiefs living at a place 

 called Talsarim, a good distance inland, asked me to 

 visit them. So the Greek telegraph officer, my son 

 and I, went to Giblie by boat, having sent on our 

 horses ; and then, after a long and fatiguing ride, for 

 the greater part up mountains, we arrived at their 

 stronghold. There is no love lost between these 

 people the rightful owners of the soil, and the Turks 

 and Syrian Arabs. They are a fine, stalwart, handsome 

 race, reminding me of Afghans, and I have no doubt 

 they are a remnant of one of the lost tribes mentioned 

 by ancient writers, and in Scripture. One gave us a 

 house, and treated us most civilly, refusing to accept 



