26 THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 



However much we regretted the murder of that poor 

 man, by whom we had been recieved only the evening before 

 with such kindness, we could not forbear rejoicing at not 

 having been ourselves the destined victims. We were told 

 that the Agelis ( an Arab tribe ) had been settled for fifty 

 years at Hit, and having paid the same taxes as the other 

 inhabitants, had been forced by the new Agha ( regent ), the 

 greedy Kurde ( wolf), to pay a certain sum with which they, 

 as true subjects, should not have been charged, and they 

 accordingly obstinately refused to pay. But the governor 

 obtained troops from the Pasha of Bagdad, with whose 

 assistance the Agelis were driven out of Hit, and their goods 

 were confiscated, for which treatment they swore to take 

 revenge on the Agha. 



With the break of day, a soldier came to inform us that 

 the two innocent sons of the Agha, and his brother-in-law, 

 had had their throats cut while asleep, but the Agha himself 

 was only wounded, and had escaped from the grasp of the 

 Agelis, and desired us to visit him. We found him outside 

 of the town, not far from the city gate, sorrounded by 

 about fifty horsemen, with whom he had been pursuing his 

 enemies, who had taken possession of all his moveable pro- 

 perty ; but his pursuit had been in vain, as he could not 

 overtake them. He was wounded in one of his legs, and he 

 escaped death only by throwing himself from the high 

 verandah of the palace into the neighbouring yard. He re- 

 quested us to prolong our stay with him, in order to cure 

 his wounds, promising, as soon as he should be well, to 

 escort us to Bagdad. We could not resist this application, 

 partly owing to our gratitude for his kind reception, and 

 partly because we thought by curing him, which seemed an 

 easy matter, we should render a service to the Pasha of 

 Bagdad, which might be of greater advantage to us than 

 the letter we had from the Pasha of Damascus. Accord- 

 mgly, we separated ourselves from our travelling compani- 

 ons, who on the same day went down the Euphrates on 

 their way to Bagdad. We committed, however, a very 

 great blunder, for which we had to sufifer, by quitting the 



