1 82 Bedotiin Tribes of the Enphrates. [m. xxiv, 



themselves with plundering the caravans which 

 now beojan to pass down the valley, and without an 

 effort abandoned their claims on the towns. The 

 policy so successfully begun was completed a few 

 years later by Midhat Pasha while governor of Bag- 

 dad. It was he who continued the line of guard- 

 houses as far as Eumddy, and made of Ana for 

 Bagdad what Deyr has become for Aleppo, — the 

 head-quarters of a detached military force in pos- 

 session of the Euphrates route. Caravans have 

 since that time passed in more or less security down 

 the valley. At the same time possession was taken 

 of the few towns existins^ on the Tio;ris. 



Great efforts have been made since then to en- 

 courage the small tribes to cultivate the soil, and 

 south of Bag;dad with a certain amount of success. 

 Protection is now given to the Delim, Shammartoga, 

 and Albu Mohammed to irrigate the river l^anks 

 and grow wheat ; and I have heard, though I cannot 

 vouch for it as an eye-witness, tliat the Montefik, a 

 large and powerful Bedouin tribe occupying Irak, 

 have recently become industrious fellahin. Ferhd,n, 

 too, Sheykh of the Shammar, has been honoured 

 Avith the title of Pasha by the Government, and for 

 a yearly stipend of £3000, has engaged to transform 

 his own Bedouins in like manner into honest 

 peasants. At Bagdad we heard flourishing reports 

 of tlie success of this arrangement, but on exami- 

 nation found them to be based on the meao-erest of 

 facts. Ferhan, it is true, had collected a few hun- 



