• 11. XXIV.] Asian Pashas Scheme. 18 



clred Arabs at Shcrghat, some of them Shammar, 

 but the great majority outcasts from the .liburi, 

 and other low tribes of the Tigris, and with them 

 had for some two years past made pretence of culti- 

 vating the valley. But pretence it merely Avas, for 

 during the whole of our journey among the Sham- 

 mar we saw nothing like cultivation, even in the 

 neighbourhood of Ferhdn's camp. 



A still less successful scheme has been that of in- 

 ducing the Anazeh themselves to become peaceful 

 subjects of the Porte. With this view Asian Pasha, 

 during his term of office at Deyr, marched a large 

 body of troops against a section of the Sebiia, whom 

 he found encamped in the valley of the Euphrates, 

 and, having surrounded them, announced that it wns 

 the will of the Sultan that they should give up their 

 nomadic life and pursue a more loyal mode of exist- 

 ence, as cultivators of the soil. The Bedouins, to 

 whom nothing could be more distasteful, or indeed 

 insulting, than such a proposal, at first demurred, 

 but findinof themselves threatened with the loss of 

 their camels, and having no option given them by 

 the Pasha, at last consented and, under the soldiers' 

 superintendence, constructed long rows of mud- 

 houses in various parts of the valley. In these, 

 to their unutterable disgust, they had to make a 

 pretence of living, and did so as long as the soldiers 

 kept guard over them, a matter of three months, 

 when, finding his men wanted elsewhere, the Pasha 

 at last withdrew them, and the Bedouins without 



