114 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



ride pretty well all day and meet no wayfarer, ex- 

 cept some lone camel-driver riding at the head of 

 his long string of animals, it is impossible to say 

 what contingencies may be your hap. It is, to say 

 the least, a locality where thieves might have things 

 pretty much their own way; for the guard-houses, 

 scattered throughout the routes, are far from being 

 within hail of each other, and far from possessing the 

 control of the road midway. K"ay, they are them- 

 selves tenanted by men so fierce by nature, and so 

 imperfectly disciplined, that some people might fear 

 the guards more than the robbers. They are not 

 detachments of the regular forces, but men taken 

 chiefly from the Xebeques, whose manners and dress 

 are sufficiently distinct from those of the ordinary 

 Turks. Each of these detachments is placed under 

 the control of an Agah ; and on the personal charac- 

 ter of this officer depends the security of the district. 

 The prescribed discipline is necessarily strict, for any 

 admitted relaxation would soon lead to confusion. 

 Especially is it enjoined that all spirituous liquors be 

 absolutely excluded from the guard-houses and a 

 neglect of this law by the Agah is never forgiven. 

 When intoxicated, they are said to rage like demons, 

 respecting no person or thing utterly rejecting all 

 semblance of discipline. It will be long before I 

 forget the apprehensions connected with even faint 

 symptoms in them of approach to such a state. A 

 party of us, with ladies among our numbers, had 



