116 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



thing you possess may do you the like ill turn among 

 men who would shoot you for the value of your skin. 

 The golden mean is to be armed usefully, but not 

 showily ; and above all things, to be very discreet in 

 the production of weapons. 



The first of these laws on this particular occasion 

 I egregiously transgressed. My two friends were 

 supplied with unimpeachable pistols of their own; 

 but I, being of peaceable disposition, had made no 

 such provision. A worthy friend on shore supplied 

 the deficiency, by lending me a pair of the most for- 

 midable weapons one would wish to see. They were 

 of the old style of theatrical horse -pistols, as long 

 nearly as a small carbine, and beyond any ordinary 

 man's power of holding steady. The stocks were 

 deeply incrusted with silver, or something that looked 

 very like it. The only objection to them was, that 

 nothing could persuade the flint to give out a spark, 

 or induce the pan to take the hint at the proper time. 

 Yet though I knew them to be in fact thoroughly 

 useless, they contributed sensibly to my comfort, for 

 they were most excellent make-believes. Our steeds 

 were supplied by our good friend George, the Greek 

 stable-keeper, as no Turk would have let out his 

 animals on such an occasion without sending along 

 with them a karcash to look after the mad Franks. 

 It betokened no little confidence in George, that he 

 allowed his horses to be taken away, whither and for 

 how Ion" he knew not. 



