282 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



moment the most of them hung back and -wished to 

 escape. Also just after crossing the border they caused 

 considerable trouble, but once well into Beluchistan, 

 the " law of thumb " (no other law being recognised 

 there) could be applied to them in a very decided 

 way. Their terror was not much to be wondered at, 

 for though the border was so close to the British 

 cantonment, only a week before we started, a tribe 

 of Beluches carried off four hundred head of cattle be- 

 longing to British subjects, which cattle were grazing 

 on debatable ground, and the bazaar at Kurrachee was 

 full of very exaggerated accounts of the occurrence. 

 Once fairly in the strange country, they felt them- 

 selves so helpless, and so dependent for protection 

 on their European head, that they became perfectly 

 obedient, and gave little or no trouble. Indeed, at 

 times they showed a disposition to presume upon our 

 leadership, and once we detected them in an attempt 

 to bully a goat-herd and his wife out of a kid, by 

 threatening our indignation in case of refusal. East- 

 ern servants, it is well known, are not much addicted 

 to truth, and constantly glorify their masters with an 

 eye to glorifying themselves. If you have three hun- 

 dred rupees per mensem, your servants solemnly de- 

 clare that you have got a thousand, and readily invent 

 details of expenditure in order to give their statement 

 verisimilitude. Of course they were cautioned against 

 indulging in this kind of exaggeration in Beluchistan ; 

 and with considerable tact and wisdom they confined 



