164 



PECULATION. 



them, and they are as ragged a crew as ever left 

 the barren wolds of Central Asia in quest of 

 African fortune. They liye in tattered hovels, 

 which they .build for theniselyes, upon one meal a 

 day, which is shared by their slave concubines. To 

 the natural greed of mountain-races, the poor devils 

 who come in horse and salt-boats, and act barbers 

 and sailors, porters, labourers, and date-gleaners, 

 add the insatiable desires of beggars. The Banyans 

 have a proverb that a Baloch, a Brahman, and a 

 buck-goat eat the trees to which they are tied. 

 Sudden and sharp in quarrel, they draw their dag- 

 gers upon the minutest provocation ; they have no 

 mitigation nor remorse of voice, and they pray in 

 the proportion of one to a dozen. Africa is to 

 them what the Caucasus is to the Russians, 

 Kabylie to the Trench, and Sind to the English 

 soldier. All look forward to ' Hindostan — bagh 

 o bostan,' India the flower-garden ; but the Arabs 

 have a canny proverb inporting that the fool wlio 

 fallcth into the fire rarely falleth out of it. 



Praudare stipendio, saith ancient Justin, was 

 the proverb of the Great King's satraps : the 

 custom has been religiously preserved by the 

 modern East. Each station is commanded by a 

 Jemadar, who receives $4 to $5 per month, and 

 ample license to pay himself by peculation. This 



