ADMINISTRATION OF THE MELLESTINE 14S feet when they were negligent in doing so. In the house of the principal judge he one day saw all the children chained up, and was told that it was a punishment for not having learned their Koran. On another occasion he saw a magnificent young black, superbly dressed, who had shackles on his feet, and on inquiring whether he had committed a crime, was told laughingly that he was only being forced to learn his Koran. The principal preacher of the cathedral mosque and the principal judge of the town of Melle were constantly in the presence of the sovereign, and would seem to have occupied a recognised position as ministers and the heads of their respective professions.

The army, which is spoken of as very large, was an organised military force, composed partly of cavalry and partly of infantry, armed with bows and arrows, swords, and long and short spears. It was divided into units, each commanded by a captain or commandant, and it is interesting to note in relation to the appointment of these commandants that it was the custom, on the occasion of their selection for command, for the viceroy or governor of the town to cause the new commandant to be placed upon a shield and raised above the heads of the soldiers in exactly the same manner as was common in Northern Europe.

It will be remembered that the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings were always raised on a shield as part of the ceremony of their enthronement, and as late as the Latin Conquest of Constantinople in 1204, when Baldwin of Flanders was elected Emperor of the East, he was, we are told, raised upon the buckler by the hands of his rival candidate. The smaller military units led by the commandants were apparently grouped into a larger formation, which in its turn was commanded by a military chief or general, and these larger formations were again united into two divisions, one forming the army of the south, and the other of the north. The two generals-in-chief commanding these divisions were very high personages, who occasionally gave to the reigning sovereign all that he could do K