238 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

be Kaimakan, and raised for him, as already said, at the expense of all his officers and officials, a complete regiment. All he requires for his own housekeeping is one piastre's worth of flesh u day, and his people get only belila (boiled durra) and water for themselves. K they ask wages, he gives them the bastinado. He purchases from the poorer officers the horses they have taken as spoil, but never pays them ; and these are afraid to complain to the Pascha, lest they expose themselves to Hassan's intrigues, and the cabals which the higher officers carry on against their inferiors. The Pascha had sent the poor camel-drivers sixteen cows, but this vampire took on himself to reduce their share to three, keeping thirteen to himself. I held it my duty to tell the Pascha this, who merely said, " Malliich " ('Tis no matter), and soon after mentioned he had recommended him to Cairo, to be made Bey ! that he was already very old, and was failing, and that,ei'e long, the Divan might call him to account, or be his heir. While thus speaking he could not repress an ironical smile— such is Turkish policy. The market now showed well ; fine cows could be bought for forty or sixty piastres, five to eight cows were given for a horse from Habesch, and goats and sheep were to be had at three or four piastres a head.

The Hallenga made large profits, and those who had before represented themselves as miserably poor, now flocked in with from eight to twelve pieces of cotton cloth on their shoulders for sale, i The Schaigies, also, made a chasua on the Dabaina-Ai-abs, who drweU towards the south, betAveen the small rivers Settiet and Bassalahn, and will pay no tribute. The Schaigies, however, suffered considerable loss, from the now highly flooded waters, the lands there being very fruitful from this abundance of water. Although the Schaigies lost many men, and also horses, still they have brought in with them 700 cows and 300 camels ; but all, from the constant rains, have returned ill. Such as have to supply themselves with new horses are much cast down, as a new horse often costs them all their pay for two years. Although it is usual to give a part of the spoils of such robbing expeditions to the troops engaged, still the Pascha on this occasion took the whole of the plunder to himself, but in the name of the Belik, leaving unanswered their petition for a share. By this, the Schaigies, who are ever placed in the most dangerous posts, are