e I had a small telescope with me I could quickly convince my
companions that what we saw before us was nothing but a huge herd of
wild boars bearing down upon us. Soon the beasts could be recognized
with the naked eye.

Tonight the _Kjerwan-Bashi_ told me a characteristic story of an Arab
which I had heard before in Orfa.

A Turkish general of cavalry, Dano-Pasha at Mardin, had been
negotiating for some time with an Arab tribe concerning the purchase
of a full-blooded mare of the Meneghi breed. Finally a price of sixty
bags or almost fifteen hundred dollars was agreed upon. At the
appointed hour the sheikh of the tribe arrives with his mare in the
courtyard of the pasha. The latter is still trying to bargain, when
the sheikh proudly replies that he will not take one _para_ less. The
Turk sulkily throws him the money saying that thirty thousand piasters
are an unheard of price for a horse. The Arab looks at him in silence,
and ties the money very complacently in his cloak. Then he descends to
the courtyard to take leave of his mare. He mutters some Arabic words
in her ear, strokes her eyes and forehead, examines her hoofs, and
walks all around her, carefully studying the attentive horse. Suddenly
he jumps on her bare back, and, in the same instant, off she shoots
like a dart out of the courtyard.

In this country the horses generally stand ready with their _palans_
or felt saddles on, day and night. Every distinguished man has at
least one or two horses in his stable ready to be mounted as soon as
they have been bridled. The Arabs, however, ride without bridles. The
halter serves to check the horse, and a gentle tap with the open hand
on the neck makes it go to the right or the left. Not more than a few
seconds, therefore, elapsed before the _agas_ of the pasha were
mounted and in hot pursuit of the fugitive.

The unshod hoofs of the Arabian mare had never yet trodden cobble
stones, and very carefully she picked her way while she hastened down
the steep, uneven road leading from the castle. The Turks, on the
other hand, galloped over the steep descent with its loose pebbles
just as we often gallop up a sandy slope. Thin, circular shoes, forged
cold, kept all harm from the feet of their horses, which were
accustomed to such trips and made no false steps.

Where the village ends the _agas_ have almost caught up with the
sheikh, but now they are in the plain, the Arabian mare is in her
element, off she darts, straigh