nd chattels were packed on overloaded camels and
donkeys. The women bore astonishingly heavy loads on their heads, the
men rode or walked carrying nothing, while patriarchs of families
were either held in donkey saddles or were borne on the shoulders of
younger men. Agriculturists began to turn out to plough and till the
fields which had lain fallow while the Turkish scourge of war was on
the land, and the people showed that, now they had the security of
British protection, they intended at once to resume their industry.
The troops had the liveliest welcome in passing through villages,
though the people are not as a rule demonstrative; and one could point
to no better evidence of the exemplary behaviour of our soldiers than
the groups of women sitting and gossiping round the wells during the
process of drawing water, just as they did in Biblical days, heedless
of the passing troops whom they regarded as their protectors. The man
behind a rude plough may have stopped his ill-matched team of pony
and donkey to look at a column of troops moving as he had never seen
troops march before, a head of a family might collect the animals
carrying his household goods and hurry them off the line of route
taken by military transport, but neither one nor the other had any
fear of interference with his work, and the life of the whole country,
one of the most unchanging regions of the world, had suddenly again
become normal, although only yesterday two armies had disputed
possession of the very soil on which they stood. The moment we were
victorious old occupations were resumed by the people in the way that
was a tradition from their forefathers. Our victory meant peace
and safety, according to the native idea, and an end to extortion,
oppression, and pillage under the name of requisitions. It also meant
prosperity. The native likes to drive a bargain. He will not sell
under a fair price, and he asks much more in the hope of showing a
buyer who has beaten him down how cheaply he is getting goods. The
Army chiefly sought eggs, which are light to carry and easy to cook,
and give variety to the daily round of bully, biscuit, and jam. The
soldier is a generous fellow, and if a child asked a piastre (2-1/2d.)
for an egg he got it. The price soon became four to five for a
shilling in cash, though the Turks wanted five times that number for
an equivalent sum in depreciated paper currency. The law of supply
and demand obtained in this old world