or a district is not to be remedied, as in other countries, by an influx of strangers; the land still belongs to the survivors of the tribe, and trespass would be visited with a bloody revenge. [FN#24] Without these forts the Turks, at least so said my companions, could never hold the country against the Badawin.  There is a little amour propre in the assertion, but upon the whole it is true.  There are no Mohammed Alis, Jazzars, and Ibrahim Pachas in these days. [FN#25] To “halal” is to kill an animal according to Moslem rites:  a word is wanted to express the act, and we cannot do better than to borrow it from the people to whom the practice belongs. [FN#26] He is now dead, and has been succeeded by a son worse than himself. [FN#27] The greatest of all its errors was that of appointing to the provinces, instead of the single Pasha of the olden time, three different governors, civil, military, and fiscal, all depending upon the supreme council at Constantinople.  Thus each province has three plunderers instead of one, and its affairs are referred to a body that can take no interest in it. [FN#28] Ziyad bin Abihi was sent by Al-Mu’awiyah, the Caliph, to reform Al-Basrah, a den of thieves; he made a speech, noticed that he meant to rule with the sword, and advised all offenders to leave the city.  The inhabitants were forbidden under pain of death to appear in the streets after evening prayers, and dispositions were made to secure the execution of the penalty.  Two hundred persons were put to death by the patrol during the first night, only five during the second, and not a drop of blood was shed afterwards.  By similar severity, the French put an end to assassination at Naples, and the Austrians at Leghorn.  We may deplore the necessity of having recourse to such means, but it is a silly practice to salve the wound which requires the knife. [FN#29] These remarks were written in 1853:  I see no reason to change them in 1878. [FN#30] A weak monarch, a degenerate government, a state whose corruption is evidenced by moral decay, a revenue bolstered up by a system of treasury paper, which even the public offices discount at from three to six per cent., an army accustomed to be beaten, and disorganised provinces; these, together with the proceedings of a ruthless and advancing enemy, form the points of comparison between the Constantinople of the present day and the Byzantine metropolis eight hundred years ago.  Fate has marked upon the Ottoman Empire in Europe “delenda est”:  we are now witnessing the efforts of human energy and ingenuity to avert or to evade the fiat. [FN#31] When water cannot be obtained for ablution before prayers, Moslems clap the palms of their hands upon the sand, and draw them down the face and both fore-arms.  This operation, which is performed once or twice-it varies in different schools-is called Tayammum. [FN#32] I write this word as my companions pronounced it.  Burckhardt similarly gives it “Djedeyde,” and Ali Bey “Djideïda.”