[p.266] having valuables with them, did not seem to gather heart from this event.  In the evening we all went out to see some Arab Shaykhs who were travelling to Bir Abbas in order to receive their salaries.  Without such douceurs, it is popularly said and believed, no stone walls could enable a Turk to hold Al-Hijaz against the hill-men.  Such was our system in Afghanistan-most unwise, teaching in limine the subject to despise rulers subject to blackmail.  Besides which, these highly paid Shaykhs do no good.  When a fight takes place or a road is shut, they profess inability to restrain their clansmen; and the richer they are, of course the more formidable they become.  The party looked well; they were Harb, dignified old men in the picturesque Arab costume, with erect forms, fierce thin features, and white beards, well armed, and mounted upon high-bred and handsomely equipped dromedaries from Al-Shark.[FN#2] Preceded by their half-naked clansmen, carrying spears twelve or thirteen feet long, garnished with single or double tufts of black ostrich feathers, and ponderous matchlocks, which were discharged on approaching the fort, they were not without a kind of barbaric pomp.

Immediately after the reception of these Shaykhs, there was a parade of the Arnaut Irregular horse.  About 500 of them rode out to the sound of the Nakus or little kettle-drum, whose puny notes strikingly contrasted with this really martial sight.  The men, it is true, were mounted on lean Arab and Egyptian nags, ragged-looking as their clothes; and each trooper was armed

[p.267] in his own way, though all had swords, pistols and matchlocks, or firelocks of some kind.  But they rode hard as Galway “buckeens,” and there was a gallant reckless look about the fellows which prepossessed me strongly in their favour.  Their animals, too, though notable “screws,” were well trained, and their accoutrements were intended for use, not show.  I watched their manoeuvres with curiosity.  They left their cantonments one by one, and, at the sound of the tom-tom, by degrees formed a “plump” or “herse"-column[FN#3] it could not be called-all huddled together in confusion.  Presently the little kettle-drum changed its note and the parade its aspect.  All the serried body dispersed as would Light Infantry, now continuing their advance, then hanging back, then making a rush, and all the time keeping up a hot fire upon the enemy.  At another signal they suddenly put their horses to full speed, and, closing upon the centre, again advanced in a dense mass.  After three-quarters of an hour parading, sometimes charging singly, often in bodies, to the right, to the left, and straight in front, halting when requisite, and occasionally retreating, Parthian-like, the Arnauts turned en masse towards their lines.  As they neared them, all broke off and galloped in, ventre a terre, discharging their shotted guns with much recklessness against objects assumed to denote the enemy.  But ball-cartridge seemed to be plentiful hereabouts; during the whole of this and the next day, I remarked that bullets, notched for noise, were fired away in mere fun.[FN#4]