Most of them were penniless, and, as the pangs of hunger set in, they began pillaging right and left from the little farms by the wayside.

From modest beginnings--poultry and vegetables--they progressed to larger game, unhindered by the officers.

Houses were entered, women insulted; time and again I saw a stray horse, grazing by the roadside, seized by a crowd of grinning Arabs, who piled on the poor beast's back until he was almost crushed to earth, and rode off triumphantly, while their comrades held back the weeping owner.

The result of this sort of "requisitioning," was that our band of recruits was followed by an increasing throng of farmers--imploring, threatening, trying by hook or by crook to win back the stolen goods.

Little satisfaction did they get, although some of them went with us as far as Saffed.
Our garrison town is not an inviting place, nor has it an inviting reputation.