With the Serbs in Macedonia

202 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
to their owners and their owners' children. They
used to attack our men and make raids on our
meat dumps and cook-houses. The death
penalty was exacted wherever possible, and the
compensation demanded would have brought a
blush of envy to the cheeks of a fair owner of a
First Class at Cruft's Show. It was never paid,
however.
The other difficulty about animals concerned
donkeys. Tommy didn't like to see a woman
trudging in the dust behind her lord and master,
who was perched on a donkey already sorely
overladen. He used to pull the big, fat, lazy
brute off, and that gave rise to misunder-
standings. But the thing that really ''
got his
goat," as he expresses it, was to see a fiend
jabbing at a sore place on the animal, carefully
kept open for that purpose, or else brutally
beating it with a thick stick. In such circumstances
even a military policeman has been
known to assault the astounded wayfarer, who
never could understand what all the fuss was
about. Donkeys, it may be observed, which in
those days could be bought for from five to ten
shillings, now cost from ten to fifteen pounds.