Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. II5
was produced, which we should have deemed incredible,
if it had
not constantly assailed our astonished ears.
A Turkish camp, in which the carcasses of horses, camels,
asses, and mules, lay scattered in great abundance, must have fur-
nished a high treat to the voracious jackals, who could not fail to
find there whatever was requisite to appease their hunger. They
infest every part of Syria, where they are very numerous. During
the day they confine themselves to their holes and lurking places;
but sally
out at
night,
in
large bodies, in search of their food.
They then rendezvous in the neighbourhood of the towns and villages,
molesting the inhabitants by the most disagreeable of all
howlings. They feed with complacency on the most filthy and
odious substances; and their
cruelty,
in the warfare they carry on
against other animals, is equal to their rapacity.
On the 1st of October several discharges of musketry were heard
close to our camp, and furnished a new evidence of the undisci-
plined state of the Turkish troops, who had been disputing among
themselves, and had proceeded to extremities. This event, which
happened so near to us, excited in us a considerable degree of ap-
prehension, as well as of surprise.
Nearly five hundred Amauts having deserted from the camp
on the 4th, the Vizier despatched in their pursuit two thousand
Dehlis, who returned, however, without having accomplished their
object.
In a Turkish army, the Dehlis, whose name implies desperadoes,
or madmen, form a part of the light cavalry. They boast, not
without reason, of their courage and temerity ; and are said to feel
no hesitation in undertaking the most daring enterprises. They are
armed and equipped nearly in the same manner as the other Turk-
ish military, witli the exception, that they wear a very high cap
of a cylindrical form, made of pasteboard, and covered either
with sheepskin died of a black colour, or with black cloth. This
cap is secured to the head by
a coloured muslin or cotton hand-
kerchief.
About this time Lieutenant-colonel Holloway and Major ITope
were respectively requested by the mikmendar attached to the mis^
sion, to give orders to their men not to smoke in passing the tent of
the Grand Vizier, lest they should be insulted by the Turkish military,
contrary to whose custom this practice was. A caution founded
on so prudential a motive, was, it may naturally be supposed,
not neglected.