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

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C I43
were to be paid were without arms; and the Tefterdar read aloud
the order of payment.
Of the nine lots eight were for as many companies of jannissa-
ries, and the ninth for the Choarbagis, or commanders. The bags
contained in one of these Jots having been laid
promiscuously within
the
square,
a signal was made for the company which was to be
paid. This was no sooner done than all the individuals belonging
to it rushed forward and scrambled for the bags, contending with
each other who should carry them off, to which circumstance they
attach no small share of honour, at the same time that it is not
accompanied by any pecuniary advantage, the bags being instantly
taken to the tent of the Choarbagis commanding the company, and
a proper distribution of the money there made. Each of the com-
panies having received its lot or portion of the bags, the Choarbagis,
who were permitted to wear their arms, had theirs delivered to
them. The number distributed was an hundred and eighty-six,
each of the purses or bags containing five hundred piastres.
The state officers who attended on this occasion were dressed in
scarlet benices, or robes of honour; and the Tefterdar was, on the
conclusion of the ceremony, invested with a caftan, as were likewise
all those who were immediately concerned under him in ma-
king the payments. Except the contests which ensued, in this very
extraordinary mode of paying the troops, to obtain the possession
of the bags, not a tumultuous voice was heard; but the whole was
conducted with great gravity and tranquillity.
In consequence of advices received from El-Arish on the 17th,
purporting that the French had on hearing of the movement made
by the Bey, Hassan Djadarvi, sent a body of fifteen hundred men
to oppose him, and had also thrown a fresh body of troops into
Sala/ueh, there was a considerable degree of ap-itation in the Tur'-
kish camp. It was reported also that a brig, supposed to be French,
had been hovering for some days off El-Arish. It was obvious
that, the Turk^having received no direct intelligence of these events
from those who were in their confidence, an entire belief ought not
to have been attached to the rumours thus circulated, yet
the alarm
they excited had the good effect of keeping our allies more on the
alert than usual, and of inducing them to send out advanced parties.
Accordingly, on the 20th, new reports having reached the Vizier
from El-Arish, that the enemy's forces were in motion, and that
a part of them had already reached Catieh, Captain Leake of the