ey for our horses, and now and then a little
bread. When other persuasion failed, we could buy almost anything
they had with a handful or two of cartridges. They were a savage
people, but not altogether unpleasing.

Once, where the Tigris curved and our road brought us near the
banks, by a high cliff past which the river swept at very great
speed, we took part in a sport that cost us some cartridges, but no
risk, and gave us great amusement. The Kurds of those parts, having
heard in advance of our tale of victory, had decided, to take the
nearest loot to hand; so they had made an ambuscade down near the
river level, and when we came on the scene we lent a hand from
higher up.

Rushing down the river at enormous speed (for the stream was narrow
there) forced between rocks with a roar and much white foam the
goatskin rafts kept coming on their way to Mosul and Bagdad, some
loaded with soldiers, some with officers, and all with goods on
which the passengers must sit to keep their legs dry. The rafts were
each managed by two men, who worked long oars to keep them in
mid-current, they turning slowly round and round.

The mode of procedure was to volley at them, shooting, if possible,
the men with oars, but not despising a burst goatskin bag. In case
the men with oars were shot, the others would try to take their
place, and, being unskilful, would very swiftly run the raft against
a rock, when it would break up and drown its passengers, the goods
drifting ashore at the bend in the river in due time.

On the other hand, when a few goatskin bags were pierced the raft
would begin to topple over and the men with oars would themselves
direct the raft toward the shore, preferring to take their chance
among Kurds than with the rocks that stuck up like fangs out of the
raging water. No, sahib, I could not see what happened to them after
they reached shore. That is a savage country.

One of our first volleys struck a raft so evenly and all together
that it blew up as if it had been torpedoed! We tried again and
again to repeat that performance, until Ranjoor Singh checked us for
wasting ammunition. It was very good sport. There were rafts and
rafts and rafts--KYAKS, I think they call them--and the amount of
plunder those Kurds collected on the beach must have been
astonishing.

We gave the city of Mosul a very wide berth, for that is the largest
city of those parts, with a very large Turkish garrison. Twenty
miles to the nort