are far from acceptable. Among the least objectionable of these
is the encouragement of their children to seize and slobber over his
hands, the only manner of avoiding which is to keep them thrust deeply
into his pockets--an odious custom elsewhere, but here indispensable.
Before bidding a last farewell to the house of my entertainer, I must
pay a grateful tribute to its comfort and cleanliness. In vain I
pressed him to accept some return for his hospitality, and it was at
length only in the form of a present to one of the aforesaid children
that I could induce this kind-hearted family to take any memento of
their grateful guest.

On leaving Stolatz, our route lay in a SE. direction along the
bridle-path upon the right bank of the river. During the first two
hours, the rocks on our left were quite bare and devoid of all signs of
vegetation. Afterwards they assumed a far less barren appearance, being
covered with good strong brushwood, which grows down close to the
water's edge. The water is itself clear and shallow, and at one point
suddenly disappears--an instance of that phenomenon so common in these
countries, to which allusion has already been made. Above the point of
disappearance, the valley has all the aspect of the dry bed of a river,
with its sloping banks and pebbly bottom.

Our force, which on leaving Mostar had consisted only of a small body of
cavalry for escort purposes, and some hundreds of irregulars, was
augmented at Stolatz by half a battalion of regular infantry. That the
picturesque effect produced by these Bashi Bazouks (conspicuous among
whom were the Albanian levies) was heightened by the addition of the
regulars, in their soiled garments and woollen great coats, I cannot
pretend to say; yet let no one endeavour to depreciate the Turkish
infantry who has not seen them plodding gallantly on beneath a broiling
sun, and in a country which, by its stony roughness, would tax the
energies of the stoutest Highlander.

Those first marches, before we joined the main army, were for us, who
were mounted, pleasant enough. Taking advantage of any clump of trees
which we might encounter--and these were not very numerous--the halt
would sound, and in an incredibly short space of time coffee and pipes
would be served to the General, his Secretary, and myself, the staff
forming themselves into a group a few paces distant.

During these halts children or curious adults would be seen peeping from
behind the tree