three hundred pounds for it from Omer
Pasha, and had it killed under him in a
skirmish not many days afterwards. With
these exceptions, and a few others that were
less noticeable, the men rode shaggy ponies,
trained, for ordinary purposes, to a peculiar
running gait with necks outstretched, and
concealing all manner of good qualities
beneath a very homely aspect. From the
sudden checks to which they were habitually
subjected when at their greatest speed, and
from the contraction of the hind-legs necessary
to answer to them, they were all frightfully
cow-hocked; but, this deformity was
disregarded, from the inevitable nature of its
causes, just as broken knees are a small
matter in Devonshire. Among other
accomplishments,  these ponies could turn, when at
full gallop, almost as suddenly as if on a
pivot, and continue their pace unchecked in
any rear direction. It was common to see a
race in the camp between a man on horse-
back and a swift runner on foot, each having
to turn round a lance pitched in the ground,
and to come back to the starting place: the
pedestrian having more or less start, according
to the aptitude for turning, of the horse
that was pitted against him. The excitement
and gesticulation occasioned by these races,
and other competitive sports, the dark faces
lighted up by unwonted animation, the rapid
Arabic gutturals, the exultation of the victors,
and the ifs and explanations of the
conquered, were pleasant foils to the dull listlessness
and semi-narcotised monotony of the
Turkish Nizam, whose men and officers
would sometimes come and stare, in stolid
bewilderment, at the energetic proceedings of
the Bashies.

With regard to the bad qualities so
liberally assigned to them, I found plenty of
evidence to confirm my foregone conclusion,
that the Bashi-Bazouks had been much
maligned. During many months of trying
inactivity at Eupatoria, they committed no
greater offence than petty pilfering, which was
commonly traceable to the Asiatic Turks, and
for which those worthies, when discovered,
were handed over to the town police, to be
beaten with sticks after a manner revolting
to humanity. The majority of the men were
like great children, and their convictions often
reminded me of a child's faith in the dogmas
of papa. For instance: they believed that
every English officer was the owner of a
steam-vessel, and this with a firmness that
was proof against all statements to the
contrary. I assured a group of them, who
discussed this subject with me, that (to my
sorrow) I had no steam-vessel, and that others
were in the same case. The spokesman
gravely reproved me for telling lies, and said,
not without certain pathos, that I was their
friend, and that I ought not to try and
deceive them. He knew I had a steam-vessel,
and those around him (here a general
assenting murmur) knew it also. I might
have contradicted him until doomsday without
effect. He and his companions were assembled
in a café, narrating the strangest
stories about the war, and smoking bubbling
narghilis. Followers of the Prophet to the
back-bone, and ready, in their phrase, at
any time to become witnesses in the cause of
Islam, they never showed any antipathy to
French or English on account of religion, and
solemnly eulogised the brave deeds that were
done before Sebastopol, and of which
intelligence was every now and then brought, even
to the camp of the Bashi-Buzouks. There
was one Arab who had been at Silistria, and
loved to talk of all the good qualities of
Moussa Bey (Colonel Ballard), of his tried
courage, his skill, and his constant
thoughtfulness and care for the comfort of the
humblest soldier. I met this same Arab at
Constantinople after the peace; and he told
me how Moussa Bey, at the battle of Inzour,
had gone down to the front rank of his men
under a heavy fire, and had personally inspected
the sight of every rifle, to see that it
was correctly set for the distance of the enemy.
He shook his head mournfully at the close
of this narrative, and said that he was sorry
for Moussa Bey, and for me also, on account
of our souls, because we were Christians.
He would pray that the Prophet would enlighten
us.

There was in all this a simplicity and
kindliness that I often saw evidenced among
the Bashies, and that resulted in some
measure, perhaps, from their comparative freedom.
The Arab regular soldiery, taken from
the degraded fellahs of the villages, were a
set of foul-mouthed and ruffianly fanatics,
who seldom passed an European without
uttering the filthiest abuse, and who were
only restrained by fear from acts of open
violence. But, the worst faults of the Bashi-
Bazouks arose out of the peculiarities summed
up in the name. Bashi-Bazouk means Empty-
head, or perhaps may be rendered Rattlepate.
Of men so designated it would be useless to
expect that they should be otherwise than
reckless, daring, happy-go-lucky madcaps,
ready at all times for a fight or a frolic. The
ownership of a horse and arms gave them, so
to speak, a stake in their country, and
elevated them immeasurably, in personal
qualities, above the drilled soldier of the time,
who wore the coat and shouldered the musket
of Abdul-Medjid. Taking them as a body
only, and judging them by the standard of
their co-religionists, I found the empty heads
to be not bad fellows, and in some sort
gentlemen.