1 Bagdad. This letter, which served us in the meantime as
2 a passport, was so much respected by the Agha ot Hit, that he
3 p ;,eed it on his foreheud as a token of respect.
4 At midnight, we were alarmed by a great noise and uproar
5 'n the town. Upon asking for an explanation, they told us that
6 the Arabs of the desert were in pursuit of the pilgrims. This
7 information tiller! us with fear and anxiety, tor we were all
8 assembled in the same house, and (irmly believed that it was
9 the husbands of the women we had met with previously, and that
10 their intention was to plunder us ; hut we were mistaken. A
11 abort time afterwards the people informed us that they were the
12 Agha’s enemies, the Agelis, who were come to take revenge on
13 him, and it ivas rumoured that, they hod forced the palace, ami
14 killed the Aglut.
15 However much we regretted the murder of that poor man, by
16 whom we had been received only the evening before with such
17 kindness, we could not forbear rejoicing at not having been
18 ourselves the destined victims. N' e were told that the Agelis
19 (an Arab tribe) had been settled (or fifty years at. Hit, and
20 having paid the same taxes as the other inhabitants, had been
21 forced l>\ the new Agha (regent), the greedy Kurdo (wolf), to
22 pa) a certain sum with which they, as true subjects, should not
23 have been charged, and they accordingly obstinately refused to
24 pay. But the governor obtained troops from the Pasha ol
25 Bagdad, with whose assistance the Agelis were driven out ot
26 Hit, mid their goods were confiscated, for which treatment they
27 swore to take revenge on the Agha.
28 Wit h the break of day, a soldier came to inform us that the
29 two innocent sons of the Agha, and his brother-in-law, had hud
30 their throats cut while asleep, but the Agha himself was only
31 wounded, and had escajaxl from the grasp of the Agelis, and
32 desired us to visit him. We found hint outside of the town,
33 not far front the city gate, surrounded i>y about fifty horsemen,
34 with whom he find beep pursuing his enemies, who bad taken
35 possession of all his moveable property; but fiis pursuit had
36 been in vain, as lie could not overtake them, lie was wounded
37 i„ one of his legs, and it? escaped death only by throwing him*
38 16262