with gold. Twenty noúkers[18] on spirited horses, and dressed in cloaks
glittering with lace, their caps cocked jauntily, and leaning affectedly
on one side, pranced and sidled after him. The people respectfully stood
up before their Bek, and bowed, pressing their right hand upon their
right knee. A murmur of whispered approbation followed the young chief
as he passed among the women. Arrived at the southern extremity of the
ground, Ammalát stopped. The chief people, the old men leaning upon
their sticks, and the elders of Bouináki, stood round in a circle to
catch a kind word from the Bek; but Ammalát did not pay them any
particular attention, and with cold politeness replied in monosyllables
to the flatteries and obeisances of his inferiors. He waved his hand;
this was the signal to commence the race.

[17] The first Shamkháls were the kinsmen and representatives
of the Khalifs of Damascus: the last Shamkhál died on his
return from Russia, and with him finished this useless rank.
His son, Suleiman Pacha, possessed his property as a private
individual.

[18] The attendants of a Tartar noble, equivalent to the
"henchman" of the ancient Highlanders. The noúker waits behind
his lord at table, cuts up and presents the food.

Twenty of the most fiery horsemen dashed forward, without the slightest
order or regularity, galloping onward and back again, placing themselves
in all kinds of attitudes, and alternately passing each other. At one
moment they jostled one another from the course, and at the same time
held in their horses, then again they let them go at full gallop over
the plain. After this, they each took slender sticks, called djigidís,
and darted them as they rode, either in the charge or the pursuit, and