“True, true,” said the Arab beside us. “Wallah, so it is.”
“And then,” pursued Maḥmûd, “another man is sent out by the government, with his clerk and half-a-dozen of us zaptiehs. And all this costs much money. And the sheikh levies another 500 piastres, and pays 150 piastres; and so it goes on till the sum is found, but the expenses of collection are heavy. And as for the tax on cultivated land, the owner gives a bribe to him who is sent to value it, and he estimates the produce at less than half the real amount. And so it is with the sheep-tax. Effendim, do you think that all the sheep are counted? No, wallah! Last year the cornlands of the Shâmîyeh between Raḳḳah and Deir paid only £800, and the sheep-tax in the Jezîreh was no more than £2,000.”
“Eh yes,” said the Arab, “but the government takes much.”
“The sheikhs take much,” returned Maḥmûd. “Oh Ma’lûl, is it not true that they levy a tax for themselves on every tent?”
“Eh wallah!” said the Arab.
“But if the men of the tents make complaint, the sheikh attacks them and slays them.”
“Allah, Allah! he knows the truth,” cried Ma’lûl in vociferous approval.
“And they have no protection,” concluded Maḥmûd.
“Eh wah!” responded the Arab, “who is there to protect us?”
So the ancient tyrannies bear sway even in the open wilderness.