We must add that prompt redress was given on this occasion. Soldiers were dispatched to the guilty village from Diza without delay. The stolen goods were restored; and the two muleteers brought in as prisoners. But the zaptieh, the principal culprit, had escaped.[{181}]
The kaimakam had a taste for melodrama, and had the prisoners brought before him immediately. He called upon the Consul for his statement, and then demanded of the prisoners what they had got to say.
These worthies at once paraded an arm (said to be broken) and a black eye (the genuineness of which was past question), and poured out a flood of eloquence. They had marched all day, and were very weary; and had begged of the Consul to let the exhausted beasts feed for one little half-hour before pushing further on. This he had refused, with oaths and vile abuse; beating deponent the while till his arm was broken, and he lay helpless on the grass. Assault on the Consul? Before Allah there had been no such thing. How could they lift a hand against his greatness? Had not the zaptieh fired shots? Nay, he had but interceded with the Bey in all humility; and the Bey had turned on him and deponent (raising his head painfully from the grass) saw the zaptieh flying for dear life, while the Consul pursued him, firing shots at him from a revolver!
It was a fine coherent tale, and well told; but the witness’s dramatic instinct carried him away in the course of it, and he gesticulated freely with the “broken” arm.
The kaimakam rose with the majesty natural to one who combines the offices of judge and jury, and delivered the judgment of the court. “The English do not tell lies; but ye are liars and the sons of liars. Bring fetters, and hale these scoundrels to the dungeon forthwith.” Fetters of pantomimic magnitude were brought accordingly; but while they were being put on, the kaimakam marred the grandeur of the proceedings by suggesting to the Consul that as he had now two captives on whom he could wreak his vengeance, perhaps he might be disposed to pardon the third, who would be hard to catch!
He was somewhat disappointed on finding that the impracticable Englishman was willing to pardon the two who had been caught; but disposed to insist that the worst criminal must be punished! However, the fugitive was caught and imprisoned later.
As for the two muleteers, they were released in an hour[{182}] or so at our request; and came to express their hope that the little unpleasantness would not cause any diminution of the customary bahkshish! It was not their fault, really; they had been possessed of the Devil at the time, and that was surely excuse enough for poor simple men!
The seat of a governorship of low grade, like a kaimakamlik, is always a home of oppression in Turkey. “Jack in office” is not an unknown thing elsewhere; but he is usually not worse than annoying, and is sometimes amusing. In Turkey, however (particularly in the out-of-the-way districts), there is nobody to exercise a wholesome discipline on Jack, or to care much what he does in small matters.
Further, all the officials at such posts are low down in the scale, whether they have been long in the service or not; and so they have either no character to lose, or else a fortune to make. An elderly man, who has made his money and his name, is sometimes as good a governor as the people are in a condition to appreciate; but not so the junior. Thus it comes to pass that British Consuls of experience say that they have known good Valis fairly often, and even decent mutaserifs occasionally; but a good kaimakam is a rara avis indeed. We have known two in ten years; both of them being Albanians, and both gentlemen. But in each case the barbarian was not very far below the surface—any more than he is in an Englishman sometimes.
Thus in a small centre like Diza of Gawar, even the European traveller may occasionally meet with discourtesy; particularly since the Revolution has given the petty official an excuse for saying: “We are civilized and constitutional now; therefore we need not treat these beastly Franks with any more consideration than our own people.”