officer.  My new acquaintance proved to be one Hakki Bey, a Major of Engineers, employed on the staff of Osman Pacha.  He told me that, after having passed ten years at the Turkish Military College, he had been sent to England for five years to complete his education.  What can the world say of Turkish education after this stupendous example?  He was an officer of much intelligence, and soon worked himself into Omer Pacha’s good graces.  On the following morning I met Osman Pacha at breakfast in the Generalissimo’s tent.  He answers fully to the latter’s description of him, as being a man of much feeling, and very much the reverse of what he is represented by Mr. Oliphant.  That gentleman, in his narrative of the Trans-Caucasian campaign, calls him ’a thorough Moslem, and a hater of all Feringhees.’  Now I am at a loss to conceive on what grounds he can base that assertion; for, excepting that he speaks no language but his own—­a very common circumstance with English gentlemen of a certain age—­he is thoroughly European in his ideas and tendencies.  Of his kindness to myself under circumstances of difficulty and danger I shall ever entertain the most lively recollection.

While peering about in the single street of Tchernitza, I observed a crowd collected in one corner.  The centre of attraction proved to be a man with a big head.  The unfortunate creature seemed to experience very much the same treatment as he would have met with had he been turned loose in the streets of London.  Everybody stared, most people laughed, and some jeered at his terrible affliction.  He may have numbered some five-and-forty years, stood about five feet four inches high, with a head of about twice the natural size.  The idiotic appearance produced by this deformity was increased by the dimensions of his tongue, which protruded from his mouth, and hung down at the side in the most woe-begone manner.  The poor wretch accepted the banter of the spectators with that good-humoured indifference which leads one to hope that the victims of such freaks of nature are insensible to the full weight of their calamity.  To the SE. of the town or village stand the ruins of an old castle, once the favourite resort of the Dukes of Herzegovina.  Nought save the remnant of the walls remains to mark its importance in days gone by.

The remainder of our march to Gasko was in the plain, and presented few objects to attract attention, unless it was another victim of fell disease.  A poor girl, suffering from elephantiasis, was one of the only women whom I had seen for many days.  Her foot was swollen to an incredible size, and I have been since informed that it is not an uncommon complaint in those countries.  As usual, we found the force already encamped at Gasko drawn up to receive us, four mountain guns on either flank.  These were mounted, and drawn by two mules.  In places inaccessible to wheeled carriages, they are carried, as in our own service, by two mules, viz. the gun on one, and the carriage on the other.