carry the balls of silver in their mouths, and began to wear coverings on their feet. Besides their pay, they received two complete suits of clothes every year. Their costume consisted of an Albanian cassock of damask of many colours or of striped satin, and a large belt of silk enriched with gold, in which they carried their poniard, the handle of which was of ivory and the sheath of the skin of some rare fish. They also wore very long stockings, like those generally used at the time by the Turks, as well as a rude kind of shoes. Upon their heads they had high bonnets covered with silver leaf, from which waved enormous plumes of ostrich feathers. In one hand each carried his damascened hatchet, with blade and hammer on opposite sides, and in the other hand a bag full of comfits, with which they kept their mouths moist while running. In this costume they everywhere accompanied the Grand Seigneur, or conveyed his messages as far as he pleased to send them. As soon as they had received their orders, away they went, leaping and capering among the crowd with the agility of deer, crying with all their might, "Sauli, sauli !" "take care, take care," and rushed on night and day with astonishing swiftness, taking no repose until they had delivered the message entrusted to them.

If they had more fatigue to undergo than their comrades the vlachrars, horse-couriers, they were not, like them, followed by the curses of the people along their route. Indeed, the latter, as soon as their animals were exhausted with fatigue, were allowed by government to lay hands on the first fresh horses they met, whether the property of Christian, Jew, or Turk. A vlachrar meeting a peasant mounted on a fresh animal, could compel him to dismount, and taking his place gallop away on his errand. As the poor countryman

was prohibited from removing the panting steed which the courier left behind, his only resource was to follow his spoiler on foot and try to make an arrangement with him for ready money. Often the courier urged on his horse till he broke down from sheer exhaustion, and then, having

Peich, or Runner of the Grand Turk. Fifteenth Century.
(After B. de Vigenère.)

exchanged him for the first fresh and stout animal he could see, mounted and rode off at full speed, followed by the wild and furious curses of the distracted proprietor. With a privilege such as this the messengers of the sultan might have been expected to traverse enormous distances; but they took their ease, travelling only during the day and reposing at night. They did not even journey with the speed of the couriers of other nations-the Abbé Nicquet, for example, the swiftest traveller of his time (the sixteenth century), who

reached Rome from Paris in six days four hours, although the distance was 350 leagues.

The Turkish foot-runners were swifter and more careful than the horsemen. They could go to and fro between Constantinople and Adrianople in two days and two nights, that is to say, at the rate of forty leagues, or about one hundred and twenty miles, in twenty-four hours. One of these runners made a bet that he would journey the distance from one to the other of these towns between two suns, in other words, in twenty-four hours, and accomplished the feat, though he had to contend against the enervating heats of the month of August.

19

CHAPTER II.

COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY IN ENGLISH AND ELSEWHERE-MODERN COURIERS.

Posting previously to 1789—Running like a Basque—The Lands of the Mountains and the Lands of the Plains-The Lackeys of other Days-English Runners-Runners of the Austrian Nobility— Flowers and Tinsel-The Zagal of Spain-The Aristocracy of Scotland The Man-horse- The Duke of Queensberry and his Livery-The Escort of the King of Saxony-A Runner on White Horses-Indefatigable Walkers-Captain Barclay and his Achieve

ments.

FORMERLY, as already hinted, the nobility maintained couriers, who not only carried messages for them into and from town, but also ran in front of the carriages when travelling, and rendered assistance in the difficult parts of the road. Prior to 1789 the postal service was not organised in the same excellent way as at the present time, for railways and macadamised roads were still unknown, and the superintendence of roads and bridges did not exist even in name. Those who had not couriers contented themselves with remaining at home without news; or if they did travel, they too often found themselves sticking fast in a rut, shouting for assistance, which did not come. Travelling was a luxury in which the rich indulged, in order to distinguish themselves from the less privileged classes. What facilitated the labour of the couriers was, that the roads being bad, the carriages advanced with difficulty, as a rule, at the rate of about five miles an hour. Nevertheless, everybody could

not indulge in this painful exercise, and good couriers

were rare.

In France this office was most frequently filled by Basques, which has given rise to the proverbial expression, "To run like a Basque." In general mountaineers arc swifter than the inhabitants of level countries. The quality is one which depends to a great extent upon the configuration of the land; and it is well known that Navarre and Biscay are hardly what can be called flat countries. The ancient Cretans were celebrated, as we have already said, for their swiftness in running; a fact which is not surprising, seeing that from their infancy they were accustomed to mountainous tracts, impracticable for horses or vehicles. The same difference is to be remarked among savage peoples, whose ability in running depends upon whether they dwell among hills or on the plains. Lescarbot, in vaunting the agility of the natives of Nouvelle-France, notices how those who are reared on the heights excel in swiftness their countrymen who inhabit the plains. The former, he says, breathe a purer and invigorating air, and live on better food; the latter cultivate low and unhealthy lands, with a thick, heavy atmosphere. He also mentions certain tribes on the coast of Malabar, who had acquired great celebrity for "twisting and turning their bodies in such an extraordinary fashion, that they seemed to have no bones;" and who were formidable opponents in a skirmish, their suppleness being such that they could advance and retire with the rapidity of lightning, giving their enemies no opportunity of injuring them. It is true that to arrive at such a degree of skill it was necessary to assist nature, and from the age of seven they paid special attention to their muscles, which they took care to rub continually with oil of sesamum.