This worthy has had ups and downs in his life, and once fell very foul of a Vali, who was seized with natural zeal to check the plundering of the public purse when he found that Sabonji Pasha had laid hands on certain funds that he had intended to appropriate himself! Thus that distinguished member of the town council was pilloried; _i.e._ was put on a donkey with his face blackened and turned to the tail, and so led round the town; being thereafter put into the cesspool of the Government "_Serai_" to pass the night. "_Iyba_" (shame) such as this would end the career of most men, but Sabonji has some unusual gifts, and intrigue and bribery soon brought him into power again. The fact that one of the finest and largest houses in the town was built by one of the smaller legal officials, nominally out of fifteen months' saving of a salary which, when paid, amounted to sixty pounds per annum, may perhaps be evidence of what "pickings" amount to in the trade of law; and the story of a recent episode (occurring in the year of grace 1910) in the career of a prominent and highly respected citizen of the town will speak more clearly than long descriptions. Seyyid Ullah was the principal burglar of Mosul, having inherited a practice in that profession from his father, as naturally as son may follow sire in the medical business in England. Housebreaking was what he specialized in, and the usual mode of procedure was to dig through the wall of a house with pickaxes from the street; it having been found, by experience, that this was less laborious than breaking down an iron-bound door. Of course, arrangements had to be made that the police should be well away on the other side of the town (if they were not engaged, as sometimes happened, in securing the ends of the street against any interruption), but there was seldom any difficulty about that. It was an understood thing, seemingly, that you must not interfere with the trade by which a man earned his bread; and Seyyid Ullah was only held to have over-stepped his legitimate rights once--when he cut off a woman's hands! Even then, it was admitted in extenuation that there really was no other way of getting her gold bangles.