"Rabbi Mr. Wigram" had lively recollections of his last experiences with the Khozr. He had been kept for three days on the banks of it, waiting for the floods to subside. And he had forded it at last "in his birthday suit," with the water over his horse's withers, and his clothes slung over his shoulders to keep them out of the wet. We are wont to deride the rustic who _expectat dum defluat amnis_; but our derision only shows our own ignorance as much as his expectancy showed his. The rustic was quite well acquainted with the behaviour of his own mountain rivers, and knew that when they were in spate there was simply nothing else to be done. And our chances of passing the Khozr were rendered additionally dubious by the fact that none of our party knew the right road to take for the fords. The _zaptiehs_ had never been in this district and could offer us no assistance. The _Rabbi Effendi_ had approached the river from a different direction, and that some years before. We caught a guide in one of the villages; but as his first step was to ask the way himself at the very next village that we came to, we grew distrustful of his capacity and dismissed him again to his home. Few of the inhabitants ever stray beyond the bounds of their own village, and on a more extended excursion they are often hopelessly at sea. Thus thrown on our own resources we took a bee-line across the moorland, steering our course by the light of nature and by a very small scale map. And fortune so far favoured us that we found the river in its very mildest mood; and though we had struck it at none of the recognized fording-places, there was no difficulty in getting across. But safe on the further bank our perplexities recommenced again. The dusk was falling rapidly, and we needed a lodging for the night. By now we should have been at Khalilka, a prosperous and desirable village, which is part of the private estate of the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, and which on that account enjoys immunity from taxes and conscription and raids.[75] But of course in missing the fords we had also missed Khalilka, and not knowing whether it were above or below us, were uncertain which way to turn. However, it was tolerably obvious that if we followed the river either way we should presently find a village of some sort; and a little distance down the left bank we alighted upon a straggling hamlet of miserable Kurdish hovels, which we unanimously accepted as being "Hobson's choice."