And this essential condition is very conspicuously lacking in the country between Bavian and Akra, not to mention several districts further north; for across this ground twice a year pass that horde of human locusts, the wandering Heriki tribesmen; and one skinning every six months is more than any village can survive. The Heriki are a large tribe of Kurdish nomads who possess no permanent domicile. They encamp in winter on the plain of Mosul, and in summer on the loftier and cooler plateau of Urmi; and with all their flocks and herds and their other possessions, they migrate every spring from Mosul to Urmi, and every autumn from Urmi to Mosul. It is not a good thing for a village to lie in the track of the Heriki, for everything that is not too hot or too heavy they annex and carry away. They "lift" the sheep and cattle first; then the rugs and kettles and pitchers and the scanty household plenishing; and they leave their hapless entertainers with nothing but bare walls and rags. We had learned something of their thoroughness at our last night's lodgings on the Khozr; for in the veranda of the _rais'_ house we had found three or four large bales, securely corded up in pieces of carpet, and had casually asked what they were. Our poor host replied despondently that he was "warehousing" them for the Heriki. They would call upon him and claim them when next they passed that way. No; they paid him nothing for "warehousing," but he had to be responsible for them; and he had to restore four-fold if any of the contents were lost. "And what is in them?" we asked. The poor wretch grew even more dejected. "Oh, it is all my own property; my own rugs and cooking pots," he replied. "That is to say part of it mine, and part the property of the other villagers, which the Heriki took from us when they plundered the village last time!" So complete was the reign of terror which the impudent scoundrels had established, and so powerless was the Government to keep their depredations in check, that they could actually dragoon their victims into keeping their own plunder till they called for it, and go off for six months quite confident that their orders would be implicitly obeyed!