On leaving the _douar_ the robbers travel in broad daylight, but, as they approach the tribe they propose to rob, they proceed only at night, and conceal themselves, when two or three leagues from the tents, in the bed of a river, or among the herbage, or in the mountains. As soon as the darkness has become dense, they issue from their hiding-place and try the different _douars_ one after the other, stopping at last at that which seems the least securely guarded, and where the dogs are the least wakeful. If the robbers are six in number, four of them remain about fifty paces from the _douar_, silent and motionless, while the two others, the most daring and adroit, make their way into the interior. Before separating, they agree upon a pass-word; and then the two thieves go to work. If they find the dogs on the watch, they return for a third companion, whom they station a little way off, in front of the tent guarded by the vigilant dogs, and they themselves enter the _douar_ from another quarter. They agree upon the tent they propose to rob; and while one of them, called the _gaad_, remains as a sentinel beside it, the other, the _hammaze_, pushes on to the horses. If the latter comes upon a horse or a mare, fastened only by leather thongs ropes, he unties or cuts the knot, seizes the animal by the _goulada_, or necklace of talismans, and leads it to the side opposite to where the dogs are held engaged by the _layahh_,[76] the third accomplice who was stationed for that purpose in front of the tent. The _gaad_ stays behind ready to shoot with a pistol, or to knock down with a stone or stick, the first man who comes out of the tent, and then to mislead the rest by flying in a direction different to that taken by his comrade with the horse. He then rejoins the _layahh_, and the two quickly come up with the _hammaze_, when all three return to their expectant companions. A second robbery is committed, if the _douar_, buried in sleep, has had no suspicion of what was going on; otherwise they prepare for flight. One of them, placing his folded _haïk_ on the back of the horse so as to use it for stirrups, starts forward at a gallop, after naming a rendez-vous for the morrow or the day after. The others, to escape from the pursuit which is sure to be instituted in the morning, hide themselves during the whole of the first night. The one who mounted the horse only continues his flight if the theft has been committed in the first hours of the night; otherwise, he passes the whole of the morrow concealed in a dry and stony spot, where the animal would leave no trace.