The division of the plunder, as may be imagined, is never carried out without many remonstrances, for the prevention or repression of which the _mekadim_ were instituted. Sometimes the chiefs make choice of five or six individuals of approved discretion. At other times, after a _razzia_ or capture of property, the booty is divided into four equal parts. They who execute the enterprise form themselves into four sections, and each section names a _mekadem_ whose business it is to manage the subdivision. The _mekadim_ search out and demand the restitution of all articles concealed by dishonourable persons, such as jewelry, money, coral, etc. When an Arab is suspected of having purloined things in this manner, and nothing is found upon him, the _mekadim_ make him swear by Sidi-Ben-Abd-Allah, and that oath clears him. In the Sahara, Sidi-Ben-Abd-Allah is held in great veneration. No one would dare to invoke his name falsely, through fear of dying, or of seeing his flocks waste away. The _mekadim_ are acknowledged to be honest among pilferers. They are well treated and receive a handsome remuneration, consisting for the most parts of articles not included in the division of the spoils. REMARKS BY THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER. I have surprised them with horses of pure race, with sleek coats, foreheads adorned with stars announcing good fortune, flanks lean through exercise, and flesh firm and hard. I have fallen upon them like a cloud charged with lightning that hangs over a defile. It is a horse that, without ever being fatigued, always finishes by asking pardon of his rider. His head is lean, his ears and lips fine, his nostrils well open, his neck slender, his skin black and soft, his coat sleek, and his joints large. By the head of the Prophet! he is of noble race, and you would never ask how much he cost if you had seen him marching against the enemy. When you see the horses of the _goum_ marching proudly, their heads up, and making the air re-echo with their neighings, rest assured that victory accompanies them. But, on the other hand, when you see the horses of the _goum_ marching sadly, with their heads down, without neighing, but lashing themselves with their tails, be sure that fortune has abandoned them. Nevertheless, Allah is wiser than man. Oh! would that I could see my blood flowing over my _haïk_, white as ivory from Soudan! It would be the more beautiful for it. OSTRICH HUNTING. In the desert there are two principal modes of hunting the ostrich—on horseback, and in ambush. There is, indeed, a third method which is only a modification of the second, and consists in killing the bird while drinking at a stream of water.