This atrocious stronghold of murderers was situated in the district over which Sheriff claimed the sovereignty, and his visit to the place was undertaken in the hope of introducing something like law and justice. The number of accusations of theft, robbery, and murder was incredible; and dire was the dissension, the commotion, the noise which everywhere prevailed. As Sheriff had brought with him neither lawyers nor magistrates who might undertake to compose their differences, Leo, as a man learned in the Koran, was earnestly conjured to fulfil this terrible office. No sooner had he consented than two men rushed in before him, accusing each other of the most abominable crimes, the one averring that the other had murdered eight of his relations; and the latter, who by no means denied the fact, asserting in reply that the former had murdered _ten_ members of his family, and that, therefore, as the balance was in his favour, he should, according to the custom of the country, be paid a certain sum of money for the additional loss he had sustained. The murderer of ten, on the other hand, argued that it was to him that the price of blood should be paid, for that the persons whom he had slain had suffered justly, since they had violently seized upon a farm which belonged to him, and that he could in no other way gain possession of his right; while his own relations had fallen the victims of the mere atrocity of the other murderer. Such were the mutual accusations in which the first day was consumed. The evening coming on, Leo and the chieftain retired to rest; but in the dead of the night they were suddenly awakened by terrific shouts and yells, and springing hastily from their couches, and running to the window, they saw an immense crowd rushing into the market-place, and fighting with so much fury and bloodshed, that to have beheld them the most iron nature must have been shocked; so that, dreading lest some plot or conspiracy might be hatching against himself, the chieftain made his escape as rapidly as possible, taking the traveller along with him.