All the summer of 1909 troops were collected at Chemchemal, a small town upon their borders, some eight thousand troops gathering by degrees. But secure in the knowledge that they could not move until a reluctant commander arrived, the Hamavands came up to the camp at night, dammed the water-supply, and picked off incautious sentries, disappearing before any sortie could be made. The soldiery was unpaid and demoralised, the officer supine and incapable, and the commander detained in Bagdad by various reasons of corruption and idleness. Two local governors--of Sulaimania and Kirkuk--were called to Chemchemal to form a court to judge and sentence the Hamavands when caught. These individuals, together with the commanding officers were being paid by the Sulaimania shaikhs to refrain from action, and the non-existence among the soldiers of any steeds, mule or horse, made operations at that time impossible. [Sidenote: THE HAMAVAND RAIDS] So the Hamavands gaily continued raiding, retaining the posts, burning them, cutting up the telegraph lines. The Sulaimania governor when first called to Chemchemal refused to go--he could not venture outside the town. So the Chemchemal authorities obtained three hundred mules by the simple means of appropriating them in Kirkuk, and sent three hundred of their best soldiers thus mounted to bring the Mutasarrif of Sulaimania. With this escort he made a rush, getting to Chemchemal in seven hours, but not without having been chased by the Hamavands and losing some riders. As the utmost mounted strength of the Hamavands is two hundred and fifty men, scattered in small bands about their country, their assailants probably did not number more than thirty or forty, but the brave three hundred fled. At last merchants in Bagdad, Mosul, and Sulaimania made so much fuss, and the Central Government--partly ignorant of the reason for the delay of the proceedings--became so pressing, that the commanding officer started from Bagdad. Simultaneously the Hamavands, informed by their own spies, leisurely packed up their tents and their goods and retired over the Persian border to the territory of the Sharafbaiani Kurds, a little tribe the other side of the Sirwan River, upon the frontier. The commander-in-chief arrived with much éclat, and with orders to pursue the Hamavands in his possession, and to invade Persia if she could possibly be accused of receiving even a Hamavand child over her borders. The troops at once started to ascertain the whereabouts of the Hamavands, and finding no one in their country, had the satisfaction of eating the growing vegetables and burning the wooden roofs of some deserted villages. For two months they made quite certain that no Hamavands lingered, catching every now and then a poor stranger Kurd and mutilating him on suspicion.