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investigations. On his report alone the Bureau Arabe will act. There are, of course, many of these men who are scrupulously honest and who carry out their duties conscientiously, but there are others who do not, and there are certainly frequent miscarriages of justice through personal reasons.

There was a case where the agha had a feud with a sheik of his tribe. The sheik was in the right; the sheik tried to make trouble for the agha, and appealed to the French authority. The French authority gave the sheik his right.

The agha said nothing at the time, but a few weeks later he sent the sheik on a mission, and while he was away he took his wife and kept her till he thought the vengeance sufficient. The sheik was powerless to act, as the agha had committed no crime in the eyes of the French law, and he knew if he made any more fuss that his life would not be safe. It is better for a nomad to keep in with his caïd if he does not want to lose all he has.

Of course these cases are mainly exceptions, and the average caïd does his duty conscientiously. There is one I know well who looks after his people so seriously that he is actually out of pocket when the end of the year comes round. The point to bring out, though, is the danger of giving too much power to people whose idea of justice is very primitive, and who in cases of vengeance are quite unscrupulous. Life and death to an Arab are less important than the evening meal, and it is difficult to say what would happen if ever they were given autonomy. It is a delicate question.

For the moment we must continue our examination of native administration.