My first care on arriving at Hillah was to establish friendly relations with the principal inhabitants of the town as well as with the Turkish officer in command of the small garrison that guarded its mud fort. Osman Pasha, the general, received me with courtesy and kindness, and during the remainder of my stay gave me all the help I could require. On my first visit he presented me with two lions. One was nearly of full size, and was well known in the bazars and thoroughfares of Hillah, through which he was allowed to wander unrestrained. The inhabitants could accuse him of no other objectionable habit than that of taking possession of the stalls of the butchers, who, on his approach, made a hasty retreat, leaving him in undisturbed possession of their stores, until he had satisfied his hunger and deemed it time to depart. He would also wait the coming of the large kuffas, or wicker boats, of the fishermen, and driving away their owners, would help himself to a kind of large barbel, for which he appeared to have a decided relish. For these acts of depredation the beast was perhaps less to be blamed than the Pasha, who rather encouraged a mode of obtaining daily rations, which, although of questionable honesty, relieved him from butcher's bills. When no longer hungry he would stretch himself in the sun, and allow the Arab boys to take such liberties with him as in their mischief they might devise.