pugilists. These people were much at variance, so that hostilities
and battling were continually arising amongst them. Each band had
its chief and subordinate officers; and it came to pass that Timour
and the power which he possessed filled them with dread, for they
knew that he was aware of their crimes and disorderly way of life.
Now it was the custom of Timour, on departing upon his expeditions,
to leave a viceroy in Samarcand; but no sooner had he left the
city, than forth marched these bands, and giving battle to the
viceroy, deposed him and took possession of the government, so that
on the return of Timour he found order broken, confusion reigning,
and his throne overturned, and then he had much to do in restoring
things to their former state, and in punishing or pardoning the
guilty; but no sooner did he depart again to his wars, and to his
various other concerns, than they broke out into the same excesses,
and this they repeated no less than three times, and he at length
laid a plan for their utter extermination, and it was the
following:- He commenced building a wall, and he summoned unto him
the people small and great, and he allotted to every man his place,
and to every workman his duty, and he stationed the Zingarri and
their chieftains apart; and in one particular spot he placed a band
of soldiers, and he commanded them to kill whomsoever he should
send to them; and having done so, he called to him the heads of the
people, and he filled the cup for them and clothed them in splendid
vests; and when the turn came to the Zingarri, he likewise pledged
one of them, and bestowed a vest upon him, and sent him with a
message to the soldiers, who, as soon as he arrived, tore from him
his vest, and stabbed him, pouring forth the gold of his heart into
the pan of destruction, (14) and in this way they continued until
the last of them was destroyed; and by that blow he exterminated
their race, and their traces, and from that time forward there were