Note 39 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
The yazjees, or government secretaries, are men of the same presumed respectability in Syrian towns as bankers, solicitors, or professional men are with us; yet, in cases of malversation of the public money, often, indeed, on mere suspicion of peculation, they are punished with the lash, or by bastinado. Woe to an exchequer defaulter under Ibrahim Pasha!