Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/168

 any desired information in regard to a zerdar was as easy to obtain as if he came from the next village. It was the special duty, indeed, of certain officials, to furnish such information when required. If an incipient flirtation was suspected between a maiden of the place and an ineligible, that is, a betrothed, zerdur, he was apt to be suddenly assigned to a distant field of duty.

Though subject to an organization and discipline resembling, in some degree, that of our armies, the zerdars were not quartered in barracks, but were assigned to homes among the households of the place where duty detained them. I say homes advisedly; for the accepted rule of conduct on both sides was, that he was, in every respect, to be treated, and he, in turn, to behave toward his hosts, as a son of the house. The relation thus established, though temporary, was none the less real, and was frequently the origin of life-long friendships.

With all the facility of youth, the young man soon felt at home amid his new surroundings, and readily accorded to his temporary guardians the respect and duty he had been trained to show his parents. Nor was the guardianship assumed by the householder so onerous as it would now be apt to prove. There were no such haunts as now disgrace our cities to lead a young man astray; and, with the simple habits of the period, debt was practically unknown.

At the season when transferred from one post of duty to another, each zerdar was allowed a furlough of a month or six weeks. in which to transport himself to his new sphere of duty. The transfers took place for one-half the number in spring, for the other half in autumn. In