BASHI-BAZOUKS, brish'i-ba ( Turk. bash i, head, head-dress, appea ranee+ bozug, spoilt, disorderly, from boz, to spoil, damage, destroy). Turkish irregular troops; natives chiefly of the wretchedly governed pashalies of Asiatic Turkey, and possessing the worst reputation of any body or class of fighting men in the world. They are wild, turbulent, and wholly undisciplined, more ready to plunder and kill than to fight, and speak a debased Turkish patois not easily under stood. Physically, they are, as a rule. men of splendid proportions, their tall red fez adding-to their apparent height, while the uniform en semble—not unlike the Scottish Highlander— adds to their picturesque appearance. Their equipment consists mainly of a great number of knives and swords, completely loading the waist belt, and compelling them to adopt a gait pecu liar to themselves, caused by the necessity of swinging the arms and legs clear of their equip ment. Such rifles as they usually possess are of patterns long since obsolete. They are willing to
attach themselves to ally leader who understands their jargon, and who can promise them plunder, and are frequently used by municipal governors depending on pillage and plunder for their pay. was thought, during the Crimean War of 1354, that they could be usefully employed against the Cossacks, particularly in the sort of irregular warfare usually waged by them. Consequently, in 1355, when the British Government took into its pay a Turkish contingent, a corps of Bashi Bazouks was put under the 3ommand of an officer of the British-Indian Army. The experi ment, so far as the Bashi-Bazouks were con cerned, proved a complete failure, as the war ended before they were even partially reduced to discipline. They frequently torture their ene mies, and mutilate the dead. It is a matter of record that in May, 1876, under the leadership of Aehmet Agha, they slew in cold blood over 1000 defenseless Bulgarians who had sought shelter in a church,