Besides the Duty officers assignment we would go on patrol to the various villages to, as they say "show the flag". As we entered a village everybody in sight would stand and if somebody were asleep or slow to stand,the native Policeman would prod them with his rifle.

The "Mukhtar" or chief of the village would invite us in for the proverbial small cups of Turkish coffee. Custom demanded that you accept three cups and when offered the fourth to refuse with much thanks. We were then invited to visit the next person of importance and repeat the coffee ritual. This could go on forever if one did not have pressing business, real or not, to which you had to attend.

The Arabs are extremely hospitable. The saying goes, you can visit with an Arab for three days before he will ask the three question's, who are you - what do you want - when will you go.

On some of these patrols there would be complaints from individuals, real or imaginary. If it was serious, we would charge the transgressor and he would have to appear in court. Most often it was of little consequence and we would hold court there and then and, if we decided he was guilty, he would be sentenced to do a few days to a week gardening at the Post. There was never any objection to our arbitary type of justice. We would take the ''prisoner'' back to the Post, he would work the required number of days, being fed by his family and at the end of his sentence would disappear back to the village.

The most serious situation was when a couple would abscond without the blessing of marriage. This very seldom happened, but when it did, we did everything possible to catch the couple before the family of the girl did. Their justice was swift. The man would be castrated and, with his testicles sewn in his mouth, left to die. The same ''justice'' would be dealt a rapist. The girl, if pregnant, would meet an even more hideous fate, her stomach would be cut open and a small pig inserted, and even if not pregnant she could still be killed.

The perpetrator of this type of justice was honor bound to turn himself in to the police; after all he had defended the family honor. The sentence he would receive would be less than five years and he would be regarded as a hero when he got out.

Elopement was not a popular pastime.