"When once a feud was declared, the mode of its prosecution was as ruthless as it was characteristic of this strange people. The hostile families rarely engaged in open combat. It was a long trial of patience and skill, to determine which of the two parties should exterminate the other. Going forth singly or in pairs, they hid themselves among bushes or behind walls, and, patient of hunger, thirst, and weather, they lay in wait for days together to shoot any member of the rival,,,΄ clan who might pass by. Their towers, some of which were of great strength, were guarded night and day... both to prevent a surprise, and to destroy any enemy who might walk within musket shot. Women and girls, indeed, they were content to spare, but boys of more than eight years old were doomed, as at that age they were considered capable of bearing arms. To such an extent did this prevail, that men, when deeply involved in these family feuds, retired to the shelter of their castles, and for years never ventured forth, except when perhaps at night and by stealth they went out to murder an enemy ... Men have been born and married, have lived for twenty or thirty years, and in some cases have even spent their whole lives within the enclosure of those gloomy walls. "I was informed of one man who was born in his tower, and lived to the age of seventy without daring to quit it."