They do like to skin the traveller....Yes, sir, we had enough of these ruffians; now, thank God, things are quieter, but there was a time when you could not venture a hundred paces beyond the rampart without some hairy devil stalking you, ready to put a halter around your neck or a bullet through the back of your head the moment he caught you napping.Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Times.