more commonly written Pashá or Paché, a Turkish governor of a province or district. Nothing more is necessary to raise an Osmanli to the dignity of pasha than the firman of the grand seignior; but some ceremonies are usually observed at his investiture or installation. The badge of a pasha's authority, as well as the emblem of his rank, is the horse-tail, and he takes precedence according to the number of these in his banner. The highest rank usually conferred, however, is that of pasha of three tails. The paschas are the grand seignior's lieutenants, and exercise the supreme military and civil power in their respective provinces. But many of them own little more than a nominal subjection to the Porte, although they submit to pay it an annual tribute; and some are almost always in a state of open rebellion against its authority. Religion, in fact, is the only connecting principle which keeps the different parts of the Ottoman empire together; but, fanatical as the Moslem almost universally are, the case of Egypt shows how frail a tie this may become, and how easily the bundle of rods may be dissolved. In fiscal matters, the pasha ordinarily acts as a horse-leech to his more immediate subjects, and serves as a sponge to the sultan, who frequently contrives to squeeze out a portion of the blood with which he is gorged, and, after a time, kindly presents him with a bowstring, and thus becomes ultimate heir to his private accumulations.