The "sweetening" often descended to the level of sheer swindle; 100,000 to 200,000 francs for a Legion of Honour or a post of caid, which might never materialise; or a desert sheikh who would bully the government into digging at great expense artesian wells to provide poverty-stricken fellahs with a living — these would prove to be dry and investigation would reveal that the arid land had in fact been sold (again, at great expense) to the Government by the said sheikh. The capacity (and ingenuity) of the "cadi's ear" seemed boundless; it increased hand in hand with the gulf between the French rulers and the ruled in Algeria — and so did resentment.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 99