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I
IN THE TAURUS 79
Onik Dervichian's face was a study.
" Mais, mademoiselle, settlement pour faire plaisirau
Kaimakam."
" You will have to do it all yourself, then," I said ;
" he won't know which of us has eaten it."
Onik rose manfully to the occasion and did his
best. Only at the last dish did he lean back and,
rubbing himself gently, murmur :
"Ah, mon Dieu! et tout cela pour faire plaisir au
Kaimakam."
• • • • • •
There were " written stones," they told us, in this
neighbourhood too ; accordingly next day we hired
a native as guide and set off in search of them.
A road roughly cut on the side of the mountain
led out of Boulghar Maden down the valley to
the east; below it, precipitous sides shot into the
river's bed; above it, the range we had crossed the
previous day towered overhead.
About a mile outside the village we turned off
the road and wound up the mountain-side. Our
horses pushed their way through the thorns and
brambles which grew in rank profusion in and out
amongst the rocky projections, until we had scrambled
up to the summit of an outlying hill-top. Here
a rocky projection stood out higher than the
surrounding ones and showed a flat face of wall
to the midday sun. It was just possible to make
out that there was an inscription on this face. We
could see that the characters were cut in relief and
not incised. The Hittites were metal workers, and
this characteristic of their inscriptions no doubt