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I
CHAPTER XXII
AN ARMENIAN AND A TURK
I. ARTEN.
ARTEN was an Armenian ; he was quick, thin,
methodical, dirty, intelligent, and untruthful;
he was also the cook. I say the cook advisedly,
for a cook he was not. No doubt he would have
made an excellent cook if he had known anything
about the art; but it was not till after we had
engaged him in this capacity that we discovered
that he had not thought this qualification necessary.
At any rate he knew, being a hungry man himself,
that we were in need of food of some sort at stated
intervals. In this he was a decided improvement
on the Greek cook we had just dismissed; this man
had a habit of coming to us, after we had been
waiting hours in momentary expectation of a meal,
and saying with a languid air, " Do you wish to eat ? "
He was a good cook, but always seemed over
come with astonishment when we expected him
to cook.
Arten was a dirty man, and he looked dirtier
than he was owing to his dark complexion and
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