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I
DAWN OF THE BAGHDAD RAILWAY 71
poured it into the tea. We ate our breakfast with
our gloves on, walking up and down to keep warm
Constantin said that he was still ill; the arabjis
said their horses were now ill; but that was because
the khan was comfortable. We decided, however,
to give them a day's respite and ride out ourselves
to Ivriz in search of the Hittite inscription at that
place.
An hour's ride took us clear of the mists, and the
sun came out hot and strong. Our road lay up a
gorgeous richly wooded river valley. For the first time
on our journey we realised what the absence of water
and trees had meant. Our horses' feet crackled over
brown and red autumn leaves; autumn smells, crisp
and fresh, filled the air; brown trout darted from
under dark rocks in the stream. Away through gaps
in the low encircling hills we got sudden visions of
two gigantic white-topped mountain peaks, the first
suggestion of our approach to the Taurus barrier.
Ivriz is a good three hours' ride from Eregli and
lies high on one of the lower hills. We left our
horses in the village and climbed on foot to the spot
where the river, rushing suddenly out of the bowels
of the earth, has formed a cave in the limestone cliff.
Below this the stream had cut its way through the
rock, leaving steep sides of bare stone which tell a
tale of untold geological age. At one point the ground
shelved out on a level with the bed of the stream, and
the waters here swept round a corner, so that the face
of the rock overlooking them was almost hidden from
any one on the same shore.
It is on this face that the Hittite inscription is