acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

BEFOKE THE GOVERNOR 79
door, and enter the presence of Authority. And that
Authority does actually listen to what you say. By
practice or long tradition all these personal rulers,
from the Kaimaham of a little town to the Vali of
a province, have a patient, judicial manner, and give
the impression of really considering and weighing the
subject before them. Many may be corrupt ; they
may pay little attention to right when that is in conflict
with their personal interests ; but their manners
in the seat of authority seldom ruffle a disappointed
or injured suitor.
In my case, the Governor sat with such a look
of wisdom, and listened so attentively to everything
said, that I supposed my innocence obvious to him.
With surprise, therefore, I presently found him not
at all convinced of my harmlessness. The passport
did not remove the suspicion that I was a secret
enemy of the State. At this stage I remembered
an old teskere that I carried—a permit that had
authorised me to travel in the interior eiofhteen
months before. Teskeres had been abolished since,
and I carried this one now more as a curiosity, a
souvenir of the old unreformed Turkey, than from any
hope of benefit to be derived thereby. Here, however,
the teskere had all its original value. The
Governor fastened on it with relief, and as he glanced
at its mystical characters, and the involved cobweb
of strokes which is the Sultan's signature, and lastly,
and more closely, at the great violet stamp, his manner
of polite doubt disappeared. He asked me to stand
while he checked my personal appearance with the
description in the document.
"Stature high" he read, and passed on to "red
and grey " for eyes, but that he took as
near enough.
He now was satisfied, and apologised for my detention.
The country was at war, he said ; agents of
the enemy were known to be going about, and care
had to be taken by the authorities. Such care would
be taken also in my own country, no doubt ; and a
similar mistake might be made even there.
It gave