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92 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
Mongolian that they might have passed for
Chinese,
and now and then appeared the Assyrian type.
Strangest of all, however, were faces so English
in form and expression as to be startling. What
strains of blood have contributed to produce men of
the sort in these surroundings I can offer no conjecture.
South of Amasia I noticed few ; between
Amasia and Sinope, however, they may be seen any
market-day— men with foxy-brown hair, grey-blue
eyes, and clear skin, like numbers of our east coast
fishermen.
Beyond Amasia the gorge began to open, but still
showed bold precipitous sides, going up to the height
of mountains. The road kept to the valley bottom,
in which the river went curving among gardens and
vineyards and trees, and fields that filled the level
space. Beside the road were camel-camps, places of
regular halt for caravans. Camels are given a day
of rest from time to time when journeying, so these
camps were generally occupied and had piles of
saddles and goods standing round the drovers' tent,
with the beasts kneeling or grazing not far away as
the only cattle of the landscape.
A few miles out of the city I came in sight of a
rocky knoll from which, seemingly from the earth,
smoke was rising in various places. I thought of
lime-kilns and tile-burners, but was altogether astray.
I had come, in fact, upon a colony of rock-dwellers,
with people running in and out of burrows like rabbits
in a warren. Many children were in this colony, all
of them beggars of the most pertinacious sort, who
recognised in me, a foreigner on foot, a victim more
promising than any they had seen before. They came
swarming from their holes like excited bees, and ran
beside me crying incessantly, " Baksheesh, effendi
Baksheesh ! " They were so numerous, indeed, and
pressed me so closely, that I found it difficult to go
on until they turned upon each other, and those in
front were pulled away or thrown down by those
behind. Scrimmaging in this fashion they accom-