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ZILLEH AND JULIUS C.ESAR 95
country. During the afternoon I travelled in a wide
fertile valley, with gentle slopes and bold scrub-covered
mountains in the south. It was an open country of
flocks and herds, with scattered beech -trees beside
the valley stream. Far in the distance the road now
and then lifted itself into view, as it went winding
and undulating up the valley ; and from each stretch
thus visible rose the dust of traffic.
The sun was high above the mountains when I
came to Yeni Bazaar, my halting-place for the night.
It was not even a villao^e—no more than a little khan
built of sun-dried brick, and a guard-house occupied
by two or three zaptiehs. These lonely buildings
conveyed the idea of standing in a remote valley of
silence and sunlight ; Amasia of the morning became
a dream, and cities to come seemed an infinite distance
away. I seemed to have arrived at the edge
of some wide, unknown, vacant region.
To reach my room at the Ichan it was necessary to
step carefully on the unbearded joists of the upper
floor which had long been left unfinished. Underneath
were quarters for goats and cows, for the Mrt?i-keeper
was farmer as well. But the room was clean, and had
a matting of reeds on the floor and projecting nails
in the walls ; and altogether I was as comfortable in
this place as one could expect to be at a khan.
This evening I found myself oddly surprised, for in
the oppressive silence and remoteness of the valley
I had so lost my wider bearings, as it were, that in
restoring them the map took me aback. My surprise
across the moun-
was in discovering that fifteen miles
tains bounding my southern view lay the little town
of Zilleh, scene of Caesar's victory, which produced
his veni, vidi, vici. It was near enough to impress
the understanding with the wide extent of Caesar's
operations. I had seen his farthest north, had lingered
on various of his battlefields, and here he
had cropped up once more. It was, I supposed,
his farthest east. Becollection of one battlefield in
particular came to mind and figured in curious
contrast with Zilleh, as I hung over the map this