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A GREEK VISITOR 115
should water be tbrowu? I asked. Below, he answered,
finding no difficulty, and wondering not a little
at my sudden ignorance. When he understood that
I desired him to do the throwing he was even more
puzzled ; he had never seen me at a loss before, and
with past scenes in mind found my present incapacity
bewildering. In a sympathetic voice he asked, " Are
you sick, elFendi ? " Assured that I was not, he gave
up guessing, and resigned himself to an unsolved
mystery. He seized the basin, strode to the balcony,
and without a word of warning flung the contents
indiscriminately upon doves and arabas.
Presently I received a call from the occupier of room
" Numero 3." He was a friendly Greek, a very tall,
thin-visaged man with iron-grey moustache, and an
air of self-possession. He had been in England, spoke
English tolerably well, and wore what looked like
an English suit ; and at this stage in my interested
scrutiny I recognised the origin of his nonchalant
manner. He talked with one hand thrust into his
trousers pocket, the other handling a cigarette ;
and
he stood, as it were, with his back to an English fire.
"Saw you come in this afternoon," he said, "and
hear you're tramping it. Have you tramped in parts
of Wales? I have been to Wales. Wales is more
beautiful than this country. England is a safe and
shady garden, yet you have left it. The English go
in all places. The law of England and its order are
admirable to visitors. There you get swinging damages
from the courts if you are assailed by newspapers.
Let a brick fall on you in the street and
there is money in it from the owner. In Turkey
you are shot and stabbed and robbed and receive no
recompense."
He assumed that I was in search of oil or minerals,
a quest, he had no doubt, that would m.eet with much
success. As for himself, he was a merchant of some
kind, returning from Van, Bitlis, and Erzerum.
Reports had been current lately of Armenians
having been maltreated and killed in these districts