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MUSICAL BULLOCK-CARTS 129
beauty. Nothing more, I thought at first, than the
pleasant jingling of my araba and the dull steady
beat of the ponies' hoofs. But as I listened
another sound came faintly and fitfully,—a slow
intermittent wailing that rose and fell, ceased, and
then floated again along the mountain -side. The
cause appeared after a time when two home-going
bullock-carts, loaded high with firewood, rose gradually
above a skyline on my left, with their beechwood
axles sounding like the strings of violins. There
was no telling what new variations of sound the
wheels would make next, what new extremes would
be reached. The wailing would soar like that of a
steam syren, slowly throw a loop so to speak, descend
to a groan, and next set oft' in a series of undulations
before climbing to a piercing note again.
More than accident goes to this weird music of the
turning wheels. Carters believe their bullocks draw
better for the sound, and that without it the beasts
are deluded into thinking there is little to be done,
and either go slowly or stop altogether. Therefore
they carry walnut juice with which to dress the axles,
and so intensify the sound and make it more continuous
and erratic. In still weather this piercing
noise of wood on Avood carries an amazing distance,
and wives are said to recognise the distant notes of
their husbands' wheels, and by them know when to
have the evening meal in readiness. So I could well
believe of these two belated carts. We left them
miles behind, yet the tenuous sound of their complaining
axles came always out of the darkness.
A cold wind arose just before we reached Chiftlik
Khan, which stands in the midst of the plain. It
came as a sudden squall and raised clouds of dust,
and after the heat of the day seemed almost icy.
But at the khcm they were ready for cold weather,
and gave me a room with warm earthen floor, and
soon made a fire of resinous pine-branches. And when,
after a good meal, I lay reading in my sleeping-sack,
and heard one sav that there was frost, I was elad,*^-*'
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