acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

140 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
Men praying by the roadside had long ceased to be a
curious spectacle, but now I fell in with two worshippers
more than ordinarily exact in their devotions.
For some liitle time I had met no one,
and then these two lonely kneeling figures suddenly
appeared at the wayside. They were kneeling
on their jackets, their faces towards Mecca, their
shoes cast off. In their coloured shirts they made
two bright patches against the brown. The araha
was out of sight and hearing, and my approach
upon the grass was noiseless, so the men thought
themselves alone and free to perform their ritual
in full. Therefore, instead of perfunctorily turning
the head to right and left, as customary, towards
the angel and devil who attend each man to
record his good deeds and his bad, they looked
towards each supposed spirit for a few seconds with
appropriate aspect of face. Once before I had seen
a Moslem act thus, when praying unseen as he
thought among his green vines. Some, not seeing,
may be inclined to smile at this touch of Moslem
devotion, but witness it in secrecy, and I fancy the
most hostile would feel involuntary respect.
From time to time since leaving Tokat I had
passed little solid stone buildings by the wayside,
which looked like watch - houses at first, and on
closer inspection even like blockhouses that had
seen fighting. The stone walls and iron-shuttered
window and iron-plated door of each were splashed
and dented by scores of bullet -marks. Evidently
passers-by had fired into the buildings as the humour
took them. You got the idea that public sentiment
was offended by the existence of these little strongholds.
In general sympathy, and moved also by
instinct, you felt inclined to draw and fire into them
yourself, though to you, a foreigner, they meant
nothing. To the peasantry, however, they meant a
great deal, and the impression that public opinion ran
against these buildings was correct to the letter.
Each building was, indeed, a visible reminder of the