acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

148 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
enough for itself and as much more as primitive
means of transport can convey to distant markets
without prohibitive cost. Even under present difficult
conditions it is the granary for north-eastern Asia
Minor, and Turkish armies on this frontier have
always drawn their sustenance from Sivas.
This fact, well known throughout the country,
has made Sivas the barometer of peace and war
for Anatolia. A simple measure of precaution by
the Turkish War Office becomes evident here and
cannot be kept secret. The report that bakers of
Sivas have been ordered tx) bake and fill the mosques
w^ith hard bread flies along all roads as the omen of
early war with Russia, the only enemy recognised by
the country people. As precursor of such war it has
old traditions behind it. It preceded the wars of
1829, 1854, and 1876. Doubtless it preceded the
present war, for with limited facilities for conveyance
the earlier methods of provisioning armies locally
have to be followed still. Though the rumour was
often followed by no war, it never lost its impressive
quality. It was current at the time of m}^ visit,
and then had spread from sea to sea, for Russia,
it was thought, would surely come in with Italy.
How else, people argued, could Italy hope to achieve
anything against the Osmanlis?
Another factor which helped Sivas to greatness
in the past, which has influence still and will have
much more in the future, is its position upon natural
lines of route. In a land of plains or easy surface
road-routes may vary as circumstances require, but
in a land filled with mountains and valleys, a land
also of great distances, the routes do not vary ; they
are as irremovable as the natural features which
determine them. In a mountainous land it is the
easy routes which, next to the existence of fertile
areas, decide the positions of cities. There is no other
point in Asia Minor where routes so important and so
numerous converge and cross one another as at Sivas.
The road from Constantinople to Erzerum and the