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MEHMET'S PECULIARITIES 163
it for snow in shadow, and knew that it must be
no other than Argaeus, overlord of all Turkish
mountains, showing his thirteen thousand feet of
stature beyond the city of Kaisariyeh. By airline
he was a hundred and twenty miles away, and, as
I afterwards heard, not often visible from this point.
Mehmet, indeed, scouted the idea that this was
Argaeus at all.
" Erjies Dagh yok,'' he exclaimed, tossing his head
upward in emphatic negative, as if that settled it.
But he was wrong. I could discern a slight shoulder
on the western side of the peak, and when we saw
the same mountain next day, and Mehmet pointed
it out as the first view of Argaeus, there were peak
and shoulder as before.
Now that we had reached the plateau, and no
more climbing was to be done, and the way, if
anything, lay downhill, Mehmet began to reveal
his peculiarities. He had been well pleased that I
should walk during the long ascent, for thereby he
made more rapid progress. At the summit, however,
it suited him that I should ride. The trouble was
that he had a mortal fear of being overtaken by snow,
and therefore wished to reach Kaisariyeh in three
days. To do so he had meant to push his horses for
what they were worth, and make the forty-mile daily
stages which are called fast travelling on Turkish
roads. But I had stipulated for a journey of four
days, meaning to w^alk the distance in that time.
For his part he could not understand this fantastic
and senseless purpose of walking ; he had supposed
that in bargaining for a journey of four days I
judged his horses incapaV)le of doing it in less ; he
had intended to disabuse me, and now, to his chagrin,
I wished to linger. He had never had such a
passenger before.
In these circumstances I discovered the most
un-Turkish characteristics in Mehmet. I have no
doubt that either he or his father was an Armenian
convert to Islam, for he had all the disagreeable quali-