acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

166 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
a sensitive imagination. Tliis changed way of travelling
pleased my driver immensely. Whenever I
mounted the araba he would whip his horses to a
sharp trot or canter for a half mile, and then at
a word stop for me to get out.
I felt certain, however, that weak-eyed Mehmet had
not penetrated my motive, for the flocks were not
always easy to see. But disillusionment presently
followed, and in the way it came took me unawares.
Walking before the araba I heard Mehmet cough
out: '' Koj^ek"— a dog. I could see no flock, so
believed he was announcing the bogie man, and
wondered how self-respect required me to deal with
this display of insolence. Then in the same warning
voice, as if doing no more than his duty, he
exclaimed '' Ikki"—two. By this time I felt sure we
had come to a crisis, and though respecting his wit,
meant to teach him a lesson. But he had truth on
his side right enough, and pointed out two immense
yellow creatures lying near the road some fifty yards
ahead. Thereafter I made no more pretence, nor
did he ; and his alertness was such that for the rest
of the day he was ever discovering dogs and advising
me to ride.
In following the back of this high-standing plateau
—called the Khanzir Dagh by some, and Terja Dagh
by others—the road generally went in shallow valleys.
It would wind along such a depression for hours and
then cross a low col and enter another hollow. Its
views also were always narrow and enclosed. There
was nothing to make you suspect that by leaving the
road, and going a few miles eastward or westward,
you would find yourself overlooking lower country
from a height of several thousand feet. Though the
western watershed of the Euphrates, it had little to
show for the dignity. It was a region scantily
peopled and barren, covered with coarse sun-dried
grass, but here a' there in hollows were patches of
plough, and oats, cuid winter wheat.
This dreary land was enlivened sometimes by