acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

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188 ACROSS ASIA MINOK ON FOOT
frankly prefer the austere, sunburnt, ascetic dervish
of the open road, who goes with bowl and battleaxe
and shining face. These two types, the dull
Armenian or Greek monk, and the perfervid dervish,
represent well the impotent Christianity and ascendant
Mohammedanism of Asiatic Turkey.
In a particular way the influence of the early
Christian Church survives in Cappadocia ; as the
country of Basil and his brother Gregory it retains
the impress received from them, and is a country of
Christian monasteries. Even Moslems, indeed, seem
to have felt an impulse to plant religious houses in
this region. At Hadji Bektash, sixty miles northwest
of Talas, is the headquarters of the celebrated
order of Bektash dervishes, whose founder, the Hadji
Bektash, from Khorsabad in Persia, founded or had
much to do with founding the military order of the
Janissaries. Of Greek and Armenian monasteries are
various large ones around Talas, to one of which, the
Greek monastery of St John the Baptist at Zinjirdere,
I was urged to go by a Greek. His argument
did not impress me so much as his manner, for he
was greatly in earnest.
" At the monastery," he said, " you see the true
bones of John the Baptist. It is not far, and the
bones are true. You will like them." And then,
speaking as one who has investigated matters for
himself and established their truth, he added
"You do not believe? The bones of saints are
many times the bones of other men, but these I recommend
without mistake. You may believe them
and have not a fear. At this monastery are the true
bones of John the Baptist, which can be seen in no
other church in any place. You should go at this
opportunity, for the bones are all right."
But I never got to Zinjirdere. For one thing, and
chiefly, the matter did not interest me greatly, not
even though there an Armenian king had massacred
a Greek bishop and his following in old days. For
another, the monastery was four hours distant—to go