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THE CASTLE AND ITS DUNGEONS 197
the little dwellings and courts, seeking one of his intimates,
who was custodian of the castle and charged
with the duty of firing the sunset gun in times of
fasting and feasting, when punctuality is so desirable.
An important man, this gunner, in a city holding
the Faith so strongly. On one side of the proper
minute the forbidden period, on the other the time
for which the clamorous appetites of those who fast
have been waiting. In exactness alone can such a
gunner find security of position and the goodwill of
his fellows. It is a post for one of regular habits,
of faithful performance, and good repute as Moslem
and Osmanli. And of this sort I found the custodian
to be—a Turk of Turks, a Moslem of Moslems. On
the explanation of his friend Ighsan that I wished
to see the castle from top to bottom, he summoned
his son to help, produced bunches of rusty keys so
large that carrying them was a labour, and called
for candles. First I was taken to the dungeons.
They lay deep underground, reached by low passages
along which crawling sometimes became necessary.
Places of despair and short life were these low cells,
without light or opening to the air, but with ancient
rusty ring-bolts in the walls and lengths of heavy
much-rusted chain attached. The city had changed
hands many times, and each new conqueror, whether
Byzantine, Seljuk, Mongol, or Osmanli, had demanded
dungeons; and here were dungeons of the best. Within
the last twenty-five years robbers had been confined
in these cells, where some had died, as might have
been expected.
The custodian and Ighsan avoided these underground
dens ; better the open air, they thought,
than needless crawling in low passages ; they w^aited
above ground while, with the son, I groped in dark
places like disused sewers. After the dungeons
our party ascended the main tower by climbingladders,
and reached the flat roof, scene of the custodian's
chief duties. Here were his signal guns,
canisters of powder, wads, and coils of slow match ;