acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

218 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
towns. Here and there rose distant white fingers
of rock in light and shadow. At the foot of the
mountain a river flowed, sometimes overhung by
clifls, sometimes with patches of green grass, and
trees, and cattle along the banks. There were
shadows and reflections in the water ; and this part
of the country being so near—from the pass it lay
at the bottom of a steep glacis—the fantastic shapes
of the clifls were visible in detail. Every surface
showed curves like wind-blown snow-drifts—hollows
and projections and overhangings revealed the fantastic
surfaces of cloudland in green and yellow and
soft shadow, but all done in coloured rock.
Entering the country by this
road my destination
for the night was Urgub, known as the largest of
the rock villages. It lay five or six miles beyond
the pass, looking across a shallow valley, and I
gazed at it with a wayfarer's added interest in the
place where he hopes to find accommodation. On
the whole it promised well, but with just enough
uncertainty to add a further interest. It was pleasing
to the eye—a jumble of white buildings extending
along the foot of a broken cliff*, with meadow-land
and orchards sloping to the river in front. In size,
too, it had even the appearance of a town, though
with a certain vagueness difficult to account for. It
looked so much of a town—indeed, a clean, pleasant,
busy town— as to make me doubt whether, after all,
I should find, as I hoped, an old cave-dwelling in
which to sleep. By this time the sun was getting
low and the air keen with mountain frost.
" The horse is cold," said Ighsan with concern,
wondering what kept me here so long, and wishing
With that we got upon the turn-
to set out again.
ing path, went down the mountain-side, and crossing
the stream by a ford and stepping-stones, reached
Urgub of the Holes before dark.
There was no delay in coming to close quarters
with cave life after we arrived. The khan to which
we went was built of stone ; two stories of pointed