acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

232 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
country. They are a Christianised race, possessing
perhaps a strain of Greek blood, but more closely
related to some ancient people from whom they
have received distinctive features and characteristics.
These cave - dwellers can never have been exterminated
;
they are unlikely to have ever suffered
more than small losses. Consider v/hat a difficult,
endless, laborious tas'k the hunting down of such a
people would be. For one thing, no possibility of
ever dealing them a great blow. One small nest
of dwellings might be dug out with infinite labour;
but by that time the inmates would have filtered
away by underground passages to some other place
of safety. Nor were they ever important and offensive
enough to ensure a protracted effort for their
destruction. Think of their present lairs, and the
miles of ancient passages said to connect them, and
you are convinced that these people are survivors of
a race existing now^here else. You are convinced
also that, if their burrows and old monasteries and
chapels and tombs could be thoroughly explored,
much valuable information would come to light.
The lower part of Uch Hissar rock may be climbed
with little effort, and provides a most remarkable view.
From the edge of the village the cones go away into
the distance beyond Matyan, checkering each other
with shadows, and looking, with people moving among
them, like the tents of a great army pitched among
orchards in a valley of coloured cliffs. For wherever
there is open space in the valley these careful cultivators
have planted fruit trees.
Following paths and byways under brilliant sunshine
that in early afternoon was too warm for comfort,
we went from Uch Hissar towards the town of
Nevshehr. We journeyed over bare, gently undulating
land, cut here and there by deep little ravines.
Here and there, too, were orchards and vineyards,
and naked areas of tufa in cool green, and yellow,
and brown ; and in the distance were rocks. In the