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NAR: A PLEASANT VILLAGE 237
paths and flights of steps led up to the cliff, where
other dwellings and galleries were hewn in the safety
of inaccessible positions as at Urgub. Now and then
a white minaret appeared above the trees, and from
it presently came the call to prayer. Later on, when
still wandering among the hollowed-out boulders and
white buildings, and paths that would have befitted
a rock-garden, the fresh voices of children were heard
repeating in unison. They were heard and then lost,
and heard again—a pleasant sound that harmonised
well with this quaint village of an older world. And
then at last I came out on a little open space between
buildings and trees, and found a class of
children sitting cross-legged on the sandy surface
repeating the Koran under the direction of a whitebearded
mullah, a benevolent-looking, kindly old man,
who stopped his pupils at once and saluted me with
the dignified courtesy of his class.
Here was Ighsan's opportunity. He had in high
degree the power of embodying in briefest form—
word combined with tone and gesture—a whole world
of meaning. Not a day passed but he gave some
example of his quality in this respect. And now he
glanced at the mullah, the mosque, the seated
children, let his eyes sweep slowly over the village,
then let them rest on me.
" Many Mussulmans," he said quietly, satisfied with
that dee:ree of vindication. For he knew I should
remember the suggestion, made at Uch Hissar, that
these villages had a Greek population. So far as
I could make out, about a third of the inhabitants
of Nar were Moslems, and they, I suspected, were
mainly converts.
Outside the village the gardens were cultivated
with the utmost care ; every yard of ground that
could be irrigated was used for grass or vegetables
or fruit, and with water, and sunlight possessing more
than seasonable December heat, they were even now
erettinor grass in the sunken plots. These little watermeadows,
some no larger than a tennis-lawn, stood