acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

NEW ORDER OF TRAVELLING 239
rock like that of Uch Hissar, with a large village
clustering round its base. The afternoon had grown
late, and this village, which a peasant called Ortessa,
or Orta Hissar, I left for the next day's excursion.
On foot Ighsan's pace was always less than three
miles the hour ; for the last day's ramble, therefore,
I put him on the horse as mounted guide for a
pedestrian. The change enabled us to cover much
ground, and also gave him a needed rest. It involved
a loss of dignity for me in native opinion,
for to make the true figure of importance I should
have ridden and Ighsan have gone afoot ; better
still, both of us should have been mounted, he carrying
a rifle behind me as armed servant. But these
perfections were unattainable, and I had to make
shift as best I could ; and in spite of my party
looking like zaptieh and prisoner, I ignored appearances
for the sake of advantage.
This order of travelling tickled Ighsan hugely. He
laughed until tears ran down his cheeks, and I never
looked back without finding him still amused, and
still conscious of some unwarranted reversal of
position. But on meeting people his manner became
serious and dignified, and when Moslems stopped and
asked him what he was doing, he explained the
seeming mystery to my advantage.
About three in the afternoon, after a long circuitous
ramble almost to the Kizil Irmak in the north, and
thence back up the valley in which Matyan stands,
we entered the ravine of Orta Hissar, whose huge
rock had attracted my attention the day before.
Although from a little distance the ground about it
appeared open, yet it proved on a nearer view to be
extraordinarily broken. Small nullahs and irregular
masses of yellow rock covered the slope to the river.
At length the village itself was reached, filling the
bottom of the ravine, and going up to the great
rock on high ground.
In the tangle of passages and alleys, which appeared
to lead nowhere except underground, we soon lost