acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

HEAVY SNOWSTORM 251
so daring as in the past, but still to be respected ; for
another, having no araba traffic it had no khans.
In the triangle of the forking roads stood a small
group of white buildings, where the blue uniform of a
zcq^tieh might be seen now and then. This was a
police post, placed here in earlier days against brigandage,
where an escort could still be hired by
travellers for the small matter of two shillings a day
and food for the man and horse. Did we need a
zaptieh f I asked Ighsan. He replied that he was a
zaptieJi himself, and better, and seemed to find the
question a slight upon his worth.
Snow had fallen thinly all the forenoon, but an
hour after we passed Araplu it began in earnest : no
mere squall it proved to be, but the heavy snow of
winter. It shut out the view at once and soon hid
the track ; and but for the irregular open line which
marked the way between scattered thistles we might
have been crossing a pathless moor.
Into our narrow range of vision, little greater
than the width of a street, presently came two
riders, a traveller and his escorting zaptieh coming
from the south. Beating against the gale they were
shapeless figures of snow already, and might have
thought themselves unfortunate until they met us, a
poor unmounted party going into the wilds. The
traveller was a well-to-do Armenian, whose ideas of
what was fitting were disturbed by stumbling upon
two men on foot, one of them evidently English,
pushing along this road in heavy snow. We passed
like ships at sea, with merely a salutation, but as
the riders disappeared a voice came back out of the
snow saying, " Take care." Doubtless the warning
referred to the storm, but just how we were to take
care I could not see. The words conveyed a friendly
thought, however, and for that the Armenian had
my unspoken thanks.
W^hen we reached the village of Enighil night was
coming on, and the snow deep enough to make walking
laborious. Ighsan and the horse had set such a