acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

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256 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
less : even
the Turkish wife stood in the doorway
to hear it. I was writing up my diary, so might
have been supposed to hear little, but I heard and
understood enough to learn that 1 was a person inexplicable
from my man's point of view. The subject
of his story was our last day at Urgub, the
outstanding event of the day the fact that he had
ridden and I had walked before him. His narrative
lasted a quarter of an hour, during which time he
never got far from the chief incident ; he came back
to it again and again with added relish, it coloured
his opinion of me to an extent I had never suspected,
and seemed to have given him unwonted pleasure.
At Enighil, as at nearly all other places where I
had stayed, anticas—antiques—were brought for my
opinion, though not necessarily for immediate sale, the
native way being to get offers from various persons
before letting an article go. The treasures generally
ranged from old coins, and small, much-oxydised, bronze
vessels and ornaments such as lamps and bracelets, to
the flotsam and jetsam of unfamiliar European things.
I think it was at this place that one brought out
an old French miniature, the portrait of a lady,
painted on copper, and still in good preservation.
There were also old English and French watches
that now had ceased to keep time—and also a brass
candle - snuffer. Of bronze coins at least a hundred
must have been in the room. They belonged to the
old Greek cities and states of Asia Minor, whose small
bronze money may be found in the hands of most
peasants. Such coins are seldom of much value,
and generally represent the unsaleable residue, for
Armenian and Greek merchants have an eye to
these things, and nearly every coin you see has been
submitted to possible buyers many times before.
From time to time, however, a real treasure may be
obtained from the finder. I once saw a silver piece
of Philip of Macedon, a splendid coin the size of
a florin, which had been acquired from a peasant.
But I also saw another excellent specimen of the