acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

264 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
Several young men then gave their views, supporting
Ighsan, but chiefly—on personal grounds, it
seemed—opposing the hodja, and in a short time a
heated wrangle began. It ended in horse-play, during
which one ot" the younger men clapped an empty yoghourt
bowl on the hodjas head, as if to extinguish
him altogether. The elders resented this disrespectful
behaviour, with the result that the offenders
withdrew, and the company then fell to exchanging
stories of a band of brigands who roamed in these
parts twenty or thirty years before. The theme had
come up in the guest-room at Enighil, at Develi Kara
Hissar, and at Injesu—in all this region the brigand
and his merry men were heroes of the countryside.
That night Ighsan piled our luggage against the
door, and so placed a large copper tray that it should
fall if the door were pushed. To my comment that
we were among friends he replied shortly, "Who
"
can tell ?
The room was in blackness like midnight, when the
falling tray awoke me to the certainty that some one
had tried to enter, and also to Ighsan's challenge.
"Yavash" (Slowly), he cried. The word has many
applications, some not in the sense of a caution at
all ; but it is also a warning that varies in meaning
according to intonation and circumstances. It may
be friendly advice, or it may convey that you give
it as a formal challenge and will fire without more
ado. Now it was both cautionary and interrogatory,
and strangely full of import — friendly towards a
friend, yet carrying more than a hint of action to
follow if necessary.
The disturber gave explanations
without pushing the door farther : it was time to get
up, and a hospitable man had come to make a fire and
prepare food.