acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

280 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
attractions, for like all men who have been on short
commons, my mind ran much upon the meals I would
eat on returning to civilisation.
At Eregli you are clear of the mountains and have
entered upon the Axylon, the great interior plain
of Anatolia. Here the road from Kaisariyeh and
Sivas meets the railway and also the ancient route
through the Cilician Pass. At Eregli, therefore, were
many waiting arahas with clamorous drivers, hopeful
of passengers from the south intending for Kaisariyeh
and the central districts of Asia Minor. Here, also,
troops were falling-in to begin their north-easterly
march through Nigdeh, the opening of the Bagdad
Railway having made this the quickest and easiest
route for getting to Kaisariyeh from Constantinople,
The railway has even made this route a good one for
reaching Sivas. In point of distance there is little
to choose between the road from Angora to Sivas
and from Eregli to Sivas through Kaisariyeh.
Beyond Eregli the train went upon a sun-dried
treeless country, broken by occasional low humps of
hill rising from the plain like islands. Here and
there were flocks, each with its shepherd standing
motionless in his embroidered white felt cloak, which
he wears indifferently against cold and rain and heat,
counting it a sort of tent. Snow-covered mountains
enclosed the view on all sides except the north-west.
Among them I recognised several acquaintances of
mine, already familiar, though never seen until two
weeks before. Such were the cones of Hassan Dagh,
and the long jagged teeth of Ala Dagh showing in
the east above the lower Bulgar Dagh like a row
of glistening icebergs. And in the south, perfectly
recognisable in outline, the same even, snow-topped
wall of Taurus that I had seen from the pass of
Topuz Dagh as a level white cloud in the farthest
south-west. My standpoint had been removed a
hundred and twenty miles or more, yet these great
natural features were still the chief landmarks.
Amid these scenes the train rolled slowly, making