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CASTLE OF THE SCLAVONIAN GUAED 315
dicular. Thus, you think, it might have been hewn
by some mason turned soldier who hurried over his
work in order to march next day, or who, being
left behind, was in a hurry to rejoin his comrades.
Of another era is the " Castle of the Sclavonian
Guard " upon the crags on your left. It belongs to
Byzantine and Arab times, and is a structure of the
same brisk period as the Castle of Loulon. You look
at it and your reflections are chiefly upon the details
of garrison duty in that lonely eyrie. In return for
recompense of some kind men spent their days and
years up there, and you have a strong curiosity for
details of their daily routine—men without tobacco
and newspapers and books, perched on a rock 6000
feet above the sea, in narrow quarters. What would
you not give for half an hour in the old guard-room
of the time, seeing and having your questions answered
! You think, perhaps, that the first information
you would seek would be as to the birthplace of
each man ; and next, that your curiosity would run
upon pay and rations and terms of service. Your
scrutiny of these men, you believe, would be thorough ;
you would learn even more by eye than by ear could
you only get into their presence.
Still looking up towards Tekke, just to the right of
those two slim dismounted zaptiehs coming slowly
down the road with the awkward gait of horsemen,
are other Egyptian fortifications. They lie as even
snow-banks with the guns forming white mounds
above them. Black muzzles pointing this way are
even visible, and so is a corner of wall where the
drifts have not quite covered the revetment. Ibrahim
Pasha, indeed, is the chief historical figure in the pass
at this time ; here is his work for all men to see ; his
name is familiar to all passers-by ;
you have here an
introduction to one whose memory extends far and
wide in the country to which you are descending.
Having spent half an hour in this turnstile of the
great and ambitious, I proposed to visit the Castle
of the Sclavonian Guard. I did not at the moment