acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

328 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
below zero I could well imagine. I was at least
glad that they and I had not reached any of the
khans together.
The officer recognised the nature of our little party
while still two hundred yards away, and did not miss
his opportunity. He stopped the araha, got out,
went to the roadside, and there composed himself in
the favourite attitude of younger Ottoman officers, the
attitude to which every photographic gallery in the
Grand Rue de Pera bears witness. He was a goodlooking
young Arab, in brand-new khaki and creaking
leather, and wore the puggareed Arab head-covering
with its coiled rings of camel-hair. He stood erect, legs
apart and head back, holding his field-glass with both
hands, and in this fashion surveyed the rear of his
straggling column.
You see more prints of Napoleon in Constantinople
than in Paris ; in stature and figure Enver Bey is
supposed to be like Napoleon, and cultivates the
same poses; and his career—in 1912—was held to
be entirely comparable with Napoleon's at a similar
age. Therefore between admiration for Enver and
Napoleon young Turkish officers were sedulous in
striking certain familiar postures. Thus it came
about that on a hillside above Tarsus I was shown
the undying influence of the great Corsican.
In passing these conscripts I neglected every precaution
it had been my custom to take in similar
circumstances. I kept to the road and let the men
straggle around me, and so landed myself in what
might have been a serious scrimmage. For as I
passed the last group of all, a party of fifteen or
sixteen, a hand shot out, with an impudent Arab face
behind it, and the pipe was snatched from mv mouth.
I chased the fellow and he ran, calling loudly to
Abdullah and Ibrahim and Halil, who followed with
others after a moment or two of hesitation. I collared
the thief at last, but he passed the pipe to another
and showed fight, and when knocked down seemed to
think that every indignity in the world had overtaken