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CHAPTER XXIX.
An old Tarsus khan—Held prisoner by rain—The roof conies down
Song of the first ironworkers— St Paul's American College— Old
Tarsus—The Cydnus—The ancient tiaffic of Tarsus—Gate of Holy
War again—The Cypriote drill-sergeant—An athletic Swiss lady
— Mersina — The market-place — The Cilician Plain — Cotton
Adana.
The Yeni Khan (the New Khan) at
Tarsus used its
name as a lure for the unsuspecting. It was two
hundred years old at least, by all appearances, and
reproduced the features of still older Arab hhan^.
Its great quadrangular court was a farmyard for dirt,
but the arcades of pointed arches, the flights of old
stone steps, and the long rows of doors and windows
to rooms beneath the arcades, gave it a dignified
picturesqueness in spite of squalor. My room was
small and low and dark, as might have been expected
; but I liked to think it had a flavour of the
older Tarsus, and so was satisfied.
Here, then, I spent much time in making myself as
clean as might be; for there were diflBculties, indeed,
and the odahashi of the khan wondered at first why I
shouted so often for more water ; but he was obliging,
and also a Moslem, and so knew something of the
rites of washing. Clean at last, and in dry garments,
and with the lamp and stove burning brightly, I
thought the room presentable and even comfortable
as I listened to the rain falling in torrents. But
that night, a little after twelve, something happened
to change this contented spirit. I was in the sleep
of one who has just marched thirty miles, and de-