acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

332 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
feated hostile Arabs by the way, when I awoke to a
tremendous crash. I was covered with dirt and sand
and dust, and unaccountably with mud as well ; it
seemed that the old l:ha)i must have fallen down.
A match, however, showed the disaster to be somewhat
less. Under the deluge of rain, like a thunderstorm
long continued, rather more than half the
ceiling had fallen, and with it not only plaster but
old rotten wooden beams; and all my work of cleaning
was to be performed again, for I was black and
dirty as a sweep. But it could not be done now,
and after moving the bed to a spot clear of hanging
debris and dripping water, I turned in as I was and
slept as soundly as before.
Next morning I moved into another room, and was
kept close there all day by heavy continuous rain.
The khan-yd^vdi became a pond under this downpour,
and streets, too, were flooded. It was said, also, that
the river—the Cydnus of old name— had overflowed
its banks. But all this day was made pleasant for me
by the sound of strange singing, which in its accompanying
circumstances remains my most vivid recollection
of Tarsus. It came from a smithy in some
ground- floor apartment of the khan, where various
men had gathered to pass away the time while rainbound.
How many there were, and of what race, I
do not know, for I never saw them. Nor do I know
what it was they sang. But they sang to the beating
of hammers on anvil, and with such zest and abandon,
and such a sense of old, wild adventurous life caught
in the tune,—for it was always the same song,—and
the clang of metal came in so happily and with such
accurate timing, that I heard this music with neverfailing
pleasure, and was always anxious for it to begin
anew. First would be a bar or two of slow recitative,
as it were, by a single voice, to the accompaniment of
light blows on the anvil. Three or four other voices
next joined in one by one, the time quickened, the
hammer strokes became heavier. Then suddenly the
song broke into a hurricane of sound. Many strong