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ST PAUL'S AMERICAN COLLEGE 333
voices took it up with something like dervish frenzy,
the time grew faster still, and several heavy hammers
were going furiously on the anvil together in accurate
sequence. For a short verse the music went thus
at the full, but only to die away irregularly as voice
after voice dropped out ; and the beating fell off, till
onl}^ a solitary, slow tapping was left, and the last
singer stopped upon a note which left expectation of
another to follow. And then generally began laughter
and the buzz of talking, as if the singers had enjoyed
their own performance.
This wild, barbaric, tuneful thing seemed to be
filled with the ardour and spirit of the world's
younger days. Thus, I thought, the early forgers
of weapons and those who watched the work might
have suns: in caves. Heard among' the mountains
of Pontus, I should have said I had listened to a
true song of the Chalj'^bes, surviving to these days.
But in a Moslem khan in Tarsus that classic origin
seemed improbable ; its home was more likely to be
east of the Caspian among the nomads ; and yet,
after all, I felt that it was a sono^ of the oldest
ironworkers.
In better weather, the next afternoon I went out
to see Tarsus, and presently discovered the American
College and friends hitherto unknown. Thereafter
it was not long before I exchanged the Moslem khan
for the welcome hospitality of the Tarsus Americans
—a hospitality, by the way, largely extended to
strangers like myself The visitors' book showed a
long list of names Avhose owners had received such
ready entertainment. The College houses an American
community whose disinterested aims and labours
are similar to those of every other American Mission
in Asia Minor ; but to these people of St Paul's
College, Tarsus, as to other American Missions in
Cilicia, had lately come the opportunity of giving
higher proofs of devotion. During the recent Cilician
massacres they had, at the risk of their own lives,
rescued and sheltered many Armenians who otherwise