acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

"
—
360 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
and bright glass. Roast quails, salad, and wine
were merely the surprises of this wayside meal
even without them one would not have fared ill.
" It is no more than I expected," the Consul remarked
complacently, " for Ibrahim is a remarkable
person."
When within a few miles of Missis, Ibrahim rode
ahead at a canter, a very earnest, purposeful figure
seen from behind, which retained its look of intentness
as long as in sight. He went of his own prompting,
now to act as courier, and also, it appeared, to enjoy
the attention due to him as the kavass of a great man
and herald of his coming.
It was a stage of little over twenty miles to Missis,
and we arrived when the sun was still high. In the
roadway before the khan stood Ibrahim looking out
for his party, and with him a group whose expectations
had been raised by his report. For his own
sake he had thought it necessary to explain away
the undignified manner in which we journeyed. As
I afterwards heard, he had made a merit of it,
asserting it to be the sign of one above custom in
such matters ; for in whatever unusual manner the
two foreigners might be travelling, one of them was
the " Ingleez Consoles — there could be no getting
away from that, for here was his kavass in proof.
So two unfortunate guests who occupied the best
room were hastily bundled out, the floor was swept
and a rug laid down ; and then Ibrahim had unpacked
the saddle-bags, and set up the Consul's bed with its
furnishings of fine linen. These were details not lost
upon curious onlookers. Had we appeared riding in
uniform, with armed servants before and behind, we
could have been received no better. We left Ibrahim
to get dinner ready, and went out to look at Missis.
Missis lies at the edge of the low hills of Jebel Nur,
which here break into the Cilician plain. Through
the village runs the ancient Pyramus, now called the
Jihun, a river which brings down, I imagine, as much
water in a year as any other in Asia Minor. Here
is the site of Mopsuestia, one of those old cities