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A CARAVANSERAI 361
whose ruins are scattered over the plain and tell
how populous this region was in ancient days ;
and
here a long, narrow Arab bridge of pointed arches
crosses the river, and carries the main road between
East and West, as one might say, for it is the road
between the Cilician
Gates and Aleppo, and therefore
the caravan route to Baghdad. On the eastern bank
is a ruined Sultan khan, a massive stone building
which, if not erected by the Seljuks, was built not
long after their period and in their style.
We entered this old khan and stepped at once into
scenes whose lights and half-lights and shadowy mysteries
and oriental figures would have provided a
painter with subjects for a year. Through a large
opening broken in the western wall the level sunlight
poured into a vaulted chamber that must have
been a hundred and fifty feet in length. The space
was filled with people, some of whom lived here
permanently, while others were migrants, labourers
with their families coming to the plain for the harvesting.
It was a shelter free to all, subject only to
the uncertain bar of racial feud. Its occupants this
evening represented wellnigh all the races to be
found in this region of many peoples—Armenians,
Greeks, Turks, and Kurds—but there were also others
belonging to obscure races whose blood even a native
might fail to name. Many children lay about the
floor. At the broken end of the building were
weavers makincr the most of the lieht. In the dark
recesses glowed fires where women were getting ready
the evening meal, amidst blue smoke that at last
went wreathing out through the light of the western
end. When we stepped into hidden nooks, horses
and donkeys stabled against the walls became dimly
visible. And the sounds of this caravanserai were in
keeping with its weird scenes. A hubbub of voices,
the barking of dogs, now and then the braying of an
ass, and the shouts of children echoed under the great
vaulted roof But for smoke the smell of this mass
of crowded humanity and tethered animals would
have been memorable.