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YARZUAT 365
article out again, holding it up now for inspection.
The Consul looked at it curiously, and so did I ; then
I looked more curiously at the Consul's face. For the
sodden purple thing was the Oxford Book of English
Verse which went with the Consul everywhere ; in
which he read o' nights ; from which he quoted hourly
upon the road, finding apposite lines for everything
he saw. Its delicate leaves were adhering like ^et
cigarette papers ; and at that sight I expected trouble
for Ibrahim at last. But no ; the Consul's admiration
soared instead to greater heights, as with added reverence
Ibrahim replaced the book in his bosom. Turning
to me as if expecting my instant concurrence, he
exclaimed heartily, " What a splendid person !
"
and
seemed to find my answering laughter something that
needed explanation.
During the afternoon the rain ceased, the clouds
lifted a little, and in the north appeared a long bank
of trees with white minarets standinof above them
against a black sky. It was our first view of Yarzuat,
or Hamidieh, as latterly it had been named in honour
of Abdul Hamid. Now Ibrahim cantered away again
upon his recurring duty of courier, and we, across
ploughed fields of deep black loam, took the shortest
line to the town and our khan.
Hamidieh stands on the Jihun, and is a village
town of several thousand souls, chiefly Moslems of the
more fanatical sort. They had already shown the kind
of spirit that was in them by the change of name
;
they displayed it to the full during the Cilician
massacres. To fanaticism they added method more
cold-blooded than was found elsewhere. After killing
all Armenians upon whom they could lay hands,
they checked the slain by the roll of ratepayers, and
hunted the missing with dogs in the tall wheat
surrounding the town. In such a place one would
scarcely expect to find Armenians living again, or at
least not so soon. But here, three years later, Moslem
and Armenian were jostling each other in the street,
Armenian shops were open, and the massacre seemed
to have become only a vague memory. The gust of