acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

368 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
the floor with an iiihnitable gesture of skilful completion.
If the instrument might have been better,
nothing was wanting in expertness and strength and
on the part of the operator.
I think it was on the afternoon of our first day here
that a crisis arose with regard to Ibrahim's cooking.
The fellow did altogether too well ; he provided too
many courses ; served them too promptly ;
gave too
much the idea that behind him was an elaborate
kitchen and staff, and that he was not so much cook as
the ultimate adept waiter. Speculating on the matter
I got no further than the patent fact that our meals
origfinated in the little room in which Ibrahim and
Mustapha slept. In the midst of a discussion upon the
Bagdad Railway I hinted my misgivings to the Consul.
" I ask no questions," he replied. " I require that
my platter and food shall be visibly clean—I wouldn't
have beetles in clear soup—but beyond that standard
I am ready to take risks. We are not in London.
Considering where we are we are doing splendidly. I
don't let my imagination dwell on the unseen mysteries
of preparation. I say hang your suspicions."
But this comfortable frame of mind was not mine,
and when Ibrahim went into the town to make purchases
I visited the servants' bedroom. Mustapha
was stretched on the floor asleep, his head wrapped in
a bashluk, his feet projecting well into that large part
of the small room so clearly the kitchen. In a jumble
of bread and meat and utensils and broken eggs and
remains, was every sign of a cook in haste, concerned
only to produce results, and adapting every article to
his immediate purpose. There were matters, too, of
which I do not write, but which decided me to eat
nothing more prepared by Ibrahim.
The Consul was reading aloud from the Book of
Verse when I returned with news. I told him only
part of what I had seen, for a little went a long way,
and he wished to hear no more. But Ibrahim was
relieved of his duties as cook, and the Consul might
have been seen thereafter assisting in domestic work.