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TRAVELLING IN MUD 369
After two days' delay a morning came without rain ;
the clouds lifted a little, the Consul undeniably saw
mountains, and the sight was his warrant for starting.
What the going might be like he cared nothing ; he
would wade in mud if necessary. Report spoke of a
metalled road to which five or six hours' travelling
would bring us, and the Consul's imagination leapt
over the intervening difficulties and fixed itself upon
the chaussee as a point soon to be reached. The town
of Osmanieh was our destination, some thirty miles
away by air-line, but a quite uncertain distance
terrestrially.
One may be familiar enough with tramping through
mud, yet on each morning of facing it afresh there is a
curious shyness. You are hopeful that beyond the
immediate mire there is better going : that with a
little patience and judicious picking of the way you
will escape lightly. So you do not at the outset go
straight ;
you turn aside, wander in fields, and spend
much time and energy seeking a cleaner path.
Turkish roads are seldom enclosed ; the traffic continually
seeks a fresh surface, and you sometimes find
a width of several hundred yards cut up by wheels
and hoofs.
This was the state of the ground here, and the
retentive clay soil was flooded ; even grass that looked
promising at a distance became mere tufts standing in
water on getting up to it. In a little while the Consul
and I were far apart, each hallooing and shouting to
the other that his was the better way. We zigzagged,
went at right angles to our proper course, turned
back, moved in circles, and were stopped now and then
by flooded ditches too wide to be jumped, the extremities
of which had to be gone round. It was
some time before we nerved ourselves to going straight
ahead. Meanwhile Ibrahim and Mustapha came on
behind, with an incessant sound like popping corks
as the horses withdrew their hoofs from mud. As
the day wore on we became more and more doubtful
of the metalled chaussee; we had travelled seven
2 A