acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

406 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
of the four really big men I ever saw in Asia Minor,
a hamal or porter of Constantinople returning to his
home beyond Aintab. He had travelled by rail from
the capital to Ulu Kishla, and thence on foot across
the Taurus and Cilician plain, and only yesterday over
Baghche Pass. He thought he had done well until
it came out that I, too, had come on foot from Ulu
Kishla, and in the same way from Samstin, and at
this story by Mustapha I saw that the hamal became
a little unbelieving. He was a great raking fellow
of six feet four or so, and somewhat clumsy, who
pounded along in ponderous loose shoes like clogs
which smote the stones with a great noise of hard
leather and iron, but he was also a pleasant-faced,
good - natured young Moslem. And still thinking
well of himself as a pedestrian he began to step
out faster and faster, and at each spurt of his I
responded. We were upon a stretch of country
thickly strewn with boulders and loose stones, in
which no straight path was possible, but we kept
roughly side by side, each looking for the best course.
In this fashion we raced by tacit consent, and yet
pretended not to be racing, though now going at
a great pace. We had, indeed, left Mustapha far
behind ; and looking back I saw that he had taken
alarm, and having mounted the horse was now following
at its best speed.
By this time we had reached the utmost pace of
walking, and covered perhaps two miles. Both of
us were wet, but the hamal, unused to such furious
travelling, was beginning to slacken, and knew that
he was doing so. He therefore broke into a clumsy
run, or rather in a series of monstrous leaps, often
from boulder to boulder, on which his shoes struck
sparks and sometimes slipped ; and now I began to
run too, but in my own fashion, dodging easily between
the boulders, and making far better weather
of it than my big opponent. In this manner of
going I held him comfortably, for not only was he
clumsy but more unused to running than walking.