acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

412 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
citadel of a fortress, for it was only a hundred yards
across and half as much in height, and here the
Byzantine Emperor, Romanus III., marching against
Aleppo to emulate the conquests of his betters, lost
the greater part of his army in battle with the Arab
Emirs. It showed now no trace of ruins except a
few bricks, but had been a place of great importance
in the old wars.
And next appeared, in a couple of hours, evidence of
the new order of things coming upon ancient Aleppo
—a long raw level bank stretching from west to east
across the wheat. It was the Bagdad Railway coming
down from Baghche tunnel to link with the
Syrian railways at Aleppo, intended to bring at last
the hosts of the German Empire to the Egyptian
frontier and the Persian Gulf.
Gaferuntun BJian^ reached at evening, stood lonely
by the wayside, set amongst tall wheat which brushed
its walls. It had occupants of various races for the
night, including several Armenians, between whom,
soon after I fell asleep, a furious quarrel arose in the
room adjoining mine. The quarrel grew more and
more shrill, so I kicked at the door and shouted for
silence, but though the noise ceased a little, it soon
broke out again and now went to a pitch still more
acute. Men seemed to be tumbling about in furious
struggle ; one would have said it could not go on
long like this without bloodshed. The voices also
told of passions aroused which would stop at nothing.
And then Mustapha came to my door asking to sleep
in my room, as he was in fear that some one would
be killed. Being an Adana Moslem, he remembered
the judicial proceedings there after the massacre, and
was anxious to have a sufficient witness that he had
not been engaged in this affair ;
perhaps, too, as an
Adana Moslem suspicion might have fallen unduly
upon him. I asked who they were who quarrelled,
and he said Armenians, which seemed to make his
plea a good one, and I let him lie in my room. The
struggling and shrieking went on for some time, and