acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

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420 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
the Templar Knights. These old stone walls around
j'^oii are black with age, and polished by the brushing
of passengers during a thousand years ; these walls
and doorways have seen the original Assassins without
a doubt, and at the thought you stop and look
curiously at the facilities for assassination that this
spot would offer—several near-by doors, a piece of low
flat roof, and a turn in
the alley.
As if such old associations have left their influence,
it is said that even now in Aleppo the knife from
behind, the thin cord, and the strangling silk sash,
all are used familiarly in crime as well as the modern
bullet.
The most Eastern and surprising and interesting
spectacle in Aleppo is provided by the bazaars
themselves suflicient to place the city in a class by
itself among rivals. Nothing gives such an idea of
the city's importance as these enormous, unending,
vaulted bazaars, lined with shops, and thronged with
people, and even animals. The Grand Bazaar of
Stambtil is great of its kind, and its vaulted streets
are said to exceed two miles in length, but the Aleppo
bazaar is altogether greater, and has an unspoilt
Eastern flavour to which the other cannot pretend.
You may wander in it for a couple of hours and
never seem to go over the same ground twice
always fresh ramifications come into view, and give
choice of fresh turnings to be taken. And always the
central passage, perhaps fifteen feet in width, is so
packed with people as to make progression difficult
except at the general pace.
These pedestrians are of every blood. If able to
recognise at sight a dozen of the better-known races,
you may depend on seeing here another dozen who
are unfamiliar. They combine to make a jumble of
humanity more varied, more picturesque, more brightly
coloured, and more strangely intent on business than
any ordinary flight of imagination could help you to.
For varied colour the scene is like all the showy uniforms
of the world brought together. Gold and silver