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"THE PARTING TEEE" 53
village it is, in fact, and an American walled village
at that—though such a thing no man may have heard
of heretofore. It has a Town Gate, West Gate, and
North Gate, and there is a gatekeeper—or warder, let
us say—at each, and the gates are heavily-barred
solid pieces of carpentry that more than once have
troubled a mob. Its houses are connected by telephone,
and you find that electric lighting is mooted ;
but in spirit it is an old-fashioned walled village of
a well-doing, friendly, hospitable people. By so much
have Americans, thrown together in Asia Minor, been
led by instinct and necessity to adopt some of the
picturesque forms of the Middle Ages.
Such is the old Mission Compound at Marsovan,
the original settlement and place of sentiment. It is
not really old ; but time soon gathers memories,
especially for exiles. Hidden away in one corner of
the compound is a little green secluded spot which
is the Mission burying-ground, where for fifty years
they have been laying their dead and making it a
place of memories. There was also another place,
too, with many associations about it, but that
has now been lost. It was no more than an old
walnut-tree— "the Parting Tree" they called it
beside the vineyard path, a mile outside the compound.
During many years it had been a custom of
the Mission to go there in a body and say farewell to
those who were leaving,—for not seldom these proved
to be last farewells. But the owner of the tree, or
some other Moslem, took offence ; there was singing, I
suppose, and perhaps prayer, so in despite the tree
was felled. Now you are shown merely the stump,
and hear that the practice which grew up about the
spot has fallen into disuse, as if with the tree went
the associations which had hallowed it so long.
If the Mission as it stands is in guise a peaceful
village, nothing of the sleepiness traditional to village
life broods over it. It is a place of restless activity,
spread over long hours each day. In the Mission
houses they breakfast at seven ; by eight the day's