acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

—
BULGARIAN MOHADJIS 67
seemed to touch him in a tender place. No old freeholding
yeoman if asked to whom his acres belonged
could have been more vigorous in reply than was
my driver.
" Benim" (mine), he exclaimed vehemently, as if
the thought that I had misjudged his standing, and
done so all this time, ruffled his dignity exceedingly.
He was, indeed, no Asiatic Turk, but a Bulgarian
mohadji (an emigrant for the faith), brought as a
child from Varna by his parents after Bulgaria became
independent. It a fact worthy of remark that
these Bulgarian mohadjis— and there are many
stand in a class apart wherever they have settled in
Asia Minor. I never heard of one who had not a
reputation for industry, enterprise, and reliability.
They are thrifty folk, better off than their neighbours,
and inclined to drive hard bargains ; but are
men of their word, and honest in their dealings, like
most Moslems. They are said to take no part in
massacres ; and have been known to protect Christians
at such times. In habit of mind, in face, in
physical appearance, they have little in common with
their Osmanli countrymen of Asia Minor ; one can
scarcely doubt they are Moslem Slavs, or at least
must have in them much Slav blood. It has been
observed that the finest Moslem subjects the Ottoman
Empire ever had were those in Europe—in
Thrace, Bulgaria, and Albania—and that without
them the Turkish Empire could not maintain itself
long. From these districts came the best troops
in the Ottoman service, and many high servants of
the State. I have heard it said that the defence
of Plevna was chiefly the work of Thracian and
Bulgarian Moslems : redifs of middle age, robust
enduring men, cool in battle yet fierce of spirit.
For a couple of hours during the afternoon I passed
abreast of Ak Dagh, which rose steeply from the
northern edge of the plain, a few miles from my road.
Its front was cut into glens and ridges already set
out in the light and shadow of sunshine falling aslant.