Part 3 (1/2)
V
FROM ERZERUM TO THE PERSIAN FRONTIER
I arrived in Erzeru this toas, at once, aware that I was now in the interior of Asia The houses are here already built in the Eastern fashi+on; the walls, built of stone orline, s looking out into the yard rather than the street; secret entrances, and other like things characteristic of Eastern houses
At Erzeru at the house of the Circassian, Hussein Dai officer of the place, hom I had been already acquainted at Constantinople I had instructed his son in French, and in European sciences When I told him of my Bokhara plan he was very much surprised, and at first tried to dissuade me from it, but promised me, afterwards, to furnish me with letters of recommendation to some of the prost the other governmental officers, at Erzerum, some whom I had known in Stambul, and I called upon theet the appearance of the offices of the Turkish government The entrance was nearly barricaded by a pros lying everywhere about The interior corresponded with the outside On a couple of dirty, ragged divans were seated several officials; in one part of the roo, in another a hu the officers, and in another, again, soave vent to his complaints, interspersed with oaths
Evidences of the poverty of the inhabitants of Erzerum meet the eye in whatever direction one s are unbearable The smell of their food, which they cook by the fire ), is especially loathsolad when I left this place on the 29th of May, about dusk, in coht have been about s, an indication of the propinquity of human habitations I rode ahead, over ditches and bushes, towards the lights twinkling from the scattered houses Everybody in the place was sunk in sleep, and it was only owing to , for ht The nae was Kurudjuk, and the house where we happened to obtain accoed to the Kizil or chieftain of the place The dwellings hereabouts consist, usually, of only one room, in which both ether The cattle are tied on to the crib running along two sides of the spacious roos occupy the _saku_, a species of elevated platfor in stables One ht in the society of from forty to fifty buffaloes, and a couple of calves and a horse Add to it that there is not a solitaryto this barn More squalid and s there cannot perhaps be met with in the whole of Asia, than those in the environs of Erzeru of pleasure hich the traveller exchanges the foul air of his night quarters for the sweet
After a ride of nearly four hours we reached _Hassankale_, a place situated on a pro Kurds, living in the country They hardly dare, it is true, to es nowadays, but smaller caravans and the solitary traveller are still exposed to the fury of theirpropensities For the sake of safety we had with us two _kavasses_ ( to fear froard for my Armenian companions, who had about theht with theiven to overnor of Erzeru at the frontier of Kurdistan proper, whose inhabitants had already enjoyed, in the age of Herodotus, the unenviable reputation of being thieves and robbers of the worst kind We noticed on our uides told us that the renowned Korouglu had lived on the top of it He is the most celebrated hero-adventurer of Moha, at feasts and on the battlefield, alike by the Turks on the Oxus, the Anatolians near the Mediterranean, and the Rou through a narrow uns and pistols, saying: ”We shall meet henceforth nohere”
Letters of recommendation and polite requests have no effect upon the Kurds; if you wish to keep them in awe you e, called _Eshek-Eliasz_, we hired two men to acco It was a , the tops of the distantWe sent the loaded animals ahead, and sat down at the foot of the mountain to make our tea In the damp and chilly hours of the early dawn tea is ataken a cup or te remounted our horses in order to overtake our beasts of burden
We overtook the along the ridge of the , and looking aboutthe beautiful mountain scenery, I happened to observe that one of our Kurdistan folloas glancing now at the luggage-carriers, now at his coreat uneasiness ”What is it, what is it?” I asked Instead of any reply he merely pointed in the direction where the servants of my Ar on We looked and saw ar in upon us froht for the anioods ”Robbers! Robbers!” shouted the Ar his revolver, he rushed forward, followed by his friend and ed on my horse in every conceivable manner, I was the third and last to arrive upon the scene of action I still wore, at that tinity, as an Effendi The Kurds had scarcely caught sight of me, when they suddenly stopped within a few steps froroup of people ”What do you want here?” I asked them in a voice of thunder An old, one-eyed man, armed with a shi+eld, lance, rifle and sword, now stepped forward, and said: ”Bey Effendi, our oxen have strayed froht Hast thou not met with them somewhere on thy way?”
”And is it customary to look for oxen, armed as thou art?” said I
”Sha and robbery? If I did not regard thy old age I should take thee at once before the Kaimakam of Bayazid, thou insolent waylayer!”
My words and the explanations ofof eight men, very soon to understand hom they had to deal They are not , but they do not deem it advisable to attack an officer of the Sultan I still added a few threats to my former severe repri the robbers disband and quit us We too continued ourtheir gratitude to me If it had not been for ht with them from London would have fallen into the hands of the Kurds I especially re the affray, the dismay and pallor of several Persian ht me, as ere about to retire to rest, various sweet that, in the eyes of the Kurds, the dignity of an Effendi carried considerable weight
We cae called _Mollah Suleiht of my Kurdistan followers, our landlord took me aside and said to me in a whisper: ”Effendi, thouescaped unhurt Thy followers are known, far and wide, as the most desperate robbers; they have never before escorted any one across the Dagar mountain but some ill befell him” In an instant the whole adventure becaue with the robbers, and but for ht have proved fatal to all of us Such occurrences are by no ion The people and the authorities are well aware of the frequent cases of brigandage; they knoho the brigands are; but, nevertheless, everybody is left to his own bravery to defend himself
Our Armenian host, who had received his fellows in faith and reat cordiality, had a suye too, came to pay their respects, and there was no end to tales of robbery In the autu of forty beasts of burden and fifteen lishman, was attacked by a robber chief and twelve men No sooner had the Kurds, with their customary cry of ”Lululu!” come upon them, than the Persians and Turks took to their heels, and allowed the brigands to freely ru them They had already driven away a couple of anilishs of theobserved, took deliberate airound The Kurds stood for a ht, but they soon recovered and lishman The latter, who did not for an instant lose his presence ofout to them fiercely: ”Do not come near me or I will kill every one of you” This had its effect; one by one the re Kurds slunk away The faainst the English, and not robbing, when he was killed The Turks treated the claim quite seriously, and, in all probability, would have es but for the intercession of the British Consul
The rain was pouring down violently e left our hospitable host next day, and at night we had to put up at an Ar about ten houses; for it was too late for us to reach on that day _Diadin_, the next place on our journey The inhabitants of that village are leading a strange life Man and beast, food and fuel are all stoay under one roof, and whilst one part of the inhabitants are sleeping the others uard, on the roofs, with their arms in readiness I asked several of theovernor of Erzeruovernor was himself at the head of the thieves God alone, and his representative on earth, the Russian Tzar, can help us” And the poor people were certainly right in this
We forded through the Euphrates river and reached, before long, a monastery, the inh respect by all the inhabitants of the surrounding country, both Christian and Mohaly characteristic feature of all Eastern nations, that with them friars, monks, wizards, and fortune-tellers are indiscriion, the objects of deep veneration The supernatural, the mysterious excite the huo far away, to distant countries, in pursuit of their predatory ventures, leaving this solitary and unprotected settle we arrived at the border place, Diadin After considerable inquiry we succeeded in finding the house of the judge, at whose hands we desired to procure acco round there, I saw, sitting in a corner of the barn, an American minister, with his wife and children and his sister They had been living in Urumia (in Persia) for several years, and were now on their way home, to Philadelphia Urumia and Philadelphia, what a distance! But the members of the missionary society know no distance
The Kurdistan Kizil, _ie_, chieftain, received ht's quarters, he replied: ”Effendi, thou art welcoive thee no accommodation, unless thou desirest to share with a soldier-pasha the only spare room in my house”
”Soldier-pasha, or anybody else in the orld,” I replied ”Just show me into the room A ride of ten hours will taer and I will very well agree together”
The Kurd, holding a small oil-la like a lu in one corner In approaching hireat surprise, General Kolmann, otherwise called Fejzi Pasha, one of ,” he said, after our greetings were over, and we had settled ourselves, opposite to one another, near the fire General Kolration, had always befriendedthe whole of , and was overjoyed, beyond all”Good-bye” to me here, at the frontier of Turkey, where he had been detailed by the govern of border barracks We whiled away the tiht, and it ith a heavy heart that I took leave nextof , I belonged
VI