Oriental Encounters / Palestine and Syria, 1894-6

K WHICH

that clouds were gathering upon the mountain peaks inland, but I had been riding in hot sunlight, only a little less intense than it had been at noon, when suddenly the chill and shadow struck me. Then I saw the sky completely overcast with a huge pu

with our muleteer, came tearing up, and I could hear t

my servant, breathless. 'It has a bad name, and I had not thought to spend the night the

t first to be great rocks, but on a close approach revealed themselves as blocks of masonry, the ruins of some city of antiquity. From time to time a jet of spray shot up above them, white as lilies in the gloo

en we once more plunged into the deluge. The path, a very rough one, wavered up and down and in and out among the ruins. There were, perhaps, a dozen scattered houses without gardens or any sign of cultivat

er while Rash?d ran up some rough stone

ter, and we, his servants, ask the same boon of thy goodnes

ache. An old-fashioned, low-crowned fez, with large blue tassel, was bound about his brow with an embroidered turban. A blue zouave jacket, cri

en from far. Its windows, innocent of glass, were closed by wooden shutters, roughly bolted, wh

hman-is good, and his word is sure. But the English Government is very bad. Three Englishmen in Kars behaved like warrior-angels, fought like devils. And while they fought for us

oic Englishmen-General Williams, Captain Teesdale, and Doctor Sandwith-and of th

let us in. 'It is true what I have often told to thee. This Englishman knows all ab

erewith he dragged a sack out of the room. What crops he may have grown I do n

t jug of water, apologising for the coarseness of the fare. We all supped together, the old man babbli

a son about thy age. Say, O my father

eir emigration from the Caucasus to escape the yoke of the accursed Muscovite,

and we have special privileges. But the dishonoured dogs round her

o have food at evening only and leave betimes next morning. But our host, when I awoke in splendid sunlight, had breakfast ready-sour milk and Arab bread and fragrant coffee-and when I went out to my horse

d them,' chanted Rash?d, as we rode out of the ruins inland through a gard

village on the shore. Before it was a crowd, including several so

oreigner, is dying, killed by highwaymen. One of

shed in to learn more of the matt

Allah! I am much relieved. This other also is an Englishman

swer. Rash?d and I did what we could to make him comfortable, giving the soldiers orders to keep ou

ar the village of -- he was attacked by the Circassians, and was so foolish as to make resistance. They took everything he had of worth-his arms, his money-and killed a camel-driver, besides wo

nother; for the village named was that where we had spent the

led upon my account. He kept sile

each man's vision, yet remain the same. For us those highway robbers are good people; we must bless them; having cause to do so. This other