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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Across Asia on a Bicycle by Thomas Gaskell
+Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Across Asia on a Bicycle
+
+Author: Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2010 [Ebook #31111]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF‐8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+  [Illustration: THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            ACROSS ASIA ON A
+                                 BICYCLE
+
+                  THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
+                     FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+
+                                   BY
+                        THOMAS GASKELL ALLEN, JR.
+                                   AND
+                         WILLIAM LEWIS SACHTLEBEN
+
+
+NEW YORK
+THE CENTURY CO.
+1894
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Copyright, 1894, by
+                             THE CENTURY CO.
+
+                          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+                            THE DEVINNE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+
+                             _THOSE AT HOME_
+
+                           WHOSE THOUGHTS AND
+                            WISHES WERE EVER
+                             WITH US IN OUR
+                                WANDERINGS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE
+
+
+This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing the most
+interesting part of a bicycle journey around the world,—our ride across
+Asia. We were actuated by no desire to make a “record” in bicycle travel,
+although we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous land
+journey ever made around the world.
+
+The day after we were graduated at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.,
+we left for New York. Thence we sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890.
+Just three years afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York
+on our wheels, having “put a girdle round the earth.”
+
+Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After following many of the
+beaten lines of travel in the British Isles we arrived in London, where we
+formed our plans for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most
+dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we were told, were
+western China, the Desert of Gobi, and central China. Never since the days
+of Marco Polo had a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese
+empire from the west to Peking.
+
+Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to Paris, across the
+lowlands of western France to Bordeaux, eastward over the Lesser Alps to
+Marseilles, and along the Riviera into Italy. After visiting every
+important city on the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day
+of 1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras, proceeding
+along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we passed the winter. We went
+to Constantinople by vessel in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April,
+and began the long journey described in the following pages. When we had
+finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom, we sailed from
+Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged to San Francisco, where we arrived
+on Christmas night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles and
+wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to New York.
+
+During all of this journey we never employed the services of guides or
+interpreters. We were compelled, therefore, to learn a little of the
+language of every country through which we passed. Our independence in
+this regard increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but
+certainly contributed much toward the object we sought—a close
+acquaintance with strange peoples.
+
+During our travels we took more than two thousand five hundred
+photographs, selections from which are reproduced in the illustrations of
+this volume.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+   I.   BEYOND THE BOSPORUS                                     1
+  II.   THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT                             43
+ III.   THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND                            83
+  IV.   THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA                  115
+   V.   OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE     149
+        OF THE GREAT WALL
+  VI.   AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA         207
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER. [Frontispiece]
+BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA. [p. 4 and 5]
+THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE ’DEVIL’S CARRIAGE.’ [p. 6]
+HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES. [p. 8]
+AN ANGORA SHEPHERD. [p. 9]
+1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF
+CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 11]
+A CONTRAST. [p. 12]
+A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL. [p. 13]
+MILL IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 15]
+GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR. [p. 16]
+SCENE AT A GREEK INN. [p. 19]
+EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD. [p. 20]
+GRINDING WHEAT. [p. 21]
+A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER. [p. 22]
+TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH. [p. 23]
+THE ’FLIRTING TOWER’ IN SIVAS. [p. 25]
+HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS. [p. 26]
+ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK. [p. 29]
+A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN. [p. 30]
+EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE. [p. 32]
+PRIMITIVE WEAVING. [p. 33]
+A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 38]
+A VILLAGE SCENE. [p. 40]
+[Rural scene without caption.] [p. 42]
+WHERE THE ’ZAPTIEHS’ WERE NOT A NUISANCE. [p. 50]
+READY FOR THE START. [p. 53]
+PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING. [p. 56]
+THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT. [p. 59]
+OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION. [p. 65]
+HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD. [p. 67]
+LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW. [p. 69]
+THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET. [p. 72]
+NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM. [p. 74]
+ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE. [p. 78]
+HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI. [p. 84]
+LEAVING KHOI. [p. 86]
+YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
+LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
+THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT
+THE CALL OF THE SHAH. [p. 91]
+A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON. [p. 94]
+LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED. [p. 96]
+IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD. [p. 98]
+PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY. [p. 99]
+A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS. [p. 100]
+CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD. [p. 102]
+PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED. [p. 104]
+RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED. [p. 105]
+FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED. [p. 106]
+IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED. [p. 107]
+WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY. [p. 108]
+GIVING A ’SILENT PILGRIM’ A ROLL TOWARD MESHED. [p. 109]
+AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD. [p. 111]
+MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. [p. 112]
+CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD. [p. 113]
+A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE. [p. 114]
+A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND. [p. 116]
+OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN. [p. 118]
+PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND. [p. 121]
+A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE ’FOREIGN DEVILS.’ [p.
+123]
+VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL. [p. 125]
+ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE. [p. 129]
+UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER. [p. 132]
+KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER. [p. 134]
+FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS. [p. 138]
+STROLLING MUSICIANS. [p. 141]
+THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA. [p. 143]
+THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA. [p. 145]
+TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN. [p. 146]
+A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA. [p. 148]
+THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY. [p. 151]
+VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE. [p. 153]
+OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE ’CASH’ TO
+PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT. [p. 155]
+A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA. [p. 158]
+PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT. [p. 160]
+THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY. [p. 161]
+A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA. [p. 163]
+SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE. [p. 165]
+THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING. [p. 167]
+RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS. [p. 168]
+MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI. [p. 170]
+A BANK IN URUMTSI. [p. 171]
+A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 173]
+STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. [p. 174]
+A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL. [p. 176]
+CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI. [p. 178]
+SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 179]
+A LESSON IN CHINESE. [p. 180]
+A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 182]
+IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 183]
+STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN. [p. 185]
+A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI. [p. 187]
+A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI. [p. 188]
+A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 189]
+WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL. [p. 191]
+RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU. [p. 193]
+A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN. [p. 196]
+A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW. [p. 199]
+MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE. [p. 201]
+TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 203]
+MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 205]
+LI-HUNG-CHANG. [p. 206]
+OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 209]
+MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 210]
+ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE. [p. 211]
+MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN. [p. 212]
+MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN. [p. 215]
+ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 217]
+A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 218]
+SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU. [p. 220]
+WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER. [p. 221]
+FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS. [p. 225]
+MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS.
+[p. 228]
+A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL. [p. 230]
+A CHINESE BRIDE. [p. 233]
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+
+                  THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
+                      FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    I
+
+
+                           BEYOND THE BOSPORUS
+
+
+On a morning early in April the little steamer conveying us across from
+Stamboul touched the wharf at Haider Pasha. Amid the rabble of Greeks,
+Armenians, Turks, and Italians we trundled our bicycles across the
+gang-plank, which for us was the threshold of Asia, the beginning of an
+inland journey of seven thousand miles from the Bosporus to the Pacific.
+Through the morning fog which enveloped the shipping in the Golden Horn,
+the “stars and stripes” at a single masthead were waving farewell to two
+American students fresh from college who had nerved themselves for nearly
+two years of separation from the comforts of western civilization.
+
+Our guide to the road to Ismid was the little twelve-year-old son of an
+Armenian doctor, whose guests we had been during our sojourn in Stamboul.
+He trotted for some distance by our side, and then, pressing our hands in
+both of his, he said with childlike sincerity: “I hope God will take care
+of you”; for he was possessed with the thought popular among Armenians, of
+pillages and massacres by marauding brigands.
+
+The idea of a trip around the world had been conceived by us as a
+practical finish to a theoretical education; and the bicycle feature was
+adopted merely as a means to that end. On reaching London we had formed
+the plan of penetrating the heart of the Asiatic continent, instead of
+skirting its more civilized coast-line. For a passport and other
+credentials necessary in journeying through Russia and Central Asia we had
+been advised to make application to the Czar’s representative on our
+arrival at Teheran, as we would enter the Russian dominions from Persia;
+and to that end the Russian minister in London had provided us with a
+letter of introduction. In London the secretary of the Chinese legation, a
+Scotchman, had assisted us in mapping out a possible route across the
+Celestial empire, although he endeavored, from the very start, to dissuade
+us from our purpose. Application had then been made to the Chinese
+minister himself for the necessary passport. The reply we received, though
+courteous, smacked strongly of reproof. “Western China,” he said, “is
+overrun with lawless bands, and the people themselves are very much averse
+to foreigners. Your extraordinary mode of locomotion would subject you to
+annoyance, if not to positive danger, at the hands of a people who are
+naturally curious and superstitious. However,” he added, after some
+reflection, “if your minister makes a request for a passport we will see
+what can be done. The most I can do will be to ask for you the protection
+and assistance of the officials only; for the people themselves I cannot
+answer. If you go into that country you do so at your own risk.” Minister
+Lincoln was sitting in his private office when we called the next morning
+at the American legation. He listened to the recital of our plans, got
+down the huge atlas from his bookcase, and went over with us the route we
+proposed to follow. He did not regard the undertaking as feasible, and
+apprehended that, if he should give his official assistance, he would, in
+a measure, be responsible for the result if it should prove unhappy. When
+assured of the consent of our parents, and of our determination to make
+the attempt at all hazards, he picked up his pen and began a letter to the
+Chinese minister, remarking as he finished reading it to us, “I would much
+rather not have written it.” The documents received from the Chinese
+minister in response to Mr. Lincoln’s letter proved to be indispensable
+when, a year and a half later, we left the last outpost of western
+civilization and plunged into the Gobi desert. When we had paid a final
+visit to the Persian minister in London, who had asked to see our bicycles
+and their baggage equipments, he signified his intention of writing in our
+behalf to friends in Teheran; and to that capital, after cycling through
+Europe, we were now actually _en route_.
+
+Since the opening of the Trans-Bosporus Railway, the wagon-road to Ismid,
+and even the Angora military highway beyond, have fallen rapidly into
+disrepair. In April they were almost impassable for the wheel, so that for
+the greater part of the way we were obliged to take to the track. Like the
+railway skirting the Italian Riviera, and the Patras-Athens line along the
+Saronic Gulf, this Trans-Bosporus road for a great distance scarps and
+tunnels the cliffs along the Gulf of Ismid, and sometimes runs so close to
+the water’s edge that the puffing of the _kara vapor_ or “land steamer,”
+as the Turks call it, is drowned by the roaring breakers. The country
+between Scutari and Ismid surpasses in agricultural advantages any part of
+Asiatic Turkey through which we passed. Its fertile soil, and the
+luxuriant vegetation it supports, are, as we afterward learned, in
+striking contrast with the sterile plateaus and mountains of the interior,
+many parts of which are as desolate as the deserts of Arabia. In area,
+Asia Minor equals France, but the water-supply of its rivers is only one
+third.
+
+  [Illustration: BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS
+  ASIA.]
+
+One of the principal agents in the work of transforming Asia Minor is the
+railroad, to which the natives have taken with unusual readiness. The
+locomotive is already competing with the hundred and sixty thousand camels
+employed in the peninsula caravan-trade. At Geiveh, the last station on
+the Trans-Bosporus Railway, where we left the track to follow the Angora
+highway, the “ships of the desert” are beginning to transfer their cargoes
+to the “land steamer,” instead of continuing on as in former days to the
+Bosporus.
+
+  [Illustration: THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE “DEVIL’S CARRIAGE.”]
+
+The Trans-Bosporus line, in the year of our visit, was being built and
+operated by a German company, under the direct patronage of the Sultan. We
+ventured to ask some natives if they thought the Sultan had sufficient
+funds to consummate so gigantic a scheme, and they replied, with the
+deepest reverence: “God has given the Padishah much property and power,
+and certainly he must give him enough money to utilize it.”
+
+A week’s cycling from the Bosporus brought us beyond the Allah Dagh
+mountains, among the barren, variegated hills that skirt the Angora
+plateau. We had already passed through Ismid, the ancient Nicomedia and
+capital of Diocletian; and had left behind us the heavily timbered valley
+of the Sakaria, upon whose banks the “Freebooter of the Bithynian hills”
+settled with his four hundred tents and laid the foundation of the Ottoman
+empire. Since leaving Geiveh we had been attended by a mounted guard, or
+_zaptieh_, who was sometimes forced upon us by the authorities in their
+anxiety to carry out the wishes expressed in the letters of the Grand
+Vizir. On emerging from the door of an inn we frequently found this
+unexpected guard waiting with a Winchester rifle swung over his shoulder,
+and a fleet steed standing by his side. Immediately on our appearance he
+would swing into the saddle and charge through the assembled rabble. Away
+we would go at a rapid pace down the streets of the town or village, to
+the utter amazement of the natives and the great satisfaction of our
+vainglorious zaptieh. As long as his horse was fresh, or until we were out
+of sight of the village, he would urge us on with cries of “Gellcha-buk”
+(“Come on, ride fast”). When a bad piece of road or a steep ascent forced
+us to dismount he would bring his horse to a walk, roll a cigarette, and
+draw invidious comparisons between our steeds. His tone, however, changed
+when we reached a decline or long stretch of reasonably good road. Then he
+would cut across country to head us off, or shout after us at the top of
+his voice, “Yavash-yavash” (“Slowly, slowly”). On the whole we found them
+good-natured and companionable fellows, notwithstanding their interest in
+_baksheesh_ which we were compelled at last, in self-defense, to fix at
+one piaster an hour. We frequently shared with them our frugal, and even
+scanty meals; and in turn they assisted us in our purchases and
+arrangements for lodgings, for their word, we found, was with the common
+people an almost unwritten law. Then, too, they were of great assistance
+in crossing streams where the depth would have necessitated the stripping
+of garments; although their fiery little steeds sometimes objected to
+having an extra rider astride their haunches, and a bicycle across their
+shoulders. They seized every opportunity to impress us with the necessity
+of being accompanied by a government representative. In some lonely
+portion of the road, or in the suggestive stillness of an evening
+twilight, our Turkish Don Quixote would sometimes cast mysterious glances
+around him, take his Winchester from his shoulder, and throwing it across
+the pommel of his saddle, charge ahead to meet the imaginary enemy. But we
+were more harmful than harmed, for, despite our most vigilant care, the
+bicycles were sometimes the occasion of a stampede or runaway among the
+caravans and teams along the highway, and we frequently assisted in
+replacing the loads thus upset. On such occasions our pretentious cavalier
+would remain on his horse, smoking his cigarette and smiling disdainfully.
+
+  [Illustration: HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR
+  BICYCLES.]
+
+It was in the company of one of these military champions that we emerged
+on the morning of April 12 upon the plateau of Angora. On the spring
+pasture were feeding several flocks of the famous Angora goats, and the
+_karamanli_ or fat-tailed sheep, tended by the Yurak shepherds and their
+half-wild and monstrous collies, whose half-savage nature fits them to
+cope with the jackals which infest the country. The shepherds did not
+check their sudden onslaught upon us until we were pressed to very close
+quarters, and had drawn our revolvers in self-defense. These Yuraks are
+the nomadic portion of the Turkish peasantry. They live in caves or rudely
+constructed huts, shifting their habitation at will, or upon the
+exhaustion of the pasturage. Their costume is most primitive both in style
+and material; the trousers and caps being made of sheepskin and the tunic
+of plaited wheat-straw. In contradistinction to the Yuraks the settled
+inhabitants of the country are called Turks. That term, however, which
+means rustic or clown, is never used by the Turks themselves except in
+derision or disdain; they always speak of themselves as “Osmanli.”
+
+  [Illustration: AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.]
+
+The great length of the Angora fleece, which sometimes reaches eight
+inches, is due solely to the peculiar climate of the locality. The same
+goats taken elsewhere have not thriven. Even the Angora dogs and cats are
+remarkable for the extraordinary length of their fleecy covering. On
+nearing Angora itself, we raced at high speed over the undulating plateau.
+Our zaptieh on his jaded horse faded away in the dim distance, and we saw
+him no more. This was our last guard for many weeks to come, as we decided
+to dispense with an escort that really retarded us. But on reaching
+Erzerum, the Vali refused us permission to enter the district of Alashgerd
+without a guard, so we were forced to take one.
+
+  [Illustration: 1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2,
+  PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+We were now on historic ground. To our right, on the Owas, a tributary of
+the Sakaria, was the little village of Istanas, where stood the ancient
+seat of Midas, the Phrygian king, and where Alexander the Great cut with
+his sword the Gordian knot to prove his right to the rulership of the
+world. On the plain, over which we were now skimming, the great Tatar,
+Timur, fought the memorable battle with Bajazet I., which resulted in the
+capture of the Ottoman conqueror. Since the time that the title of Asia
+applied to the small coast-province of Lydia, this country has been the
+theater for the grandest events in human history.
+
+  [Illustration: A CONTRAST.]
+
+The old mud-houses of modern Angora, as we rolled into the city,
+contrasted strongly with the cyclopean walls of its ancient fortress.
+After two days in Angora we diverged from the direct route to Sivas
+through Yüzgat, so as to visit the city of Kaisarieh. Through the efforts
+of the progressive Vali at Angora, a macadamized road was in the course of
+construction to this point, a part of which—to the town of Kirshehr—was
+already completed. Although surrounded by unusual fertility and luxuriance
+for an interior town, the low mud-houses and treeless streets give
+Kirshehr that same thirsty and painfully uniform appearance which
+characterizes every village or city in Asiatic Turkey. The mud buildings
+of Babylon, and not the marble edifices of Nineveh, have served as models
+for the Turkish architect. We have seen the Turks, when making the
+mud-straw bricks used in house-building, scratch dirt for the purpose from
+between the marble slabs and boulders that lay in profusion over the
+ground. A few of the government buildings and some of the larger private
+residences are improved by a coat of whitewash, and now and then the warm
+spring showers bring out on the mud roofs a relieving verdure, that
+frequently serves as pasture for the family goat. Everything is low and
+contracted, especially the doorways. When a foreigner bumps his head, and
+demands the reason for such stupid architecture, he is met with that
+decisive answer, “Adet”—custom, the most powerful of all influences in
+Turkey and the East.
+
+  [Illustration: A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.]
+
+Our entry into Kirshehr was typical of our reception everywhere. When we
+were seen approaching, several horsemen came out to get a first look at
+our strange horses. They challenged us to a race, and set a spanking pace
+down into the streets of the town. Before we reached the _khan_, or inn,
+we were obliged to dismount. “Bin! bin!” (“Ride! ride!”) went up in a
+shout. “Nimkin deyil” (“It is impossible”), we explained, in such a jam;
+and the crowd opened up three or four feet ahead of us. “Bin bocale”
+(“Ride, so that we can see”), they shouted again; and some of them rushed
+up to hold our steeds for us to mount. With the greatest difficulty we
+impressed upon our persistent assistants that they could not help us. By
+the time we reached the khan the crowd had become almost a mob, pushing
+and tumbling over one another, and yelling to every one in sight that “the
+devil’s carts have come.” The inn-keeper came out, and we had to assure
+him that the mob was actuated only by curiosity. As soon as the bicycles
+were over the threshold, the doors were bolted and braced. The crowds
+swarmed to the windows. While the khanji prepared coffee we sat down to
+watch the amusing by-play and repartee going on around us. Those who by
+virtue of their friendship with the khanji were admitted to the room with
+us began a tirade against the boyish curiosity of their less fortunate
+brethren on the outside. Their own curiosity assumed tangible shape. Our
+clothing, and even our hair and faces, were critically examined. When we
+attempted to jot down the day’s events in our note-books they crowded
+closer than ever. Our fountain-pen was an additional puzzle to them. It
+was passed around, and explained and commented on at length.
+
+Our camera was a “mysterious” black box. Some said it was a telescope,
+about which they had only a vague idea; others, that it was a box
+containing our money. But our map of Asiatic Turkey was to them the most
+curious thing of all. They spread it on the floor, and hovered over it,
+while we pointed to the towns and cities. How could we tell where the
+places were until we had been there? How did we even know their names? It
+was wonderful—wonderful! We traced for them our own journey, where we had
+been and where we were going, and then endeavored to show them how, by
+starting from our homes and continuing always in an easterly direction, we
+could at last reach our starting-point from the west. The more intelligent
+of them grasped the idea. “Around the world,” they repeated again and
+again, with a mystified expression.
+
+Relief came at last, in the person of a messenger from Osman Beg, the
+inspector-general of agriculture of the Angora vilayet, bearing an
+invitation to supper. He stated that he had already heard of our
+undertaking through the Constantinople press, and desired to make our
+acquaintance. His note, which was written in French, showed him to be a
+man of European education; and on shaking hands with him a half-hour
+later, we found him to be a man of European origin—an Albanian Greek, and
+a cousin of the Vali at Angora. He said a report had gone out that two
+devils were passing through the country. The dinner was one of those
+incongruous Turkish mixtures of sweet and sour, which was by no means
+relieved by the harrowing Turkish music which our host ground out from an
+antiquated hand-organ.
+
+  [Illustration: MILL IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+Although it was late when we returned to the khan, we found everybody
+still up. The room in which we were to sleep (there was only one room) was
+filled with a crowd of loiterers, and tobacco smoke. Some were playing
+games similar to our chess and backgammon, while others were looking on,
+and smoking the gurgling narghile, or water-pipe. The bicycles had been
+put away under lock and key, and the crowd gradually dispersed. We lay
+down in our clothes, and tried to lose consciousness; but the Turkish
+supper, the tobacco smoke, and the noise of the quarreling gamesters, put
+sleep out of the question. At midnight the sudden boom of a cannon
+reminded us that we were in the midst of the Turkish Ramadan. The sound of
+tramping feet, the beating of a bass drum, and the whining tones of a
+Turkish bagpipe, came over the midnight air. Nearer it came, and louder
+grew the sound, till it reached the inn door, where it remained for some
+time. The fast of Ramadan commemorates the revelation of the Koran to the
+prophet Mohammed. It lasts through the four phases of the moon. From
+daylight, or, as the Koran reads, “from the time you can distinguish a
+white thread from a black one,” no good Mussulman will eat, drink, or
+smoke. At midnight the mosques are illuminated, and bands of music go
+about the streets all night, making a tremendous uproar. One cannon is
+fired at dusk, to announce the time to break the fast by eating supper,
+another at midnight to arouse the people for the preparation of breakfast,
+and still another at daylight as a signal for resuming the fast. This, of
+course, is very hard on the poor man who has to work during the day. As a
+precaution against oversleeping, a watchman goes about just before
+daybreak, and makes a rousing clatter at the gate of every Mussulman’s
+house to warn him that if he wants anything to eat he must get it
+instanter. Our roommates evidently intended to make an “all night” of it,
+for they forthwith commenced the preparation of their morning meal. How it
+was despatched we do not know, for we fell asleep, and were only awakened
+by the muezzin on a neighboring minaret, calling to morning prayer.
+
+  [Illustration: GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.]
+
+Our morning ablutions were usually made _à la_ Turk: by having water
+poured upon the hands from a spouted vessel. Cleanliness is, with the
+Turk, perhaps, more than ourselves, the next thing to godliness. But his
+ideas are based upon a very different theory. Although he uses no soap for
+washing either his person or his clothes, yet he considers himself much
+cleaner than the giaour, for the reason that he uses running water
+exclusively, never allowing the same particles to touch him the second
+time. A Turk believes that all water is purified after running six feet.
+As a test of his faith we have often seen him lading up drinking-water
+from a stream where the women were washing clothes just a few yards above.
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE AT A GREEK INN.]
+
+As all cooking and eating had stopped at the sound of the morning cannon,
+we found great difficulty in gathering together even a cold breakfast of
+_ekmek_, _yaourt_, and raisins. Ekmek is a cooked bran-flour paste, which
+has the thinness, consistency, and almost the taste of blotting-paper.
+This is the Turkish peasant’s staff of life. He carries it with him
+everywhere; so did we. As it was made in huge circular sheets, we would
+often punch a hole in the middle, and slip it up over our arms. This we
+found the handiest and most serviceable mode of transportation, being
+handy to eat without removing our hands from the handle-bars, and also
+answering the purpose of sails in case of a favoring wind. Yaourt, another
+almost universal food, is milk curdled with rennet. This, as well as all
+foods that are not liquid, they scoop up with a roll of ekmek, a part of
+the scoop being taken with every mouthful. Raisins here, as well as in
+many other parts of the country, are very cheap. We paid two piasters
+(about nine cents) for an _oche_ (two and a half pounds), but we soon made
+the discovery that a Turkish oche contained a great many “stones”—which of
+course was purely accidental. Eggs, also, we found exceedingly cheap. On
+one occasion, twenty-five were set before us, in response to our call for
+eggs to the value of one piaster—four and a half cents. In Asiatic Turkey
+we had some extraordinary dishes served to us, including daintily prepared
+leeches. But the worst mixture, perhaps, was the “Bairam soup,” which
+contains over a dozen ingredients, including peas, prunes, walnuts,
+cherries, dates, white and black beans, apricots, cracked wheat, raisins,
+etc.—all mixed in cold water. Bairam is the period of feasting after the
+Ramadan fast.
+
+  [Illustration: EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.]
+
+On preparing to leave Kirshehr after our frugal breakfast we found that
+Turkish curiosity had extended even to the contents of our baggage, which
+fitted in the frames of the machines. There was nothing missing, however:
+and we did not lose so much as a button during our sojourn among them.
+Thieving is not one of their faults, but they take much latitude in
+helping themselves. Many a time an inn-keeper would “help us out” by
+disposing of one third of a chicken that we had paid him a high price to
+prepare.
+
+When we were ready to start the chief of police cleared a riding space
+through the streets, which for an hour had been filled with people. As we
+passed among them they shouted “Oorooglar olsun” (“May good fortune attend
+you”). “Inshallah” (“If it please God”), we replied, and waved our helmets
+in acknowledgment.
+
+  [Illustration: GRINDING WHEAT.]
+
+  [Illustration: A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.]
+
+At the village of Topakle, on the following night, our reception was not
+so innocent and good-natured. It was already dusk when we reached the
+outskirts of the village, where we were at once spied by a young man who
+was driving in the lowing herd. The alarm was given, and the people
+swarmed like so many rats from a corn-bin. We could see from their costume
+and features that they were not pure-blooded Turks. We asked if we could
+get food and lodging, to which they replied, “Evet, evet” (“Yes, yes”),
+but when we asked them where, they simply pointed ahead, and shouted,
+“Bin, bin!” We did not “bin” this time, because it was too dark, and the
+streets were bad. We walked, or rather were pushed along by the impatient
+rabble, and almost deafened by their shouts of “Bin, bin!” At the end of
+the village we repeated our question of where. Again they pointed ahead,
+and shouted, “Bin!” Finally an old man led us to what seemed to be a
+private residence, where we had to drag our bicycles up a dark narrow
+stairway to the second story. The crowd soon filled the room to
+suffocation, and were not disposed to heed our request to be left alone.
+One stalwart youth showed such a spirit of opposition that we were obliged
+to eject him upon a crowded stairway, causing the mob to go down like a
+row of tenpins. Then the owner of the house came in, and in an agitated
+manner declared he could not allow us to remain in his house overnight.
+Our reappearance caused a jeering shout to go up from the crowd; but no
+violence was attempted beyond the catching hold of the rear wheel when our
+backs were turned, and the throwing of clods of earth. They followed us,
+_en masse_, to the edge of the village, and there stopped short, to watch
+us till we disappeared in the darkness. The nights at this high altitude
+were chilly. We had no blankets, and not enough clothing to warrant a camp
+among the rocks. There was not a twig on the whole plateau with which to
+build a fire. We were alone, however, and that was rest in itself. After
+walking an hour, perhaps, we saw a light gleaming from a group of mudhuts
+a short distance off the road. From the numerous flocks around it, we took
+it to be a shepherds’ village. Everything was quiet except the restless
+sheep, whose silky fleece glistened in the light of the rising moon.
+Supper was not yet over, for we caught a whiff of its savory odor. Leaving
+our wheels outside, we entered the first door we came to, and, following
+along a narrow passageway, emerged into a room where four rather
+rough-looking shepherds were ladling the soup from a huge bowl in their
+midst. Before they were aware of our presence, we uttered the usual
+salutation “Sabala khayr olsun.” This startled some little boys who were
+playing in the corner, who yelled, and ran into the haremlük, or women’s
+apartment. This brought to the door the female occupants, who also uttered
+a shriek, and sunk back as if in a swoon. It was evident that the visits
+of giaours to this place had been few and far between. The shepherds
+returned our salutation with some hesitation, while their ladles dropped
+into the soup, and their gaze became fixed on our huge helmets, our
+dogskin top-coats, and abbreviated nether garments. The women by this time
+had sufficiently recovered from their nervous shock to give scope to their
+usual curiosity through the cracks in the partition. Confidence now being
+inspired by our own composure, we were invited to sit down and participate
+in the evening meal. Although it was only a gruel of sour milk and rice,
+we managed to make a meal off it. Meantime the wheels had been discovered
+by some passing neighbor. The news was spread throughout the village, and
+soon an excited throng came in with our bicycles borne upon the shoulders
+of two powerful Turks. Again we were besieged with entreaties to ride,
+and, hoping that this would gain for us a comfortable night’s rest, we
+yielded, and, amid peals of laughter from a crowd of Turkish peasants,
+gave an exhibition in the moonlight. Our only reward, when we returned to
+our quarters, was two greasy pillows and a filthy carpet for a coverlet.
+But the much needed rest we did not secure, for the suspicions aroused by
+the first glance at our bed-cover proved to be well grounded.
+
+  [Illustration: TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.]
+
+About noon on April 20, our road turned abruptly into the broad caravan
+trail that runs between Smyrna and Kaisarieh, about ten miles west of the
+latter city. A long caravan of camels was moving majestically up the road,
+headed by a little donkey, which the _devedejee_ (camel-driver) was riding
+with his feet dangling almost to the ground. That proverbially stubborn
+creature moved not a muscle until we came alongside, when all at once he
+gave one of his characteristic side lurches, and precipitated the rider to
+the ground. The first camel, with a protesting grunt, began to sidle off,
+and the broadside movement continued down the line till the whole caravan
+stood at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the road. The camel of
+Asia Minor does not share that antipathy for the equine species which is
+so general among their Asiatic cousins; but steel horses were more than
+even they could endure.
+
+  [Illustration: THE “FLIRTING TOWER” IN SIVAS.]
+
+A sudden turn in the road now brought us in sight of old Arjish Dagh,
+which towers 13,000 feet above the city of Kaisarieh, and whose head and
+shoulders were covered with snow. Native tradition tells us that against
+this lofty summit the ark of Noah struck in the rising flood; and for this
+reason Noah cursed it, and prayed that it might ever be covered with snow.
+It was in connection with this very mountain that we first conceived the
+idea of making the ascent of Ararat. Here and there, on some of the most
+prominent peaks, we could distinguish little mounds of earth, the ruined
+watch-towers of the prehistoric Hittites.
+
+  [Illustration: HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.]
+
+Kaisarieh (ancient Cæsarea) is filled with the ruins and the monuments of
+the fourteenth-century Seljuks. Arrowheads and other relics are every day
+unearthed there, to serve as toys for the street urchins. Since the
+development of steam-communication around the coast, it is no longer the
+caravan center that it used to be; but even now its _charshi_, or inclosed
+bazaars, are among the finest in Turkey, being far superior in appearance
+to those of Constantinople. These _charshi_ are nothing more than narrow
+streets, inclosed by brick arches, and lined on either side with booths.
+It was through one of these that our only route to the khan lay—and yet we
+felt that in such contracted quarters, and in such an excited mob as had
+gathered around us, disaster was sure to follow. Our only salvation was to
+keep ahead of the jam, and get through as soon as possible. We started on
+the spurt; and the race began. The unsuspecting merchants and their
+customers were suddenly distracted from their thoughts of gain as we
+whirled by; the crowd close behind sweeping everything before it. The
+falling of barrels and boxes, the rattling of tin cans, the crashing of
+crockery, the howling of the vagrant dogs that were trampled under foot,
+only added to the general tumult.
+
+Through the courtesy of Mr. Peet of the American Bible House at
+Constantinople, we were provided with letters of introduction to the
+missionaries at Kaisarieh, as well as elsewhere along our route through
+Asiatic Turkey, and upon them we also had drafts to the amount of our
+deposit made at the Bible House before starting. Besides, we owed much to
+the hospitality and kindness of these people. The most striking feature of
+the missionary work at Kaisarieh is the education of the Armenian women,
+whose social position seems to be even more degraded than that of their
+Turkish sisters. With the native Armenians, as with the Turks, fleshiness
+adds much to the price of a wife. The wife of a missionary is to them an
+object both of wonderment and contempt. As she walks along the street,
+they will whisper to one another: “There goes a woman who knows all her
+husband’s business; and who can manage just as well as himself.” This will
+generally be followed in an undertone by the expression, “Madana satana,”
+which means, in common parlance, “a female devil.” At first it was a
+struggle to overcome this ignorant prejudice, and to get girls to come to
+the school free of charge; now it is hard to find room for them even when
+they are asked to pay for their tuition.
+
+The costume of the Armenian woman is generally of some bright-colored
+cloth, prettily trimmed. Her coiffure, always elaborate, sometimes
+includes a string of gold coins, encircling the head, or strung down the
+plait. A silver belt incloses the waist, and a necklace of coins calls
+attention to her pretty neck. When washing clothes by the stream, they
+frequently show a gold ring encircling an ankle.
+
+In the simplicity of their costumes, as well as in the fact that they do
+not expose the face, the Turkish women stand in strong contrast to the
+Armenian. Baggy trousers _à la_ Bloomer, a loose robe skirt opening at the
+sides, and a voluminous shawl-like girdle around the waist and body,
+constitute the main features of the Turkish indoor costume. On the street
+a shroud-like robe called yashmak, usually white, but sometimes crimson,
+purple, or black, covers them from head to foot. When we would meet a bevy
+of these creatures on the road in the dusk of evening, their white,
+fluttering garments would give them the appearance of winged celestials.
+The Turkish women are generally timorous of men, and especially so of
+foreigners. Those of the rural districts, however, are not so shy as their
+city cousins. We frequently met them at work in groups about the villages
+or in the open fields, and would sometimes ask for a drink of water. If
+they were a party of maidens, as was often the case, they would draw back
+and hide behind one another. We would offer one of them a ride on our
+“very nice horses.” This would cause a general giggle among her
+companions, and a drawing of the yashmak closer about the neck and face.
+
+  [Illustration: ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.]
+
+The road scenes in the interior provinces are but little varied. One of
+the most characteristic features of the Anatolian landscape are the
+storks, which come in flocks of thousands from their winter quarters in
+Egypt and build summer nests, unmolested, on the village housetops. These,
+like the crows, magpies, and swallows, prove valuable allies to the
+husbandmen in their war against the locust. A still more serviceable
+friend in this direction is the _smarmar_, a pink thrush with black wings.
+Besides the various caravan trains of camels, donkeys, horses, and mules,
+the road is frequently dotted with ox-carts, run on solid wooden wheels
+without tires, and drawn by that peculiar bovine species, the buffalo.
+With their distended necks, elevated snouts, and hog-like bristles, these
+animals present an ugly appearance, especially when wallowing in mud
+puddles.
+
+Now and then in the villages we passed by a primitive flour-mill moved by
+a small stream playing upon a horizontal wheel beneath the floor; or, more
+primitive still, by a blindfolded donkey plodding ceaselessly around in
+his circular path. In the streets we frequently encountered boys and old
+men gathering manure for their winter fuel; and now and then a cripple or
+invalid would accost us as “Hakim” (“Doctor”), for the medical work of the
+missionaries has given these simple-minded folk the impression that all
+foreigners are physicians. Coming up and extending a hand for us to feel
+the pulse they would ask us to do something for the disease, which we
+could see was rapidly carrying them to the grave.
+
+  [Illustration: A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.]
+
+Our first view of Sivas was obtained from the top of Mount Yildiz, on
+which still stands the ruined castle of Mithridates, the Pontine monarch,
+whom Lucullus many times defeated, but never conquered. From this point we
+made a very rapid descent, crossed the Kizil Irmak for the third time by
+an old ruined bridge, and half an hour later saw the “stars and stripes”
+flying above the U. S. consulate. In the society of our representative,
+Mr. Henry M. Jewett, we were destined to spend several weeks; for a day or
+two after our arrival, one of us was taken with a slight attack of typhoid
+fever, supposed to have been contracted by drinking from the roadside
+streams. No better place could have been chosen for such a mishap; for
+recovery was speedy in such comfortable quarters, under the care of the
+missionary ladies.
+
+The comparative size and prosperity of Sivas, in the midst of rather
+barren surroundings, are explained by the fact that it lies at the
+converging point of the chief caravan routes between the Euxine,
+Euphrates, and Mediterranean. Besides being the capital of Rumili, the
+former Seljuk province of Cappadocia, it is the place of residence for a
+French and American consular representative, and an agent of the Russian
+government for the collection of the war indemnity, stipulated in the
+treaty of ’78. The dignity of office is here upheld with something of the
+pomp and splendor of the East, even by the representative of democratic
+America. In our tours with Mr. Jewett we were escorted at the head by a
+Circassian _cavass_ (Turkish police), clothed in a long black coat, with a
+huge dagger dangling from a belt of cartridges. Another native cavass,
+with a broadsword dragging at his side, usually brought up the rear. At
+night he was the one to carry the huge lantern, which, according to the
+number of candles, is the insignia of rank. “I must give the Turks what
+they want,” said the consul, with a twinkle in his eye—“form and red tape.
+I would not be a consul in their eyes, if I didn’t.” To illustrate the
+formality of Turkish etiquette he told this story: “A Turk was once
+engaged in saving furniture from his burning home, when he noticed that a
+bystander was rolling a cigarette. He immediately stopped in his hurry,
+struck a match, and offered a light.”
+
+  [Illustration: EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.]
+
+The most flagrant example of Turkish formality that came to our notice was
+the following address on an official document to the Sultan:
+
+
+    “The Arbiter; the Absolute; the Soul and Body of the Universe; the
+    Father of all the sovereigns of the earth; His Excellency, the
+    Eagle Monarch; the Cause of the never-changing order of things;
+    the Source of all honor; the Son of the Sultan of Sultans, under
+    whose feet we are dust, whose awful shadow protects us; Abdul
+    Hamid II., Son of Abdul Medjid, whose residence is in Paradise;
+    our glorious Lord, to whose sacred body be given health, and
+    strength, and endless days; whom Allah keeps in his palace, and on
+    his throne with joy and glory, forever. Amen.”
+
+
+  [Illustration: PRIMITIVE WEAVING.]
+
+This is not the flattery of a cringing subordinate, for the same spirit is
+revealed in an address by the Sultan himself to his Grand Vizir:
+
+
+    “Most honored Vizir; Maintainer of the good order of the World;
+    Director of public affairs with wisdom and judgment; Accomplisher
+    of the important transactions of mankind with intelligence and
+    good sense; Consolidator of the edifice of Empire and of Glory;
+    endowed by the Most High with abundant gifts; and ‘Monshir,’ at
+    this time, of my Gate of Felicity; my Vizir Mehmed Pasha, may God
+    be pleased to preserve him long in exalted dignity.”
+
+
+Though the Turks cannot be called lazy, yet they like to take their time.
+Patience, they say, belongs to God; hurry, to the devil. Nowhere is this
+so well illustrated as in the manner of shopping in Turkey. This was
+brought particularly to our notice when we visited the Sivas bazaars to
+examine some inlaid silverware, for which the place is celebrated. The
+customer stands in the street inspecting the articles on exhibition; the
+merchant sits on his heels on the booth floor. If the customer is of some
+position in life, he climbs up and sits down on a level with the merchant.
+If he is a foreigner, the merchant is quite deferential. A merchant is not
+a merchant at all, but a host entertaining a guest. Coffee is served; then
+a cigarette rolled up and handed to the “guest,” while the various social
+and other local topics are freely discussed. After coffee and smoking the
+question of purchase is gradually approached; not abruptly, as that would
+involve a loss of dignity; but circumspectly, as if the buying of anything
+were a mere afterthought. Maybe, after half an hour, the customer has
+indicated what he wants, and after discussing the quality of the goods,
+the customer asks the price in an off-hand way, as though he were not
+particularly interested. The merchant replies, “Oh, whatever your highness
+pleases,” or, “I shall be proud if your highness will do me the honor to
+accept it as a gift.” This means nothing whatever, and is merely the
+introduction to the haggling which is sure to follow. The seller, with
+silken manners and brazen countenance, will always name a price four times
+as large as it should be. Then the real business begins. The buyer offers
+one half or one fourth of what he finally expects to pay; and a war of
+words, in a blustering tone, leads up to the close of this every-day
+farce.
+
+The superstition of the Turks is nowhere so apparent as in their fear of
+the “evil eye.” Jugs placed around the edge of the roof, or an old shoe
+filled with garlic and blue beets (blue glass balls or rings) are a sure
+guard against this illusion. Whenever a pretty child is playing upon the
+street the passers-by will say: “Oh, what an ugly child!” for fear of
+inciting the evil spirit against its beauty. The peasant classes in Turkey
+are of course the most superstitious because they are the most ignorant.
+They have no education whatever, and can neither read nor write. Stamboul
+is the only great city of which they know. Paris is a term signifying the
+whole outside world. An American missionary was once asked: “In what part
+of Paris is America?” Yet it can be said that they are generally honest,
+and always patient. They earn from about six to eight cents a day. This
+will furnish them with ekmek and pilaff, and that is all they expect. They
+eat meat only on feast-days, and then only mutton. The tax-gatherer is
+their only grievance; they look upon him as a necessary evil. They have no
+idea of being ground down under the oppressor’s iron heel. Yet they are
+happy because they are contented, and have no envy. The poorer, the more
+ignorant, a Turk is, the better he seems to be. As he gets money and
+power, and becomes “contaminated” by western civilization, he
+deteriorates. A resident of twenty years’ experience said: “In the lowest
+classes I have sometimes found truth, honesty, and gratitude; in the
+middle classes, seldom; in the highest, never.” The corruptibility of the
+Turkish official is almost proverbial; but such is to be expected in the
+land where “the public treasury” is regarded as a “sea,” and “who does not
+drink of it, as a pig.” Peculation and malversation are fully expected in
+the public official. They are necessary evils—_adet_ (custom) has made
+them so. Offices are sold to the highest bidder. The Turkish official is
+one of the politest and most agreeable of men. He is profuse in his
+compliments, but he has no conscience as to bribes, and little regard for
+virtue as its own reward. We are glad to be able to record a brilliant,
+though perhaps theoretical, exception to this general rule. At
+Koch-Hissar, on our way from Sivas to Kara Hissar, a delay was caused by a
+rather serious break in one of our bicycles. In the interval we were the
+invited guests of a district kadi, a venerable-looking and genial old
+gentleman whose acquaintance we had made in an official visit on the
+previous day, as he was then the acting _caimacam_ (mayor). His house was
+situated in a neighboring valley in the shadow of a towering bluff. We
+were ushered into the _selamlük_, or guest apartment, in company with an
+Armenian friend who had been educated as a doctor in America, and who had
+consented to act as interpreter for the occasion.
+
+The kadi entered with a smile on his countenance, and made the usual
+picturesque form of salutation by describing the figure 3 with his right
+hand from the floor to his forehead. Perhaps it was because he wanted to
+be polite that he said he had enjoyed our company on the previous day, and
+had determined, if possible, to have a more extended conversation. With
+the usual coffee and cigarettes, the kadi became informal and chatty. He
+was evidently a firm believer in predestination, as he remarked that God
+had foreordained our trip to that country, even the food we were to eat,
+and the invention of the extraordinary “cart” on which we were to ride.
+The idea of such a journey, in such a peculiar way, was not to be
+accredited to the ingenuity of man. There was a purpose in it all. When we
+ventured to thank him for his hospitality toward two strangers, and even
+foreigners, he said that this world occupied so small a space in God’s
+dominion, that we could well afford to be brothers, one to another, in
+spite of our individual beliefs and opinions. “We may have different
+religious beliefs,” said he, “but we all belong to the same great father
+of humanity; just as children of different complexions, dispositions, and
+intellects may belong to one common parent. We should exercise reason
+always, and have charity for other people’s opinions.”
+
+From charity the conversation naturally turned to justice. We were much
+interested in his opinion on this subject, as that of a Turkish judge, and
+rather high official. “Justice,” said he, “should be administered to the
+humblest person; though a king should be the offending party, all alike
+must yield to the sacred law of justice. We must account to God for our
+acts, and not to men.”
+
+The regular route from Sivas to Erzerum passes through Erzinjan. From
+this, however, we diverged at Zara, in order to visit the city of Kara
+Hissar, and the neighboring Lidjissy mines, which had been pioneered by
+the Genoese explorers, and were now being worked by a party of Englishmen.
+This divergence on to unbeaten paths was made at a very inopportune
+season; for the rainy spell set in, which lasted, with scarcely any
+intermission, for over a fortnight. At the base of Kosse Dagh, which
+stands upon the watershed between the two largest rivers of Asia Minor,
+the Kizil Irmak and Yeshil Irmak, our road was blocked by a mountain
+freshet, which at its height washed everything before it. We spent a day
+and night on its bank, in a primitive flour-mill, which was so far removed
+from domestic life that we had to send three miles up in the mountains to
+get something to eat. The Yeshil Irmak, which we crossed just before
+reaching Kara Hissar, was above our shoulders as we waded through, holding
+our bicycles and baggage over our heads; while the swift current rolled
+the small boulders against us, and almost knocked us off our feet. There
+were no bridges in this part of the country. With horses and wagons the
+rivers were usually fordable; and what more would you want? With the Turk,
+as with all Asiatics, it is not a question of what is better, but what
+will do. Long before we reached a stream, the inhabitants of a certain
+town or village would gather round, and with troubled countenances say,
+“Christian gentlemen—there is no bridge,” pointing to the river beyond,
+and graphically describing that it was over our horses’ heads. That would
+settle it, they thought; it never occurred to them that a “Christian
+gentleman” could take off his clothes and wade. Sometimes, as we walked
+along in the mud, the wheels of our bicycles would become so clogged that
+we could not even push them before us. In such a case we would take the
+nearest shelter, whatever it might be. The night before reaching Kara
+Hissar, we entered an abandoned stable, from which everything had fled
+except the fleas. Another night was spent in the pine-forests just on the
+border between Asia Minor and Armenia, which were said to be the haunts of
+the border robbers. Our surroundings could not be relieved by a fire for
+fear of attracting their attention.
+
+  [Illustration: A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+When at last we reached the Trebizond-Erzerum highway at Baiboot, the
+contrast was so great that the scaling of Kop Dagh, on its comparatively
+smooth surface, was a mere breakfast spell. From here we looked down for
+the first time into the valley of the historic Euphrates, and a few hours
+later we were skimming over its bottom lands toward the embattled heights
+of Erzerum.
+
+As we neared the city, some Turkish peasants in the fields caught sight of
+us, and shouted to their companions: “Russians! Russians! There they are!
+Two of them!” This was not the first time we had been taken for the
+subjects of the Czar; the whole country seemed to be in dread of them.
+Erzerum is the capital of that district which Russia will no doubt demand,
+if the stipulated war indemnity is not paid.
+
+The entrance into the city was made to twist and turn among the ramparts,
+so as to avoid a rush in case of an attack. But this was no proof against
+a surprise in the case of the noiseless wheel. In we dashed with a roaring
+wind, past the affrighted guards, and were fifty yards away before they
+could collect their scattered senses. Then suddenly it dawned upon them
+that we were human beings, and foreigners besides—perhaps even the dreaded
+Russian spies. They took after us at full speed, but it was too late.
+Before they reached us we were in the house of the commandant pasha, the
+military governor, to whom we had a letter of introduction from our consul
+at Sivas. That gentleman we found extremely good-natured; he laughed
+heartily at our escapade with the guards. Nothing would do but we must
+visit the Vali, the civil governor, who was also a pasha of considerable
+reputation and influence.
+
+  [Illustration: A VILLAGE SCENE.]
+
+We had intended, but not so soon, to pay an official visit to the Vali to
+present our letter from the Grand Vizir, and to ask his permission to
+proceed to Bayazid, whence we had planned to attempt the ascent of Mount
+Ararat, an experience which will be described in the next chapter. A few
+days before, we heard, a similar application had been made by an English
+traveler from Bagdad, but owing to certain suspicions the permission was
+refused. It was with no little concern, therefore, that we approached the
+Vali’s private office in company with his French interpreter.
+Circumstances augured ill at the very start. The Vali was evidently in a
+bad humor, for we overheard him storming in a high key at some one in the
+room with him. As we passed under the heavy matted curtains the two
+attendants who were holding them up cast a rather horrified glance at our
+dusty shoes and unconventional costume. The Vali was sitting in a large
+arm-chair in front of a very small desk, placed at the far end of a
+vacant-looking room. After the usual salaams, he motioned to a seat on the
+divan, and proceeded at once to examine our credentials while we sipped at
+our coffee, and whiffed the small cigarettes which were immediately
+served. This furnished the Vali an opportunity to regain his usual
+composure. He was evidently an autocrat of the severest type; if we
+pleased him, it would be all right; if we did not, it would be all wrong.
+We showed him everything we had, from our Chinese passport to the little
+photographic camera, and related some of the most amusing incidents of our
+journey through his country. From the numerous questions he asked we felt
+certain of his genuine interest, and were more than pleased to see an
+occasional broad smile on his countenance. “Well,” said he, as we rose to
+take leave, “your passports will be ready any time after to-morrow; in the
+mean time I shall be pleased to have your horses quartered and fed at
+government expense.” This was a big joke for a Turk, and assured us of his
+good-will.
+
+A bicycle exhibition which the Vali had requested was given the morning of
+our departure for Bayazid, on a level stretch of road just outside the
+city. Several missionaries and members of the consulates had gone out in
+carriages, and formed a little group by themselves. We rode up with the
+“stars and stripes” and “star and crescent” fluttering side by side from
+the handle-bars. It was always our custom, especially on diplomatic
+occasions, to have a little flag of the country associated with that of
+our own. This little arrangement evoked a smile from the Vali, who, when
+the exhibition was finished, stepped forward and said, “I am satisfied, I
+am pleased.” His richly caparisoned white charger was now brought up.
+Leaping into the saddle, he waved us good-by, and moved away with his
+suite toward the city. We ourselves remained for a few moments to bid
+good-by to our hospitable friends, and then, once more, continued our
+journey toward the east.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    II
+
+
+                        THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT
+
+
+According to tradition, Mount Ararat is the scene of two of the most
+important events in the history of the human race. In the sacred land of
+Eden, which Armenian legend places at its base, the first of human life
+was born; and on its solitary peak the last of human life was saved from
+an all-destroying flood. The remarkable geographical position of this
+mountain seems to justify the Armenian view that it is the center of the
+world. It is on the longest line drawn through the Old World from the Cape
+of Good Hope to Bering Strait; it is also on the line of the great deserts
+and inland seas stretching from Gibraltar to Lake Baikal in Siberia—a line
+of continuous depressions; it is equidistant from the Black and Caspian
+Seas and the Mesopotamian plain, which three depressions are now watered
+by three distinct river-systems emanating from Ararat’s immediate
+vicinity. No other region has seen or heard so much of the story of
+mankind. In its grim presence empires have come and gone; cities have
+risen and fallen; human life has soared up on the wings of hope, and
+dashed against the rocks of despair.
+
+To the eye Ararat presents a gently inclined slope of sand and ashes
+rising into a belt of green, another zone of black volcanic rocks streaked
+with snow-beds, and then a glittering crest of silver. From the burning
+desert at its base to the icy pinnacle above, it rises through a vertical
+distance of 13,000 feet. There are but few peaks in the world that rise so
+high (17,250 feet above sea-level) from so low a plain (2000 feet on the
+Russian, and 4000 feet on the Turkish, side), and which, therefore,
+present so grand a spectacle. Unlike many of the world’s mountains, it
+stands alone. Little Ararat (12,840 feet above sea-level), and the other
+still smaller heights that dot the plain, only serve as a standard by
+which to measure Ararat’s immensity and grandeur.
+
+Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of three great
+empires. On its conical peak converge the dominions of the Czar, the
+Sultan, and the Shah. The Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat
+along the high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through the
+peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the northwest, then
+turns sharply to the west. On the Sardarbulakh pass, between Great and
+Little Ararat, is stationed a handful of Russian Cossacks to remind
+lawless tribes of the guardianship of the “White Sultan.”
+
+The two Ararats together form an elliptical mass, about twenty-five miles
+in length, running northwest and southeast, and about half that in width.
+Out of this massive base rise the two Ararat peaks, their bases being
+contiguous up to 8800 feet and their tops about seven miles apart. Little
+Ararat is an almost perfect truncated cone, while Great Ararat is more of
+a broad-shouldered dome supported by strong, rough-ribbed buttresses. The
+isolated position of Ararat, its structure of igneous rocks, the presence
+of small craters and immense volcanic fissures on its slopes, and the
+scoriæ and ashes on the surrounding plain, establish beyond a doubt its
+volcanic origin. But according to the upheaval theory of the eminent
+geologist, Hermann Abich, who was among the few to make the ascent of the
+mountain, there never was a great central crater in either Great or Little
+Ararat. Certain it is that no craters or signs of craters now exist on the
+summit of either mountain. But Mr. James Bryce, who made the last ascent,
+in 1876, seems to think that there is no sufficient reason why craters
+could not have previously existed, and been filled up by their own
+irruptions. There is no record of any irruption in historical times. The
+only thing approaching it was the earthquake which shook the mountain in
+1840, accompanied by subterranean rumblings, and destructive blasts of
+wind. The Tatar village of Arghuri and a Kurdish encampment on the
+northeast slope were entirely destroyed by the precipitated rocks. Not a
+man was left to tell the story. Mr. Bryce and others have spoken of the
+astonishing height of the snow-line on Mount Ararat, which is placed at
+14,000 feet; while in the Alps it is only about 9000 feet, and in the
+Caucasus on an average 11,000 feet, although they lie in a very little
+higher latitude. They assign, as a reason for this, the exceptionally dry
+region in which Ararat is situated. Mr. Bryce ascended the mountain on
+September 12, when the snow-line was at its very highest, the first large
+snow-bed he encountered being at 12,000 feet. Our own ascent being made as
+early as July 4,—in fact, the earliest ever recorded,—we found some snow
+as low as 8000 feet, and large beds at 10,500 feet. The top of Little
+Ararat was still at that time streaked with snow, but not covered. With so
+many extensive snow-beds, one would naturally expect to find copious
+brooks and streams flowing down the mountain into the plain; but owing to
+the porous and dry nature of the soil, the water is entirely lost before
+reaching the base of the mountain. Even as early as July we saw no stream
+below 6000 feet, and even above this height the mountain freshets
+frequently flowed far beneath the surface under the loosely packed rocks,
+bidding defiance to our efforts to reach them. Notwithstanding the
+scarcity of snow-freshets, there is a middle zone on Mount Ararat,
+extending from about 5000 feet to 9000 feet elevation, which is covered
+with good pasturage, kept green by heavy dews and frequent showers. The
+hot air begins to rise from the desert plain as the morning sun peeps over
+the horizon, and continues through the day; this warm current, striking
+against the snow-covered summit, is condensed into clouds and moisture. In
+consequence, the top of Ararat is usually—during the summer months, at
+least—obscured by clouds from some time after dawn until sunset. On the
+last day of our ascent, however, we were particularly fortunate in having
+a clear summit until 1:15 in the afternoon.
+
+Among the crags of the upper slope are found only a few specimens of the
+wild goat and sheep, and, lower down, the fox, wolf, and lynx. The bird
+and insect life is very scanty, but lizards and scorpions, especially on
+the lowest slopes, are abundant. The rich pasturage of Ararat’s middle
+zone attracts pastoral Kurdish tribes. These nomadic shepherds, a few
+Tatars at New Arghuri, and a camp of Russian Cossacks at the well of
+Sardarbulakh, are the only human beings to disturb the quiet solitude of
+this grandest of nature’s sanctuaries.
+
+The first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat was in 1829, by Dr. Frederick
+Parrot, a Russo-German professor in the University of Dorpat. He reached
+the summit with a party of three Armenians and two Russian soldiers, after
+two unsuccessful attempts. His ascent, however, was doubted, not only by
+the people in the neighborhood, but by many men of science and position in
+the Russian empire, notwithstanding his clear account, which has been
+confirmed by subsequent observers, and in spite of the testimony of the
+two Russian soldiers who had gone with him.(1) Two of the Armenians who
+reached the summit with him declared that they had gone to a great height,
+but at the point where they had left off had seen much higher tops rising
+around them. This, thereupon, became the opinion of the whole country.
+After Antonomoff, in 1834, Herr Abich, the geologist, made his valuable
+ascent in 1845. He reached the eastern summit, which is only a few feet
+lower than the western, and only a few minutes’ walk from it, but was
+obliged to return at once on account of the threatening weather. When he
+produced his companions as witnesses before the authorities at Erivan,
+they turned against him, and solemnly swore that at the point which they
+had reached a higher peak stood between them and the western horizon. This
+strengthened the Armenian belief in the inaccessibility of Ararat, which
+was not dissipated when the Russian military engineer, General Chodzko,
+and an English party made the ascent in 1856. Nor were their prejudiced
+minds convinced by the ascent of Mr. Bryce twenty years later, in 1876.
+Two days after his ascent, that gentleman paid a visit to the Armenian
+monastery at Echmiadzin, and was presented to the archimandrite as the
+Englishman who had just ascended to the top of “Masis.” “No,” said the
+ecclesiastical dignitary; “that cannot be. No one has ever been there. It
+is impossible.” Mr. Bryce himself says: “I am persuaded that there is not
+a person living within sight of Ararat, unless it be some exceptionally
+educated Russian official at Erivan, who believes that any human foot,
+since Father Noah’s, has trodden that sacred summit. So much stronger is
+faith than sight; or rather so much stronger is prejudice than evidence.”
+
+We had expected, on our arrival in Bayazid, to find in waiting for us a
+Mr. Richardson, an American missionary from Erzerum. Two years later, on
+our arrival home, we received a letter explaining that on his way from Van
+he had been captured by Kurdish brigands, and held a prisoner until
+released through the intervention of the British consul at Erzerum. It was
+some such fate as this that was predicted for us, should we ever attempt
+the ascent of Mount Ararat through the lawless Kurdish tribes upon its
+slopes. Our first duty, therefore, was to see the mutessarif of Bayazid,
+to whom we bore a letter from the Grand Vizir of Turkey, in order to
+ascertain what protection and assistance he would be willing to give us.
+We found with him a Circassian who belonged to the Russian camp at
+Sardarbulakh, on the Ararat pass, and who had accompanied General Chodzko
+on his ascent of the mountain in 1856. Both he and the mutessarif thought
+an ascent so early in the year was impossible; that we ought not to think
+of such a thing until two months later. It was now six weeks earlier than
+the time of General Chodzko’s ascent (August 11 to 18), then the earliest
+on record. They both strongly recommended the northwestern slope as being
+more gradual. This is the one that Parrot ascended in 1829, and where
+Abich was repulsed on his third attempt. Though entirely inexperienced in
+mountain-climbing, we ourselves thought that the southeast slope, the one
+taken by General Chodzko, the English party, and Mr. Bryce, was far more
+feasible for a small party. One thing, however, the mutessarif was
+determined upon: we must not approach the mountain without an escort of
+Turkish zaptiehs, as an emblem of government protection. Besides, he would
+send for the chief of the Ararat Kurds, and endeavor to arrange with him
+for our safety and guidance up the mountain. As we emerged into the
+streets an Armenian professor gravely shook his head. “Ah,” said he, “you
+will never do it.” Then dropping his voice, he told us that those other
+ascents were all fictitious; that the summit of “Masis” had never yet been
+reached except by Noah; and that we were about to attempt what was an
+utter impossibility.
+
+In Bayazid we could not procure even proper wood for alpenstocks. Willow
+branches, two inches thick, very dry and brittle, were the best we could
+obtain. Light as this wood is, the alpenstocks weighed at least seven
+pounds apiece when the iron hooks and points were riveted on at the ends
+by the native blacksmith, for whom we cut paper patterns, of the exact
+size, for everything we wanted. We next had large nails driven into the
+souls of our shoes by a local shoemaker, who made them for us by hand out
+of an old English file, and who wanted to pull them all out again because
+we would not pay him the exorbitant price he demanded. In buying
+provisions for the expedition, we spent three hours among the half
+dilapidated bazaars of the town, which have never been repaired since the
+disastrous Russian bombardment. The most difficult task, perhaps, in our
+work of preparation was to strike a bargain with an Armenian muleteer to
+carry our food and baggage up the mountain on his two little donkeys.
+
+  [Illustration: WHERE THE “ZAPTIEHS” WERE NOT A NUISANCE.]
+
+Evening came, and no word from either the mutessarif or the Kurdish chief.
+Although we were extremely anxious to set off on the expedition before bad
+weather set in, we must not be in a hurry, for the military governor of
+Karakillissa was now the guest of the mutessarif, and it would be an
+interference with his social duties to try to see him until after his
+guest had departed. On the morrow we were sitting in our small dingy room
+after dinner, when a cavalcade hastened up to our inn, and a few minutes
+later we were surprised to hear ourselves addressed in our native tongue.
+Before us stood a dark-complexioned young man, and at his side a small
+wiry old gentleman, who proved to be a native Austrian Tyrolese, who
+followed the profession of an artist in Paris. He was now making his way
+to Erivan, in Russia, on a sight-seeing tour from Trebizond. His companion
+was a Greek from Salonica, who had lived for several years in London,
+whence he had departed not many weeks before, for Teheran, Persia. These
+two travelers had met in Constantinople, and the young Greek, who could
+speak English, Greek, and Turkish, had been acting as interpreter for the
+artist. They had heard of the “devil’s carts” when in Van, and had made
+straight for our quarters on their arrival in Bayazid. At this point they
+were to separate. When we learned that the old gentleman (Ignaz Raffl by
+name) was a member of an Alpine club and an experienced mountain-climber,
+we urged him to join in the ascent. Though his shoulders were bent by the
+cares and troubles of sixty-three years, we finally induced him to
+accompany our party. Kantsa, the Greek, reluctantly agreed to do likewise,
+and proved to be an excellent interpreter, but a poor climber.
+
+The following morning we paid the mutessarif a second visit, with Kantsa
+as interpreter. Inasmuch as the Kurdish chief had not arrived, the
+mutessarif said he would make us bearers of a letter to him. Two zaptiehs
+were to accompany us in the morning, while others were to go ahead and
+announce our approach.
+
+At ten minutes of eleven, on the morning of the second of July, our small
+cavalcade, with the two exasperating donkeys at the head laden with mats,
+bags of provisions, extra clothing, alpenstocks, spiked shoes, and coils
+of stout rope, filed down the streets of Bayazid, followed by a curious
+rabble. As Bayazid lies hidden behind a projecting spur of the mountains
+we could obtain no view of the peak itself until we had tramped some
+distance out on the plain. Its huge giant mass broke upon us all at once.
+We stopped and looked—and looked again. No mountain-peak we have seen,
+though several have been higher, has ever inspired the feeling which
+filled us when we looked for the first time upon towering Ararat. We had
+not proceeded far before we descried a party of Kurdish horsemen
+approaching from the mountain. Our zaptiehs advanced rather cautiously to
+meet them, with rifles thrown across the pommels of their saddles. After a
+rather mysterious parley, our zaptiehs signaled that all was well. On
+coming up, they reported that these horsemen belonged to the party that
+was friendly to the Turkish government. The Kurds, they said, were at this
+time divided among themselves, a portion of them having adopted
+conciliatory measures with the government, and the rest holding aloof. But
+we rather considered their little performance as a scheme to extort a
+little more baksheesh for their necessary presence.
+
+  [Illustration: READY FOR THE START.]
+
+The plain we were now on was drained by a tributary of the Aras River, a
+small stream reached after two hours’ steady tramping. From the bordering
+hillocks we emerged in a short time upon another vast plateau, which
+stretched far away in a gentle rise to the base of the mountain itself.
+Near by we discovered a lone willow-tree, the only one in the whole sweep
+of our vision, under the gracious foliage of which sat a band of Kurds,
+retired from the heat of the afternoon sun, their horses feeding on some
+swamp grass near at hand. Attracted by this sign of water, we drew near,
+and found a copious spring. A few words from the zaptiehs, who had
+advanced among them, seemed to put the Kurds at their ease, though they
+did not by any means appease their curiosity. They invited us to partake
+of their frugal lunch of ekmek and goat’s-milk cheese. Our clothes and
+baggage were discussed piece by piece, with loud expressions of merriment,
+until one of us arose, and, stealing behind the group, snapped the camera.
+“What was that?” said a burly member of the group, as he looked round with
+scowling face at his companions. “Yes; what was that?” they echoed, and
+then made a rush for the manipulator of the black box, which they
+evidently took for some instrument of the black art. The photographer
+stood serenely innocent, and winked at the zaptieh to give the proper
+explanation. He was equal to the occasion. “That,” said he, “is an
+instrument for taking time by the sun.” At this the box went the round,
+each one gazing intently into the lens, then scratching his head, and
+casting a bewildered look at his nearest neighbor. We noticed that every
+one about us was armed with knife, revolver, and Martini rifle, a belt of
+cartridges surrounding his waist. It occurred to us that Turkey was
+adopting a rather poor method of clipping the wings of these mountain
+birds, by selling them the very best equipments for war. Legally, none but
+government guards are permitted to carry arms, and yet both guns and
+ammunition are sold in the bazaars of almost every city of the Turkish
+dominions. The existence of these people, in their wild, semi-independent
+state, shows not so much the power of the Kurds as the weakness of the
+Turkish government, which desires to use a people of so fierce a
+reputation for the suppression of its other subjects. After half an hour’s
+rest, we prepared to decamp, and so did our Kurdish companions. They were
+soon in their saddles, and galloping away in front of us, with their arms
+clanking, and glittering in the afternoon sunlight.
+
+At the spring we had turned off the trail that led over the Sardarbulakh
+pass into Russia, and were now following a horse-path which winds up to
+the Kurdish encampments on the southern slope of the mountain. The plain
+was strewn with sand and rocks, with here and there a bunch of tough, wiry
+grass about a foot and a half high, which, though early in the year, was
+partly dry. It would have been hot work except for the rain of the day
+before and a strong southeast wind. As it was, our feet were blistered and
+bruised, the thin leather sandals worn at the outset offering very poor
+protection. The atmosphere being dry, though not excessively hot, we soon
+began to suffer from thirst. Although we searched diligently for water, we
+did not find it till after two hours more of constant marching, when at a
+height of about 6000 feet, fifty yards from the path, we discerned a
+picturesque cascade of sparkling, cold mountain water. Even the old
+gentleman, Raffl, joined heartily in the gaiety induced by this clear,
+cold water from Ararat’s melting snows.
+
+  [Illustration: PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.]
+
+Our ascent for two and a half hours longer was through a luxuriant
+vegetation of flowers, grasses, and weeds, which grew more and more scanty
+as we advanced. Prominent among the specimens were the wild pink, poppy,
+and rose. One small fragrant herb, that was the most abundant of all, we
+were told was used by the Kurds for making tea. All these filled the
+evening air with perfume as we trudged along, passing now and then a
+Kurdish lad, with his flock of sheep and goats feeding on the
+mountain-grass, which was here much more luxuriant than below. Looking
+backward, we saw that we were higher than the precipitous cliffs which
+overtower the town of Bayazid, and which are perhaps from 1500 to 2000
+feet above the lowest part of the plain. The view over the plateau was now
+grand. Though we were all fatigued by the day’s work, the cool,
+moisture-laden air of evening revived our flagging spirits. We forged
+ahead with nimble step, joking, and singing a variety of national airs.
+The French “Marseillaise,” in which the old gentleman heartily joined,
+echoed and reëchoed among the rocks, and caused the shepherd lads and
+their flocks to crane their heads in wonderment. Even the Armenian
+muleteer so far overcame his fear of the Kurdish robbers as to indulge in
+one of his accustomed funeral dirges; but it stopped short, never to go
+again, when we came in sight of the Kurdish encampment. The poor fellow
+instinctively grabbed his donkeys about their necks, as though they were
+about to plunge over a precipice. The zaptiehs dashed ahead with the
+mutessarif’s letter to the Kurdish chief. We followed slowly on foot,
+while the Armenian and his two pets kept at a respectful distance in the
+rear.
+
+The disk of the sun had already touched the western horizon when we came
+to the black tents of the Kurdish encampment, which at this time of the
+day presented a rather busy scene. The women seemed to be doing all the
+work, while their lords sat round on their haunches. Some of the women
+were engaged in milking the sheep and goats in an inclosure. Others were
+busy making butter in a churn which was nothing more than a skin vessel
+three feet long, of the shape of a Brazil-nut, suspended from a rude
+tripod; this they swung to and fro to the tune of a weird Kurdish song.
+Behind one of the tents, on a primitive weaving-machine, some of them were
+making tent-roofing and matting. Others still were walking about with a
+ball of wool in one hand and a distaff in the other, spinning yarn. The
+flocks stood round about, bleating and lowing, or chewing their cud in
+quiet contentment. All seemed very domestic and peaceful except the
+Kurdish dogs, which set upon us with loud, fierce growls and gnashing
+teeth.
+
+Not so was it with the Kurdish chief, who by this time had finished
+reading the mutessarif’s message, and who now advanced from his tent with
+salaams of welcome. As he stood before us in the glowing sunset, he was a
+rather tall, but well-proportioned man, with black eyes and dark mustache,
+contrasting well with his brown-tanned complexion. Upon his face was the
+stamp of a rather wild and retiring character, although treachery and
+deceit were by no means wanting. He wore a headgear that was something
+between a hat and a turban, and over his baggy Turkish trousers hung a
+long Persian coat of bright-colored, large-figured cloth, bound at the
+waist by a belt of cartridges. Across the shoulders was slung a
+breech-loading Martini rifle, and from his neck dangled a heavy gold
+chain, which was probably the spoil of some predatory expedition. A quiet
+dignity sat on Ismail Deverish’s stalwart form.
+
+  [Illustration: THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.]
+
+It was with no little pleasure that we accepted his invitation to a cup of
+tea. After our walk of nineteen miles, in which we had ascended from 3000
+to 7000 feet, we were in fit condition to appreciate a rest. That Kurdish
+tent, as far as we were concerned, was a veritable palace, although we
+were almost blinded by the smoke from the green pine-branches on the
+smoldering fire. We said that the chief invited us to a cup of tea: so he
+did—but we provided the tea; and that, too, not only for our own party,
+but for half a dozen of the chief’s personal friends. There being only two
+glasses in the camp, we of course had to wait until our Kurdish
+acquaintances had quenched their burning thirst. In thoughtful mood we
+gazed around through the evening twilight. Far away on the western slope
+we could see some Kurdish women plodding along under heavy burdens of
+pine-branches like those that were now fumigating our eyes and nostrils.
+Across the hills the Kurdish shepherds were driving home their herds and
+flocks to the tinkling of bells. All this, to us, was deeply impressive.
+Such peaceful scenes, we thought, could never be the haunt of warlike
+robbers. The flocks at last came home; the shouts of the shepherds ceased;
+darkness fell; and all was quiet.
+
+One by one the lights in the tents broke out, like the stars above. As the
+darkness deepened, they shone more and more brightly across the
+amphitheater of the encampment. The tent in which we were now sitting was
+oblong in shape, covered with a mixture of goats’ and sheep’s wool,
+carded, spun, and woven by the Kurdish women. This tenting was all of a
+dark brown or black color. The various strips were badly joined together,
+allowing the snow and rain, during the stormy night that followed, to
+penetrate plentifully. A wickerwork fencing, about three feet high, made
+from the reeds gathered in the swamps of the Aras River, was stretched
+around the bottom of the tent to keep out the cattle as well as to afford
+some little protection from the elements. This same material, of the same
+width or height, was used to partition off the apartments of the women.
+Far from being veiled and shut up in harems, like their Turkish and
+Persian sisters, the Kurdish women come and go among the men, and talk and
+laugh as they please. The thinness and lowness of the partition walls did
+not disturb their astonishing equanimity. In their relations with the men
+the women are extremely free. During the evening we frequently found
+ourselves surrounded by a concourse of these mountain beauties, who would
+sit and stare at us with their black eyes, call attention to our personal
+oddities, and laugh among themselves. Now and then their jokes at our
+expense would produce hilarious laughter among the men. The dress of these
+women consisted of baggy trousers, better described in this country as
+“divided skirts,” a bright-colored overskirt and tunic, and a little round
+cloth cap encircled with a band of red and black. Through the right lobe
+of the nose was hung a peculiar button-shaped ornament studded with
+precious stones. This picturesque costume well set off their rich olive
+complexions, and black eyes beneath dark-brown lashes.
+
+There were no signs of an approaching evening meal until we opened our
+provision-bag, and handed over certain articles of raw food to be cooked
+for us. No sooner were the viands intrusted to the care of our hosts, than
+two sets of pots and kettles made their appearance in the other
+compartments. In half an hour our host and friends proceeded to indulge
+their voracious appetites. When our own meal was brought to us some time
+after, we noticed that the fourteen eggs we had doled out had been reduced
+to six; and the other materials suffered a similar reduction, the whole
+thing being so patent as to make their attempt at innocence absurdly
+ludicrous. We thought, however, if Kurdish highway robbery took no worse
+form than this, we could well afford to be content. Supper over, we
+squatted round a slow-burning fire, on the thick felt mats which served as
+carpets, drank tea, and smoked the usual cigarettes. By the light of the
+glowing embers we could watch the faces about us, and catch their
+horrified glances when reference was made to our intended ascent of
+Ak-Dagh, the mysterious abode of the jinn. Before turning in for the
+night, we reconnoitered our situation. The lights in all the tents, save
+our own, were now extinguished. Not a sound was heard, except the heavy
+breathing of some of the slumbering animals about us, or the bark of a dog
+at some distant encampment. The huge dome of Ararat, though six to eight
+miles farther up the slope, seemed to be towering over us like some giant
+monster of another world. We could not see the summit, so far was it above
+the enveloping clouds. We returned to the tent to find that the zaptiehs
+had been given the best places and best covers to sleep in, and that we
+were expected to accommodate ourselves near the door, wrapped up in an old
+Kurdish carpet. Policy was evidently a better developed trait of Kurdish
+character than hospitality.
+
+Although we arose at four, seven o’clock saw us still at the encampment.
+Two hours vanished before our gentlemen zaptiehs condescended to rise from
+their peaceful slumbers; then a great deal of time was unnecessarily
+consumed in eating their special breakfast. We ourselves had to be content
+with ekmek and yaourt (blotting-paper bread and curdled milk). This over,
+they concluded not to go on without sandals to take the place of their
+heavy military boots, as at this point their horses would have to be
+discarded. After we had employed a Kurd to make these for them, they
+declared they were afraid to proceed without the company of ten Kurds
+armed to the teeth. We knew that this was only a scheme on the part of the
+Kurds, with whom the zaptiehs were in league, to extort money from us. We
+still kept cool, and only casually insinuated that we did not have enough
+money to pay for so large a party. This announcement worked like a charm.
+The interest the Kurds had up to this time taken in our venture died away
+at once. Even the three Kurds who, as requested in the message of the
+mutessarif, were to accompany us up the mountain to the snow-line, refused
+absolutely to go. The mention of the mutessarif’s name awakened only a
+sneer. We had also relied upon the Kurds for blankets, as we had been
+advised to do by our friends in Bayazid. Those we had already hired they
+now snatched from the donkeys standing before the tent. All this time our
+tall, gaunt, meek-looking muleteer had stood silent. Now his turn had
+come. How far was he to go with his donkeys?—he didn’t think it possible
+for him to go much beyond this point. Patience now ceased to be a virtue.
+We cut off discussion at once; told the muleteer he would either go on, or
+lose what he had already earned; and informed the zaptiehs that whatever
+they did would be reported to the mutessarif on our return. Under this
+rather forcible persuasion, they stood not on the order of their going,
+but sullenly followed our little procession out of camp before the
+crestfallen Kurds.
+
+In the absence of guides we were thrown upon our own resources. Far from
+being an assistance, our zaptiehs proved a nuisance. They would carry
+nothing, not even the food they were to eat, and were absolutely ignorant
+of the country we were to traverse. From our observations on the previous
+days, we had decided to strike out on a northeast course, over the gentle
+slope, until we struck the rocky ridges on the southeast buttress of the
+dome. On its projecting rocks, which extended nearer to the summit than
+those of any other part of the mountain, we could avoid the slippery,
+precipitous snow-beds that stretched far down the mountain at this time of
+the year.
+
+Immediately after leaving the encampment, the ascent became steeper and
+more difficult; the small volcanic stones of yesterday now increased to
+huge obstructing boulders, among which the donkeys with difficulty made
+their way. They frequently tipped their loads, or got wedged in between
+two unyielding walls. In the midst of our efforts to extricate them, we
+often wondered how Noah ever managed with the animals from the ark. Had
+these donkeys not been of a philosophical turn of mind, they might have
+offered forcible objections to the way we extricated them from their
+straightened circumstances. A remonstrance on our part for carelessness in
+driving brought from the muleteer a burst of Turkish profanity that made
+the rocks of Ararat resound with indignant echoes. The spirit of
+insubordination seemed to be increasing in direct ratio with the height of
+our ascent.
+
+We came now to a comparatively smooth, green slope, which led up to the
+highest Kurdish encampment met on the line of our ascent, about 7500 feet.
+When in sight of the black tents, the subject of Kurdish guides was again
+broached by the zaptiehs, and immediately they sat down to discuss the
+question. We ourselves were through with discussion, and fully determined
+to have nothing to do with a people who could do absolutely nothing for
+us. We stopped at the tents, and asked for milk. “Yes,” they said; “we
+have some”: but after waiting for ten minutes, we learned that the milk
+was still in the goats’ possession, several hundred yards away among the
+rocks. It dawned upon us that this was only another trick of the zaptiehs
+to get a rest.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.]
+
+We pushed on the next 500 feet of the ascent without much trouble or
+controversy, the silence broken only by the muleteer, who took the _raki_
+bottle off the donkey’s pack, and asked if he could take a drink. As we
+had only a limited supply, to be used to dilute the snow-water, we were
+obliged to refuse him.
+
+At 8000 feet we struck our first snowdrift, into which the donkeys sank up
+to their bodies. It required our united efforts to lift them out, and half
+carry them across. Then on we climbed till ten o’clock, to a point about
+9000 feet, where we stopped for lunch in a quiet mountain glen, by the
+side of a rippling mountain rill. This snow-water we drank with raki. The
+view in the mean time had been growing more and more extensive. The plain
+before us had lost nearly all its detail and color, and was merged into
+one vast whole. Though less picturesque, it was incomparably grander. Now
+we could see how, in ages past, the lava had burst out of the lateral
+fissures in the mountain, and flowed in huge streams for miles down the
+slope, and out on the plain below. These beds of lava were gradually
+broken up by the action of the elements, and now presented the appearance
+of ridges of broken volcanic rocks of the most varied and fantastic
+shapes.
+
+It was here that the muleteer showed evident signs of weakening, which
+later on developed into a total collapse. We had come to a broad
+snow-field where the donkeys stuck fast and rolled over helpless in the
+snow. Even after we had unstrapped their baggage and carried it over on
+our shoulders, they could make no headway. The muleteer gave up in
+despair, and refused even to help us carry our loads to the top of an
+adjoining hill, whither the zaptiehs had proceeded to wait for us. In
+consequence, Raffl and we were compelled to carry two donkey-loads of
+baggage for half a mile over the snow-beds and boulders, followed by the
+sulking muleteer, who had deserted his donkeys, rather than be left alone
+himself. On reaching the zaptiehs, we sat down to hold a council on the
+situation; but the clouds, which, during the day, had occasionally
+obscured the top of the mountain, now began to thicken, and it was not
+long before a shower compelled us to beat a hasty retreat to a neighboring
+ledge of rocks. The clouds that were rolling between us and the mountain
+summit seemed but a token of the storm of circumstances. One thing was
+certain, the muleteer could go no farther up the mountain, and yet he was
+mortally afraid to return alone to the Kurdish robbers. He sat down, and
+began to cry like a child. This predicament of their accomplice furnished
+the zaptiehs with a plausible excuse. They now absolutely refused to go
+any farther without him. Our interpreter, the Greek, again joined the
+majority; he was not going to risk the ascent without the Turkish guards,
+and besides, he had now come to the conclusion that we had not sufficient
+blankets to spend a night at so high an altitude. Disappointed, but not
+discouraged, we gazed at the silent old gentleman at our side. In his
+determined countenance we read his answer. Long shall we remember Ignaz
+Raffl as one of the pluckiest, most persevering of old men.
+
+  [Illustration: HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.]
+
+There was now only one plan that could be pursued. Selecting from our
+supplies one small blanket, a felt mat, two long, stout ropes, enough food
+to last us two days, a bottle of cold tea, and a can of Turkish raki, we
+packed them into two bundles to strap on our backs. We then instructed the
+rest of the party to return to the Kurdish encampment and await our
+return. The sky was again clear at 2:30 P. M., when we bade good-by to our
+worthless comrades and resumed the ascent. We were now at a height of nine
+thousand feet, and it was our plan to camp at a point far enough up the
+mountain to enable us to complete the ascent on the following day, and
+return to the Kurdish encampment by nightfall. Beyond us was a region of
+snow and barren rocks, among which we still saw a small purple flower and
+bunches of lichens, which grew more rare as we advanced. Our course
+continued in a northeast direction, toward the main southeast ridge of the
+mountain. Sometimes we were floundering with our heavy loads in the deep
+snow-beds, or scrambling on hands and knees over the huge boulders of the
+rocky seams. Two hours and a half of climbing brought us to the crest of
+the main southeast ridge, about one thousand feet below the base of the
+precipitous dome. At this point our course changed from northeast to
+northwest, and continued so during the rest of the ascent. Little Ararat
+was now in full view. We could even distinguish upon its northwest side a
+deep-cut gorge, which was not visible before. Upon its smooth and perfect
+slopes remained only the tatters of its last winter’s garments. We could
+also look far out over the Sardarbulakh ridge, which connects the two
+Ararats, and on which the Cossacks are encamped. It was to them that the
+mutessarif had desired us to go, but we had subsequently determined to
+make the ascent directly from the Turkish side.
+
+  [Illustration: LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.]
+
+Following up this southeast ridge we came at 5:45 P. M. to a point about
+eleven thousand feet. Here the thermometer registered 39° Fahrenheit, and
+was constantly falling. If we should continue on, the cold during the
+night, especially with our scanty clothing, would become intolerable; and
+then, too, we could scarcely find a spot level enough to sleep on. We
+therefore determined to stop here for the night, and to continue the
+ascent at dawn. Some high, rugged crags on the ridge above us attracted
+our attention as affording a comparatively protected lodging. Among these
+we spread our carpet, and piled stones in the intervening spaces to form a
+complete inclosure. Thus busily engaged, we failed for a time to realize
+the grandeur of the situation. Over the vast and misty panorama that
+spread out before us, the lingering rays of the setting sun shed a tinge
+of gold, which was communicated to the snowy beds around us. Behind the
+peak of Little Ararat a brilliant rainbow stretched in one grand archway
+above the weeping clouds. But this was only one turn of nature’s
+kaleidoscope. The arch soon faded away, and the shadows lengthened and
+deepened across the plain, and mingled, till all was lost to view behind
+the falling curtains of the night. The Kurdish tents far down the slope,
+and the white curling smoke from their evening camp-fires, we could see no
+more; only the occasional bark of a dog was borne upward through the
+impenetrable darkness.
+
+Colder and colder grew the atmosphere. From 39° the thermometer gradually
+fell to 36°, to 33°, and during the night dropped below freezing-point.
+The snow, which fell from the clouds just over our heads, covered our
+frugal supper-table, on which were placed a few hard-boiled eggs, some
+tough Turkish bread, cheese, and a bottle of tea mixed with raki. Ice-tea
+was no doubt a luxury at this time of the year, but not on Mount Ararat,
+at the height of eleven thousand feet, with the temperature at
+freezing-point. M. Raffl was as cheerful as could be expected under the
+circumstances. He expressed his delight at our progress thus far; and now
+that we were free from our “gentlemen” attendants, he considered our
+chances for success much brighter. We turned in together under our single
+blanket, with the old gentleman between us. He had put on every article of
+clothing, including gloves, hat, hood, cloak, and heavy shoes. For pillows
+we used the provision-bags and camera. The bottle of cold tea we buttoned
+up in our coats to prevent it from freezing. On both sides, and above us,
+lay the pure white snow; below us a huge abyss, into which the rocky ridge
+descended like a darkened stairway to the lower regions. The awful
+stillness was unbroken, save by the whistling of the wind among the rocks.
+Dark masses of clouds seemed to bear down upon us every now and then,
+opening up their trapdoors, and letting down a heavy fall of snow. The
+heat of our bodies melted the ice beneath us, and our clothes became
+saturated with ice-water. Although we were surrounded by snow and ice, we
+were suffering with a burning thirst. Since separating from our companions
+we had found no water whatever, while the single bottle of cold tea we had
+must be preserved for the morrow. Sleep, under such circumstances, and in
+our cramped position, was utterly impossible. At one o’clock the morning
+star peeped above the eastern horizon. This we watched hour after hour, as
+it rose in unrivaled beauty toward the zenith, until at last it began to
+fade away in the first gray streaks of the morning.
+
+  [Illustration: THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND
+  FEET.]
+
+By the light of a flickering candle we ate a hurried breakfast, fastened
+on our spiked shoes, and strapped to our backs a few indispensable
+articles, leaving the rest of our baggage at the camp until our return.
+Just at daybreak, 3:55 A. M., on the 4th of July, we started off on what
+proved to be the hardest day’s work we had ever accomplished. We struck
+out at once across the broad snow-field to the second rock rib on the
+right, which seemed to lead up to the only line of rocks above. The
+surface of these large snow-beds had frozen during the night, so that we
+had to cut steps with our ice-picks to keep from slipping down their
+glassy surface. Up this ridge we slowly climbed for three weary hours,
+leaping from boulder to boulder, or dragging ourselves up their
+precipitous sides. The old gentleman halted frequently to rest, and showed
+evident signs of weariness. “It is hard; we must take it slowly,” he would
+say (in German) whenever our impatience would get the better of our
+prudence. At seven o’clock we reached a point about 13,500 feet, beyond
+which there seemed to be nothing but the snow-covered slope, with only a
+few projecting rocks along the edge of a tremendous gorge which now broke
+upon our astonished gaze. Toward this we directed our course, and, an hour
+later, stood upon its very verge. Our venerable companion now looked up at
+the precipitous slope above us, where only some stray, projecting rocks
+were left to guide us through the wilderness of snow. “Boys,” said he,
+despondently, “I cannot reach the top; I have not rested during the night,
+and I am now falling asleep on my feet; besides, I am very much fatigued.”
+This came almost like a sob from a breaking heart. Although the old
+gentleman was opposed to the ascent in the first instance, his old Alpine
+spirit arose within him with all its former vigor when once he had started
+up the mountain slope; and now, when almost in sight of the very goal, his
+strength began to fail him. After much persuasion and encouragement, he
+finally said that if he could get half an hour’s rest and sleep, he
+thought he would be able to continue. We then wrapped him up in his
+greatcoat, and dug out a comfortable bed in the snow, while one of us sat
+down, with back against him, to keep him from rolling down the
+mountain-side.
+
+  [Illustration: NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.]
+
+We were now on the chasm’s brink, looking down into its unfathomable
+depths. This gigantic rent, hundreds of feet in width and thousands in
+depth, indicates that northwest-southeast line along which the volcanic
+forces of Ararat have acted most powerfully. This fissure is perhaps the
+greatest with which the mountain is seamed, and out of which has
+undoubtedly been discharged a great portion of its lava. Starting from the
+base of the dome, it seemed to pierce the shifting clouds to a point about
+500 feet from the summit. This line is continued out into the plain in a
+series of small volcanoes the craters of which appear to be as perfect as
+though they had been in activity only yesterday. The solid red and yellow
+rocks which lined the sides of the great chasm projected above the
+opposite brink in jagged and appalling cliffs. The whole was incased in a
+mass of huge fantastic icicles, which, glittering in the sunlight, gave it
+the appearance of a natural crystal palace. No more fitting place than
+this could the fancy of the Kurds depict for the home of the terrible
+jinn; no better symbol of nature for the awful jaws of death.
+
+Our companion now awoke considerably refreshed, and the ascent was
+continued close to the chasm’s brink. Here were the only rocks to be seen
+in the vast snow-bed around us. Cautiously we proceed, with cat-like
+tread, following directly in one another’s footsteps, and holding on to
+our alpenstocks like grim death. A loosened rock would start at first
+slowly, gain momentum, and fairly fly. Striking against some projecting
+ledge, it would bound a hundred feet or more into the air, and then drop
+out of sight among the clouds below. Every few moments we would stop to
+rest; our knees were like lead, and the high altitude made breathing
+difficult. Now the trail of rocks led us within two feet of the chasm’s
+edge; we approached it cautiously, probing well for a rock foundation, and
+gazing with dizzy heads into the abyss.
+
+The slope became steeper and steeper, until it abutted in an almost
+precipitous cliff coated with snow and glistening ice. There was no escape
+from it, for all around the snow-beds were too steep and slippery to
+venture an ascent upon them. Cutting steps with our ice-picks, and
+half-crawling, half-dragging ourselves, with the alpenstocks hooked into
+the rocks above, we scaled its height, and advanced to the next abutment.
+Now a cloud, as warm as exhausted steam, enveloped us in the midst of this
+ice and snow. When it cleared away, the sun was reflected with intenser
+brightness. Our faces were already smarting with blisters, and our dark
+glasses afforded but little protection to our aching eyes.
+
+At 11 A. M. we sat down on the snow to eat our last morsel of food. The
+cold chicken and bread tasted like sawdust, for we had no saliva with
+which to masticate them. Our single bottle of tea had given out, and we
+suffered with thirst for several hours. Again the word to start was given.
+We rose at once, but our stiffened legs quivered beneath us, and we leaned
+on our alpenstocks for support. Still we plodded on for two more weary
+hours, cutting our steps in the icy cliffs, or sinking to our thighs in
+the treacherous snow-beds. We could see that we were nearing the top of
+the great chasm, for the clouds, now entirely cleared away, left our view
+unobstructed. We could even descry the black Kurdish tents upon the
+northeast slope, and, far below, the Aras River, like a streak of silver,
+threading its way into the purple distance. The atmosphere about us grew
+colder, and we buttoned up our now too scanty garments. We must be nearing
+the top, we thought, and yet we were not certain, for a huge, precipitous
+cliff, just in front of us, cut off the view.
+
+“Slowly, slowly,” feebly shouted the old gentleman, as we began the attack
+on its precipitous sides, now stopping to brush away the treacherous snow,
+or to cut some steps in the solid ice. We pushed and pulled one another
+almost to the top, and then, with one more desperate effort, we stood upon
+a vast and gradually sloping snow-bed. Down we plunged above our knees
+through the yielding surface, and staggered and fell with failing
+strength; then rose once more and plodded on, until at last we sank
+exhausted upon the top of Ararat.
+
+For a moment only we lay gasping for breath; then a full realization of
+our situation dawned upon us, and fanned the few faint sparks of
+enthusiasm that remained in our exhausted bodies. We unfurled upon an
+alpenstock the small silk American flag that we had brought from home, and
+for the first time the “stars and stripes” was given to the breeze on the
+Mountain of the Ark. Four shots fired from our revolvers in commemoration
+of Independence Day broke the stillness of the gorges. Far above the
+clouds, which were rolling below us over three of the most absolute
+monarchies in the world, was celebrated in our simple way a great event of
+republicanism.
+
+Mount Ararat, it will be observed from the accompanying sketch, has two
+tops, a few hundred yards apart, sloping, on the eastern and western
+extremities, into rather prominent abutments, and separated by a snow
+valley, or depression, from 50 to 100 feet in depth. The eastern top, on
+which we were standing, was quite extensive, and 30 to 40 feet lower than
+its western neighbor. Both tops are hummocks on the huge dome of Ararat,
+like the humps on the back of a camel, on neither one of which is there a
+vestige of anything but snow.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY
+  SALUTE.]
+
+There remained just as little trace of the crosses left by Parrot and
+Chodzko, as of the ark itself. We remembered the pictures we had seen in
+our nursery-books, which represented this mountain-top covered with green
+grass, and Noah stepping out of the ark, in the bright, warm sunshine,
+before the receding waves; and now we looked around and saw this very spot
+covered with perpetual snow. Nor did we see any evidence whatever of a
+former existing crater, except perhaps the snow-filled depression we have
+just mentioned. There was nothing about this perpetual snow-field, and the
+freezing atmosphere that was chilling us to the bone, to remind us that we
+were on the top of an extinct volcano that once trembled with the
+convulsions of subterranean heat.
+
+The view from this towering height was immeasurably extensive, and almost
+too grand. All detail was lost—all color, all outline; even the
+surrounding mountains seemed to be but excrescent ridges of the plain.
+Then, too, we could catch only occasional glimpses, as the clouds shifted
+to and fro. At one time they opened up beneath us, and revealed the Aras
+valley with its glittering ribbon of silver at an abysmal depth below. Now
+and then we could descry the black volcanic peaks of Ali Ghez forty miles
+away to the northwest, and on the southwest the low mountains that
+obscured the town of Bayazid. Of the Caucasus, the mountains about Erzerum
+on the west, and Lake Van on the south, and even of the Caspian Sea, all
+of which are said to be in Ararat’s horizon, we could see absolutely
+nothing.
+
+Had it been a clear day we could have seen not only the rival peaks of the
+Caucasus, which for so many years formed the northern wall of the
+civilized world, but, far to the south, we might have descried the
+mountains of Quardu land, where Chaldean legend has placed the landing of
+the ark. We might have gazed, in philosophic mood, over the whole of the
+Aras valley, which for 3000 years or more has been the scene of so much
+misery and conflict. As monuments of two extreme events in this historic
+period, two spots might have attracted our attention—one right below us,
+the ruins of Artaxata, which, according to tradition, was built, as the
+story goes, after the plans of the roving conqueror Hannibal, and stormed
+by the Roman legions, A. D. 58; and farther away to the north, the modern
+fortress of Kars, which so recently reverberated with the thunders of the
+Turkish war.
+
+We were suddenly aroused by the rumbling of thunder below us. A storm was
+rolling rapidly up the southeast slope of the mountain. The atmosphere
+seemed to be boiling over the heated plain below. Higher and higher came
+the clouds, rolling and seething among the grim crags along the chasm; and
+soon we were caught in its embrace. The thermometer dropped at once below
+freezing-point, and the dense mists, driven against us by the hurricane,
+formed icicles on our blistered faces, and froze the ink in our
+fountain-pens. Our summer clothing was wholly inadequate for such an
+unexpected experience; we were chilled to the bone. To have remained where
+we were would have been jeopardizing our health, if not our lives.
+Although we could scarcely see far enough ahead to follow back on the
+track by which we had ascended, yet we were obliged to attempt it at once,
+for the storm around us was increasing every moment; we could even feel
+the charges of electricity whenever we touched the iron points of our
+alpenstocks.
+
+Carefully peering through the clouds, we managed to follow the trail we
+had made along the gradually sloping summit, to the head of the great
+chasm, which now appeared more terrible than ever. We here saw that it
+would be extremely perilous, if not actually impossible, to attempt a
+descent on the rocks along its treacherous edge in such a hurricane. The
+only alternative was to take the precipitous snow-covered slope. Planting
+our ice-hooks deep in the snow behind us, we started. At first the strong
+head wind, which on the top almost took us off our feet, somewhat checked
+our downward career, but it was not long before we attained a velocity
+that made our hair stand on end. It was a thrilling experience; we seemed
+to be sailing through the air itself, for the clouds obscured the slope
+even twenty feet below. Finally we emerged beneath them into the glare of
+the afternoon sunlight; but on we dashed for 6000 feet, leaning heavily on
+the trailing-stocks, which threw up an icy spray in our wake. We never
+once stopped until we reached the bottom of the dome, at our last night’s
+camp among the rocks.
+
+In less than an hour we had dashed down, through a distance which it had
+taken us nine and a half hours to ascend. The camp was reached at 4 P. M.,
+just twelve hours from the time we left it. Gathering up the remaining
+baggage, we hurried away to continue the descent. We must make desperate
+efforts to reach the Kurdish encampment by nightfall; for during the last
+twenty-seven hours we had had nothing to drink but half a pint of tea, and
+our thirst by this time became almost intolerable.
+
+The large snow-bed down which we had been sliding now began to show signs
+of treachery. The snow, at this low altitude, had melted out from below,
+to supply the subterranean streams, leaving only a thin crust at the
+surface. It was not long before one of our party fell into one of these
+pitfalls up to his shoulders, and floundered about for some time before he
+could extricate himself from his unexpected snow-bath.
+
+Over the rocks and boulders the descent was much slower and more tedious.
+For two hours we were thus busily engaged, when all at once a shout rang
+out in the clear evening air. Looking up we saw, sure enough, our two
+zaptiehs and muleteer on the very spot where we had left them the evening
+before. Even the two donkeys were on hand to give us a welcoming bray.
+They had come up from the encampment early in the morning, and had been
+scanning the mountain all day long to get some clue to our whereabouts.
+They reported that they had seen us at one time during the morning, and
+had then lost sight of us among the clouds. This solicitude on their part
+was no doubt prompted by the fact that they were to be held by the
+mutessarif of Bayazid as personally responsible for our safe return, and
+perhaps, too, by the hope that they might thus retrieve the good graces
+they had lost the day before, and thereby increase the amount of the
+forthcoming baksheesh. Nothing, now, was too heavy for the donkeys, and
+even the zaptiehs themselves condescended to relieve us of our
+alpenstocks.
+
+That night we sat again around the Kurdish camp-fire, surrounded by the
+same group of curious faces. It was interesting and even amusing to watch
+the bewildered astonishment that overspread their countenances as we
+related our experiences along the slope, and then upon the very top, of
+Ak-Dagh. They listened throughout with profound attention, then looked at
+one another in silence, and gravely shook their heads. They could not
+believe it. It was impossible. Old Ararat stood above us grim and terrible
+beneath the twinkling stars. To them it was, as it always will be, the
+same mysterious, untrodden height—the palace of the jinn.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   III
+
+
+                       THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND
+
+
+“It is all bosh,” was the all but universal opinion of Bayazid in regard
+to our alleged ascent of Ararat. None but the Persian consul and the
+mutessarif himself deigned to profess a belief in it, and the gift of
+several letters to Persian officials, and a sumptuous dinner on the eve of
+our departure, went far toward proving their sincerity.
+
+On the morning of July 8, in company with a body-guard of zaptiehs, which
+the mutessarif forced upon us, we wheeled down from the ruined
+embattlements of Bayazid. The assembled rabble raised a lusty cheer at
+parting. An hour later we had surmounted the Kazlee Gool, and the “land of
+Iran” was before us. At our feet lay the Turco-Persian battle-plains of
+Chaldiran, spreading like a desert expanse to the parched barren hills
+beyond, and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the village
+oases. And this, then, was the land where, as the poets say, “the
+nightingale sings, and the rose-tree blossoms,” and where “a flower is
+crushed at every step!” More truth, we thought, in the Scotch traveler’s
+description, which divides Persia into two portions—“One desert with salt,
+and the other desert without salt.” In time we came to McGregor’s opinion
+as expressed in his description of Khorassan. “We should fancy,” said he,
+“a small green circle round every village indicated on the map, and shade
+all the rest in brown.” The mighty hosts whose onward sweep from the Indus
+westward was checked only by the Grecian phalanx upon the field of
+Marathon must have come from the scattered ruins around, which reminded us
+that “Iran was; she is no more.” Those myriad ranks of Yenghiz Khan and
+Tamerlane brought death and desolation from Turan to Iran, which so often
+met to act and react upon one another that both are now only landmarks in
+the sea of oblivion.
+
+  [Illustration: HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.]
+
+Our honorary escort accompanied us several miles over the border to the
+Persian village of Killissakend, and there committed us to the hospitality
+of the district khan, with whom we managed to converse in the Turkish
+language, which, strange to say, we found available in all the countries
+that lay in our transcontinental pathway as far as the great wall of
+China. Toward evening we rode in the garden of the harem of the khan, and
+at daybreak the next morning were again in the saddle. By a very early
+start we hoped to escape the burden of excessive hospitality; in other
+words, to get rid of an escort that was an expensive nuisance. At the next
+village we were confronted by what appeared to be a shouting,
+gesticulating maniac. On dismounting, we learned that a harbinger had been
+sent by the khan, the evening before, to have a guard ready to join us as
+we passed through. In fact, two armed _ferashes_ were galloping toward us,
+armed, as we afterward learned, with American rifles, and the usual
+_kamma_, or huge dagger, swinging from a belt of cartridges. These
+fellows, like the zaptiehs, were fond of ostentation. They frequently led
+us a roundabout way to show us off to their relatives or friends in a
+neighboring village. Nature at last came to our deliverance. As we stood
+on a prominent ridge taking a last look at Mount Ararat, now more than
+fifty miles away, a storm came upon us, showering hailstones as large as
+walnuts. The ferashes with frantic steeds dashed ahead to seek a place of
+shelter, and we saw them no more.
+
+Five days in Persia brought us to the shores of Lake Ooroomeeyah, the
+saltest body of water in the world. Early the next morning we were wading
+the chilly waters of the Hadji Chai, and a few hours later found us in the
+English consulate at Tabreez, where we were received by the Persian
+secretary. The English government, it seemed, had become embroiled in a
+local love-affair just at a time when Colonel Stewart was off on
+“diplomatic duty” on the Russian Transcaspian border. An exceptionally
+bright Armenian beauty, a graduate of the American missionary schools at
+this place, had been abducted, it was claimed, by a young Kurdish
+cavalier, and carried away to his mountain home. Her father, who happened
+to be a naturalized English subject, had applied for the assistance of his
+adopted country in obtaining her release. Negotiations were at once set on
+foot between London and Teheran, which finally led to a formal demand upon
+the Kurds by the Shah himself. Upon their repeated refusal, seven thousand
+Persian troops, it was said, were ordered to Soak Boulak, under the
+command of the vice-consul, Mr. Patton. The matter at length assumed such
+an importance as to give rise, in the House of Commons, to the question,
+“Who is Katty Greenfield?” This, in time, was answered by that lady
+herself, who declared under oath that she had become a Mohammedan, and was
+in love with the man with whom she had eloped. More than this, it was
+learned that she had not a drop of English blood in her veins, her father
+being an Austrian, and her mother a native Armenian. Whereupon the Persian
+troopers, with their much disgusted leader, beat an inglorious retreat,
+leaving “Katty Greenfield” mistress of the situation, and of a Kurdish
+heart.
+
+  [Illustration: LEAVING KHOI.]
+
+In Tabreez there is one object sure to attract attention. This is the
+“Ark,” or ancient fortified castle of the Persian rulers. High on one of
+the sides, which a recent earthquake has rent from top to bottom, there is
+a little porch whence these Persian “Bluebeards,” or rather Redbeards,
+were wont to hurl unruly members of the harem. Under the shadow of these
+gloomy walls was enacted a tragedy of this century. Babism is by no means
+the only heresy that has sprung from the speculative genius of Persia; but
+it is the one that has most deeply moved the society of the present age,
+and the one which still obtains, though in secret and without a leader.
+Its founder, Seyd Mohammed Ali, better known as Bab, or “Gate,”
+promulgated the doctrine of anarchy to the extent of “sparing the rod and
+spoiling the child,” and still worse, perhaps, of refusing to the ladies
+no finery that might be at all becoming to their person. While not a
+communist, as he has sometimes been wrongly classed, he exhorted the
+wealthy to regard themselves as only trustees of the poor. With no thought
+at first of acquiring civil power, he and his rapidly increasing following
+were driven to revolt by the persecuting mollas, and the sanguinary
+struggle of 1848 followed. Bab himself was captured, and carried to this
+“most fanatical city of Persia,” the burial-place of the sons of Ali. On
+this very spot a company was ordered to despatch him with a volley; but
+when the smoke cleared away, Bab was not to be seen. None of the bullets
+had gone to the mark, and the bird had flown—but not to the safest refuge.
+Had he finally escaped, the miracle thus performed would have made Babism
+invincible. But he was recaptured and despatched, and his body thrown to
+the canine scavengers.
+
+  [Illustration: YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.]
+
+  [Illustration: LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.]
+
+_Tabreez_ (fever-dispelling) was a misnomer in our case. Our sojourn here
+was prolonged for more than a month by a slight attack of typhoid fever,
+which this time seized Sachtleben, and again the kind nursing of the
+missionary ladies hastened recovery. Our mail, in the mean time, having
+been ordered to Teheran, we were granted the privilege of intercepting it.
+For this purpose we were permitted to overhaul the various piles of
+letters strewn over the dirty floor of the distributing-office. Both the
+Turkish and Persian mail is carried in saddle-bags on the backs of
+reinless horses driven at a rapid gallop before the mounted mail-carrier
+or herdsman. Owing to the carelessness of the postal officials, legations
+and consulates employ special couriers.
+
+The proximity of Tabreez to the Russian border makes it politically, as
+well as commercially, one of the most important cities in Persia. For this
+reason it is the place of residence of the Emir-e-Nizam (leader of the
+army), or prime minister, as well as the Vali-Ahd, or Prince Imperial.
+This prince is the Russian candidate, as opposed to the English candidate,
+for the prospective vacancy on the throne. Both of these dignitaries
+invited us to visit them, and showed much interest in our “wonderful wind
+horses,” of the speed of which exaggerated reports had circulated through
+the country. We were also favored with a special letter for the journey to
+the capital.
+
+On this stage we started August 15, stopping the first night at
+Turkmanchai, the little village where was signed the famous treaty of 1828
+by virtue of which the Caspian Sea became a Russian lake. The next morning
+we were on the road soon after daybreak, and on approaching the next
+village overtook a curious cavalcade, just concluding a long night’s
+journey. This consisted of a Persian palanquin, with its long pole-shafts
+saddled upon the back of a mule at each end; with servants on foot, and a
+body-guard of mounted soldiers. The occupant of this peculiar conveyance
+remained concealed throughout the stampede which our sudden appearance
+occasioned among his hearse-bearing mules, for as such they will appear in
+the sequel. In our first article we mentioned an interview in London with
+Malcolm Khan, the representative of the Shah at the court of St. James.
+Since then, it seemed, he had fallen into disfavor. During the late visit
+of the Shah to England certain members of his retinue were so young, both
+in appearance and conduct, as to be a source of mortification to the
+Europeanized minister. This reached the ears of the Shah some time after
+his return home; and a summons was sent for the accused to repair to
+Teheran. Malcolm Khan, however, was too well versed in Oriental craft to
+fall into such a trap, and announced his purpose to devote his future
+leisure to airing his knowledge of Persian politics in the London press.
+The Persian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Musht-a-Shar-el-Dowlet, then
+residing at Tabreez, who was accused of carrying on a seditious
+correspondence with Malcolm Khan, was differently situated, unfortunately.
+It was during our sojourn in that city that his palatial household was
+raided by a party of soldiers, and he was carried to prison as a common
+felon. Being unable to pay the high price of pardon that was demanded, he
+was forced away, a few days before our departure, on that dreaded journey
+to the capital, which few, if any, ever complete. For on the way they are
+usually met by a messenger, who proffers them a cup of coffee, a sword,
+and a rope, from which they are to choose the method of their doom. This,
+then, was the occupant of the mysterious palanquin, which now was opened
+as we drew up before the village caravansary. Out stepped a man, tall and
+portly, with beard and hair of venerable gray. His keen eye, clear-cut
+features, and dignified bearing, bespoke for him respect even in his
+downfall, while his stooped shoulders and haggard countenance betrayed the
+weight of sorrow and sleepless nights with which he was going to his tomb.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN
+  DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH.]
+
+At Miana, that town made infamous by its venomous insect, is located one
+of the storage-stations of the Indo-European Telegraph Company. Its
+straight lines of iron poles, which we followed very closely from Tabreez
+to Teheran, form only a link in that great wire and cable chain which
+connects Melbourne with London. We spent the following night in the German
+operator’s room.
+
+The weakness of the Persian for mendacity is proverbial. One instance of
+this national weakness was attended with considerable inconvenience to us.
+By some mischance we had run by the village where we intended to stop for
+the night, which was situated some distance off the road. Meeting a
+Persian lad, we inquired the distance. He was ready at once with a
+cheerful falsehood. “One farsak” (four miles), he replied, although he
+must have known at the time that the village was already behind us. On we
+pedaled at an increased rate, in order to precede, if possible, the
+approaching darkness; for although traditionally the land of a double
+dawn, Persia has only one twilight, and that closely merged into sunset
+and darkness. One, two farsaks were placed behind us, and still there was
+no sign of a human habitation. At length darkness fell; we were obliged to
+dismount to feel our way. By the gradually rising ground, and the rocks,
+we knew we were off the road. Dropping our wheels, we groped round on
+hands and knees, to find, if possible, some trace of water. With a burning
+thirst, a chilling atmosphere, and swarms of mosquitos biting through our
+clothing, we could not sleep. A slight drizzle began to descend. During
+our gloomy vigil we were glad to hear the sounds of a caravan, toward
+which we groped our way, discerning, at length, a long line of camels
+marching to the music of their lantern-bearing leader. When our
+nickel-plated bars and white helmets flashed in the lantern-light, there
+was a shriek, and the lantern fell to the ground. The rear-guard rushed to
+the front with drawn weapons; but even they started back at the sound of
+our voices, as we attempted in broken Turkish to reassure them.
+Explanations were made, and the camels soon quieted. Thereupon we were
+surrounded with lanterns and firebrands, while the remainder of the
+caravan party was called to the front. Finally we moved on, walking side
+by side with the lantern-bearing leader, who ran ahead now and then to
+make sure of the road. The night was the blackest we had ever seen.
+Suddenly one of the camels disappeared in a ditch, and rolled over with a
+groan. Fortunately, no bones were broken, and the load was replaced. But
+we were off the road, and a search was begun with lights to find the
+beaten path. Footsore and hungry, with an almost intolerable thirst, we
+trudged along till morning, to the ding-dong, ding-dong of the deep-toned
+camel-bells. Finally we reached a sluggish river, but did not dare to
+satisfy our thirst, except by washing out our mouths, and by taking
+occasional swallows, with long intervals of rest, in one of which we fell
+asleep from sheer exhaustion. When we awoke the midday sun was shining,
+and a party of Persian travelers was bending over us.
+
+From the high lands of Azerbeidjan, where, strange to say, nearly all
+Persian pestilences arise, we dropped suddenly into the Kasveen plain, a
+portion of that triangular, dried-up basin of the Persian Mediterranean,
+now for the most part a sandy, saline desert. The argillaceous dust
+accumulated on the Kasveen plain by the weathering of the surrounding
+uplands resembles in appearance the “yellow earth” of the Hoang Ho
+district in China, but remains sterile for the lack of water. Even the
+little moisture that obtains beneath the surface is sapped by the
+_kanots_, or underground canals, which bring to the fevered lips of the
+desert oases the fresh, cool springs of the Elburz. These are dug with
+unerring instinct, and preserved with jealous care by means of shafts or
+slanting wells dug at regular intervals across the plain. Into these we
+would occasionally descend to relieve our reflection-burned—or, as a
+Persian would say, “snow-burned”—faces, while the thermometer above stood
+at 120° in the shade.
+
+Over the level ninety-mile stretch between Kasveen and the capital a
+so-called carriage-road has recently been constructed close to the base of
+the mountain. A sudden turn round a mountain-spur, and before us was
+presented to view Mount Demavend and Teheran. Soon the paved streets,
+sidewalks, lamp-posts, street-railways, and even steam-tramway, of the
+half modern capital were as much of a surprise to us as our “wind horses”
+were to the curious crowds that escorted us to the French Hotel.
+
+  [Illustration: A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.]
+
+From Persia it was our plan to enter Russian central Asia, and thence to
+proceed to China or Siberia. To enter the Transcaspian territory, the
+border-province of the Russian possessions, the sanction of its governor,
+General Kuropatkine, would be quite sufficient; but for the rest of the
+journey through Turkestan the Russian minister in Teheran said we would
+have to await a general permission from St. Petersburg. Six weeks were
+spent with our English and American acquaintances, and still no answer was
+received. Winter was coming on, and something had to be done at once. If
+we were to be debarred from a northern route, we would have to attempt a
+passage into India either through Afghanistan, which we were assured by
+all was quite impossible, or across the deserts of southern Persia and
+Baluchistan. For this latter we had already obtained a possible route from
+the noted traveler, Colonel Stewart, whom we met on his way back to his
+consular post at Tabreez. But just at this juncture the Russian minister
+advised another plan. In order to save time, he said, we might proceed to
+Meshed at once, and if our permission was not telegraphed to us at that
+point, we could then turn south to Baluchistan as a last resort. This, our
+friends unanimously declared, was a Muscovite trick to evade an absolute
+refusal. The Russians, they assured us, would never permit a foreign
+inspection of their doings on the Afghan border; and furthermore, we would
+never be able to cross the uninhabited deserts of Baluchistan. Against all
+protest, we waved “farewell” to the foreign and native throng which had
+assembled to see us off, and on October 5 wheeled out of the fortified
+square on the “Pilgrim Road to Meshed.”
+
+Before us now lay six hundred miles of barren hills, swampy _kevirs_,
+brier-covered wastes, and salty deserts, with here and there some
+kanot-fed oases. To the south lay the lifeless desert of Luth, the
+“Persian Sahara,” the humidity of which is the lowest yet recorded on the
+face of the globe, and compared with which “the Gobi of China and the
+Kizil-Kum of central Asia are fertile regions.” It is our extended and
+rather unique experience on the former of these two that prompts us to
+refrain from further description of desert travel here, where the
+hardships were in a measure ameliorated by frequent stations, and by the
+use of cucumbers and pomegranates, both of which we carried with us on the
+long desert stretches. Melons, too, the finest we have ever seen in any
+land, frequently obviated the necessity of drinking the strongly brackish
+water.
+
+  [Illustration: LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.]
+
+Yet this experience was sufficient to impress us with the fact that the
+national poets, Hafiz and Sadi, like Thomas Moore, have sought in fancy
+what the land of Iran denied them. Those “spicy groves, echoing with the
+nightingale’s song,” those “rosy bowers and purling brooks,” on the whole
+exist, so far as our experience goes, only in the poet’s dream.
+
+Leaving on the right the sand-swept ruins of Veramin, that capital of
+Persia before Teheran was even thought of, we traversed the pass of
+Sir-Dara, identified by some as the famous “Caspian Gate,” and early in
+the evening entered the village of Aradan. The usual crowd hemmed us in on
+all sides, yelling, “Min, min!” (“Ride, ride!”), which took the place of
+the Turkish refrain of “Bin, bin!” As we rode toward the caravansary they
+shouted, “Faster, faster!” and when we began to distance them, they caught
+at the rear wheels, and sent a shower of stones after us, denting our
+helmets, and bruising our coatless backs. This was too much; we dismounted
+and exhibited the ability to defend ourselves, whereupon they tumbled over
+one another in their haste to get away. But they were at our wheels again
+before we reached the caravansary. Here they surged through the narrow
+gangway, and knocked over the fruit-stands of the bazaars.
+
+We were shown to a room, or windowless cell, in the honeycomb structure
+that surrounded an open quadrangular court, at the time filled with a
+caravan of pilgrims, carrying triangular white and black flags, with the
+Persian coat of arms, the same we have seen over many doorways in Persia
+as warnings of the danger of trespassing upon the religious services held
+within. The cadaverous stench revealed the presence of half-dried human
+bones being carried by relatives and friends for interment in the sacred
+“City of the Silent.” Thus dead bodies, in loosely nailed boxes, are
+always traveling from one end of Persia to the other. Among the pilgrims
+were blue and green turbaned Saids, direct descendants of the Prophet, as
+well as white-turbaned mollas. All were sitting about on the _sakoo_, or
+raised platform, just finishing the evening meal. But presently one of the
+mollas ascended the mound in the middle of the stable-yard, and in the
+manner of the muezzin called to prayer. All kneeled, and bowed their heads
+toward Mecca. Then the horses were saddled, the long, narrow boxes
+attached upright to the pack-mules, and the _kajacas_, or double boxes,
+adjusted on the backs of the horses of the ladies. Into these the veiled
+creatures entered, and drew the curtains, while the men leaped into the
+saddle at a signal, and, with the tri-cornered flag at their head, the
+cavalcade moved out on its long night pilgrimage. We now learned that the
+village contained a _chappar khan_, one of those places of rest which have
+recently been provided for the use of foreigners and others, who travel
+_chappar_, or by relays of post-horses. These structures are usually
+distinguished by a single room built on the roof, and projecting some
+distance over the eaves.
+
+  [Illustration: IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.]
+
+To this we repaired at once. Its keeper evinced unusual pride in the
+cleanliness of his apartments, for we were asked to take off our shoes
+before entering. But while our boastful host was kicking up the mats to
+convince us of the truth of his assertions, he suddenly retired behind the
+scenes to rid himself of some of the pests.
+
+  [Illustration: PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.]
+
+Throughout our Asiatic tour eggs were our chief means of subsistence, but
+_pillao_, or boiled rice flavored with grease, we found more particularly
+used in Persia, like _yaourt_ in Turkey. This was prepared with chicken
+whenever it was possible to purchase a fowl, and then we would usually
+make the discovery that a Persian fowl was either wingless, legless, or
+otherwise defective after being prepared by a Persian _fuzul_, or
+foreigner’s servant, who, it is said, “shrinks from no baseness in order
+to eat.” Though minus these particular appendages, it would invariably
+have a head; for the fanatical Shiah frequently snatched a chicken out of
+our hands to prevent us from wringing or chopping its head off. Even after
+our meal was served, we would keep a sharp lookout upon the unblushing
+pilferers around us, who had called to pay their respects, and to fill the
+room with clouds of smoke from their chibouks and gurgling kalians. For a
+fanatical Shiah will sometimes stick his dirty fingers into the dishes of
+an “unbeliever,” even though he may subsequently throw away the
+contaminated vessel. And this extreme fanaticism is to be found in a
+country noted for its extensive latitude in the profession of religious
+beliefs.
+
+  [Illustration: A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.]
+
+A present from the village khan was announced. In stepped two men bearing
+a huge tray filled with melons, apricots, sugar, rock-candy, nuts,
+pistachios, etc., all of which we must, of course, turn over to the
+khan-keeper and his servants, and pay double their value to the bearers,
+as a present. This polite method of extortion was followed the next
+morning by one of a bolder and more peremptory nature. Notwithstanding the
+feast of the night before at our expense, and in addition to furnishing us
+with bedclothes which we really ought to have been paid to sleep in, our
+oily host now insisted upon three or four prices for his lodgings. We
+refused to pay him more than a certain sum, and started to vacate the
+premises. Thereupon he and his grown son caught hold of our bicycles.
+Remonstrances proving of no avail, and being unable to force our passage
+through the narrow doorway with the bicycles in our hands, we dropped
+them, and grappled with our antagonists. A noisy scuffle, and then a heavy
+fall ensued, but luckily we were both on the upper side. This unusual
+disturbance now brought out the inmates of the adjoining _anderoon_. In a
+moment there was a din of feminine screams, and a flutter of garments, and
+then—a crashing of our pith helmets beneath the blows of pokers and
+andirons. The villagers, thus aroused, came at last to our rescue, and at
+once proceeded to patch up a compromise. This, in view of the Amazonian
+reinforcements, who were standing by in readiness for a second onset, we
+were more than pleased to accept. From this inglorious combat we came off
+without serious injury; but with those gentle poker taps were knocked out
+forever all the sweet delusions of the “Light of the Harem.”
+
+The great antiquity of this Teheran-Meshed road, which is undoubtedly a
+section of that former commercial highway between two of the most ancient
+capitals in history—Nineveh and Balk, is very graphically shown by the
+caravan ruts at Lasgird. These have been worn in many places to a depth of
+four feet in the solid rock. It was not far beyond this point that we
+began to feel the force of that famous “Damghan wind,” so called from the
+city of that name. Of course this wind was against us. In fact, throughout
+our Asiatic tour easterly winds prevailed; and should we ever attempt
+another transcontinental spin we would have a care to travel in the
+opposite direction.
+
+  [Illustration: CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.]
+
+Our peculiar mode of travel subjected us to great extremes in our mode of
+living. Sometimes, indeed, it was a change almost from the sublime to the
+ridiculous, and vice versa—from a stable or sheepfold, with a diet of figs
+and bread, and an irrigating-ditch for a lavatory, to a palace itself, an
+Oriental palace, with all the delicacies of the East, and a host of
+servants to attend to our slightest wish. So it was at Bostam, the
+residence of one of Persia’s most influential _hakims_, or governors,
+literally, “pillars of state,” who was also a cousin to the Shah himself.
+This potentate we visited in company with an English engineer whom we met
+in transit at Sharoud. It was on the evening before, when at supper with
+this gentleman in his tent, that a special messenger arrived from the
+governor, requesting us, as the invitation ran, “to take our brightness
+into his presence.” As we entered, the governor rose from his seat on the
+floor, a courtesy never shown us by a Turkish official. Even the politest
+of them would, just at this particular moment, be conveniently engrossed
+in the examination of some book or paper. His courtesy was further
+extended by locking up our “horses,” and making us his “prisoners” until
+the following morning. At the dinner which Mr. Evans and we were invited
+to eat with his excellency, benches had to be especially prepared, as
+there was nothing like a chair to be found on the premises. The governor
+himself took his accustomed position on the floor, with his own private
+dishes around him. From these he would occasionally fish out with his
+fingers some choice lamb _kebabh_ or cabbage _dolmah_, and have it passed
+over to his guests—an act which is considered one of the highest forms of
+Persian hospitality.
+
+With a shifting of the scenes of travel, we stood at sunset on the summit
+of the Binalud mountains, overlooking the valley of the Kashafrud. Our two
+weeks’ journey was almost ended, for the city of Meshed was now in view,
+ten miles away. Around us were piles of little stones, to which each pious
+pilgrim adds his quota when first he sees the “Holy Shrine,” which we
+beheld shining like a ball of fire in the glow of the setting sun.
+
+  [Illustration: PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.]
+
+While we were building our pyramid a party of returning pilgrims greeted
+us with “Meshedi at last.” “Not yet,” we answered, for we knew that the
+gates of the Holy City closed promptly at twilight. Yet we determined to
+make the attempt. On we sped, but not with the speed of the falling night.
+Dusk overtook us as we reached the plain. A moving form was revealed to us
+on the bank of the irrigating-canal which skirted the edge of the road.
+Backward it fell as we dashed by, and then the sound of a splash and
+splutter reached us as we disappeared in the darkness. On the morrow we
+learned that the spirits of Hassan and Hussein were seen skimming the
+earth in their flight toward the Holy City. We reached the bridge, and
+crossed the moat, but the gates were closed. We knocked and pounded, but a
+hollow echo was our only response. At last the light of a lantern
+illumined the crevices in the weather-beaten doors, and a weird-looking
+face appeared through the midway opening. “Who’s there?” said a voice,
+whose sepulchral tones might have belonged to the sexton of the Holy Tomb.
+“We are _Ferenghis_,” we said, “and must get into the city to-night.”
+“That is impossible,” he answered, “for the gates are locked, and the keys
+have been sent away to the governor’s palace.” With this the night air
+grew more chill. But another thought struck us at once. We would send a
+note to General McLean, the English consul-general, who was already
+expecting us. This our interlocutor, for a certain _inam_, or Persian
+bakshish, at length agreed to deliver. The general, as we afterward
+learned, sent a servant with a special request to the governor’s palace.
+Here, without delay, a squad of horsemen was detailed, and ordered with
+the keys to the “Herat Gate.” The crowds in the streets, attracted by this
+unusual turnout at this unusual hour, followed in their wake to the scene
+of disturbance. There was a click of locks, the clanking of chains, and
+the creaking of rusty hinges. The great doors swung open, and a crowd of
+expectant faces received us in the Holy City.
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.]
+
+Meshed claims our attention chiefly for its famous dead. In its sacred
+dust lie buried our old hero Haroun al Raschid, Firdousi, Persia’s
+greatest epic poet, and the holy Imaum Riza, within whose shrine every
+criminal may take refuge from even the Shah himself until the payment of a
+blood-tax, or a debtor until the giving of a guarantee for debt. No
+infidel can enter there.
+
+  [Illustration: FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.]
+
+Meshed was the pivotal point upon which our wheel of fortune was to turn.
+We were filled with no little anxiety, therefore, when, on the day after
+our arrival, we received an invitation to call at the Russian
+consulate-general. With great ceremony we were ushered into a suite of
+elegantly furnished rooms, and received by the consul-general and his
+English wife in full dress. Madame de Vlassow was radiant with smiles as
+she served us tea by the side of her steaming silver samovar. She could
+not wait for the circumlocution of diplomacy, but said: “It is all right,
+gentlemen. General Kuropatkine has just telegraphed permission for you to
+proceed to Askabad.” This precipitate remark evidently disconcerted the
+consul, who could only nod his head and say, “_Oui, oui_,” in affirmation.
+This news lifted a heavy load from our minds; our desert journey of six
+hundred miles, therefore, had not been made in vain, and the prospect
+brightened for a trip through the heart of Asia.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.]
+
+Between the rival hospitality of the Russian and English consulates our
+health was now in jeopardy from excess of kindness. Among other social
+attentions, we received an invitation from Sahib Devan, the governor of
+Khorassan, who next to the Shah is the richest man in Persia. Although
+seventy-six years of age, on the day of our visit to his palace he was
+literally covered with diamonds and precious stones. With the photographer
+to the Shah as German interpreter, we spent half an hour in an interesting
+conversation. Among other topics he mentioned the receipt, a few days
+before, of a peculiar telegram from the Shah: “Cut off the head of any one
+who attempts opposition to the Tobacco Regie”; and this was followed a few
+days after by the inquiry, “How many heads have you taken?” A retinue of
+about three hundred courtiers followed the governor as he walked out with
+feeble steps to the parade-ground. Here a company of Persian cavalry was
+detailed to clear the field for the “wonderful steel horses,” which, as
+was said, had come from the capital in two days, a distance of six hundred
+miles. The governors extreme pleasure was afterward expressed in a special
+letter for our journey to the frontier.
+
+  [Illustration: WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.]
+
+  [Illustration: GIVING A “SILENT PILGRIM” A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.]
+
+The military road now completed between Askabad and Meshed reveals the
+extreme weakness of Persia’s defense against Russian aggression. Elated by
+her recent successes in the matter of a Russian consul at Meshed, Russia
+has very forcibly invited Persia to construct more than half of a road
+which, in connection with the Transcaspian railway, makes Khorassan almost
+an exclusive Russian market, and opens Persia’s richest province to
+Russia’s troops and cannon on the prospective march to Herat. At this very
+writing, if the telegraph speaks the truth, the Persian border-province of
+Dereguez is another cession by what the Russians are pleased to call their
+Persian vassal. In addition to its increasing commercial traffic, this
+road is patronized by many Shiah devotees from the north, among whom are
+what the natives term the “silent pilgrims.” These are large stones, or
+boulders, rolled along a few feet at a time by the passers-by toward the
+Holy City. We ourselves were employed in this pious work at the close of
+our first day’s journey from Meshed when we were suddenly aroused by a
+bantering voice behind us. Looking up, we were hailed by Stagno Navarro,
+the inspector of the Persian telegraph, who was employed with his men on a
+neighboring line. With this gentleman we spent the following night in a
+telegraph station, and passed a pleasant evening chatting over the wires
+with friends in Meshed.
+
+Kuchan, our next stopping-place, lies on the almost imperceptible
+watershed which separates the Herat valley from the Caspian Sea. This
+city, only a few months ago, was entirely destroyed by a severe
+earthquake. Under date of January 28, 1894, the American press reported:
+“The bodies of ten thousand victims of the awful disaster have already
+been recovered. Fifty thousand cattle were destroyed at the same time. The
+once important and beautiful city of twenty thousand people is now only a
+scene of death, desolation, and terror.”
+
+From this point to Askabad the construction of the military highway speaks
+well for Russia’s engineering skill. It crosses the Kopet Dagh mountains
+over seven distinct passes in a distance of eighty miles. This we
+determined to cover, if possible, in one day, inasmuch as there was no
+intermediate stopping-place, and as we were not a little delighted by the
+idea of at last emerging from semi-barbarism into semi-civilization. At
+sunset we were scaling the fifth ridge since leaving Kuchan at daybreak,
+and a few minutes later rolled up before the Persian custom-house in the
+valley below. There was no evidence of the proximity of a Russian
+frontier, except the extraordinary size of the tea-glasses, from which we
+slaked our intolerable thirst. During the day we had had a surfeit of
+cavernous gorges and commanding pinnacles, but very little water. The only
+copious spring we were able to find was filled at the time with the
+unwashed linen of a Persian traveler, who sat by, smiling in derision, as
+we upbraided him for his disregard of the traveling public.
+
+  [Illustration: AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR
+  ASKABAD.]
+
+It was already dusk when we came in sight of the Russian custom-house, a
+tin-roofed, stone structure, contrasting strongly with the Persian mud
+hovels we had left behind. A Russian official hailed us as we shot by, but
+we could not stop on the down-grade, and, besides, darkness was too
+rapidly approaching to brook any delay. Askabad was twenty-eight miles
+away, and although wearied by an extremely hard day’s work, we must sleep
+that night, if possible, in a Russian hotel. Our pace increased with the
+growing darkness until at length we were going at the rate of twelve miles
+per hour down a narrow gorge-like valley toward the seventh and last ridge
+that lay between us and the desert. At 9:30 P. M. we stood upon its
+summit, and before us stretched the sandy wastes of Kara-Kum, enshrouded
+in gloom. Thousands of feet below us the city of Askabad was ablaze with
+lights, shining like beacons on the shore of the desert sea. Strains of
+music from a Russian band stole faintly up through the darkness as we
+dismounted, and contemplated the strange scene, until the shriek of a
+locomotive-whistle startled us from our reveries. Across the desert a
+train of the Transcaspian railway was gliding smoothly along toward the
+city.
+
+  [Illustration: MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.]
+
+A hearty welcome back to civilized life was given us the next evening by
+General Kuropatkine himself, the Governor-General of Transcaspia. During
+the course of a dinner with him and his friends, he kindly assured us that
+no further recommendation was needed than the fact that we were American
+citizens to entitle us to travel from one end of the Russian empire to the
+other.
+
+From Askabad to Samarkand there was a break in the continuity of our
+bicycle journey. Our Russian friends persuaded us to take advantage of the
+Transcaspian railway, and not to hazard a journey across the dreaded
+Kara-Kum sands. Such a journey, made upon the railroad track, where water
+and food were obtainable at regular intervals, would have entailed only a
+small part of the hardships incurred on the deserts in China, yet we were
+more than anxious to reach, before the advent of winter, a point whence we
+could be assured of reaching the Pacific during the following season.
+Through the kindness of the railway authorities at Bokhara station our car
+was side-tracked to enable us to visit, ten miles away, that ancient city
+of the East. On November 6 we reached Samarkand, the ancient capital of
+Tamerlane, and the present terminus of the Transcaspian railway.
+
+  [Illustration: CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.]
+
+  [Illustration: A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A
+  COLLEGE.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IV
+
+
+                   THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA
+
+
+On the morning of November 16 we took a last look at the blue domes and
+minarets of Samarkand, intermingled with the ruins of palaces and tombs,
+and then wheeled away toward the banks of the Zerafshan. Our four days’
+journey of 180 miles along the regular Russian post-road was attended with
+only the usual vicissitudes of ordinary travel. Wading in our Russian
+top-boots through the treacherous fords of the “Snake” defile, we passed
+the pyramidal slate rock known as the “Gate of Tamerlane,” and emerged
+upon a strip of the Kizil-Kum steppe, stretching hence in painful monotony
+to the bank of the Sir Daria river. This we crossed by a rude rope-ferry,
+filled at the time with a passing caravan, and then began at once to
+ascend the valley of the Tchirtchick toward Tashkend. The blackened cotton
+which the natives were gathering from the fields, the lowering snow-line
+on the mountains, the muddy roads, the chilling atmosphere, and the
+falling leaves of the giant poplars—all warned us of the approach of
+winter.
+
+We had hoped at least to reach Vernoye, a provincial capital near the
+converging point of the Turkestan, Siberian, and Chinese boundaries,
+whence we could continue, on the opening of the following spring, either
+through Siberia or across the Chinese empire. But in this we were doomed
+to disappointment. The delay on the part of the Russian authorities in
+granting us permission to enter Transcaspia had postponed at least a month
+our arrival in Tashkend, and now, owing to the early advent of the rainy
+season, the roads leading north were almost impassable even for the native
+carts. This fact, together with the reports of heavy snowfalls beyond the
+Alexandrovski mountains, on the road to Vernoye, lent a rather cogent
+influence to the persuasions of our friends to spend the winter among
+them.
+
+  [Illustration: A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.]
+
+Then, too, such a plan, we thought, might not be unproductive of future
+advantages. Thus far we had been journeying through Russian territory
+without a passport. We had no authorization except the telegram to “come
+on,” received from General Kuropatkine at Askabad, and the verbal
+permission of Count Rosterzsoff at Samarkand to proceed to Tashkend.
+Furthermore, the passport for which we had just applied to Baron Wrevsky,
+the Governor-General of Turkestan, would be available only as far as the
+border of Siberia, where we should have to apply to the various
+governors-general along our course to the Pacific, in case we should find
+the route across the Chinese empire impracticable. A general permission to
+travel from Tashkend to the Pacific coast, through southern Siberia, could
+be obtained from St. Petersburg only, and that only through the chief
+executive of the province through which we were passing.
+
+Permission to enter Turkestan is by no means easily obtained, as is well
+understood by the student of Russian policy in central Asia. We were not a
+little surprised, therefore, when our request to spend the winter in its
+capital was graciously granted by Baron Wrevsky, as well as the privilege
+for one of us to return in the mean time to London. This we had determined
+on, in order to secure some much-needed bicycle supplies, and to complete
+other arrangements for the success of our enterprise. By lot the return
+trip fell to Sachtleben. Proceeding by the Transcaspian and Transcaucasus
+railroads, the Caspian and Black seas, to Constantinople, and thence by
+the “overland express” to Belgrade, Vienna, Frankfort, and Calais, he was
+able to reach London in sixteen days.
+
+Tashkend, though nearly in the same latitude as New York, is so protected
+by the Alexandrovski mountains from the Siberian blizzards and the
+scorching winds of the Kara-Kum desert as to have an even more moderate
+climate. A tributary of the Tchirtchick river forms the line of
+demarcation between the native and the European portions of the city,
+although the population of the latter is by no means devoid of a native
+element. Both together cover an area as extensive as Paris, though the
+population is only 120,000, of which 100,000 are congregated in the
+native, or Sart, quarter. There is a floating element of Kashgarians,
+Bokhariots, Persians, and Afghans, and a resident majority of Kirghiz,
+Tatars, Jews, Hindus, gypsies, and Sarts, the latter being a generic title
+for the urban, as distinguished from the nomad, people.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.]
+
+Our winter quarters were obtained at the home of a typical Russian family,
+in company with a young reserve officer. He, having finished his
+university career and time of military service, was engaged in Tashkend in
+the interest of his father, a wholesale merchant in Moscow. With him we
+were able to converse either in French or German, both of which languages
+he could speak more purely than his native Russian. Our good-natured,
+corpulent host had emigrated, in the pioneer days, from the steppes of
+southern Russia, and had grown wealthy through the “unearned increment.”
+
+The Russian samovar is the characteristic feature of the Russian
+household. Besides a big bowl of cabbage soup at every meal, our Russian
+host would start in with a half-tumbler of vodka, dispose of a bottle of
+beer in the intervals, and then top off with two or three glasses of tea.
+The mistress of the household, being limited in her beverages to tea and
+soup, would usually make up in quantity what was lacking in variety. In
+fact, one day she informed us that she had not imbibed a drop of water for
+over six years. For this, however, there is a very plausible excuse. With
+the water at Tashkend, as with that from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, a
+dangerous worm called _reshta_ is absorbed into the system. Nowhere have
+we drunk better tea than around the steaming samovar of our Tashkend host.
+No peasant is too poor, either in money or in sentiment, to buy and feel
+the cheering influence of tea. Even the Cossack, in his forays into the
+wilds of central Asia, is sustained by it. Unlike the Chinese, the
+Russians consider sugar a necessary concomitant of tea-drinking. There are
+three methods of sweetening tea: to put the sugar in the glass; to place a
+lump of sugar in the mouth, and suck the tea through it; to hang a lump in
+the midst of a tea-drinking circle, to be swung around for each in turn to
+touch with his tongue, and then to take a swallow of tea.
+
+The meaning of the name Tashkend is “city of stone,” but a majority of the
+houses are one-story mud structures, built low, so as to prevent any
+disastrous effects from earthquakes. The roofs are so flat and poorly
+constructed that during the rainy season a dry ceiling is rather the
+exception than the rule. Every building is covered with whitewash or white
+paint, and fronts directly on the street. There are plenty of back and
+side yards, but none in front. This is not so bad on the broad streets of
+a Russian town. In Tashkend they are exceptionally wide, with ditches on
+each side through which the water from the Tchirtchick ripples along
+beneath the double, and even quadruple, rows of poplars, acacias, and
+willows. These trees grow here with remarkable luxuriance, from a mere
+twig stuck into the ground. Although twenty years of Russian irrigation
+has given Nature a chance to rear thousands of trees on former barren
+wastes, yet wood is still comparatively scarce and dear.
+
+The administration buildings of the city are for the most part exceedingly
+plain and unpretentious. In striking contrast is the new Russian
+cathedral, the recently erected school, and a large retail store built by
+a resident Greek, all of which are fine specimens of Russian architecture.
+Among its institutions are an observatory, a museum containing an embryo
+collection of Turkestan products and antiquities, and a medical dispensary
+for the natives, where vaccination is performed by graduates of medicine
+in the Tashkend school. The rather extensive library was originally
+collected for the chancellery of the governor-general, and contains the
+best collection of works on central Asia that is to be found in the world,
+including in its scope not only books and pamphlets, but even magazines
+and newspaper articles. For amusements, the city has a theater, a small
+imitation of the opera-house at Paris; and the Military Club, which, with
+its billiards and gambling, and weekly reunions, balls, and concerts,
+though a regular feature of a Russian garrison town, is especially
+pretentious in Tashkend. In size, architecture, and appointments, the
+club-house has no equal, we were told, outside the capital and Moscow.
+
+  [Illustration: PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.]
+
+Tashkend has long been known as a refuge for damaged reputations and
+shattered fortunes, or “the official purgatory following upon the
+emperor’s displeasure.” One of the finest houses of the city is occupied
+by the Grand Duke Nicholai Constantinovitch Romanoff, son of the late
+general admiral of the Russian navy, and first cousin to the Czar, who
+seems to be cheerfully resigned to his life in exile. Most of his time is
+occupied with the business of his silk-factory on the outskirts of
+Tashkend, and at his farm near Hodjent, which a certain firm in Chicago,
+at the time of our sojourn, was stocking with irrigating machinery. All of
+his bills are paid with checks drawn on his St. Petersburg trustees. His
+private life is rather unconventional and even democratic. Visitors to his
+household are particularly impressed with the beauty of his wife and the
+size of his liquor glasses. The example of the grand duke illustrates the
+sentiment in favor of industrial pursuits which is growing among the
+military classes, and even among the nobility, of Russia. The government
+itself, thanks to the severe lesson of the Crimean war, has learned that a
+great nation must stand upon a foundation of something more than
+aristocracy and nobility. To this influence is largely due the present
+growing prosperity of Tashkend, which, in military importance, is rapidly
+giving way to Askabad, “the key to Herat.”
+
+That spirit of equality and fraternity which characterizes the government
+of a Russian _mir_, or village, has been carried even into central Asia.
+We have frequently seen Russian peasants and natives occupying adjoining
+apartments in the same household, while in the process of trade all
+classes seem to fraternize in an easy and even cordial manner. The same is
+true of the children, who play together indiscriminately in the street.
+Many a one of these heterogeneous groups we have watched “playing marbles”
+with the ankle-bones of sheep, and listened, with some amusement, to their
+half Russian, half native jargon. Schools are now being established to
+educate the native children in the Russian language and methods, and
+native apprentices are being taken in by Russian merchants for the same
+purpose.
+
+In Tashkend, as in every European city of the Orient, drunkenness, and
+gambling, and social laxity have followed upon the introduction of Western
+morals and culture. Jealousy and intrigue among the officers and
+functionaries are also not strange, perhaps, at so great a distance from
+headquarters, where the only avenue to distinction seems to lie through
+the public service. At the various dinner-parties and sociables given
+throughout the winter, the topic of war always met with general welcome.
+On one occasion a report was circulated that Abdurrahman Khan, the Ameer
+of Afghanistan, was lying at the point of death. Great preparations, it
+was said, were being made for an expedition over the Pamir, to establish
+on the throne the Russian candidate, Is-shah Khan from Samarkand, before
+Ayub Khan, the rival British protégé, could be brought from India. The
+young officers at once began to discuss their chances for promotion, and
+the number of decorations to be forthcoming from St. Petersburg. The
+social gatherings at Tashkend were more convivial than sociable.
+Acquaintances can eat and drink together with the greatest of good cheer,
+but there is very little sympathy in conversation. It was difficult for
+them to understand why we had come so far to see a country which to many
+of them was a place of exile.
+
+  [Illustration: A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE
+  “FOREIGN DEVILS.”]
+
+An early spring did not mean an early departure from winter quarters.
+Impassable roads kept us anxious prisoners for a month and a half after
+the necessary papers had been secured. These included, in addition to the
+local passports, a carte-blanche permission to travel from Tashkend to
+Vladivostock through Turkestan and Siberia, a document obtained from St.
+Petersburg through the United States minister, the Hon. Charles Emory
+Smith. Of this route to the Pacific we were therefore certain, and yet,
+despite the universal opinion that a bicycle journey across the Celestial
+empire was impracticable, we had determined to continue on to the border
+line, and there to seek better information. “Don’t go into China” were the
+last words of our many kind friends as we wheeled out of Tashkend on the
+seventh of May.
+
+At Chimkend our course turned abruptly from what was once the main route
+between Russia’s European and Asiatic capitals, and along which De
+Lesseps, in his letter to the Czar, proposed a line of railroad to connect
+Orenburg with Samarkand, a distance about equal to that between St.
+Petersburg and Odessa, 1483 miles. This is also the keystone in that wall
+of forts which Russia gradually raised around her unruly nomads of the
+steppes, and where, according to Gortchakoff’s circular of 1864, “both
+interest and reason” required her to stop; and yet at that very time
+General Tchernaieff was advancing his forces upon the present capital,
+Tashkend. Here, too, we began that journey of 1500 miles along the
+Celestial mountain range which terminated only when we scaled its summit
+beyond Barkul to descend again into the burning sands of the Desert of
+Gobi. Here runs the great historical highway between China and the West.
+
+From Auli-eta eastward we had before us about 200 miles of a vast steppe
+region. Near the mountains is a wilderness of lakes, swamps, and streams,
+which run dry in summer. This is the country of the “Thousand Springs”
+mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Huen T’sang, and where was established
+the kingdom of Black China, supposed by many to have been one of the
+kingdoms of “Prester John.” But far away to our left were the white sands
+of the Ak-Kum, over which the cloudless atmosphere quivers incessantly,
+like the blasts of a furnace. Of all these deserts, occupying probably one
+half of the whole Turkestan steppe, none is more terrible than that of the
+“Golodnaya Steppe,” or Steppe of Hunger, to the north of the “White Sands”
+now before us. Even in the cool of evening, it is said that the soles of
+the wayfarer’s feet become scorched, and the dog accompanying him finds no
+repose till he has burrowed below the burning surface. The monotonous
+appearance of the steppe itself is only intensified in winter, when the
+snow smooths over the broken surface, and even necessitates the placing of
+mud posts at regular intervals to mark the roadway for the Kirghiz
+post-drivers. But in the spring and autumn its arid surface is clothed, as
+if by enchantment, with verdure and prairie flowers. Both flowers and
+birds are gorgeously colored. One variety, about half the size of the
+jackdaw which infests the houses of Tashkend and Samarkand, has a bright
+blue body and red wings; another, resembling our field-lark in size and
+habits, combines a pink breast with black head and wings. But already this
+springtide splendor was beginning to disappear beneath the glare of
+approaching summer. The long wagon-trains of lumber, and the occasional
+traveler’s tarantass rumbling along to the discord of its _duga_ bells,
+were enveloped in a cloud of suffocating dust.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.]
+
+Now and then we would overtake a party of Russian peasants migrating from
+the famine-stricken districts of European Russia to the pioneer colonies
+along this Turkestan highway. The peculiarity of these villages is their
+extreme length, all the houses facing on the one wide street. Most of them
+are merely mud huts, others make pretensions to doors and windows, and a
+coat of whitewash. Near-by usually stands the old battered telega which
+served as a home during many months of travel over the Orenburg highway.
+It speaks well for the colonizing capacity of the Russians that they can
+be induced to come so many hundreds of miles from their native land, to
+settle in such a primitive way among the half-wild tribes of the steppes.
+As yet they do very little farming, but live, like the Kirghiz, by raising
+horses, cows, sheep, and goats, and, in addition, the Russian hog, the
+last resembling very much the wild swine of the jungles. Instead of the
+former military colonies of plundering Cossacks, who really become more
+assimilated to the Kirghiz than these to their conquerors, the _mir_, or
+communal system, is now penetrating these fertile districts, and
+systematically replacing the Mongolian culture. But the ignorance of this
+lower class of Russians is almost as noticeable as that of the natives
+themselves. As soon as we entered a village, the blacksmith left his
+anvil, the carpenter his bench, the storekeeper his counter, and the
+milkmaid her task. After our parade of the principal street, the crowd
+would gather round us at the station-house. All sorts of queries and
+ejaculations would pass among them. One would ask: “Are these gentlemen
+baptized? Are they really Christians?” On account of their extreme
+ignorance these Russian colonists are by no means able to cope with their
+German colleagues, who are given the poorest land, and yet make a better
+living.
+
+The steppe is a good place for learning patience. With the absence of
+landmarks, you seem never to be getting anywhere. It presents the
+appearance of a boundless level expanse, the very undulations of which are
+so uniform as to conceal the intervening troughs. Into these, horsemen,
+and sometimes whole caravans, mysteriously disappear. In this way we were
+often enabled to surprise a herd of gazelles grazing by the roadside. They
+would stand for a moment with necks extended, and then scamper away like a
+shot, springing on their pipe-stem limbs three or four feet into the air.
+Our average rate was about seven miles an hour, although the roads were
+sometimes so soft with dust or sand as to necessitate the laying of straw
+for a foundation. There was scarcely an hour in the day when we were not
+accompanied by from one to twenty Kirghiz horsemen, galloping behind us
+with cries of “Yakshee!” (“Good!”) They were especially curious to see how
+we crossed the roadside streams. Standing on the bank, they would watch
+intently every move as we stripped and waded through with bicycles and
+clothing on our shoulders. Then they would challenge us to a race, and, if
+the road permitted, we would endeavor to reveal some of the possibilities
+of the “devil’s carts.” On an occasion like this occurred one of our few
+mishaps. The road was lined by the occupants of a neighboring tent
+village, who had run out to see the race. One of the Kirghiz turned
+suddenly back in the opposite direction from which he had started. The
+wheel struck him at a rate of fifteen miles per hour, lifting him off his
+feet, and hurling over the handle-bars the rider, who fell upon his left
+arm, and twisted it out of place. With the assistance of the bystanders it
+was pulled back into the socket, and bandaged up till we reached the
+nearest Russian village. Here the only physician was an old blind woman of
+the faith-cure persuasion. Her massage treatment to replace the muscles
+was really effective, and was accompanied by prayers and by signs of the
+cross, a common method of treatment among the lower class of Russians. In
+one instance a cure was supposed to be effected by writing a prayer on a
+piece of buttered bread to be eaten by the patient.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.]
+
+Being users but not patrons of the Russian post-roads, we were not legally
+entitled to the conveniences of the post-stations. Tipping alone, as we
+found on our journey from Samarkand, was not always sufficient to preclude
+a request during the night to vacate the best quarters for the
+post-traveler, especially if he happened to wear the regulation brass
+button. To secure us against this inconvenience, and to gain some special
+attention, a letter was obtained from the overseer of the Turkestan post
+and telegraph district. This proved advantageous on many occasions, and
+once, at Auli-eta, was even necessary. We were surveyed with suspicious
+glances as soon as we entered the station-house, and when we asked for
+water to lave our hands and face, we were directed to the irrigating ditch
+in the street. Our request for a better room was answered by the question,
+if the one we had was not good enough, and how long we intended to occupy
+that. Evidently our English conversation had gained for us the covert
+reputation of being English spies, and this was verified in the minds of
+our hosts when we began to ask questions about the city prisons we had
+passed on our way. To every interrogation they replied, “I don’t know.”
+But presto, change, on the presentation of documents! Apologies were now
+profuse, and besides tea, bread, and eggs, the usual rations of a Russian
+post-station, we were exceptionally favored with chicken soup and
+_verainyik_, the latter consisting of cheese wrapped and boiled in dough,
+and then served in butter.
+
+It has been the custom for travelers in Russia to decry the Russian
+post-station, but the fact is that an appreciation of this rather
+primitive form of accommodation depends entirely upon whether you approach
+it from a European hotel or from a Persian khan. Some are clean, while
+others are dirty. Nevertheless, it was always a welcome sight to see a
+small white building looming up in the dim horizon at the close of a long
+day’s ride, and, on near approach, to observe the black and white striped
+post in front, and idle tarantasses around it. At the door would be found
+the usual crowd of Kirghiz post-drivers. After the presentation of
+documents to the _starosta_, who would hesitate at first about quartering
+our horses in the travelers’ room, we would proceed at once to place our
+dust-covered heads beneath the spindle of the washing-tank. Although by
+this dripping-pan arrangement we would usually succeed in getting as much
+water down our backs as on our faces, yet we were consoled by the thought
+that too much was better than not enough, as had been the case in Turkey
+and Persia. Then we would settle down before the steaming samovar to
+meditate in solitude and quiet, while the rays of the declining sun shone
+on the gilded eikon in the corner of the room, and on the chromo-covered
+walls. When darkness fell, and the simmering music of the samovar had
+gradually died away; when the flitting swallows in the room had ceased
+their chirp, and settled down upon the rafters overhead, we ourselves
+would turn in under our fur-lined coats upon the leather-covered benches.
+
+In consequence of the first of a series of accidents to our wheels, we
+were for several days the guests of the director of the botanical gardens
+at Pishpek. As a branch of the Crown botanical gardens at St. Petersburg,
+some valuable experiments were being made here with foreign seeds and
+plants. Peaches, we were told, do not thrive, but apples, pears, cherries,
+and the various kinds of berries, grow as well as they do at home. Rye,
+however, takes three years to reach the height of one year in America.
+Through the Russians, these people have obtained high-flown ideas of
+America and Americans. We saw many chromos of American celebrities in the
+various station-houses, and the most numerous was that of Thomas A.
+Edison. His phonograph, we were told, had already made its appearance in
+Pishpek, but the natives did not seem to realize what it was. “Why,” they
+said, “we have often heard better music than that.” Dr. Tanner was not
+without his share of fame in this far-away country. During his fast in
+America, a similar, though not voluntary, feat was being performed here. A
+Kirghiz messenger who had been despatched into the mountains during the
+winter was lost in the snow, and remained for twenty-eight days without
+food. He was found at last, crazed by hunger. When asked what he would
+have to eat, he replied, “Everything.” They foolishly gave him
+“everything,” and in two days he was dead. For a long time he was called
+the “Doctor Tanner of Turkestan.”
+
+  [Illustration: UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.]
+
+A divergence of seventy-five miles from the regular post-route was made in
+order to visit Lake Issik Kul, which is probably the largest lake for its
+elevation in the world, being about ten times larger than Lake Geneva, and
+at a height of 5300 feet. Its slightly brackish water, which never
+freezes, teems with several varieties of fish, many of which we helped to
+unhook from a Russian fisherman’s line, and then helped to eat in his
+primitive hut near the shore. A Russian Cossack, who had just come over
+the snow-capped Ala Tau, “of the Shade,” from Fort Narin, was also
+present, and from the frequent glances cast at the fisherman’s daughter we
+soon discovered the object of his visit. The ascent to this lake, through
+the famous Buam Defile, or Happy Pass, afforded some of the grandest
+scenery on our route through Asia. Its seething, foaming, irresistible
+torrent needs only a large volume to make it the equal of the rapids at
+Niagara.
+
+Our return to the post-road was made by an unbeaten track over the Ala Tau
+mountains. From the Chu valley, dotted here and there with Kirghiz tent
+villages and their grazing flocks and herds, we pushed our wheels up the
+broken path, which wound like a mythical stairway far up into the
+low-hanging clouds. We trudged up one of the steepest ascents we have ever
+made with a wheel. The scenery was grand, but lonely. The wild tulips,
+pinks, and verbenas dotting the green slopes furnished the only pleasant
+diversion from our arduous labor. Just as we turned the highest summit,
+the clouds shifted for a moment, and revealed before us two Kirghiz
+horsemen. They started back in astonishment, and gazed at us as though we
+were demons of the air, until we disappeared again down the opposite and
+more gradual slope. Late in the afternoon we emerged upon the plain, but
+no post-road or station-house was in sight, as we expected; nothing but a
+few Kirghiz kibitkas among the straggling rocks, like the tents of the
+Egyptian Arabs among the fallen stones of the pyramids.
+
+  [Illustration: KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.]
+
+Toward these we now directed our course, and, in view of a rapidly
+approaching storm, asked to purchase a night’s lodging. This was only too
+willingly granted in anticipation of the coming _tomasha_, or exhibition.
+The milkmaids as they went out to the rows of sheep and goats tied to the
+lines of woolen rope, and the horsemen with reinless horses to drive in
+the ranging herds, spread the news from tent to tent. By the time darkness
+fell the kibitka was filled to overflowing. We were given the seat of
+honor opposite the doorway, bolstered up with blankets and pillows. By the
+light of the fire curling its smoke upward through the central opening in
+the roof, it was interesting to note the faces of our hosts. We had never
+met a people of a more peaceful temperament, and, on the other hand, none
+more easily frightened. A dread of the evil eye is one of their
+characteristics. We had not been settled long before the _ishan_, or
+itinerant dervish, was called in to drive away the evil spirits, which the
+“devil’s carts” might possibly have brought. Immediately on entering, he
+began to shrug his shoulders, and to shiver as though passing into a state
+of trance. Our dervish acquaintance was a man of more than average
+intelligence. He had traveled in India, and had even heard some one speak
+of America. This fact alone was sufficient to warrant him in posing as
+instructor for the rest of the assembly. While we were drinking tea, a
+habit they have recently adopted from the Russians, he held forth at great
+length to his audience about the _Amerikón_.
+
+The rain now began to descend in torrents. The felt covering was drawn
+over the central opening, and propped up at one end with a pole to emit
+the clouds of smoke from the smoldering fire. This was shifted with the
+veering wind. Although a mere circular rib framework covered with white or
+brown felt, according as the occupant is rich or poor, the Kirghiz
+kibitka, or more properly _yurt_, is not as a house builded upon the sand,
+even in the fiercest storm. Its stanchness and comfort are surprising when
+we consider the rapidity with which it may be taken down and transported.
+In half an hour a whole village may vanish, emigrating northward in
+summer, and southward in winter. Many a Kirghiz cavalcade was overtaken on
+the road, with long tent-ribs and felts tied upon the backs of two-humped
+camels, for the Bactrian dromedary has not been able to endure the
+severities of these Northern climates. The men would always be mounted on
+the camels’ or horses’ backs, while the women would be perched on the oxen
+and bullocks, trained for the saddle and as beasts of burden. The men
+never walk; if there is any leading to be done it falls to the women. The
+constant use of the saddle has made many of the men bandy-legged, which,
+in connection with their usual obesity,—with them a mark of dignity,—gives
+them a comical appearance.
+
+After their curiosity regarding us had been partly satisfied, it was
+suggested that a sheep should be slaughtered in our honor. Neither meat
+nor bread is ever eaten by any but the rich Kirghiz. Their universal
+kumiss, corresponding to the Turkish yaourt, or coagulated milk, and other
+forms of lacteal dishes, sometimes mixed with meal, form the chief diet of
+the poor. The wife of our host, a buxom woman, who, as we had seen, could
+leap upon a horse’s back as readily as a man, now entered the doorway,
+carrying a full-grown sheep by its woolly coat. This she twirled over on
+its back, and held down with her knee while the butcher artist drew a
+dagger from his belt, and held it aloft until the assembly stroked their
+scant beards, and uttered the solemn bismillah. Tired out by the day’s
+ride, we fell asleep before the arrangements for the feast had been
+completed. When awakened near midnight, we found that the savory odor from
+the huge caldron on the fire had only increased the attraction and the
+crowd. The choicest bits were now selected for the guests. These consisted
+of pieces of liver, served with lumps of fat from the tail of their
+peculiarly fat-tailed sheep. As an act of the highest hospitality, our
+host dipped these into some liquid grease, and then, reaching over, placed
+them in our mouths with his fingers. It required considerable effort on
+this occasion to subject our feelings of nausea to a sense of Kirghiz
+politeness. In keeping with their characteristic generosity, every one in
+the kibitka must partake in some measure of the feast, although the women,
+who had done all the work, must be content with remnants and bones already
+picked over by the host. But this disposition to share everything was not
+without its other aspect; we also were expected to share everything with
+them. We were asked to bestow any little trinket or nick-nack exposed to
+view. Any extra nut on the machine, a handkerchief, a packet of tea, or a
+lump of sugar, excited their cupidity at once. The latter was considered a
+bonbon by the women and younger portion of the spectators. The attractive
+daughter of our host, “Kumiss John,” amused herself by stealing lumps of
+sugar from our pockets. When the feast was ended, the beards were again
+stroked, the name of Allah solemnly uttered by way of thanks for the
+bounty of heaven, and then each gave utterance to his appreciation of the
+meal.
+
+Before retiring for the night, the dervish led the prayers, just as he had
+done at sunset. The praying-mats were spread, and all heads bowed toward
+Mecca. The only preparation for retiring was the spreading of blankets
+from the pile in one of the kibitkas. The Kirghiz are not in the habit of
+removing many garments for this purpose, and under the circumstances we
+found this custom a rather convenient one. Six of us turned in on the
+floor together, forming a semicircle, with our feet toward the fire.
+“Kumiss John,” who was evidently the pet of the household, had a rudely
+constructed cot at the far end of the kibitka.
+
+Vernoye, the old Almati, with its broad streets, low wood and brick
+houses, and Russian sign-boards, presented a Siberian aspect. The ruins of
+its many disastrous earthquakes lying low on every hand told us at once
+the cause of its deserted thoroughfares. The terrible shocks of the year
+before our visit killed several hundred people, and a whole mountain in
+the vicinity sank. The only hope of its persistent residents is a branch
+from the Transsiberian or Transcaspian railroad, or the reannexation by
+Russia of the fertile province of Ili, to make it an indispensable depot.
+Despite these periodical calamities, Vernoye has had, and is now
+constructing, under the genius of the French architect, Paul L. Gourdet,
+some of the finest edifices to be found in central Asia. The orphan
+asylum, a magnificent three-story structure, is now being built on
+experimental lines, to test its strength against earthquake shocks.
+
+  [Illustration: FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE
+  COSSACKS.]
+
+One of the chief incidents of our pleasant sojourn was afforded by
+Governor Ivanoff. We were invited to head the procession of the Cossacks
+on their annual departure for their summer encampment in the mountains.
+After the usual religious ceremony, they filed out from the city
+parade-ground. Being unavoidably detained for a few moments, we did not
+come up until some time after the column had started. As we dashed by to
+the front with the American and Russian flags fluttering side by side from
+the handle-bars, cheer after cheer arose from the ranks, and even the
+governor and his party doffed their caps in acknowledgment. At the camp we
+were favored with a special exhibition of horsemanship. By a single twist
+of the rein the steeds would fall to the ground, and their riders crouch
+down behind them as a bulwark in battle. Then dashing forward at full
+speed, they would spring to the ground, and leap back again into the
+saddle, or, hanging by their legs, would reach over and pick up a
+handkerchief, cap, or a soldier supposed to be wounded. All these
+movements we photographed with our camera. Of the endurance of these
+Cossacks and their Kirghiz horses we had a practical test. Overtaking a
+Cossack courier in the early part of a day’s journey, he became so
+interested in the velocipede, as the Russians call the bicycle, that he
+determined to see as much of it as possible. He stayed with us the whole
+day, over a distance of fifty-five miles. His chief compensation was in
+witnessing the surprise of the natives to whom he would shout across the
+fields to come and see the _tomasha_, adding in explanation that we were
+the American gentlemen who had ridden all the way from America. Our speed
+was not slow, and frequently the poor fellow would have to resort to the
+whip, or shout, “Slowly, gentlemen, my horse is tired; the town is not far
+away, it is not necessary to hurry so.” The fact is that in all our
+experience we found no horse of even the famed Kirghiz or Turkoman breed
+that could travel with the same ease and rapidity as ourselves even over
+the most ordinary road.
+
+At Vernoye we began to glean practical information about China, but all
+except our genial host, M. Gourdet, counseled us against our proposed
+journey. He alone, as a traveler of experience, advised a divergence from
+the Siberian route at Altin Imell, in order to visit the Chinese city of
+Kuldja, where, as he said, with the assistance of the resident Russian
+consul we could test the validity of the Chinese passport received, as
+before mentioned, from the Chinese minister at London.
+
+A few days later we were rolling up the valley of the Ili, having crossed
+that river by the well-constructed Russian bridge at Fort Iliysk, the head
+of navigation for the boats from Lake Balkash. New faces here met our
+curious gaze. As an ethnological transition between the inhabitants of
+central Asia and the Chinese, we were now among two distinctly
+agricultural races—the Dungans and Taranchis. As the invited guests of
+these people on several occasions, we were struck with their extreme
+cleanliness, economy, and industry; but their deep-set eyes seem to
+express reckless cruelty.
+
+  [Illustration: STROLLING MUSICIANS.]
+
+The Mohammedan mosques of this people are like the Chinese pagodas in
+outward appearance, while they seem to be Chinese in half-Kirghiz
+garments. Their women, too, do not veil themselves, although they are much
+more shy than their rugged sisters of the steppes. Tenacious of their
+word, these people were also scrupulous about returning favors. Our
+exhibitions were usually rewarded by a spread of sweets and yellow Dungan
+tea. Of this we would partake beneath the shade of their well-trained
+grape-arbors, while listening to the music, or rather discord, of a
+peculiar stringed instrument played by the boys. Its bow of two parts was
+so interlaced with the strings of the instrument as to play upon two at
+every draw. Another musician usually accompanied by beating little sticks
+on a saucer.
+
+These are the people who were introduced by the Manchus to replace the
+Kalmucks in the Kuldja district, and who in 1869 so terribly avenged upon
+their masters the blood they previously caused to flow. The fertile
+province of Kuldja, with a population of 2,500,000, was reduced by their
+massacres to one vast necropolis. On all sides are canals that have become
+swamps, abandoned fields, wasted forests, and towns and villages in ruins,
+in some of which the ground is still strewn with the bleached bones of the
+murdered.
+
+As we ascended the Ili valley piles of stones marked in succession the
+sites of the towns of Turgen, Jarkend, Akkend, and Khorgos, names which
+the Russians are already reviving in their pioneer settlements. The
+largest of these, Jarkend, is the coming frontier town, to take the place
+of evacuated Kuldja. About twenty-two miles east of this point the large
+white Russian fort of Khorgos stands bristling on the bank of the river of
+that name, which, by the treaty of 1881, is now the boundary-line of the
+Celestial empire. On a ledge of rocks overlooking the ford a Russian
+sentinel was walking his beat in the solitude of a dreary outpost. He
+stopped to watch us as we plunged into the flood, with our Russian telega
+for a ferry-boat. “All’s well,” we heard him cry, as, bumping over the
+rocky bottom, we passed from Russia into China. “Ah, yes,” we thought;
+“ ‘All’s well that ends well,’ but this is only the beginning.”
+
+  [Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.]
+
+A few minutes later we dashed through the arched driveway of the Chinese
+custom-house, and were several yards away before the lounging officials
+realized what it was that flitted across their vision. “Stop! Come back!”
+they shouted in broken Russian. Amid a confusion of chattering voices,
+rustling gowns, clattering shoes, swinging pigtails, and clouds of opium
+and tobacco smoke, we were brought into the presence of the head official.
+Putting on his huge spectacles, he read aloud the visé written upon our
+American passports by the Chinese minister in London. His wonderment was
+increased when he further read that such a journey was being made on the
+“foot-moved carriages,” which were being curiously fingered by the
+attendants. Our garments were minutely scrutinized, especially the
+buttons, while our caps and dark-colored spectacles were taken from our
+heads, and passed round for each to try on in turn, amid much laughter.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.]
+
+Owing to the predominant influence of Russia in these northwestern
+confines, our Russian papers would have been quite sufficient to cross the
+border into Kuldja. It was only beyond this point that our Chinese
+passport would be found necessary, and possibly invalid. After the usual
+visés had been stamped and written over, we were off on what proved to be
+our six months’ experience in the “Middle Kingdom or Central Empire,” as
+the natives call it, for to Chinamen there is a fifth point to the
+compass—the center, which is China. Not far on the road we heard the
+clatter of hoofs behind us. A Kalmuck was dashing toward us with a
+portentous look on his features. We dismounted in apprehension. He stopped
+short some twenty feet away, leaped to the ground, and, crawling up on
+hands and knees, began to _chin-chin_ or knock his head on the ground
+before us. This he continued for some moments, and then without a word
+gazed at us in wild astonishment. Our perplexity over this performance was
+increased when, at a neighboring village, a bewildered Chinaman sprang out
+from the speechless crowd, and threw himself in the road before us. By a
+dexterous turn we missed his head, and passed over his extended queue.
+
+  [Illustration: TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA
+  INN.]
+
+Kuldja, with its Russian consul and Cossack station, still maintains a
+Russian telegraph and postal service. The mail is carried from the border
+in a train of three or four telegas, which rattle along over the primitive
+roads in a cloud of dust, with armed Cossacks galloping before and after,
+and a Russian flag carried by the herald in front. Even in the Kuldja
+post-office a heavily armed picket stands guard over the money-chest. This
+postal caravan we now overtook encamped by a small stream, during the
+glaring heat of the afternoon. We found that we had been expected several
+days before, and that quarters had been prepared for us in the postal
+station at the town of Suidun. Here we spent the night, and continued on
+to Kuldja the following morning.
+
+Although built by the Chinese, who call it Nin-yuan, Kuldja, with its
+houses of beaten earth, strongly resembles the towns of Russian Turkestan.
+Since the evacuation by the Russians the Chinese have built around the
+city the usual quadrangular wall, thirty feet in height and twenty feet in
+width, with parapets still in the course of construction. But the rows of
+poplars, the whitewash, and the telegas were still left to remind us of
+the temporary Russian occupation. For several days we were objects of
+excited interest to the mixed population. The doors and windows of our
+Russian quarters were besieged by crowds. In defense of our host, we gave
+a public exhibition, and with the consent of the _Tootai_ made the circuit
+on the top of the city walls. Fully 3000 people lined the streets and
+housetops to witness the race to which we had been challenged by four
+Dungan horsemen, riding below on the encircling roadway. The distance
+around was two miles. The horsemen started with a rush, and at the end of
+the first mile were ahead. At the third turning we overtook them, and came
+to the finish two hundred yards ahead, amid great excitement. Even the
+commander of the Kuldja forces was brushed aside by the chasing rabble.
+
+  [Illustration: A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    V
+
+
+   OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL
+
+
+Russian influence, which even now predominates at Kuldja, was forcibly
+indicated, the day after our arrival, during our investigations as to the
+validity of our Chinese passports for the journey to Peking. The Russian
+consul, whose favor we had secured in advance through letters from
+Governor Ivanoff at Vernoye, had pronounced them not only good, but by far
+the best that had been presented by any traveler entering China at this
+point. After endeavoring to dissuade us from what he called a foolhardy
+undertaking, even with the most valuable papers, he sent us, with his
+interpreter, to the Kuldja Tootai for the proper visé.
+
+That dignitary, although deeply interested, was almost amused at the
+boldness of our enterprise. He said that no passport would insure success
+by the method we proposed to pursue; that, before he could allow us to
+make the venture, we must wait for an order from Peking. This, he said,
+would subject us to considerable delay and expense, even if the telegraph
+and post were utilized through Siberia and Kiakhta. This was discouraging
+indeed. But when we discovered, a few minutes later, that his highness had
+to call in the learned secretary to trace our proposed route for him on
+the map of China, and even to locate the capital, Peking, we began to
+question his knowledge of Chinese diplomacy. The matter was again referred
+to the consul, who reported back the following day that his previous
+assurances were reliable, that the Tootai would make the necessary visés,
+and send away at once, by the regular relay post across the empire, an
+open letter that could be read by the officials along the route, and be
+delivered long before our arrival at Peking. Such easy success we had not
+anticipated. The difficulty, as well as necessity, of obtaining the proper
+credentials for traveling in China was impressed upon us by the arrest the
+previous day of three Afghan visitors, and by the fact that a German
+traveler had been refused, just a few weeks before, permission even to
+cross the Mozart pass into Kashgar. So much, we thought, for Russian
+friendship.
+
+Upon this assurance of at least official consent to hazard the journey to
+Peking, a telegram was sent to the chief of police at Tomsk, to whose care
+we had directed our letters, photographic material, and bicycle supplies
+to be sent from London in the expectation of being forced to take the
+Siberian route. These last could not have been dispensed with much longer,
+as our cushion-tires, ball-bearings, and axles were badly worn, while the
+rim of one of the rear wheels was broken in eight places for the lack of
+spokes. These supplies, however, did not reach us till six weeks after the
+date of our telegram, to which a prepaid reply was received, after a
+week’s delay, asking in advance for the extra postage. This, with that
+prepaid from London, amounted to just fifty dollars. The warm weather,
+after the extreme cold of a Siberian winter, had caused the tires to
+stretch so much beyond their intended size that, on their arrival, they
+were almost unfit for use. Some of our photographic material also had been
+spoiled through the useless inspection of postal officials.
+
+  [Illustration: THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS
+  FAMILY.]
+
+The delay thus caused was well utilized in familiarizing ourselves as much
+as possible with the language and characteristics of the Chinese, for, as
+we were without guides, interpreters, or servants, and in some places
+lacked even official assistance, no travelers, perhaps, were ever more
+dependent upon the people than ourselves. The Chinese language, the most
+primitive in the world, is, for this very reason perhaps, the hardest to
+learn. Its poverty of words reduces its grammar almost to a question of
+syntax and intonation. Many a time our expressions, by a wrong inflection,
+would convey a meaning different from the one intended. Even when told the
+difference, our ears could not detect it.
+
+Our work of preparation was principally a process of elimination. We now
+had to prepare for a forced march in case of necessity. Handle-bars and
+seat-posts were shortened to save weight, and even the leather
+baggage-carriers, fitting in the frames of the machines, which we
+ourselves had patented before leaving England, were replaced by a couple
+of sleeping-bags made for us out of woolen shawls and Chinese
+oiled-canvas. The cutting off of buttons and extra parts of our clothing,
+as well as the shaving of our heads and faces, was also included by our
+friends in the list of curtailments. For the same reason one of our
+cameras, which we always carried on our backs, and refilled at night under
+the bedclothes, we sold to a Chinese photographer at Suidun, to make room
+for an extra provision-bag. The surplus film, with our extra baggage, was
+shipped by post, via Siberia and Kiakhta, to meet us on our arrival in
+Peking.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.]
+
+And now the money problem was the most perplexing of all. “This alone,”
+said the Russian consul, “if nothing else, will defeat your plans.” Those
+Western bankers who advertise to furnish “letters of credit to any part of
+the world” are, to say the least, rather sweeping in their assertions. At
+any rate, our own London letter was of no use beyond the Bosporus, except
+with the Persian imperial banks run by an English syndicate. At the
+American Bible House at Constantinople we were allowed, as a personal
+favor, to buy drafts on the various missionaries along the route through
+Asiatic Turkey. But in central Asia we found that the Russian bankers and
+merchants would not handle English paper, and we were therefore compelled
+to send our letter of credit by mail to Moscow. Thither we had recently
+sent it on leaving Tashkend, with instructions to remit in currency to
+Irkutsk, Siberia. We now had to telegraph to that point to re-forward over
+the Kiakhta post-route to Peking. With the cash on hand, and the proceeds
+of the camera, sold for more than half its weight in silver, four and one
+third pounds, we thought we had sufficient money to carry us, or, rather,
+as much as we could carry, to that point; for the weight of the Chinese
+money necessary for a journey of over three thousand miles was, as the
+Russian consul thought, one of the greatest of our almost insurmountable
+obstacles. In the interior of China there is no coin except the _chen_, or
+_sapeks_, an alloy of copper and tin, in the form of a disk, having a hole
+in the center by which the coins may be strung together. The very recently
+coined _liang_, or _tael_, the Mexican piaster specially minted for the
+Chinese market, and the other foreign coins, have not yet penetrated from
+the coast. For six hundred miles over the border, however, we found both
+the Russian money and language serviceable among the Tatar merchants,
+while the _tenga_, or Kashgar silver-piece, was preferred by the natives
+even beyond the Gobi, being much handier than the larger or smaller bits
+of silver broken from the _yamba_ bricks. All, however, would have to be
+weighed in the _tinza_, or small Chinese scales we carried with us, and on
+which were marked the _fün_, _tchan_, and _liang_ of the monetary scale.
+But the value of these terms is reckoned in _chen_, and changes with
+almost every district. This necessity for vigilance, together with the
+frequency of bad silver and loaded _yambas_, and the propensity of the
+Chinese to “knock down” on even the smallest purchase, tends to convert a
+traveler in China into a veritable Shylock. There being no banks or
+exchanges in the interior, we were obliged to purchase at Kuldja all the
+silver we would need for the entire journey of over three thousand miles.
+“How much would it take?” was the question that our past experience in
+Asiatic travel now aided us to answer. That our calculations were close is
+proved by the fact that we reached Peking with silver in our pockets to
+the value of half a dollar. Our money now constituted the principal part
+of our luggage, which, with camera and film, weighed just twenty-five
+pounds apiece. Most of the silver was chopped up into small bits, and
+placed in the hollow tubing of the machines to conceal it from Chinese
+inquisitiveness, if not something worse. We are glad to say, however, that
+no attempt at robbery was ever discovered, although efforts at extortion
+were frequent, and sometimes, as will appear, of a serious nature.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH
+  ENOUGH CHINESE “CASH” TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT.]
+
+The blowing of the long horns and boom of the mortar cannon at the fort
+awoke us at daylight on the morning of July 13. Farewells had been said
+the night before. Only our good-hearted Russian host was up to put an
+extra morsel in our provision-bag, for, as he said, we could get no food
+until we reached the Kirghiz aouls on the high plateau of the Talki pass,
+by which we were to cut across over unbeaten paths to the regular
+so-called imperial highway, running from Suidun. From the Catholic
+missionaries at Kuldja we had obtained very accurate information about
+this route as far as the Gobi desert. The expression Tian Shan Pe-lu, or
+northern Tian Shan route, in opposition to the Tian Shan Nan-lu, or
+southern Tian Shan route, shows that the Chinese had fully appreciated the
+importance of this historic highway, which continues the road running from
+the extreme western gate of the Great Wall obliquely across Mongolian
+Kan-su, through Hami and Barkul, to Urumtsi. From here the two natural
+highways lead, one to the head-waters of the Black Irtish, the other to
+the passes leading into the Ili valley, and other routes of the
+Arolo-Caspian depression. The latter route, which is now commanded at
+intervals by Chinese forts and military settlements, was recently
+relinquished by Russia only when she had obtained a more permanent footing
+on the former in the trading-posts of Chuguchak and Kobdo, for she very
+early recognized the importance of this most natural entry to the only
+feasible route across the Chinese empire. In a glowing sunset, at the end
+of a hot day’s climb, we looked for the last time over the Ili valley, and
+at dusk, an hour later, rolled into one of the Kirghiz aouls that are here
+scattered among the rich pasturage of the plateau.
+
+  [Illustration: A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.]
+
+Even here we found that our reputation had extended from Kuldja. The chief
+advanced with _amans_ of welcome, and the heavy-matted curtains in the
+kibitka doorway were raised, as we passed, in token of honor. When the
+refreshing kumiss was served around the evening camp-fire, the dangers of
+the journey through China were discussed among our hosts with frequent
+looks of misgiving. Thus, from first to last, every judgment was against
+us, and every prediction was of failure, if not of something worse; and
+now, as we stole out from the tent by the light of the rising moon, even
+the specter-like mountain-peaks around us, like symbols of coming events,
+were casting their shadows before. There was something so illusive in the
+scene as to make it very impressive. In the morning, early, a score of
+horsemen were ready to escort us on the road. At parting they all
+dismounted and uttered a prayer to Allah for our safety; and then as we
+rode away, drew their fingers across their throats in silence, and waved a
+solemn good-by. Such was the almost superstitious fear of these western
+nomads for the land which once sent forth a Yengiz Khan along this very
+highway.
+
+  [Illustration: PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.]
+
+Down the narrow valley of the Kuitun, which flows into the Ebi-nor,
+startling the mountain deer from the brink of the tree-arched rivulet, we
+reached a spot which once was the haunt of a band of those border-robbers
+about whom we had heard so much from our apprehensive friends. At the base
+of a volcano-shaped mountain lay the ruins of their former dens, from
+which only a year ago they were wont to sally forth on the passing
+caravans. When they were exterminated by the government, the head of their
+chief, with its dangling queue, was mounted on a pole near-by, and
+preserved in a cage from birds of prey, as a warning to all others who
+might aspire to the same notoriety. In this lonely spot we were forced to
+spend the night, as here occurred, through the carelessness of the Kuldja
+Russian blacksmith, a very serious break in one of our gear wheels. It was
+too late in the day to walk back the sixteen miles to the Kirghiz
+encampment, and there obtain horses for the remaining fifty-eight miles to
+Kuldja, for nowhere else, we concluded, could such a break be mended. Our
+sleeping-bags were now put to a severe test between the damp ground and
+the heavy mountain dew. The penetrating cold, and the occasional
+panther-like cry of some prowling animal, kept us awake the greater part
+of the night, awaiting with revolvers in hand some expected attack.
+
+  [Illustration: THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.]
+
+Five days later we had repassed this spot and were toiling over the sand
+and saline-covered depression of the great “Han-Hai,” or Dried-up Sea. The
+mountain freshets, dissolving the salt from their sandy channels, carry it
+down in solution and deposit it with evaporation in massive layers,
+forming a comparatively hard roadway in the midst of the shifting
+sand-dunes. Over these latter our progress was extremely slow. One stretch
+of fifteen miles, which it took us six hours to cover, was as formidable
+as any part of the Turkoman desert along the Transcaspian railway. At an
+altitude of only six hundred feet above the sea, according to our aneroid
+barometer, and beneath the rays of a July sun against which even our felt
+caps were not much protection, we were half-dragging, half-pushing, our
+wheels through a foot of sand, and slapping at the mosquitos swarming upon
+our necks and faces. These pests, which throughout this low country are
+the largest and most numerous we have ever met, are bred in the
+intermediate swamps, which exist only through the negligence of the
+neighboring villagers. At night smoldering fires, which half suffocate the
+human inmates, are built before the doors and windows to keep out the
+intruding insects. All travelers wear gloves, and a huge hood covering the
+head and face up to the eyes, and in their hands carry a horse-tail switch
+to lash back and forth over their shoulders. Being without such protection
+we suffered both day and night.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF
+  KULDJA.]
+
+The mountain freshets all along the road to Urumtsi were more frequent and
+dangerous than any we had yet encountered. Toward evening the melting
+snows, and the condensing currents from the plain heated during the day,
+fill and overflow the channels that in the morning are almost dry. One
+stream, with its ten branches, swept the stones and boulders over a
+shifting channel one mile in width. It was when wading through such
+streams as this, where every effort was required to balance ourselves and
+our luggage, that the mosquitos would make up for lost time with impunity.
+The river, before reaching Manas, was so swift and deep as to necessitate
+the use of regular government carts. A team of three horses, on making a
+misstep, were shifted away from the ford into deep water and carried far
+down the stream. A caravan of Chinese traveling-vans, loaded with goods
+from India, were crossing at the time, on their way to the outlying
+provinces and the Russian border. General Bauman at Vernoye had informed
+us that in this way English goods were swung clear around the circle and
+brought into Russia through the unguarded back door.
+
+With constant wading and tramping, our Russian shoes and stockings, one of
+which was almost torn off by the sly grab of a Chinese spaniel, were no
+longer fit for use. In their place we were now obliged to purchase the
+short, white cloth Chinese socks and string sandals, which for mere
+cycling purposes and wading streams proved an excellent substitute, being
+light and soft on the feet and very quickly dried. The calves of our legs,
+however, being left bare, we were obliged, for state occasions at least,
+to retain and utilize the upper portion of our old stockings. It was owing
+to this scantiness of wardrobe that we were obliged when taking a bath by
+the roadside streams to make a quick wash of our linen, and put it on wet
+to dry, or allow it to flutter from the handle-bars as we rode along. It
+was astonishing even to ourselves how little a man required when once
+beyond the pale of Western conventionalities.
+
+  [Illustration: SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.]
+
+From Manas to Urumtsi we began to strike more tillage and fertility.
+Maize, wheat, and rice were growing, but rather low and thin. The last is
+by no means the staple food of China, as is commonly supposed, except in
+the southern portion. In the northern, and especially the outlying,
+provinces it is considered more a luxury for the wealthy. Millet and
+coarse flour, from which the _mien_ or dough-strings are made, is the
+foundation, at least, for more than half the subsistence of the common
+classes. Nor is there much truth, we think, in the assertion that Chinamen
+eat rats, although we sometimes regretted that they did not. After a month
+or more without meat a dish of rats would have been relished, had we been
+able to get it. On the other hand we have learned that there is a society
+of Chinamen who are vegetarians from choice, and still another that will
+eat the meat of no animal, such as the ass, horse, dog, etc., which can
+serve man in a better way.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM
+  SMOKING.]
+
+Urumtsi, or Hun-miao (red temple) of the Chinese, still retains its
+ancient prestige in being the seat of government for the viceroyalty of
+Sin-tsiang, which includes all that portion of western China lying without
+the limit of Mongolia and Tibet. Thanks to its happy position, it has
+always rapidly recovered after every fresh disaster. It now does
+considerable trade with Russia through the town of Chuguchak, and with
+China through the great gap which here occurs in the Tian Shan range. It
+lies in a picturesque amphitheater behind the solitary “Holy Mount,” which
+towers above a well-constructed bridge across its swiftly flowing river.
+This city was one of our principal landmarks across the empire; a long
+stage of the journey was here completed.
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.]
+
+On entering a Chinese city we always made it a rule to run rapidly through
+until we came to an inn, and then lock up our wheels before the crowd
+could collect. Urumtsi, however, was too large and intricate for such a
+manœuver. We were obliged to dismount in the principal thoroughfare. The
+excited throng pressed in upon us. Among them was a Chinaman who could
+talk a little Russian, and who undertook to direct us to a comfortable inn
+at the far end of the city. This street parade gathered to the inn yard an
+overwhelming mob, and announced to the whole community that “the foreign
+horses” had come. It had been posted, we were told, a month before, that
+“two people of the new world” were coming through on “strange iron
+horses,” and every one was requested not to molest them. By this, public
+curiosity was raised to the highest pitch. When we returned from supper at
+a neighboring restaurant, we were treated to a novel scene. The doors and
+windows of our apartments had been blocked with boxes, bales of cotton,
+and huge cart-wheels to keep out the irrepressible throng. Our host was
+agitated to tears; he came out wringing his hands, and urging upon us that
+any attempt on our part to enter would cause a rush that would break his
+house down. We listened to his entreaties on the condition that we should
+be allowed to mount to the roof with a ladder, to get away from the
+annoying curiosity of the crowd. There we sat through the evening
+twilight, while the crowd below, somewhat balked, but not discouraged,
+stood taking in every move. Nightfall and a drizzling rain came at last to
+our relief.
+
+The next morning a squad of soldiers was despatched to raise the siege,
+and at the same time presents began to arrive from the various officials,
+from the Tsongtu, or viceroy, down to the superintendent of the local
+prisons. The matter of how much to accept of a Chinese present, and how
+much to pay for it, in the way of a tip to the bearer, is one of the
+finest points of that finest of fine arts, Chinese etiquette; and yet in
+the midst of such an abundance and variety we were hopelessly at sea.
+Fruits and teas were brought, together with meats and chickens, and even a
+live sheep. Our Chinese visiting-cards—with the Chinese the great insignia
+of rank—were now returned for those sent with the presents, and the hour
+appointed for the exhibition of our bicycles as requested.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.]
+
+Long before the time, the streets and housetops leading from the inn to
+the viceroy’s palace at the far end of the city began to fill with people,
+and soldiers were detailed at our request to make an opening for us to
+ride through abreast. This, however, did not prevent the crowd from
+pushing us against each other, or sticking sticks in the wheels, or
+throwing their hats and shoes in front of us, as we rode by. When in sight
+of the viceroy’s palace, they closed in on us entirely. It was the worst
+jam we had ever been in. By no possibility could we mount our machines,
+although the mob was growing more and more impatient. They kept shouting
+for us to ride, but would give us no room. Those on the outside pushed the
+inner ones against us. With the greatest difficulty could we preserve our
+equilibrium, and prevent the wheels from being crushed, as we surged along
+toward the palace gate; while all the time our Russian interpreter, Mafoo,
+on horseback in front, continued to shout and gesticulate in the wildest
+manner above their heads. Twenty soldiers had been stationed at the palace
+gate to keep back the mob with cudgels. When we reached them, they pulled
+us and our wheels quickly through into the inclosure, and then tried to
+stem the tide by belaboring the heads and shoulders in reach, including
+those of our unfortunate interpreter, Mafoo. But it was no use. Everything
+was swept away before this surging wave of humanity. The viceroy himself,
+who now came out to receive us, was powerless. All he could do was to
+request them to make room around the palace courtyard for the coming
+exhibition. Thousands of thumbs were uplifted that afternoon, in praise of
+the wonderful _twee-tah-cheh_, or two-wheeled carts, as they witnessed our
+modest attempt at trick riding and special manœuvering. After refreshments
+in the palace, to which we were invited by the viceroy, we were counseled
+to leave by a rear door, and return by a roundabout way to the inn,
+leaving the mob to wait till dark for our exit from the front.
+
+  [Illustration: A BANK IN URUMTSI.]
+
+The restaurant or tea-house in China takes the place of the Western
+club-room. All the current news and gossip is here circulated and
+discussed over their eating or gambling. One of their games of chance,
+which we have frequently noticed, seems to consist in throwing their
+fingers at one another, and shouting at the top of their voices. It is
+really a matching of numbers, for which the Chinamen make signs on their
+fingers, up to the numeral ten. Our entry into a crowded _dungan_, or
+native Mohammedan restaurant, the next morning, was the signal for
+exciting accounts of the events of the previous day. We were immediately
+invited to take tea with this one, a morning dish of _tung-posas_, or nut
+and sugar dumplings, with another, while a third came over with his can of
+_sojeu_, or Chinese gin, with an invitation “to join him.” The Chinese of
+all nations seem to live in order to eat, and from this race of epicures
+has developed a nation of excellent cooks. Our fare in China, outside the
+Gobi district, was far better than in Turkey or Persia, and, for this
+reason, we were better able to endure the increased hardships. A plate of
+sliced meat stewed with vegetables, and served with a piquant sauce,
+sliced radishes and onions with vinegar, two loaves of Chinese _mo-mo_, or
+steamed bread, and a pot of tea, would usually cost us about three and one
+quarter cents apiece. Everything in China is sliced so that it can be
+eaten with the chop-sticks. These we at length learned to manipulate with
+sufficient dexterity to pick up a dove’s egg—the highest attainment in the
+chop-stick art. The Chinese have rather a sour than a sweet tooth. Sugar
+is rarely used in anything, and never in tea. The steeped tea-flowers,
+which the higher classes use, are really more tasty without it. In many of
+the smaller towns, our visits to the restaurant would sometimes result in
+considerable damage to its keepers, for the crowd would swarm in after us,
+knocking over the table, stools, and crockery as they went, and collect in
+a circle around us to watch the “foreigners” eat, and to add their opium
+and tobacco smoke to the suffocating atmosphere.
+
+A visit to the local mint in Urumtsi revealed to us the primitive method
+of making the _chen_, or money-disks before mentioned. Each is molded
+instead of cut and stamped as in the West. By its superintendent we were
+invited to a special breakfast on the morning of our departure.
+
+  [Illustration: A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.]
+
+The Chinese are the only people in the Orient, and, so far as we know, in
+the European and Asiatic continents, who resemble the Americans in their
+love for a good, substantial morning meal. This was much better adapted to
+our purpose than the Russian custom, which compelled us to do the greater
+part of our day’s work on merely bread and weak tea.
+
+  [Illustration: STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.]
+
+From Urumtsi we had decided to take the northern route to Hami, via
+Gutchen and Barkul, in order to avoid as much as possible the sands of the
+Tarim basin on the southern slope of the Tian Shan mountains. Two guards
+were commissioned by the viceroy to take us in charge, and hand us over to
+the next relay station. Papers were given them to be signed by the
+succeeding authorities on our safe arrival. This plan had been adopted by
+every chief mandarin along the route, in order, not only to follow out the
+request of the London minister as written on the passport, but principally
+to do us honor in return for the favor of a bicycle exhibition; but many
+times we would leave our discomfited guards to return with unsigned
+papers. Had we been traveling in the ordinary way, not only these favors
+might not have been shown us, but our project entirely defeated by local
+obstructions, as was the case with many who attempted the same journey by
+caravan. To the good-will of the mandarins, as well as the people, an
+indispensable concomitant of a journey through China, our bicycles were
+after all our best passports. They everywhere overcame the antipathy for
+the foreigner, and made us cordially welcome.
+
+The costumes of our soldiers were strikingly picturesque. Over the front
+and back of the scarlet waistcoats were worked in black silk letters their
+military credentials. Over their full baggy trousers were drawn their
+riding overalls, which cover only the front and sides of the legs, the
+back being cut out just above the cloth top of their Chinese boots.
+Instead of a cap, they wear a piece of printed cloth wrapped tightly
+around the head, like the American washerwomen. Their well-cushioned
+saddles did not save them from the constant jolting to which our high
+speed subjected them. At every stopping-place they would hold forth at
+length to the curious crowd about their roadside experiences. It was
+amusing to hear their graphic descriptions of the mysterious “ding,” by
+which they referred to the ring of the cyclometer at every mile. But the
+phrase _quai-ti-henn_ (very fast), which concluded almost every sentence,
+showed what feature impressed them most. Then, too, they disliked very
+much to travel in the heat of the day, for all summer traveling in China
+is done at night. They would wake us up many hours before daylight to make
+a start, despite our previous request to be left alone. Our week’s run to
+Barkul was made, with a good natural road and favoring conditions, at the
+rate of fifty-three miles per day, eight miles more than our general
+average across the empire. From Kuldja to the Great Wall, where our
+cyclometer broke, we took accurate measurements of the distances. In this
+way, we soon discovered that the length of a Chinese _li_ was even more
+changeable than the value of the _tael_. According to time and place, from
+185 to 250 were variously reckoned to a degree, while even a difference in
+direction would very often make a considerable difference in the distance.
+It is needless to say that, at this rate, the guards did not stay with us.
+Official courtesy was now confined to despatches sent in advance. Through
+this exceptionally wild district were encountered several herds of
+antelope and wild asses, which the natives were hunting with their long,
+heavy, fork-resting rifles. Through the exceptional tameness of the
+jack-rabbits along the road, we were sometimes enabled to procure with a
+revolver the luxury of a meat supper.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.]
+
+At Barkul (Tatar) the first evidence of English influence began to appear
+in the place of the fading Russian, although the traces of Russian
+manufacture were by no means wanting far beyond the Great Wall. English
+pulverized sugar now began to take the place of Russian lump. India
+rubber, instead of the Russianized French _elastique_, was the native name
+for our rubber tires. English letters, too, could be recognized on the
+second-hand paper and bagging appropriated to the natives’ use, and even
+the gilded buttons worn by the soldiers bore the stamp of “treble gilt.”
+From here the road to Hami turns abruptly south, and by a pass of over
+nine thousand feet crosses the declining spurs of the Tian Shan mountains,
+which stand like a barrier between the two great historic highways,
+deflecting the westward waves of migration, some to Kashgaria and others
+to Zungaria. On the southern slope of the pass we met with many large
+caravans of donkeys, dragging down pine-logs to serve as poles in the
+proposed extension of the telegraph-line from Su-Chou to Urumtsi. In June
+of this year the following item appeared in the newspapers:
+
+“Within a few months Peking will be united by wire with St. Petersburg;
+and, in consequence, with the telegraph system of the entire civilized
+world. According to the latest issue of the Turkestan ‘Gazette,’ the
+telegraph-line from Peking has been brought as far west as the city of
+Kashgar. The European end of the line is at Osh, and a small stretch of
+about 140 miles now alone breaks the direct telegraph communication from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
+
+  [Illustration: CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.]
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.]
+
+Hami is one of those cities which may be regarded as indispensable. At the
+edge of the Great Gobi and the converging point of the Nan-lu and
+Pe-lu—that is, the southern and northern routes to the western world—this
+oasis is a necessary resting-place. During our stop of two days, to make
+necessary repairs and recuperate our strength for the hardships of the
+desert, the usual calls were exchanged with the leading officials. In the
+matter of social politeness the Chinese, especially the “literati,” have
+reason to look down upon the barbarians of the West. Politeness has been
+likened generally to an air-cushion. There is nothing in it, but it eases
+the jolts wonderfully. As a mere ritual of technicalities it has perhaps
+reached its highest point in China. The multitude of honorific titles, so
+bewildering and even maddening to the Occidental, are here used simply to
+keep in view the fixed relations of graduated superiority. When wishing to
+be exceptionally courteous to “the foreigners,” the more experienced
+mandarins would lay their doubled fists in the palms of our hands, instead
+of raising them in front of their foreheads, with the usual salutation
+_Homa_. In shaking hands with a Chinaman we thus very often had our hands
+full. After the exchange of visiting-cards, as an indication that their
+visits would be welcome, they would come on foot, in carts, or palanquins,
+according to their rank, and always attended by a larger or smaller
+retinue. Our return visits would always be made by request, on the wheels,
+either alone or with our interpreter, if we could find one, for our
+Chinese was as yet painfully defective. Russian had served us in good
+stead, though not always directly. In a conversation with the Tootai of
+Schicho, for instance, our Russian had to be translated into Turki and
+thence interpreted in Chinese. The more intelligent of these conversations
+were about our own and other countries of the world, especially England
+and Russia, who, it was rumored, had gone to war on the Afghanistan
+border. But the most of them generally consisted of a series of trivial
+interrogations beginning usually with: “How old are you?” Owing to our
+beards, which were now full grown, and which had gained for us the
+frequent title of _yeh renn_, or wild men, the guesses were far above the
+mark. One was even as high as sixty years, for the reason, as was stated,
+that no Chinaman could raise such a beard before that age. We were
+frequently surprised at their persistence in calling us brothers when
+there was no apparent reason for it, and were finally told that we must be
+“because we were both named _Mister_ on our passports.”
+
+  [Illustration: A LESSON IN CHINESE.]
+
+  [Illustration: A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+It was already dusk on the evening of August 10 when we drew up to the
+hamlet of Shang-loo-shwee at the end of the Hami oasis. The Great Gobi, in
+its awful loneliness, stretched out before us, like a vast ocean of
+endless space. The growing darkness threw its mantle on the scene, and
+left imagination to picture for us the nightmare of our boyhood days. We
+seemed, as it were, to be standing at the end of the world, looking out
+into the realm of nowhere. Foreboding thoughts disturbed our repose, as we
+contemplated the four hundred miles of this barren stretch to the Great
+Wall of China. With an early morning start, however, we struck out at once
+over the eighty-five miles of the Takla Makan sands. This was the worst we
+could have, for beyond the caravan station of Kooshee we would strike the
+projecting limits of Mongolian Kan-su. This narrow tract, now lying to our
+left between Hami and the Nan Shan mountains, is characterized by
+considerable diversity in its surface, soil, and climate. Traversed by
+several copious streams from the Nan Shan mountains, and the
+moisture-laden currents from the Bay of Bengal and the Brahmaputra valley,
+its “desert” stretches are not the dismal solitudes of the Tarim basin or
+the “Black” and “Red” sands of central Asia. Water is found almost
+everywhere near the surface, and springs bubble up in the hollows, often
+encircled by exterior oases. Everywhere the ground is traversable by
+horses and carts. This comparatively fertile tract, cutting the Gobi into
+two great sections, has been, ever since its conquest two thousand years
+ago, of vast importance to China, being the only feasible avenue of
+communication with the western provinces, and the more important link in
+the only great highway across the empire. A regular line of caravan
+stations is maintained by the constant traffic both in winter and summer.
+But we were now on a bit of the genuine Gobi—that is, “Sandy Desert”—of
+the Mongolian, or “Shamo” of the Chinese. Everywhere was the same
+interminable picture of vast undulating plains of shifting reddish sands,
+interspersed with quartz pebbles, agates, and carnelians, and relieved
+here and there by patches of wiry shrubs, used as fuel at the desert
+stations, or lines of hillocks succeeding each other like waves on the
+surface of the shoreless deep. The wind, even more than the natural
+barrenness of the soil, prevents the growth of any vegetation except low,
+pliant herbage. Withered plants are uprooted and scattered by the gale
+like patches of foam on the stormy sea. These terrible winds, which of
+course were against us, with the frequently heavy cart-tracks, would make
+it quite impossible to ride. The monotony of many weary hours of plodding
+was relieved only by the bones of some abandoned beast of burden, or the
+occasional train of Chinese carts, or rather two-wheeled vans, loaded with
+merchandise, and drawn by five to six horses or mules. For miles away they
+would see us coming, and crane their necks in wondering gaze as we
+approached. The mulish leaders, with distended ears, would view our
+strange-looking vehicles with suspicion, and then lurch far out in their
+twenty-foot traces, pulling the heavily loaded vehicles from the
+deep-rutted track. But the drivers were too busy with their eyes to notice
+any little divergence of this kind. Dumb with astonishment they continued
+to watch us till we disappeared again toward the opposite horizon. Farther
+on we would meet a party of Chinese emigrants or exiles, on their way to
+the fertile regions that skirt the northern and southern slopes of the
+Tian Shan mountains. By these people even the distant valley of the Ili is
+being largely populated. Being on foot, with their extraordinary loads
+balanced on flexible shoulder-poles, these poor fellows could make only
+one station, or from twelve to twenty miles a day. In the presence of
+their patience and endurance, we were ashamed to think of such a thing as
+hardship.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+The station-houses on the desert were nothing more than a collection of
+mud huts near a surface well of strongly brackish water. Here, most of the
+caravans would put up during the day, and travel at night. There was no
+such thing as a restaurant; each one by turn must do his own cooking in
+the inn kitchen, open to all. We, of course, were expected to carry our
+own provisions and do our own culinary work like any other respectable
+travelers. This we had frequently done before where restaurants were not
+to be found. Many a time we would enter an inn with our arms filled with
+provisions, purchased at the neighboring bazaars, take possession of the
+oven and cooking utensils, and proceed to get up an American meal, while
+all the time a hundred eyes or more would be staring at us in blank
+amazement. But here on the desert we could buy nothing but very coarse
+flour. When asked if they had an egg or a piece of vegetable, they would
+shout “_Ma-you_” (“There is none”) in a tone of rebuke, as much as to say:
+“My conscience! man, what do you expect on the Gobi?” We would have to be
+content with our own tea made in the iron pot, fitting in the top of the
+mud oven, and a kind of sweetened bread made up with our supply of sugar
+brought from Hami. This we nicknamed our “Gobi cake,” although it did
+taste rather strongly of brackish water and the garlic of previous
+contents of the one common cooking-pot. We would usually take a large
+supply for road use on the following day, or, as sometimes proved, for the
+midnight meal of the half-starved inn-dog. The interim between the evening
+meal and bedtime was always employed in writing notes by the feeble,
+flickering light of a primitive taper-lamp, which was the best we had
+throughout the Chinese journey.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.]
+
+A description of traveling in China would by no means be complete without
+some mention of the vermin which infest, not only inns and houses, but the
+persons of nearly all the lower classes. Lice and fleas seem to be the
+_sine qua non_ of Chinese life, and in fact the itching with some seems to
+furnish the only occasion for exercise. We have seen even shopkeepers
+before their doors on a sunny afternoon, amusing themselves by picking
+these insidious creatures from their inner garments. They are one of the
+necessary evils it seems, and no secret is made of it. The sleeping
+_kangs_ of the Chinese inns, which are made of beaten earth and heated in
+winter like an oven, harbor these pests the year round, not to mention the
+filthy coverlets and greasy pillows that were sometimes offered us. Had we
+not had our own sleeping-bags, and used the camera, provision-bag, and
+coats for pillows, our life would have been intolerable. As it was there
+was but little rest for the weary.
+
+The longest station on the desert was thirty-one miles. This was the only
+time that we suffered at all with thirst. In addition to the high mean
+elevation of the Gobi, about four thousand feet, we had cloudy weather for
+a considerable portion of the journey, and, in the Kan-su district, even a
+heavy thunder-shower. These occasional summer rains form, here and there,
+temporary meres and lakes, which are soon evaporated, leaving nothing
+behind except a saline efflorescence. Elsewhere the ground is furrowed by
+sudden torrents tearing down the slopes of the occasional hills or
+mountains. These dried up river-beds furnished the only continuously hard
+surfaces we found on the Gobi; although even here we were sometimes
+brought up with a round turn in a chuck hole, with the sand flying above
+our heads.
+
+Our aneroid barometer registered approximately six thousand five hundred
+feet, when we reached at dusk the summit of the highest range of hills we
+encountered on the desert journey. But instead of the station-hut we
+expected to find, we were confronted by an old Mongolian monastery. These
+institutions, we had found, were generally situated as this one, at the
+top of some difficult mountain-pass or at the mouth of some cavernous
+gorge, where the pious intercessors might, to the best advantage, strive
+to appease the wrathful forces of nature. In this line of duty the lama
+was no doubt engaged when we walked into his feebly-lighted room, but,
+like all Orientals, he would let nothing interfere with the performance of
+his religious duties. With his gaze centered upon one spot, his fingers
+flew over the string of beads in his lap, and his tongue over the
+stereotyped prayers, with a rapidity that made our head swim. We stood
+unnoticed till the end, when we were at once invited to a cup of tea, and
+directed to our destination, five _li_ beyond. Toward this we plodded
+through the growing darkness and rapidly cooling atmosphere; for in its
+extremes of temperature the Gobi is at once both Siberian and Indian, and
+that, too, within the short period of a few hours. Some of the mornings of
+what proved to be very hot days were cold enough to make our extremities
+fairly tingle.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.]
+
+A constant diet of bread and tea, together with the hard physical exercise
+and mental anxiety, caused our strength at length to fail.
+
+  [Illustration: A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.]
+
+The constant drinking of brackish water made one of us so ill that he
+could retain no food. A high fever set in on the evening of August 15, and
+as we pulled into the station of Bay-doon-sah, he was forced to go to bed
+at once. The other, with the aid of our small medicine supply, endeavored
+to ward off the ominous symptoms. In his anxiety, however, to do all that
+was possible he made a serious blunder. Instead of antipyrin he
+administered the poison, sulphate of zinc, which we carried to relieve our
+eyes when inflamed by the alkali dust. This was swallowed before the truth
+was discovered. It was an anxious moment for us both when we picked up the
+paper from the floor and read the inscription. We could do nothing but
+look at each other in silence. Happily it was an overdose, and the
+vomiting which immediately followed relieved both the patient and the
+anxious doctor. What to do we did not know. The patient now suggested that
+his companion should go on without him, and, if possible, send back
+medical aid or proper food; but not to remain and get worse himself. He,
+on the other hand, refused to leave without the other. Then too, the
+outlying town of Ngan-si-chou, the first where proper food and water could
+be obtained, was only one day’s journey away. Another effort was decided
+upon. But when morning came, a violent hurricane from the southeast swept
+the sand in our faces, and fairly blew the sick man over on his wheel.
+Famishing with thirst, tired beyond expression, and burning with fever as
+well as the withering heat, we reached at last the bank of the Su-la-ho.
+Eagerly we plunged into its sluggish waters, and waded through under the
+walls of Ngan-si-chou.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+Ngan-si-chou was almost completely destroyed during the late Dungan
+rebellion. Little is now to be seen except heaps of rubbish, ruined
+temples, and the scattered fragments of idols. The neglected gardens no
+longer check the advancing sands, which in some places were drifting over
+the ramparts. Through its abandoned gateway we almost staggered with
+weakness, and directed our course to the miserable bazaar. The only meat
+we could find was pork, that shibboleth between Mohammedanism and
+Confucianism. The Dungan restaurant-keeper would not cook it, and only
+after much persuasion consented to have it prepared outside and brought
+back to be eaten beneath his roof. With better water and more substantial
+food we began, from this time on, to recuperate. But before us still a
+strong head wind was sweeping over the many desert stretches that lay
+between the oases along the Su-la-ho, and with the constant walking our
+sandals and socks were almost worn away. For this reason we were delayed
+one evening in reaching the town of Dyou-min-shan. In the lonely stillness
+of its twilight a horseman was approaching across the barren plain,
+bearing a huge Chinese lantern in his hand, and singing aloud, as is a
+Chinaman’s custom, to drive off the evil spirits of the night. He started
+back, as we suddenly appeared, and then dismounted, hurriedly, to throw
+his lantern’s glare upon us. “Are you the two Americans?” he asked in an
+agitated manner. His question was surprising. Out in this desert country
+we were not aware that our identity was known, or our visit expected. He
+then explained that he had been instructed by the magistrate of
+Dyou-min-shan to go out and look for us, and escort us into the town. He
+also mentioned in this connection the name of Ling Darin—a name that we
+had heard spoken of almost with veneration ever since leaving Urumtsi. Who
+this personage was we were unable to find out beyond that he was an
+influential mandarin in the city of Su-chou, now only a day’s journey
+away.
+
+  [Illustration: WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.]
+
+Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which our Asiatic journey
+was begun and ended, we now struck, at its extreme western limit, the
+Great Wall of China. The Kiayu-kuan, or “Jade Gate,” by which it is here
+intersected, was originally so called from the fact that it led into the
+Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders brought back the precious
+mineral. This, with the Shanghai-kuan near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan,
+on the Nankow pass, are the principal gateways in this “wall of ten
+thousand _li_,” which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected the empire
+from the Mongolian nomads for a period of fourteen hundred years. In its
+present condition the Great Wall belongs to various epochs. With the
+sudden and violent transitions of temperature in the severe Mongolian
+climate, it may be doubted whether any portion of Shi Hoangti’s original
+work still survives. Nearly all the eastern section, from Ordos to the
+Yellow Sea, was rebuilt in the fifth century, and the double rampart along
+the northwest frontier of the plains of Peking was twice restored in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth. North of Peking, where this prodigious structure
+has a mean height of about twenty-six feet, and width of twenty feet, it
+is still in a state of perfect repair, whereas in many western districts
+along the Gobi frontier, as here before us, it is little more than an
+earthen rampart about fifteen feet in height, while for considerable
+distances, as along the road from Su-chou to Kan-chou, it has entirely
+disappeared for miles at a stretch. Both the gate and the wall at this
+point had been recently repaired. We could now see it rising and falling
+in picturesque undulations as far as the Tibetan ranges. There it stops
+altogether, after a westward course of over fifteen hundred miles. In view
+of what was before us, we could not but smile as we thought of that French
+abbé who undertook, in an elaborate volume, to prove that the “Great Wall
+of China” was nothing more than a myth.
+
+We were now past another long anticipated land-mark, and before us, far
+down in the plain, lay the city of Su-chou, which, as the terminal point
+of the Chinese telegraph-line, would bring us again into electric touch
+with the civilized world. But between us and our goal lay the Edzina
+river, now swollen by a recent freshet. We began to wade cautiously
+through with luggage and wheels balanced on our shoulders. But just at
+that moment we perceived, approaching from the distance, what we took to
+be a mounted Chinese mandarin, and his servant leading behind him two
+richly caparisoned and riderless horses. At sight of us they spurred
+ahead, and reached the opposite bank just as we passed the middle of the
+stream. The leader now rose in his stirrups, waved his hat in the air and
+shouted, in clear though broken English, “Well, gentlemen, you have
+arrived at last!” To hear our mother tongue so unexpectedly spoken in this
+out-of-the-way part of the world, was startling. This strange individual,
+although clad in the regular mandarin garb, was light-complexioned, and
+had an auburn instead of a black queue dangling from his shaven head. He
+grasped us warmly by the hand as we came dripping out of the water, while
+all the time his benevolent countenance fairly beamed with joy. “I am glad
+to see you, gentlemen,” he said. “I was afraid you would be taken sick on
+the road ever since I heard you had started across China. I just got the
+news five minutes ago that you were at Kiayu-kuan, and immediately came
+out with these two horses to bring you across the river, which I feared
+would be too deep and swift for you. Mount your ponies, and we will ride
+into the city together.”
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.]
+
+It was some time before the idea flashed across our minds that this might
+indeed be the mysterious Ling Darin about whom we had heard so much.
+“Yes,” said he, “that is what I am called here, but my real name is
+Splingard.” He then went on to tell us that he was a Belgian by birth;
+that he had traveled extensively through China, as the companion of Baron
+Richthofen, and had thus become so thoroughly acquainted with the country
+and its people that on his return to the coast he had been offered by the
+Chinese government the position of custom mandarin at Su-chou, a position
+just then established for the levying of duty on the Russian goods passing
+in through the northwest provinces; that he had adopted the Chinese dress
+and mode of living, and had even married, many years ago, a Chinese girl
+educated at the Catholic schools in Tientsin. We were so absorbed in this
+romantic history that we scarcely noticed the crowds that lined the
+streets leading to the Ling Darin’s palace, until the boom of a cannon
+recalled us to our situation. From the smile on the jolly face beside us,
+we knew at once whom we could hold responsible for this reception. The
+palace gates were now thrown open by a host of servants, and in our rags
+and tatters we rolled at once from the hardships of the inhospitable
+desert into the lap of luxury.
+
+A surplus is not always so easily disposed of as a deficit—at least we
+were inclined to think so in the case of our Su-chou diet. The Ling
+Darin’s table, which, for the exceptional occasion, was set in the foreign
+fashion with knives and forks, fairly teemed with abundance and variety.
+There was even butter, made from the milk of the Tibetan yak, and
+condensed milk for our coffee, the first we had tasted since leaving
+Turkey, more than a year before. The Ling Darin informed us that a can of
+this milk, which he once presented to Chinese friends, had been mistaken
+for a face cosmetic, and was so used by the ladies of the family. The lack
+of butter has led many of the missionaries in China to substitute lard,
+while the Chinese fry their fat cakes in various oils. The Ling Darin’s
+wife we found an excellent and even artistic cook, while his buxom twin
+daughters could read and write their own language—a rare accomplishment
+for a Chinese woman. Being unaccustomed to foreign manners, they would
+never eat at the same table with us, but would come in during the evening
+with their mother, to join the family circle and read aloud to us some of
+their father’s official despatches. This they would do with remarkable
+fluency and intelligence.
+
+As guests of our highly respected and even venerated host, we were visited
+by nearly all the magistrates of the city. The Ling Darin was never before
+compelled to answer so many questions. In self-defense he was at last
+forced to get up a stereotyped speech to deliver on each social occasion.
+The people, too, besieged the palace gates, and clamored for an
+exhibition. Although our own clothes had been sent away to be boiled, we
+could not plead this as an excuse. The flowing Chinese garments which had
+been provided from the private wardrobe of the Ling Darin fluttered wildly
+in the breeze, as we rode out through the city at the appointed hour. Our
+Chinese shoes, also, were constantly slipping off, and as we raised the
+foot to readjust them, a shout went up from the crowd for what they
+thought was some fancy touch in the way of riding.
+
+  [Illustration: A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.]
+
+From the barrenness of the Gobi to the rank vegetation of the Edzina
+valley, where the grass and grain were actually falling over from
+excessive weight, was a most relieving change. Water was everywhere. Even
+the roadway served in many places as a temporary irrigating-canal. On the
+journey to Kan-chou we were sometimes compelled to ride on the narrow
+mud-wall fences that separated the flooded fields of wheat, millet, and
+sorghum, the prevailing cereals north of the Hoang-ho river. Fields of
+rice and the opium poppy were sometimes met with, but of the silk-worm and
+tea-plant, which furnish the great staples of the Chinese export trade, we
+saw absolutely nothing on our route through the northern provinces. Apart
+from the “Yellow Lands” of the Hoang-ho, which need no manure, the arable
+regions of China seem to have maintained their fecundity for over four
+thousand years, entirely through the thoughtful care of the peasantry in
+restoring to the soil, under another form, all that the crops have taken
+from it. The plowing of the Chinese is very poor. They scarcely do more
+than scratch the surface of the ground with their bent-stick plows,
+wooden-tooth drills, and wicker-work harrows; and instead of straight
+lines, so dear to the eye of a Western farmer, the ridges and furrows are
+as crooked as serpents. The real secret of their success seems to lie in
+the care they take to replenish the soil. All the sewage of the towns is
+carried out every morning at daybreak by special coolies, to be preserved
+for manure; while the dried herbs, straw, roots, and other vegetable
+refuse, are economized with the greatest care for fuel. The Chinese
+peasant offsets the rudeness of his implements with manual skill. He weeds
+the ground so carefully that there is scarcely a leaf above the ground
+that does not appertain to the crop. All kinds of pumps and hydraulic
+wheels are worked, either by the hand, animals, or the wind. The system of
+tillage, therefore, resembles market-gardening rather than the broad
+method of cultivation common in Europe and America. The land is too
+valuable to be devoted to pasture, and the forests nearly everywhere have
+been sacrificed to tillage to such an extent that the material for the
+enormously thick native coffins has now to be imported from abroad.
+
+Streams and irrigating-ditches were so frequent that we were continually
+saturated with water or covered with mud. Our bare arms and legs were so
+tanned and coated that we were once asked by a group of squalid villagers
+if “foreigners” ever bathed like themselves. On dashing down into a
+village, we would produce consternation or fright, especially among the
+women and children, but after the first onset, giggling would generally
+follow, for our appearance, especially from the rear, seemed to strike
+them as extremely ridiculous. The wheel itself presented various aspects
+to their ignorant fancies. It was called the “flying machine” and
+“foot-going carriage,” while some even took it for the “fire-wheel cart,”
+or locomotive, about which they had heard only the vaguest rumors. Their
+ignorance of its source of motive power often prompted them to name it the
+“self-moving cart,” just as the natives of Shanghai are wont to call the
+electric-light “the self-coming moon.”
+
+In one out-of-the-way village of northwestern China, we were evidently
+taken for some species of centaurs; the people came up to examine us while
+on the wheel to see whether or no rider and wheel were one. We became so
+harassed with importunities to ride that we were compelled at last to seek
+relief in subterfuge, for an absolute refusal, we found, was of no avail.
+We would promise to ride for a certain sum of money, thinking thus to
+throw the burden of refusal on themselves. But, nothing daunted, they
+would pass round the hat. On several occasions, when told that eggs could
+not be bought in the community, an offer of an exhibition would bring them
+out by the dozen. In the same way we received presents of tea, and by this
+means our cash expenses were considerably curtailed. The interest in the
+“foreign horses” was sometimes so great as to stop business and even
+amusements. A rather notable incident of this kind occurred on one of the
+Chinese holidays. The flag-decked streets, as we rode through, were filled
+with the neighboring peasantry, attracted by some traveling theatrical
+troupe engaged for the occasion. In fact, a performance was just then in
+progress at the open-air theater close at hand. Before we were aware of it
+we had rolled into its crowded auditorium. The women were sitting on
+improvised benches, fanning and gossiping, while the men stood about in
+listless groups. But suddenly their attention was aroused by the counter
+attraction, and a general rush followed, to the great detriment of the
+temporary peddlers’ stands erected for the occasion. Although entirely
+deserted, and no doubt consumed with curiosity, the actors could not lose
+what the Chinese call “face.” They still continued their hideous noises,
+pantomimes, and dialogues to the empty seats.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW.]
+
+The last fifty miles into Liang-chou, a city founded by a Catholic
+Chinaman over two hundred years ago, we were compelled to make on foot,
+owing to an accident that caused us serious trouble all through the
+remainder of our Chinese journey. In a rapid descent by a narrow pathway,
+the pedal of one of the machines struck upon a protuberance, concealed by
+a tuft of grass, snapping off the axle, and scattering the ball-bearings
+over the ground. For some miles we pushed along on the bare axle inverted
+in the pedal-crank. But the wrenching the machine thus received soon began
+to tell. With a sudden jolt on a steep descent, it collapsed entirely, and
+precipitated the rider over the handle-bars. The lower part of the frame
+had broken short off, where it was previously cracked, and had bent the
+top bar almost double in the fall. In this sad plight, we were rejoiced to
+find in the “City under the Shade” the Scotch missionary, Mr. Laughton,
+who had founded here the most remote of the China Inland Missions. But
+even with his assistance, and that of the best native mechanic, our
+repairs were ineffective. At several points along the route we were
+delayed on this account. At last the front and rear parts of the machine
+became entirely separated. There was no such thing as steel to be found in
+the country, no tools fit to work with, and no one who knew the first
+principles of soldering. After endeavoring to convince the native
+blacksmiths that a delicate bicycle would not stand pounding like a
+Chinese cart-wheel, we took the matter into our own hands. An iron bar was
+placed in the hollow tubing to hold it in shape, and a band of telegraph
+wire passed round from front to rear, along the upper and lower rods, and
+then twisted so as to bring the two parts as tightly together as possible.
+With a waddling frame, and patched rear-wheel describing eccentric
+revolutions, we must have presented a rather comical appearance over the
+remaining thousand miles to the coast.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.]
+
+Across the Yellow Hoang-ho, which is the largest river we encountered in
+Asia, a pontoon bridge leads into the city of Lan-chou-foo. Its
+strategical position at the point where the Hoang-ho makes its great bend
+to the north, and where the gateway of the West begins, as well as its
+picturesque location in one of the greatest fruit-bearing districts of
+China, makes it one of the most important cities of the empire. On the
+commanding heights across the river, we stopped to photograph the
+picturesque scene. As usual, the crowd swarmed in front of the camera to
+gaze into the mysterious lens. All the missionaries we had met cautioned
+us against taking photographs in China, lest we should do violence to the
+many popular superstitions, but the only trouble we ever experienced in
+this respect was in arousing popular curiosity. We soon learned that in
+order to get something besides Chinese heads in our pictures it was
+necessary first to point the camera in the opposite direction, and then
+wheel suddenly round to the scene we wished to take. As we crossed the
+river, the bridge of boats so creaked and swayed beneath the rushing
+rabble, that we were glad to stand once more upon the terra firma of the
+city streets, which were here paved with granite and marble blocks. As we
+rode down the principal thoroughfare, amid the usual din and uproar, a
+well-dressed Chinaman rushed out from one of the stores and grabbed us by
+the arm. “Do you speak English?” he shouted, with an accent so like an
+American, that we leaped from our wheels at once, and grasped his hand as
+that of a fellow countryman. This, in fact, he proved to be in everything
+but birth. He was one of that party of mandarins’ sons which had been sent
+over to our country some years ago, as an experiment by the Chinese
+government, to receive a thorough American training. We cannot here give
+the history of that experiment, as Mr. Woo related it—how they were
+subsequently accused of cutting off their queues and becoming
+denationalized; how, in consequence, they were recalled to their native
+land, and degraded rather than elevated, both by the people and the
+government, because they were foreign in their sentiments and habits; and
+how, at last, they gradually began to force recognition through the power
+of merit alone. He had now been sent out by the government to engineer the
+extension of the telegraph-line from Su-chou to Urumtsi, for it was feared
+by the government that the employment of a foreigner in this capacity
+would only increase the power for evil which the natives already
+attributed to this foreign innovation. The similarity in the phrases,
+_telegraph pole_ and _dry heaven_, had inspired the common belief that the
+line of poles then stretching across the country was responsible for the
+long-existing drought. In one night several miles of poles were sawed
+short off, by the secret order of a banded conspiracy. After several
+decapitations, the poles were now being restored, and labeled with the
+words, “Put up by order of the Emperor.”
+
+  [Illustration: TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]
+
+In company with the English missionary, Mr. Redfern, while attempting to
+get out of the city on the way to his mountain home, we were caught in
+another jam. He counseled us to conceal the weapons we were carrying in
+our belts, for fear the sight of them should incite the mob to some act of
+violence. Our own experience, however, had taught us that a revolver in
+China was worth nothing if not shown. For persistence, this mob surpassed
+any we had ever seen. They followed us out of the city and over the three
+miles’ stretch to the mission premises, and there announced their
+intention of remaining indefinitely. Again Mr. Redfern feared some
+outbreak, and counseled us to return to the city and apply to the viceroy
+himself for protection. This proved a good move. A special exhibition on
+the palace parade-grounds gained for us the valuable favor of one who was
+only fourth in rank to the emperor himself. A body-guard of soldiers was
+furnished, not only during our sojourn in the city, but for the journey to
+Singan-foo, on which a good reception was everywhere insured by an
+official despatch sent in advance. In order to secure for us future
+respect, a small flag with the government stamp and of yellow color was
+given us to fly by the side of our “stars and stripes.” On this was
+inscribed the title of “The Traveling Students,” as well as answers to the
+more frequent of the common questions—our nationality, destination, and
+age. The best mechanic in the local cannon-foundry was then ordered to
+make, at government expense, whatever repairs were possible on our
+disabled machines. This, however, as it proved, was not much; most of his
+time was spent in taking measurements and patterns for another purpose. If
+his intentions have been carried out, Lan-chou-foo is to-day possessed of
+a “foot-moving carriage” of home production.
+
+Our sojourn in this city is especially associated with the three names of
+Woo, Choo, and Moo—names by no means uncommon in Chinese nomenclature. We
+heard of a boy named the abstract numeral, “sixty-five,” because his
+grandfather happened to reach that age on the very day of his birth. Mr.
+Moo was the local telegraph operator, with whom we, and our friends Woo
+and Choo, of Shanghai, associated. All operators in the Chinese telegraph
+system are required to read and write English. The school established for
+this purpose at Lan-chou we occasionally visited, and assisted the Chinese
+schoolmaster to hear the recitations from Routledge’s spelling-book. He,
+in turn, was a frequent partaker of our “foreign chows,” which our
+English-speaking friends served with knives and forks borrowed from the
+missionaries. Lily and bamboo roots, sharks’ fins and swallows’ nests, and
+many other Chinese delicacies, were now served in abundance, and with the
+ever-accompanying bowl of rice. In the matter of eating and drinking,
+Chinese formality is extreme. A round table is the only one that can be
+used in an aristocratic household. The seat of honor is always the one
+next to the wall. Not a mouthful can be taken until the host raises his
+chop-sticks in the air, and gives the signal. Silence then prevails; for
+Confucius says: “When a man eats he has no time for talk.” When a cup of
+tea is served to any one in a social party, he must offer it to every one
+in the room, no matter how many there are, before proceeding to drink
+himself. The real basis of Chinese politeness seems to be this: They must
+be polite enough to offer, and you must be polite enough to refuse. Our
+ignorance of this great underlying principle during the early part of the
+Chinese journey led us into errors both many and grievous. In order to
+show a desire to be sociable, we accepted almost everything that was
+offered us, to the great chagrin, we fear, of the courteous donors.
+
+  [Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]
+
+  [Illustration: LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+  FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    VI
+
+
+              AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA
+
+
+Our departure from Lan-chou was not, we thought, regretted by the
+officials themselves, for we heard that apprehension was expressed lest
+the crowds continuing to collect around the telegraph-office should
+indulge in a riot. However, we were loath to leave our genial friends for
+the society of opium-smokers, for we were now in that province of China
+which, next to Sechuen, is most addicted to this habit. From dusk till
+bed-time, the streets of the villages were almost deserted for the squalid
+opium dens. Even our soldier attendant, as soon as the wooden saddle was
+taken from his sore-backed government steed, would produce his portable
+lamp, and proceed to melt on his needle the wax-like contents of a small,
+black box. When of the proper consistency, the paste was rolled on a metal
+plate to point it for the aperture in the flute-shaped pipe. Half the
+night would be given to this process, and a considerable portion of the
+remaining half would be devoted to smoking small pinches of tobacco in the
+peculiar Chinese water-pipe. According to an official note, issued early
+in 1882, by Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of Chinese Customs, considerably
+less than one per cent. of the population is addicted to opium-smoking,
+while those who smoke it to excess are few. More to be feared is the use
+of opium as a poison, especially among Chinese women. The government
+raises large sums from the import duty on opium, and tacitly connives at
+its cultivation in most of the provinces, where the traders and mandarins
+share between them the profits of this officially prohibited drug.
+
+This part of the great historic highway on which we were now traveling,
+between the two bends of the Hoang-ho, was found more extensively
+patronized than heretofore. Besides the usual caravans of horses, donkeys,
+and two-wheeled vans, we occasionally met with a party of shaven-headed
+Tibetans traveling either as emissaries, or as traders in the famous
+Tibetan sheep-skins and furs, and the strongly-scented bags of the
+musk-deer. A funeral cortège was also a very frequent sight. Chinese
+custom requires that the remains of the dead be brought back to their
+native place, no matter how far they may have wandered during life, and as
+the carriage of a single body would often be expensive, they are generally
+interred in temporary cemeteries or mortuary villages, until a sufficient
+number can be got together to form a large convoy. Mandarins, however, in
+death as in life, travel alone and with retinue. One coffin we met which
+rested upon poles supported on the shoulders of thirty-two men. Above on
+the coffin was perched the usual white rooster, which is supposed to
+incorporate, during transportation, the spirit of the departed. In funeral
+ceremonies, especially of the father, custom also requires the children to
+give public expression to their grief. Besides many other filial
+observances, the eldest son is in duty bound to render the journey easy
+for the departed by scattering fictitious paper-money, as spirit toll, at
+the various roadside temples.
+
+  [Illustration: OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.]
+
+  [Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.]
+
+Singan-foo, the capital of the Middle Kingdom, under the Tsin dynasty, and
+a city of the first importance more than two thousand years ago, is still
+one of the largest places in the empire, being exceeded in population
+probably by Canton alone. Each of its four walls, facing the cardinal
+points, is over six miles long and is pierced in the center by a
+monumental gate with lofty pavilions. It was here, among the ruins of an
+old Nestorian church, built several centuries before, that was found the
+famous tablet now sought at a high price by the British Museum. The
+harassing mobs gathered from its teeming population, as well as the
+lateness of the season, prompted us to make our sojourn as short as
+possible. Only a day sufficed to reach Tong-quan, which is the central
+stronghold of the Hoang-ho basin, and one of the best defended points in
+China. Here, between precipitous cliffs, this giant stream rushes madly
+by, as if in protest against its sudden deflection. Our ferry this time
+was not the back of a Chinese coolie nor a jolting ox-cart, but a spacious
+flat-boat made to accommodate one or two vehicles at a time. This was
+rowed at the stern, like the gondolas of Venice. The mob of hundreds that
+had been dogging our foot-steps and making life miserable, during our
+brief stop for food, watched our embarkation. We reached the opposite
+shore, a mile below the starting-point, and began to ascend from the
+river-basin to the highlands by an excavated fissure in the famous “yellow
+earth.” This gives its name, not only to the river it discolors, but, from
+the extensive region comprised, even to the emperor himself, who takes the
+title of “Yellow Lord,” as equivalent to “Master of the World.” The
+thickness of this the richest soil in China, which according to Baron
+Richthofen is nothing more than so much dust accumulated during the course
+of ages by the winds from the northern deserts, is in some places at least
+two thousand feet. Much ingenuity has been displayed in overcoming the
+difficulties offered to free communication by the perpendicular walls of
+these yellow lands. Some of the most frequented roads have been excavated
+to depths of from forty to one hundred feet. Being seldom more than eight
+or ten feet wide, the wheeled traffic is conducted by means of sidings,
+like the “stations” in the Suez Canal. Being undrained or unswept by the
+winds, these walled-up tracks are either dust-beds or quagmires, according
+to the season; for us, the autumn rains had converted them into the
+latter. Although on one of the imperial highways which once excited the
+admiration of Marco Polo, we were now treated to some of the worst
+stretches we have ever seen. The mountain ascents, especially those
+stair-like approaches to the “Heavenly Gates” before reaching the Pe-chili
+plains, were steep, gradeless inclines, strewn with huge upturned blocks
+of stone, over which the heavy carts were fairly lifted by the sheer force
+of additional horse-flesh. The bridges, too, whose Roman-like masonry
+attests the high degree of Chinese civilization during the middle ages,
+have long since been abandoned to the ravages of time; while over the
+whole country the late Dungan rebellion has left its countless ruins.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.]
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.]
+
+The people of Shan-si province are noted for their special thrift, but
+this quality we observed was sometimes exhibited at the expense of the
+higher virtue of honesty. One of the most serious of the many cases of
+attempted extortion occurred at a remote country town, where we arrived
+late one evening, after learning to our dismay that one of our remarkably
+few mistakes in the road had brought us just fifty miles out of the way.
+Unusually wearied as we were by the cross-country cuts, we desired to
+retire early. In fact, on this account, we were not so observant of
+Chinese formality as we might have been. We did not heed the hinted
+requests of the visiting officials for a moon-light exhibition, nor go to
+the inn-door to bow them respectfully out. We were glad to take them at
+their word when they said, with the usual hypocritical smirk, “Now, don’t
+come out any farther.” This indiscretion on our part caused them, as well
+as ourselves, to suffer in the respect of the assembled rabble. With
+official connivance, the latter were now free, they thought, to take
+unusual liberties. So far, in our dealings with the Chinese, we had never
+objected to anything that was reasonable even from the native point of
+view. We had long since learned the force of the Chinese proverb that, “in
+order to avoid suspicion you must not live behind closed doors”; and in
+consequence had always recognized the common prerogative to ransack our
+private quarters and our luggage, so long as nothing was seriously
+disturbed. We never objected, either, to their wetting our paper windows
+with their tongues, so that they might noiselessly slit a hole in them
+with their exceptionally long finger nails, although we did wake up some
+mornings to find the panes entirely gone. It was only at the request of
+the innkeeper that we sometimes undertook the job of cleaning out the
+inn-yard; but this, with the prevalent superstition about the “withering
+touch of the foreigner,” was very easily accomplished. Nor had we ever
+shown the slightest resentment at being called “foreign devils”; for this,
+we learned, was, with the younger generation at least, the only title by
+which foreigners were known. But on this particular night, our forbearance
+being quite exhausted, we ejected the intruders bodily. Mid mutterings and
+threats we turned out the lights, and the crowd as well as ourselves
+retired. The next morning the usual exorbitant bill was presented by the
+innkeeper, and, as usual, one half or one third was offered and finally
+accepted, with the customary protestations about being under-paid. The
+innkeeper’s grumblings incited the crowd which early assembled, and from
+their whispers and glances we could see that trouble of some kind was
+brewing. We now hastened to get the wheels into the road. Just then the
+innkeeper, at the instigation of the crowd, rushed out and grabbed the
+handle-bars, demanding at the same time a sum that was even in advance of
+his original price. Extortion was now self-evident, and, remonstrance
+being of no avail, we were obliged to protect ourselves with our fists.
+The crowd began to close in upon us, until, with our backs against the
+adjoining wall, we drew our weapons, at which the onward movement changed
+suddenly to a retreat. Then we assumed the aggressive, and regained the
+wheels which had been left in the middle of the road. The innkeeper and
+his friend now caught hold of the rear wheels. Only by seizing their
+queues could we drag them away at all, but even then before we could mount
+they would renew their grasp. It was only after another direct attack upon
+them that we were able to mount, and dash away.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.]
+
+A week’s journeying after this unpleasant episode brought us among the
+peanuts, pigs, and pig-tails of the famous Pe-chili plains. Vast fields of
+peanuts were now being plowed, ready to be passed through a huge coarse
+sieve to separate the nuts from the sandy loam. Sweet potatoes, too, were
+plentiful. These, as well as rice balls, boiled with a peculiar dry date
+in a triangular corn-leaf wrapper, we purchased every morning at daybreak
+from the pots of the early street-venders, and then proceeded to the local
+bake-shops, where the rattling of the rolling-pins prophesied of stringy
+fat cakes cooked in boiling linseed oil, and heavy dough biscuits cleaving
+to the urn-like oven.
+
+It was well that we were now approaching the end of our journey, for our
+wheels and clothing were nearly in pieces. Our bare calves were pinched by
+the frost, for on some of the coldest mornings we would find a quarter of
+an inch of ice. Our rest at night was broken for the want of sufficient
+covering. The straw-heated _kangs_ would soon cool off, and leave us half
+the night with only our thin sleeping-bags to ward off rheumatism.
+
+But over the beaten paths made by countless wheelbarrows we were now fast
+nearing the end. It was on the evening of November 3, that the giant walls
+of the great “Residence,” as the people call their imperial capital, broke
+suddenly into view through a vista in the surrounding foliage. The goal of
+our three-thousand-one-hundred-and-sixteen-mile journey was now before us,
+and the work of the seventy-first riding day almost ended. With the dusk
+of evening we entered the western gate of the “Manchu City,” and began to
+thread its crowded thoroughfares. By the time we reached Legation street
+or, as the natives egotistically call it, “The Street of the Foreign
+Dependencies,” night had veiled our haggard features and ragged garments.
+In a dimly lighted courtyard we came face to face with the English
+proprietor of the Hotel de Peking. At our request for lodging, he said,
+“Pardon me, but may I first ask who you are and where you come from?” Our
+unprepossessing appearance was no doubt a sufficient excuse for this
+precaution. But just then his features changed, and he greeted us
+effusively. Explanations were now superfluous. The “North China Herald”
+correspondent at Pao-ting-foo had already published our story to the
+coast.
+
+That evening the son of the United States minister visited us, and offered
+a selection from his own wardrobe until a Chinese tailor could renew our
+clothing. With borrowed plumes we were able to accept invitations from
+foreign and Chinese officials. Polite cross-examinations were not
+infrequent, and we fear that entire faith in our alleged journey was not
+general until, by riding through the dust and mud of Legation street, we
+proved that Chinese roads were not altogether impracticable for bicycle
+traveling.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE PEI-HO.]
+
+The autumn rains had so flooded the low-lying country between the capital
+and its seaport, Tientsin, that we were obliged to abandon the idea of
+continuing to the coast on the wheels, which by this time were in no
+condition to stand unusual strain. On the other hand the house-boat
+journey of thirty-six hours down the Pei-ho river was a rather pleasant
+diversion.
+
+Our first evening on the river was made memorable by an unusual event.
+Suddenly the rattling of tin pans, the tooting of horns, and the shouting
+of men, women, and children, aroused us to the realization that something
+extraordinary was occurring. Then we noticed that the full moon in a
+cloudless sky had already passed the half-way mark in a total eclipse. Our
+boatmen now joined in the general uproar, which reached its height when
+the moon was entirely obscured. In explanation we were told that the
+“Great Dragon” was endeavoring to swallow up the moon, and that the
+loudest possible noise must be made to frighten him away. Shouts hailed
+the reappearance of the moon. Although our boatmen had a smattering of
+pidjin, or business, English, we were unable to get a very clear idea of
+Chinese astronomy. In journeying across the empire we found sufficient
+analogy in the various provincial dialects to enable us to acquire a
+smattering of one from another as we proceeded, but we were now unable to
+see any similarity whatever between “You makee walkee look see,” and “You
+go and see,” or between “That belong number one pidjin,” and “That is a
+first-class business.” This jargon has become a distinct dialect on the
+Chinese coast.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.]
+
+On our arrival in Tientsin we called upon the United States Consul,
+Colonel Bowman, to whom we had brought several letters from friends in
+Peking. During a supper at his hospitable home, he suggested that the
+viceroy might be pleased to receive us, and that if we had no objection,
+he would send a communication to the _yamen_, or official residence.
+Colonel Bowman’s secretary, Mr. Tenney, who had been some time the
+instructor of the viceroy’s sons, and who was on rather intimate terms
+with the viceroy himself, kindly offered to act as interpreter. A
+favorable answer was received the next morning, and the time for our visit
+fixed for the afternoon of the day following. But two hours before the
+appointed time a message was received from the viceroy, stating that he
+was about to receive an unexpected official visit from the _phantai_, or
+treasurer, of the Pe-chili province (over which Li-Hung-Chang himself is
+viceroy), and asking for a postponement of our visit to the following
+morning at 11 o’clock. Even before we had finished reading this unexpected
+message, the booming of cannon along the Pei-ho river announced the
+arrival of the _phantai’s_ boats before the city. The postponement of our
+engagement at this late hour threatened to prove rather awkward, inasmuch
+as we had already purchased our steamship tickets for Shanghai, to sail on
+the _Fei-ching_ at five o’clock the next morning. But through the kindness
+of the steamship company it was arranged that we should take a tug-boat at
+Tong-ku, on the line of the Kai-ping railroad, and overtake the steamer
+outside the Taku bar. This we could do by taking the train at Tientsin,
+even as late as seven hours after the departure of the steamer. Steam
+navigation in the Pei-ho river, over the forty or fifty miles’ stretch
+from Tientsin to the gulf, is rendered very slow by the sharp turns in the
+narrow stream—the adjoining banks being frequently struck and plowed away
+by the bow or stern of the large ocean steamers.
+
+When we entered the consulate the next morning, we found three palanquins
+and a dozen coolies in waiting to convey our party to the viceroy’s
+residence. Under other circumstances we would have patronized our “steeds
+of steel,” but a visit to the “biggest” man in China had to be conducted
+in state. We were even in some doubt as to the propriety of appearing
+before his excellency in bicycle costume; but we determined to plead our
+inability to carry luggage as an excuse for this breach of etiquette.
+
+  [Illustration: SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.]
+
+The first peculiarity the Chinese notice in a foreigner is his dress. It
+is a requisite with them that the clothes must be loose, and so draped as
+to conceal the contour of the body. The short sack-coat and tight trousers
+of the foreigner are looked upon as certainly inelegant, if not actually
+indecent.
+
+  [Illustration: WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.]
+
+It was not long before we were out of the foreign settlement, and wending
+our way through the narrow, winding streets, or lanes, of the densely
+populated Chinese city. The palanquins we met were always occupied by some
+high dignitary or official, who went sweeping by with his usual vanguard
+of servants, and his usual frown of excessive dignity. The fact that we,
+plain “foreign devils,” were using this mode of locomotion, made us the
+objects of considerable curiosity from the loiterers and passers-by, and
+in fact had this not been the case, we should have felt rather
+uncomfortable. The unsympathetic observation of mobs, and the hideous
+Chinese noises, had become features of our daily life.
+
+The _yamen_ courtyard, as we entered, was filled with empty palanquins and
+coolie servants waiting for the different mandarins who had come on
+official visits. The _yamen_ itself consisted of low one-story structures,
+built in the usual Chinese style, of wood and adobe brick, in a
+quadrangular form around an inner courtyard. The common Chinese paper
+which serves for window-glass had long since vanished from the ravages of
+time, and the finger-punches of vandals. Even here, at the _yamen_ of the
+prime minister of China, dirt and dilapidation were evident on every hand.
+The anteroom into which we were ushered was in keeping with its exterior.
+The paper that covered the low walls and squatty ceiling, as well as the
+calico covering on the divans, was soiled and torn. The room itself was
+filled with mandarins from various parts of the country, waiting for an
+audience with his excellency. Each wore the official robe and dish-pan
+hat, with its particular button or insignia of rank. Each had a portly,
+well-fed appearance, with a pompous, dignified mien overspreading his
+features. The servant by whom we had sent in our Chinese visiting-cards
+returned and asked us to follow him. Passing through several rooms, and
+then along a narrow, darkened hallway, we emerged into an inner courtyard.
+Here there were several servants standing like sentinels in waiting for
+orders; others were hurrying hither and thither with different messages
+intrusted to their care. This was all there was to give to the place the
+air of busy headquarters. On one side of the courtyard the doors of the
+“foreign reception” room opened. Through these we were ushered by the
+liveried servant, who bore a message from the viceroy, asking us to wait a
+few moments until he should finish some important business.
+
+The foreign reception-room in which we were now sitting was the only one
+in any official residence in the empire, and this single instance of
+compliance with foreign customs was significant as bearing upon the
+attitude toward Western ideas of the man who stands at the head of the
+Chinese government. Everything about us was foreign except a Chinese divan
+in one corner of the room. In the middle of the floor stood a circular
+sofa of the latest pattern, with chairs and settees to match, and at one
+end a foreign stove, in which a fire had been recently lighted for our
+coming. Against the wall were placed a full-length mirror, several
+brackets, and some fancy work. The most interesting of the ornaments in
+the room were portraits of Li-Hung-Chang himself, Krupp the gun-maker,
+Armstrong the ship-builder, and the immortal “Chinese Gordon,” the only
+foreigner, it is said, who has ever won a spark of admiration from the
+Chinese people.
+
+While we were waiting for the viceroy, his second son, the pupil of Mr.
+Tenney, came in and was introduced in the foreign fashion. His English was
+fluent and correct. He was a bright, intelligent lad of nineteen years,
+then about to take his first trial examinations for the Chinese degree of
+scholarship, which, if attained, would make him eligible for official
+position. Although a son of the viceroy he will have to rise by his own
+merit.
+
+Our conversation with the viceroy’s son extended over ten or fifteen
+minutes. He asked many questions about the details of our journey. “How,”
+said he, “could you get along without interpreter, guide, or servant, when
+every foreigner who goes even from here to Peking has to have them?” He
+questioned us as to whether or not the Chinese had ever called us names.
+We replied that we usually traveled in China under the _nom de Chinois_,
+_yang queedza_ (the foreign devils), alias _yeh renn_ (the wild men). A
+blush overspread his cheeks as he said: “I must apologize for my
+countrymen; I hope you will excuse them, for they know no better.” The
+young man expressed deep interest in America and American institutions,
+and said if he could obtain his father’s consent he would certainly make a
+visit to our country. This was the only son then at home with the viceroy,
+his eldest son being minister to Japan. The youngest, the viceroy’s
+favorite, was, it was said, the brightest and most promising. His death
+occurred only a few months before our arrival in Tientsin.
+
+We were holding an animated conversation when the viceroy himself was
+announced. We all stood to show our respect for the prime minister whom
+General Grant included among the three greatest statesmen of his day. The
+viceroy was preceded by two body-servants. We stood before a man who
+appeared to be over six feet in height, although his head and shoulders
+were considerably bent with age. His flowing dress was made of rich
+colored silk, but very plain indeed. Any ornamentation would have been a
+profanation of the natural dignity and stateliness of Li-Hung-Chang. With
+slow pace he walked into the room, stopped a moment to look at us, then
+advanced with outstretched hand, while a faint smile played about his
+features and softened the piercing glance of his eyes. He shook our hands
+heartily in the foreign fashion, and without any show of ceremony led the
+way into an adjoining room, where a long council-table extended over half
+the length. The viceroy took the arm-chair at the head, and motioned us to
+take the two seats on his left, while Mr. Tenney and the viceroy’s son sat
+on his right. For almost a minute not a word was said on either side. The
+viceroy had fixed his gaze intently upon us, and, like a good general
+perhaps, was taking a thorough survey of the field before he opened up the
+cannonade of questions that was to follow. We in turn were just as busily
+engaged in taking a mental sketch of his most prominent physical
+characteristics. His face was distinctly oval, tapering from a very broad
+forehead to a sharp pointed chin, half-obscured by his thin, gray
+“goatee.” The crown of his head was shaven in the usual Tsing fashion,
+leaving a tuft of hair for a queue, which in the viceroy’s case was short
+and very thin. His dry, sallow skin showed signs of wrinkling; a thick
+fold lay under each eye, and at each end of his upper lip. There were no
+prominent cheek-bones or almond-shaped eyes, which are so distinctively
+seen in most of the Mongolian race. Under the scraggy mustache we could
+distinguish a rather benevolent though determined mouth; while his small,
+keen eyes, which were somewhat sunken, gave forth a flash that was perhaps
+but a flickering ember of the fire they once contained. The left eye,
+which was partly closed by a paralytic stroke several years ago, gave him
+a rather artful, waggish appearance. The whole physiognomy was that of a
+man of strong intuition, with the ability to force his point when
+necessary, and the shrewd common sense to yield when desiring to be
+politic.
+
+  [Illustration: FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN
+  CHARACTERS.]
+
+“Well, gentlemen,” he said at last, through Mr. Tenney as interpreter,
+“you don’t look any the worse for your long journey.”
+
+“We are glad to hear your excellency say so,” we replied; “it is
+gratifying to know that our appearance speaks well for the treatment we
+have received in China.”
+
+We hope our readers will consider the requirements of Chinese etiquette as
+sufficient excuse for our failure to say candidly that, if we looked
+healthy, it was not the fault of his countrymen.
+
+“Of all the countries through which you have passed, which do you consider
+the best?” the viceroy then asked.
+
+In our answer to this question the reader would no doubt expect us to
+follow etiquette, and say that we thought China was the best; and,
+perhaps, the viceroy himself had a similar expectation. But between
+telling a positive lie, and not telling the truth, there is perhaps
+sufficient difference to shield us from the charge of gross inconsistency.
+We answered, therefore, that in many respects, we considered America the
+greatest country we had seen. We ought of course to have said that no
+reasonable person in the world would ever think of putting any other
+country above the Celestial Empire; our bluntness elicited some surprise,
+for the viceroy said:
+
+“If then you thought that America was the best why did you come to see
+other countries?”
+
+“Because until we had seen other countries,” we replied, “we did not know
+that America was the best.” But this answer the viceroy evidently
+considered a mere subterfuge. He was by no means satisfied.
+
+“What was your real object in undertaking such a peculiar journey?” he
+asked rather impatiently.
+
+“To see and study the world and its peoples,” we answered; “to get a
+practical training as a finish to a theoretical education. The bicycle was
+adopted only because we considered it the most convenient means of
+accomplishing that purpose.”
+
+The viceroy, however, could not understand how a man should wish to use
+his own strength when he could travel on the physical force of some one
+else; nor why it was that we should adopt a course through central Asia
+and northwestern China when the southern route through India would have
+been far easier and less dangerous. He evidently gave it up as a
+conundrum, and started out on another line.
+
+“Do you consider the Shah of Persia a powerful monarch?” was his next
+question.
+
+“Powerful, perhaps, in the Oriental sense,” we replied, “but very weak in
+comparison with the Western nations. Then, too, he seems to be losing the
+power that he does have—he is compelled to play more and more into the
+hands of the Russians.”
+
+“Do you think that Russia will eventually try to take possession of
+Persia?” the viceroy interrupted.
+
+“That, of course, is problematical,” we answered, with the embarrassment
+men of our age might feel at being instigated to talk politics with a
+prime minister. “What we do know, for certain, is that Russia is now, with
+her Transcaspian railroad, within about forty miles of Meshed, the capital
+of Persia’s richest province of Khorasan; that she now has a
+well-engineered and, for a great portion of the way, a macadamized road to
+that city across the Kopet Dagh mountains from Askabad, the capital of
+Russian Transcaspia; and that half that road the Persians were rather
+forcibly invited to construct.”
+
+  [Illustration: MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE
+  SHIPPING BUSINESS.]
+
+“Do you think,” again interrupted the viceroy, whose interest in the
+Russians now began to take a more domestic turn, “that the Russians would
+like to have the Chinese province of Ili?”
+
+To this question we might very appropriately have said, “No”; for the
+reason that we thought Russia had it already. She is only waiting to draw
+it in, when she feels certain that her Siberian flank is better protected.
+The completion of the Transsiberian railroad, by which troops can be
+readily transported to that portion of her dominion, may change Russia’s
+attitude toward the province of Ili. We did not, however, say this to his
+excellency. We merely replied that we believed Russia was seldom known to
+hold aloof from anything of value, which she thought she could get with
+impunity. As she was now sending cart-load after cart-load of goods over
+the border, through Ili, into northern and western China, without paying a
+cent of customs duty, while on the other hand not even a leaf of tea or
+thread of cotton passed over the Russian line from China without the
+payment of an exorbitant tariff; and as she had already established in
+Kuldja a postal, telegraph, and Cossack station, it would seem that she
+does not even now view the province of Ili as wholly foreign to the
+Russian empire.
+
+At this the viceroy cleared his throat, and dropped his eyes in thoughtful
+mood, as much as to say: “Ah, I know the Russians; but there is no help
+for it.”
+
+At this point we ventured to ask the viceroy if it were true, as we had
+been informed, that Russia had arranged a treaty with China, by which she
+was entitled to establish consuls in several of the interior provinces of
+the Chinese empire, but he evaded the question with adroitness, and asked:
+
+“Didn’t you find the roads very bad in China?”
+
+This question was creditable to the viceroy’s knowledge of his own
+country, but to this subject we brought the very best Chinese politeness
+we could muster. We said that inasmuch as China had not yet adopted the
+bicycle, her roads, of course, were not adapted to that mode of
+locomotion.
+
+The viceroy then asked us to describe the bicycle, and inquired if such a
+vehicle did not create considerable consternation among the people.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.]
+
+We told him that the bicycle from a Chinese point of view was capable of
+various descriptions. On the passports given us by the Chinese minister in
+London the bicycle was called “a seat-sitting, foot-moving machine.” The
+natives in the interior had applied to it various epithets, among which
+were _yang ma_ (foreign horse), _fei-chay_ (flying-machine), _szüdzun
+chay_ (self-moving cart), and others. The most graphic description,
+perhaps, was given by a Chinaman whom we overheard relating to his
+neighbors the first appearance of the bicycle in his quiet little village.
+“It is a little mule,” said he, “that you drive by the ears, and kick in
+the sides to make him go.” A dignified smile overspread the viceroy’s
+features.
+
+“Didn’t the people try to steal your money?” he next inquired.
+
+“No,” we replied. “From our impoverished appearance, they evidently
+thought we had nothing. Our wardrobe being necessarily limited by our mode
+of travel, we were sometimes reduced to the appearance of traveling
+mendicants, and were often the objects of pity or contempt. Either this,
+or our peculiar mode of travel, seemed to dispel all thought of highway
+robbery; we never lost even so much as a button on our journey of over
+three thousand miles across the Chinese empire.”
+
+“Did the governors you met treat you well?” he asked; and then immediately
+added: “Being scholars, were you not subjected to some indignity by being
+urged to perform for every mandarin you met?”
+
+“By nearly all the governors,” we said, “we were treated very kindly
+indeed; but we were not so certain that the same favors would have been
+extended to us had we not cheerfully consented to give exhibitions of
+bicycle riding.”
+
+There was now a lull in the conversation. The viceroy shifted his position
+in his chair, and took another whiff from the long, slender Chinese pipe
+held to his mouth by one of his body-servants. One whiff, and the pipe was
+taken away to be emptied and refilled. After a short respite he again
+resumed the conversation, but the questions he now asked were of a
+personal nature. We enumerate a few of them, without comment, only for the
+purpose of throwing some additional light on the character of our
+questioner.
+
+“About how much did the trip cost you? Do you expect to get back all or
+more than you spent? Will you write a book?
+
+“Did you find on your route any gold or silver deposits?
+
+“Do you like the Chinese diet; and how much did one meal cost you?
+
+“How old are you? [One of the first questions a Chinese host usually asks
+his guest.] Are you married? What is the trade or profession of your
+parents? Are they wealthy? Do they own much land?” (A Chinaman’s idea of
+wealth is limited somewhat by the amount of land owned.)
+
+“Will you telegraph to your parents from Shanghai your safe arrival there?
+
+“Were you not rash in attempting such a journey? Suppose you had been
+killed out in the interior of Asia, no one would ever have heard of you
+again.
+
+“Are you Democrats or Republicans?” (The viceroy showed considerable
+knowledge of our government and institutions.)
+
+“Will you run for any political office in America? Do you ever expect to
+get into Congress?
+
+“Do you have to buy offices in America?” was the last inquiry.
+
+There was considerable hesitancy on the part of us both to answer this
+question. Finally we were obliged to admit that sometimes such was the
+case. “Ah,” said the viceroy, “that is a very bad thing about American
+politics.” But in this censure he was even more severe on his own country
+than America. Referring to ourselves in this connection, the viceroy
+ventured to predict that we might become so well-known as the result of
+our journey that we could get into office without paying for it. “You are
+both young,” he added, “and can hope for anything.”
+
+During the conversation the viceroy frequently smiled, and sometimes came
+so near overstepping the bounds of Chinese propriety as to chuckle. At
+first his reception was more formal, but his interest soon led him to
+dispense with all formality, and before the close of the interview the
+questions were rapidly asked and discussed. We have had some experience
+with examining attorneys, and an extended acquaintance with the American
+reporter; but we are convinced that for genuine inquisitiveness
+Li-Hung-Chang stands peerless. We made several attempts to take leave, but
+were interrupted each time by a question from the viceroy. Mr. Tenney, in
+fact, became fatigued with the task of interpreting, so that many of the
+long answers were translated by the viceroy’s son.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE BRIDE.]
+
+The interview was conducted as nearly as possible in the foreign fashion.
+We smoked cigarettes, and a bottle of champagne was served. Finally the
+interview was brought to a close by a health from the viceroy to
+“Ta-mā-quo” (the great American country).
+
+In conclusion we thanked the viceroy for the honor he had done us. He
+replied that we must not thank him at all; that he was only doing his
+duty. “Scholars,” said he, “must receive scholars.”
+
+The viceroy rose from his chair with difficulty; the servant took him by
+the elbows and half lifted him to his feet. He then walked slowly out of
+the room with us, and across the courtyard to the main exit. Here he shook
+us heartily by the hand, and bowed us out in the Chinese manner.
+
+Li-Hung-Chang is virtually the emperor of the Celestial Empire; the
+present “Son of Heaven” (the young emperor) has only recently reached his
+majority. Li-Hung-Chang is China’s intellectual height, from whom emanate
+nearly all her progressive ideas. He stands to-day in the light of a
+mediator between foreign progressiveness and native prejudice and
+conservatism. It has been said that Li-Hung-Chang is really anti-foreign
+at heart; that he employs the Occidentals only long enough for them to
+teach his own countrymen how to get along without them. Whether this be so
+or not, it is certain that the viceroy recognizes the advantages to be
+derived from foreign methods and inventions, and employs them for the
+advancement of his country. Upon him rests the decision in nearly all the
+great questions of the empire. Scarcely an edict or document of any kind
+is issued that does not go over his signature or under his direct
+supervision. To busy himself with the smallest details is a distinctive
+characteristic of the man. Systematic methods, combined with an
+extraordinary mind, enable him to accomplish his herculean task. In the
+eastern horizon Li-Hung-Chang shines as the brilliant star of morning that
+tells of the coming of a brighter dawn.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 FOOTNOTE
+
+
+    1 Eight years before the first recorded ascent of Ararat by Dr. Parrot
+      (1829), there appeared the following from “Travels in Georgia,
+      Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia,” by Sir Robert Ker Porter,
+      who, in his time, was an authority on southwestern Asia: “These
+      inaccessible heights [of Mount Ararat] have never been trod by the
+      foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then; for my idea is
+      that the Ark rested in the space between the two heads (Great and
+      Little Ararat), and not on the top of either. Various attempts have
+      been made in different ages to ascend these tremendous mountain
+      pyramids, but in vain. Their forms, snows, and glaciers are
+      insurmountable obstacles: the distance being so great from the
+      commencement of the icy region to the highest points, cold alone
+      would be the destruction of any one who had the hardihood to
+      persevere.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+
+The list of illustrations has been added in the electronic text.
+
+The following typographical errors have been corrected:
+
+      page 82, period changed to comma (after “was”)
+      page 140, “Siberan” changed to “Siberian”
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation (_e. g._ “footsteps” and “foot-steps”,
+“innkeeper” and “inn-keeper”, “moonlight” and “moon-light”, “pigtails” and
+“pig-tails”, “wickerwork” and “wicker-work”), punctuation or italicizing
+has not been changed. The authors use both “Yengiz” and “Yenghiz”,
+“bakshish” and “baksheesh”, “pilaff” and “pillao”.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
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+***FINIS***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Across Asia on a Bicycle by Thomas Gaskell
+Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Across Asia on a Bicycle
+
+Author: Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2010 [Ebook #31111]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+  [Illustration: THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            ACROSS ASIA ON A
+                                 BICYCLE
+
+                  THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
+                     FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+
+                                   BY
+                        THOMAS GASKELL ALLEN, JR.
+                                   AND
+                         WILLIAM LEWIS SACHTLEBEN
+
+
+NEW YORK
+THE CENTURY CO.
+1894
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Copyright, 1894, by
+                             THE CENTURY CO.
+
+                          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+                            THE DEVINNE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+
+                             _THOSE AT HOME_
+
+                           WHOSE THOUGHTS AND
+                            WISHES WERE EVER
+                             WITH US IN OUR
+                                WANDERINGS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE
+
+
+This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing the most
+interesting part of a bicycle journey around the world,--our ride across
+Asia. We were actuated by no desire to make a "record" in bicycle travel,
+although we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous land
+journey ever made around the world.
+
+The day after we were graduated at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.,
+we left for New York. Thence we sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890.
+Just three years afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York
+on our wheels, having "put a girdle round the earth."
+
+Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After following many of the
+beaten lines of travel in the British Isles we arrived in London, where we
+formed our plans for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most
+dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we were told, were
+western China, the Desert of Gobi, and central China. Never since the days
+of Marco Polo had a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese
+empire from the west to Peking.
+
+Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to Paris, across the
+lowlands of western France to Bordeaux, eastward over the Lesser Alps to
+Marseilles, and along the Riviera into Italy. After visiting every
+important city on the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day
+of 1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras, proceeding
+along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we passed the winter. We went
+to Constantinople by vessel in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April,
+and began the long journey described in the following pages. When we had
+finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom, we sailed from
+Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged to San Francisco, where we arrived
+on Christmas night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles and
+wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to New York.
+
+During all of this journey we never employed the services of guides or
+interpreters. We were compelled, therefore, to learn a little of the
+language of every country through which we passed. Our independence in
+this regard increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but
+certainly contributed much toward the object we sought--a close
+acquaintance with strange peoples.
+
+During our travels we took more than two thousand five hundred
+photographs, selections from which are reproduced in the illustrations of
+this volume.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+   I.   BEYOND THE BOSPORUS                                     1
+  II.   THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT                             43
+ III.   THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND                            83
+  IV.   THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA                  115
+   V.   OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE     149
+        OF THE GREAT WALL
+  VI.   AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA         207
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER. [Frontispiece]
+BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA. [p. 4 and 5]
+THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.' [p. 6]
+HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES. [p. 8]
+AN ANGORA SHEPHERD. [p. 9]
+1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF
+CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 11]
+A CONTRAST. [p. 12]
+A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL. [p. 13]
+MILL IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 15]
+GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR. [p. 16]
+SCENE AT A GREEK INN. [p. 19]
+EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD. [p. 20]
+GRINDING WHEAT. [p. 21]
+A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER. [p. 22]
+TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH. [p. 23]
+THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS. [p. 25]
+HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS. [p. 26]
+ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK. [p. 29]
+A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN. [p. 30]
+EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE. [p. 32]
+PRIMITIVE WEAVING. [p. 33]
+A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 38]
+A VILLAGE SCENE. [p. 40]
+[Rural scene without caption.] [p. 42]
+WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE. [p. 50]
+READY FOR THE START. [p. 53]
+PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING. [p. 56]
+THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT. [p. 59]
+OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION. [p. 65]
+HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD. [p. 67]
+LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW. [p. 69]
+THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET. [p. 72]
+NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM. [p. 74]
+ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT--FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE. [p. 78]
+HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI. [p. 84]
+LEAVING KHOI. [p. 86]
+YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
+LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
+THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT
+THE CALL OF THE SHAH. [p. 91]
+A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON. [p. 94]
+LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED. [p. 96]
+IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD. [p. 98]
+PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY. [p. 99]
+A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS. [p. 100]
+CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD. [p. 102]
+PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED. [p. 104]
+RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED. [p. 105]
+FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED. [p. 106]
+IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED. [p. 107]
+WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY. [p. 108]
+GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED. [p. 109]
+AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD. [p. 111]
+MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. [p. 112]
+CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD. [p. 113]
+A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE. [p. 114]
+A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND. [p. 116]
+OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN. [p. 118]
+PALACE OF THE CZAR'S NEPHEW, TASHKEND. [p. 121]
+A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.' [p.
+123]
+VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL. [p. 125]
+ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE. [p. 129]
+UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER. [p. 132]
+KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER. [p. 134]
+FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS. [p. 138]
+STROLLING MUSICIANS. [p. 141]
+THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA. [p. 143]
+THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA. [p. 145]
+TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN. [p. 146]
+A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA. [p. 148]
+THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY. [p. 151]
+VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE. [p. 153]
+OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO
+PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT. [p. 155]
+A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA. [p. 158]
+PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT. [p. 160]
+THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY. [p. 161]
+A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA. [p. 163]
+SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE. [p. 165]
+THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING. [p. 167]
+RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS. [p. 168]
+MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI. [p. 170]
+A BANK IN URUMTSI. [p. 171]
+A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 173]
+STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. [p. 174]
+A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL. [p. 176]
+CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI. [p. 178]
+SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 179]
+A LESSON IN CHINESE. [p. 180]
+A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 182]
+IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 183]
+STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN. [p. 185]
+A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI. [p. 187]
+A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI. [p. 188]
+A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 189]
+WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL. [p. 191]
+RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU. [p. 193]
+A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN. [p. 196]
+A CHINAMAN'S WHEELBARROW. [p. 199]
+MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE. [p. 201]
+TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 203]
+MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 205]
+LI-HUNG-CHANG. [p. 206]
+OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 209]
+MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 210]
+ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE. [p. 211]
+MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN. [p. 212]
+MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN. [p. 215]
+ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 217]
+A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 218]
+SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU. [p. 220]
+WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER. [p. 221]
+FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS. [p. 225]
+MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS.
+[p. 228]
+A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL. [p. 230]
+A CHINESE BRIDE. [p. 233]
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+
+                  THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
+                      FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    I
+
+
+                           BEYOND THE BOSPORUS
+
+
+On a morning early in April the little steamer conveying us across from
+Stamboul touched the wharf at Haider Pasha. Amid the rabble of Greeks,
+Armenians, Turks, and Italians we trundled our bicycles across the
+gang-plank, which for us was the threshold of Asia, the beginning of an
+inland journey of seven thousand miles from the Bosporus to the Pacific.
+Through the morning fog which enveloped the shipping in the Golden Horn,
+the "stars and stripes" at a single masthead were waving farewell to two
+American students fresh from college who had nerved themselves for nearly
+two years of separation from the comforts of western civilization.
+
+Our guide to the road to Ismid was the little twelve-year-old son of an
+Armenian doctor, whose guests we had been during our sojourn in Stamboul.
+He trotted for some distance by our side, and then, pressing our hands in
+both of his, he said with childlike sincerity: "I hope God will take care
+of you"; for he was possessed with the thought popular among Armenians, of
+pillages and massacres by marauding brigands.
+
+The idea of a trip around the world had been conceived by us as a
+practical finish to a theoretical education; and the bicycle feature was
+adopted merely as a means to that end. On reaching London we had formed
+the plan of penetrating the heart of the Asiatic continent, instead of
+skirting its more civilized coast-line. For a passport and other
+credentials necessary in journeying through Russia and Central Asia we had
+been advised to make application to the Czar's representative on our
+arrival at Teheran, as we would enter the Russian dominions from Persia;
+and to that end the Russian minister in London had provided us with a
+letter of introduction. In London the secretary of the Chinese legation, a
+Scotchman, had assisted us in mapping out a possible route across the
+Celestial empire, although he endeavored, from the very start, to dissuade
+us from our purpose. Application had then been made to the Chinese
+minister himself for the necessary passport. The reply we received, though
+courteous, smacked strongly of reproof. "Western China," he said, "is
+overrun with lawless bands, and the people themselves are very much averse
+to foreigners. Your extraordinary mode of locomotion would subject you to
+annoyance, if not to positive danger, at the hands of a people who are
+naturally curious and superstitious. However," he added, after some
+reflection, "if your minister makes a request for a passport we will see
+what can be done. The most I can do will be to ask for you the protection
+and assistance of the officials only; for the people themselves I cannot
+answer. If you go into that country you do so at your own risk." Minister
+Lincoln was sitting in his private office when we called the next morning
+at the American legation. He listened to the recital of our plans, got
+down the huge atlas from his bookcase, and went over with us the route we
+proposed to follow. He did not regard the undertaking as feasible, and
+apprehended that, if he should give his official assistance, he would, in
+a measure, be responsible for the result if it should prove unhappy. When
+assured of the consent of our parents, and of our determination to make
+the attempt at all hazards, he picked up his pen and began a letter to the
+Chinese minister, remarking as he finished reading it to us, "I would much
+rather not have written it." The documents received from the Chinese
+minister in response to Mr. Lincoln's letter proved to be indispensable
+when, a year and a half later, we left the last outpost of western
+civilization and plunged into the Gobi desert. When we had paid a final
+visit to the Persian minister in London, who had asked to see our bicycles
+and their baggage equipments, he signified his intention of writing in our
+behalf to friends in Teheran; and to that capital, after cycling through
+Europe, we were now actually _en route_.
+
+Since the opening of the Trans-Bosporus Railway, the wagon-road to Ismid,
+and even the Angora military highway beyond, have fallen rapidly into
+disrepair. In April they were almost impassable for the wheel, so that for
+the greater part of the way we were obliged to take to the track. Like the
+railway skirting the Italian Riviera, and the Patras-Athens line along the
+Saronic Gulf, this Trans-Bosporus road for a great distance scarps and
+tunnels the cliffs along the Gulf of Ismid, and sometimes runs so close to
+the water's edge that the puffing of the _kara vapor_ or "land steamer,"
+as the Turks call it, is drowned by the roaring breakers. The country
+between Scutari and Ismid surpasses in agricultural advantages any part of
+Asiatic Turkey through which we passed. Its fertile soil, and the
+luxuriant vegetation it supports, are, as we afterward learned, in
+striking contrast with the sterile plateaus and mountains of the interior,
+many parts of which are as desolate as the deserts of Arabia. In area,
+Asia Minor equals France, but the water-supply of its rivers is only one
+third.
+
+  [Illustration: BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS
+  ASIA.]
+
+One of the principal agents in the work of transforming Asia Minor is the
+railroad, to which the natives have taken with unusual readiness. The
+locomotive is already competing with the hundred and sixty thousand camels
+employed in the peninsula caravan-trade. At Geiveh, the last station on
+the Trans-Bosporus Railway, where we left the track to follow the Angora
+highway, the "ships of the desert" are beginning to transfer their cargoes
+to the "land steamer," instead of continuing on as in former days to the
+Bosporus.
+
+  [Illustration: THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE "DEVIL'S CARRIAGE."]
+
+The Trans-Bosporus line, in the year of our visit, was being built and
+operated by a German company, under the direct patronage of the Sultan. We
+ventured to ask some natives if they thought the Sultan had sufficient
+funds to consummate so gigantic a scheme, and they replied, with the
+deepest reverence: "God has given the Padishah much property and power,
+and certainly he must give him enough money to utilize it."
+
+A week's cycling from the Bosporus brought us beyond the Allah Dagh
+mountains, among the barren, variegated hills that skirt the Angora
+plateau. We had already passed through Ismid, the ancient Nicomedia and
+capital of Diocletian; and had left behind us the heavily timbered valley
+of the Sakaria, upon whose banks the "Freebooter of the Bithynian hills"
+settled with his four hundred tents and laid the foundation of the Ottoman
+empire. Since leaving Geiveh we had been attended by a mounted guard, or
+_zaptieh_, who was sometimes forced upon us by the authorities in their
+anxiety to carry out the wishes expressed in the letters of the Grand
+Vizir. On emerging from the door of an inn we frequently found this
+unexpected guard waiting with a Winchester rifle swung over his shoulder,
+and a fleet steed standing by his side. Immediately on our appearance he
+would swing into the saddle and charge through the assembled rabble. Away
+we would go at a rapid pace down the streets of the town or village, to
+the utter amazement of the natives and the great satisfaction of our
+vainglorious zaptieh. As long as his horse was fresh, or until we were out
+of sight of the village, he would urge us on with cries of "Gellcha-buk"
+("Come on, ride fast"). When a bad piece of road or a steep ascent forced
+us to dismount he would bring his horse to a walk, roll a cigarette, and
+draw invidious comparisons between our steeds. His tone, however, changed
+when we reached a decline or long stretch of reasonably good road. Then he
+would cut across country to head us off, or shout after us at the top of
+his voice, "Yavash-yavash" ("Slowly, slowly"). On the whole we found them
+good-natured and companionable fellows, notwithstanding their interest in
+_baksheesh_ which we were compelled at last, in self-defense, to fix at
+one piaster an hour. We frequently shared with them our frugal, and even
+scanty meals; and in turn they assisted us in our purchases and
+arrangements for lodgings, for their word, we found, was with the common
+people an almost unwritten law. Then, too, they were of great assistance
+in crossing streams where the depth would have necessitated the stripping
+of garments; although their fiery little steeds sometimes objected to
+having an extra rider astride their haunches, and a bicycle across their
+shoulders. They seized every opportunity to impress us with the necessity
+of being accompanied by a government representative. In some lonely
+portion of the road, or in the suggestive stillness of an evening
+twilight, our Turkish Don Quixote would sometimes cast mysterious glances
+around him, take his Winchester from his shoulder, and throwing it across
+the pommel of his saddle, charge ahead to meet the imaginary enemy. But we
+were more harmful than harmed, for, despite our most vigilant care, the
+bicycles were sometimes the occasion of a stampede or runaway among the
+caravans and teams along the highway, and we frequently assisted in
+replacing the loads thus upset. On such occasions our pretentious cavalier
+would remain on his horse, smoking his cigarette and smiling disdainfully.
+
+  [Illustration: HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR
+  BICYCLES.]
+
+It was in the company of one of these military champions that we emerged
+on the morning of April 12 upon the plateau of Angora. On the spring
+pasture were feeding several flocks of the famous Angora goats, and the
+_karamanli_ or fat-tailed sheep, tended by the Yurak shepherds and their
+half-wild and monstrous collies, whose half-savage nature fits them to
+cope with the jackals which infest the country. The shepherds did not
+check their sudden onslaught upon us until we were pressed to very close
+quarters, and had drawn our revolvers in self-defense. These Yuraks are
+the nomadic portion of the Turkish peasantry. They live in caves or rudely
+constructed huts, shifting their habitation at will, or upon the
+exhaustion of the pasturage. Their costume is most primitive both in style
+and material; the trousers and caps being made of sheepskin and the tunic
+of plaited wheat-straw. In contradistinction to the Yuraks the settled
+inhabitants of the country are called Turks. That term, however, which
+means rustic or clown, is never used by the Turks themselves except in
+derision or disdain; they always speak of themselves as "Osmanli."
+
+  [Illustration: AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.]
+
+The great length of the Angora fleece, which sometimes reaches eight
+inches, is due solely to the peculiar climate of the locality. The same
+goats taken elsewhere have not thriven. Even the Angora dogs and cats are
+remarkable for the extraordinary length of their fleecy covering. On
+nearing Angora itself, we raced at high speed over the undulating plateau.
+Our zaptieh on his jaded horse faded away in the dim distance, and we saw
+him no more. This was our last guard for many weeks to come, as we decided
+to dispense with an escort that really retarded us. But on reaching
+Erzerum, the Vali refused us permission to enter the district of Alashgerd
+without a guard, so we were forced to take one.
+
+  [Illustration: 1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2,
+  PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+We were now on historic ground. To our right, on the Owas, a tributary of
+the Sakaria, was the little village of Istanas, where stood the ancient
+seat of Midas, the Phrygian king, and where Alexander the Great cut with
+his sword the Gordian knot to prove his right to the rulership of the
+world. On the plain, over which we were now skimming, the great Tatar,
+Timur, fought the memorable battle with Bajazet I., which resulted in the
+capture of the Ottoman conqueror. Since the time that the title of Asia
+applied to the small coast-province of Lydia, this country has been the
+theater for the grandest events in human history.
+
+  [Illustration: A CONTRAST.]
+
+The old mud-houses of modern Angora, as we rolled into the city,
+contrasted strongly with the cyclopean walls of its ancient fortress.
+After two days in Angora we diverged from the direct route to Sivas
+through Y�zgat, so as to visit the city of Kaisarieh. Through the efforts
+of the progressive Vali at Angora, a macadamized road was in the course of
+construction to this point, a part of which--to the town of Kirshehr--was
+already completed. Although surrounded by unusual fertility and luxuriance
+for an interior town, the low mud-houses and treeless streets give
+Kirshehr that same thirsty and painfully uniform appearance which
+characterizes every village or city in Asiatic Turkey. The mud buildings
+of Babylon, and not the marble edifices of Nineveh, have served as models
+for the Turkish architect. We have seen the Turks, when making the
+mud-straw bricks used in house-building, scratch dirt for the purpose from
+between the marble slabs and boulders that lay in profusion over the
+ground. A few of the government buildings and some of the larger private
+residences are improved by a coat of whitewash, and now and then the warm
+spring showers bring out on the mud roofs a relieving verdure, that
+frequently serves as pasture for the family goat. Everything is low and
+contracted, especially the doorways. When a foreigner bumps his head, and
+demands the reason for such stupid architecture, he is met with that
+decisive answer, "Adet"--custom, the most powerful of all influences in
+Turkey and the East.
+
+  [Illustration: A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.]
+
+Our entry into Kirshehr was typical of our reception everywhere. When we
+were seen approaching, several horsemen came out to get a first look at
+our strange horses. They challenged us to a race, and set a spanking pace
+down into the streets of the town. Before we reached the _khan_, or inn,
+we were obliged to dismount. "Bin! bin!" ("Ride! ride!") went up in a
+shout. "Nimkin deyil" ("It is impossible"), we explained, in such a jam;
+and the crowd opened up three or four feet ahead of us. "Bin bocale"
+("Ride, so that we can see"), they shouted again; and some of them rushed
+up to hold our steeds for us to mount. With the greatest difficulty we
+impressed upon our persistent assistants that they could not help us. By
+the time we reached the khan the crowd had become almost a mob, pushing
+and tumbling over one another, and yelling to every one in sight that "the
+devil's carts have come." The inn-keeper came out, and we had to assure
+him that the mob was actuated only by curiosity. As soon as the bicycles
+were over the threshold, the doors were bolted and braced. The crowds
+swarmed to the windows. While the khanji prepared coffee we sat down to
+watch the amusing by-play and repartee going on around us. Those who by
+virtue of their friendship with the khanji were admitted to the room with
+us began a tirade against the boyish curiosity of their less fortunate
+brethren on the outside. Their own curiosity assumed tangible shape. Our
+clothing, and even our hair and faces, were critically examined. When we
+attempted to jot down the day's events in our note-books they crowded
+closer than ever. Our fountain-pen was an additional puzzle to them. It
+was passed around, and explained and commented on at length.
+
+Our camera was a "mysterious" black box. Some said it was a telescope,
+about which they had only a vague idea; others, that it was a box
+containing our money. But our map of Asiatic Turkey was to them the most
+curious thing of all. They spread it on the floor, and hovered over it,
+while we pointed to the towns and cities. How could we tell where the
+places were until we had been there? How did we even know their names? It
+was wonderful--wonderful! We traced for them our own journey, where we had
+been and where we were going, and then endeavored to show them how, by
+starting from our homes and continuing always in an easterly direction, we
+could at last reach our starting-point from the west. The more intelligent
+of them grasped the idea. "Around the world," they repeated again and
+again, with a mystified expression.
+
+Relief came at last, in the person of a messenger from Osman Beg, the
+inspector-general of agriculture of the Angora vilayet, bearing an
+invitation to supper. He stated that he had already heard of our
+undertaking through the Constantinople press, and desired to make our
+acquaintance. His note, which was written in French, showed him to be a
+man of European education; and on shaking hands with him a half-hour
+later, we found him to be a man of European origin--an Albanian Greek, and
+a cousin of the Vali at Angora. He said a report had gone out that two
+devils were passing through the country. The dinner was one of those
+incongruous Turkish mixtures of sweet and sour, which was by no means
+relieved by the harrowing Turkish music which our host ground out from an
+antiquated hand-organ.
+
+  [Illustration: MILL IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+Although it was late when we returned to the khan, we found everybody
+still up. The room in which we were to sleep (there was only one room) was
+filled with a crowd of loiterers, and tobacco smoke. Some were playing
+games similar to our chess and backgammon, while others were looking on,
+and smoking the gurgling narghile, or water-pipe. The bicycles had been
+put away under lock and key, and the crowd gradually dispersed. We lay
+down in our clothes, and tried to lose consciousness; but the Turkish
+supper, the tobacco smoke, and the noise of the quarreling gamesters, put
+sleep out of the question. At midnight the sudden boom of a cannon
+reminded us that we were in the midst of the Turkish Ramadan. The sound of
+tramping feet, the beating of a bass drum, and the whining tones of a
+Turkish bagpipe, came over the midnight air. Nearer it came, and louder
+grew the sound, till it reached the inn door, where it remained for some
+time. The fast of Ramadan commemorates the revelation of the Koran to the
+prophet Mohammed. It lasts through the four phases of the moon. From
+daylight, or, as the Koran reads, "from the time you can distinguish a
+white thread from a black one," no good Mussulman will eat, drink, or
+smoke. At midnight the mosques are illuminated, and bands of music go
+about the streets all night, making a tremendous uproar. One cannon is
+fired at dusk, to announce the time to break the fast by eating supper,
+another at midnight to arouse the people for the preparation of breakfast,
+and still another at daylight as a signal for resuming the fast. This, of
+course, is very hard on the poor man who has to work during the day. As a
+precaution against oversleeping, a watchman goes about just before
+daybreak, and makes a rousing clatter at the gate of every Mussulman's
+house to warn him that if he wants anything to eat he must get it
+instanter. Our roommates evidently intended to make an "all night" of it,
+for they forthwith commenced the preparation of their morning meal. How it
+was despatched we do not know, for we fell asleep, and were only awakened
+by the muezzin on a neighboring minaret, calling to morning prayer.
+
+  [Illustration: GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.]
+
+Our morning ablutions were usually made _� la_ Turk: by having water
+poured upon the hands from a spouted vessel. Cleanliness is, with the
+Turk, perhaps, more than ourselves, the next thing to godliness. But his
+ideas are based upon a very different theory. Although he uses no soap for
+washing either his person or his clothes, yet he considers himself much
+cleaner than the giaour, for the reason that he uses running water
+exclusively, never allowing the same particles to touch him the second
+time. A Turk believes that all water is purified after running six feet.
+As a test of his faith we have often seen him lading up drinking-water
+from a stream where the women were washing clothes just a few yards above.
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE AT A GREEK INN.]
+
+As all cooking and eating had stopped at the sound of the morning cannon,
+we found great difficulty in gathering together even a cold breakfast of
+_ekmek_, _yaourt_, and raisins. Ekmek is a cooked bran-flour paste, which
+has the thinness, consistency, and almost the taste of blotting-paper.
+This is the Turkish peasant's staff of life. He carries it with him
+everywhere; so did we. As it was made in huge circular sheets, we would
+often punch a hole in the middle, and slip it up over our arms. This we
+found the handiest and most serviceable mode of transportation, being
+handy to eat without removing our hands from the handle-bars, and also
+answering the purpose of sails in case of a favoring wind. Yaourt, another
+almost universal food, is milk curdled with rennet. This, as well as all
+foods that are not liquid, they scoop up with a roll of ekmek, a part of
+the scoop being taken with every mouthful. Raisins here, as well as in
+many other parts of the country, are very cheap. We paid two piasters
+(about nine cents) for an _oche_ (two and a half pounds), but we soon made
+the discovery that a Turkish oche contained a great many "stones"--which of
+course was purely accidental. Eggs, also, we found exceedingly cheap. On
+one occasion, twenty-five were set before us, in response to our call for
+eggs to the value of one piaster--four and a half cents. In Asiatic Turkey
+we had some extraordinary dishes served to us, including daintily prepared
+leeches. But the worst mixture, perhaps, was the "Bairam soup," which
+contains over a dozen ingredients, including peas, prunes, walnuts,
+cherries, dates, white and black beans, apricots, cracked wheat, raisins,
+etc.--all mixed in cold water. Bairam is the period of feasting after the
+Ramadan fast.
+
+  [Illustration: EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.]
+
+On preparing to leave Kirshehr after our frugal breakfast we found that
+Turkish curiosity had extended even to the contents of our baggage, which
+fitted in the frames of the machines. There was nothing missing, however:
+and we did not lose so much as a button during our sojourn among them.
+Thieving is not one of their faults, but they take much latitude in
+helping themselves. Many a time an inn-keeper would "help us out" by
+disposing of one third of a chicken that we had paid him a high price to
+prepare.
+
+When we were ready to start the chief of police cleared a riding space
+through the streets, which for an hour had been filled with people. As we
+passed among them they shouted "Oorooglar olsun" ("May good fortune attend
+you"). "Inshallah" ("If it please God"), we replied, and waved our helmets
+in acknowledgment.
+
+  [Illustration: GRINDING WHEAT.]
+
+  [Illustration: A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.]
+
+At the village of Topakle, on the following night, our reception was not
+so innocent and good-natured. It was already dusk when we reached the
+outskirts of the village, where we were at once spied by a young man who
+was driving in the lowing herd. The alarm was given, and the people
+swarmed like so many rats from a corn-bin. We could see from their costume
+and features that they were not pure-blooded Turks. We asked if we could
+get food and lodging, to which they replied, "Evet, evet" ("Yes, yes"),
+but when we asked them where, they simply pointed ahead, and shouted,
+"Bin, bin!" We did not "bin" this time, because it was too dark, and the
+streets were bad. We walked, or rather were pushed along by the impatient
+rabble, and almost deafened by their shouts of "Bin, bin!" At the end of
+the village we repeated our question of where. Again they pointed ahead,
+and shouted, "Bin!" Finally an old man led us to what seemed to be a
+private residence, where we had to drag our bicycles up a dark narrow
+stairway to the second story. The crowd soon filled the room to
+suffocation, and were not disposed to heed our request to be left alone.
+One stalwart youth showed such a spirit of opposition that we were obliged
+to eject him upon a crowded stairway, causing the mob to go down like a
+row of tenpins. Then the owner of the house came in, and in an agitated
+manner declared he could not allow us to remain in his house overnight.
+Our reappearance caused a jeering shout to go up from the crowd; but no
+violence was attempted beyond the catching hold of the rear wheel when our
+backs were turned, and the throwing of clods of earth. They followed us,
+_en masse_, to the edge of the village, and there stopped short, to watch
+us till we disappeared in the darkness. The nights at this high altitude
+were chilly. We had no blankets, and not enough clothing to warrant a camp
+among the rocks. There was not a twig on the whole plateau with which to
+build a fire. We were alone, however, and that was rest in itself. After
+walking an hour, perhaps, we saw a light gleaming from a group of mudhuts
+a short distance off the road. From the numerous flocks around it, we took
+it to be a shepherds' village. Everything was quiet except the restless
+sheep, whose silky fleece glistened in the light of the rising moon.
+Supper was not yet over, for we caught a whiff of its savory odor. Leaving
+our wheels outside, we entered the first door we came to, and, following
+along a narrow passageway, emerged into a room where four rather
+rough-looking shepherds were ladling the soup from a huge bowl in their
+midst. Before they were aware of our presence, we uttered the usual
+salutation "Sabala khayr olsun." This startled some little boys who were
+playing in the corner, who yelled, and ran into the hareml�k, or women's
+apartment. This brought to the door the female occupants, who also uttered
+a shriek, and sunk back as if in a swoon. It was evident that the visits
+of giaours to this place had been few and far between. The shepherds
+returned our salutation with some hesitation, while their ladles dropped
+into the soup, and their gaze became fixed on our huge helmets, our
+dogskin top-coats, and abbreviated nether garments. The women by this time
+had sufficiently recovered from their nervous shock to give scope to their
+usual curiosity through the cracks in the partition. Confidence now being
+inspired by our own composure, we were invited to sit down and participate
+in the evening meal. Although it was only a gruel of sour milk and rice,
+we managed to make a meal off it. Meantime the wheels had been discovered
+by some passing neighbor. The news was spread throughout the village, and
+soon an excited throng came in with our bicycles borne upon the shoulders
+of two powerful Turks. Again we were besieged with entreaties to ride,
+and, hoping that this would gain for us a comfortable night's rest, we
+yielded, and, amid peals of laughter from a crowd of Turkish peasants,
+gave an exhibition in the moonlight. Our only reward, when we returned to
+our quarters, was two greasy pillows and a filthy carpet for a coverlet.
+But the much needed rest we did not secure, for the suspicions aroused by
+the first glance at our bed-cover proved to be well grounded.
+
+  [Illustration: TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.]
+
+About noon on April 20, our road turned abruptly into the broad caravan
+trail that runs between Smyrna and Kaisarieh, about ten miles west of the
+latter city. A long caravan of camels was moving majestically up the road,
+headed by a little donkey, which the _devedejee_ (camel-driver) was riding
+with his feet dangling almost to the ground. That proverbially stubborn
+creature moved not a muscle until we came alongside, when all at once he
+gave one of his characteristic side lurches, and precipitated the rider to
+the ground. The first camel, with a protesting grunt, began to sidle off,
+and the broadside movement continued down the line till the whole caravan
+stood at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the road. The camel of
+Asia Minor does not share that antipathy for the equine species which is
+so general among their Asiatic cousins; but steel horses were more than
+even they could endure.
+
+  [Illustration: THE "FLIRTING TOWER" IN SIVAS.]
+
+A sudden turn in the road now brought us in sight of old Arjish Dagh,
+which towers 13,000 feet above the city of Kaisarieh, and whose head and
+shoulders were covered with snow. Native tradition tells us that against
+this lofty summit the ark of Noah struck in the rising flood; and for this
+reason Noah cursed it, and prayed that it might ever be covered with snow.
+It was in connection with this very mountain that we first conceived the
+idea of making the ascent of Ararat. Here and there, on some of the most
+prominent peaks, we could distinguish little mounds of earth, the ruined
+watch-towers of the prehistoric Hittites.
+
+  [Illustration: HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.]
+
+Kaisarieh (ancient C�sarea) is filled with the ruins and the monuments of
+the fourteenth-century Seljuks. Arrowheads and other relics are every day
+unearthed there, to serve as toys for the street urchins. Since the
+development of steam-communication around the coast, it is no longer the
+caravan center that it used to be; but even now its _charshi_, or inclosed
+bazaars, are among the finest in Turkey, being far superior in appearance
+to those of Constantinople. These _charshi_ are nothing more than narrow
+streets, inclosed by brick arches, and lined on either side with booths.
+It was through one of these that our only route to the khan lay--and yet we
+felt that in such contracted quarters, and in such an excited mob as had
+gathered around us, disaster was sure to follow. Our only salvation was to
+keep ahead of the jam, and get through as soon as possible. We started on
+the spurt; and the race began. The unsuspecting merchants and their
+customers were suddenly distracted from their thoughts of gain as we
+whirled by; the crowd close behind sweeping everything before it. The
+falling of barrels and boxes, the rattling of tin cans, the crashing of
+crockery, the howling of the vagrant dogs that were trampled under foot,
+only added to the general tumult.
+
+Through the courtesy of Mr. Peet of the American Bible House at
+Constantinople, we were provided with letters of introduction to the
+missionaries at Kaisarieh, as well as elsewhere along our route through
+Asiatic Turkey, and upon them we also had drafts to the amount of our
+deposit made at the Bible House before starting. Besides, we owed much to
+the hospitality and kindness of these people. The most striking feature of
+the missionary work at Kaisarieh is the education of the Armenian women,
+whose social position seems to be even more degraded than that of their
+Turkish sisters. With the native Armenians, as with the Turks, fleshiness
+adds much to the price of a wife. The wife of a missionary is to them an
+object both of wonderment and contempt. As she walks along the street,
+they will whisper to one another: "There goes a woman who knows all her
+husband's business; and who can manage just as well as himself." This will
+generally be followed in an undertone by the expression, "Madana satana,"
+which means, in common parlance, "a female devil." At first it was a
+struggle to overcome this ignorant prejudice, and to get girls to come to
+the school free of charge; now it is hard to find room for them even when
+they are asked to pay for their tuition.
+
+The costume of the Armenian woman is generally of some bright-colored
+cloth, prettily trimmed. Her coiffure, always elaborate, sometimes
+includes a string of gold coins, encircling the head, or strung down the
+plait. A silver belt incloses the waist, and a necklace of coins calls
+attention to her pretty neck. When washing clothes by the stream, they
+frequently show a gold ring encircling an ankle.
+
+In the simplicity of their costumes, as well as in the fact that they do
+not expose the face, the Turkish women stand in strong contrast to the
+Armenian. Baggy trousers _� la_ Bloomer, a loose robe skirt opening at the
+sides, and a voluminous shawl-like girdle around the waist and body,
+constitute the main features of the Turkish indoor costume. On the street
+a shroud-like robe called yashmak, usually white, but sometimes crimson,
+purple, or black, covers them from head to foot. When we would meet a bevy
+of these creatures on the road in the dusk of evening, their white,
+fluttering garments would give them the appearance of winged celestials.
+The Turkish women are generally timorous of men, and especially so of
+foreigners. Those of the rural districts, however, are not so shy as their
+city cousins. We frequently met them at work in groups about the villages
+or in the open fields, and would sometimes ask for a drink of water. If
+they were a party of maidens, as was often the case, they would draw back
+and hide behind one another. We would offer one of them a ride on our
+"very nice horses." This would cause a general giggle among her
+companions, and a drawing of the yashmak closer about the neck and face.
+
+  [Illustration: ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.]
+
+The road scenes in the interior provinces are but little varied. One of
+the most characteristic features of the Anatolian landscape are the
+storks, which come in flocks of thousands from their winter quarters in
+Egypt and build summer nests, unmolested, on the village housetops. These,
+like the crows, magpies, and swallows, prove valuable allies to the
+husbandmen in their war against the locust. A still more serviceable
+friend in this direction is the _smarmar_, a pink thrush with black wings.
+Besides the various caravan trains of camels, donkeys, horses, and mules,
+the road is frequently dotted with ox-carts, run on solid wooden wheels
+without tires, and drawn by that peculiar bovine species, the buffalo.
+With their distended necks, elevated snouts, and hog-like bristles, these
+animals present an ugly appearance, especially when wallowing in mud
+puddles.
+
+Now and then in the villages we passed by a primitive flour-mill moved by
+a small stream playing upon a horizontal wheel beneath the floor; or, more
+primitive still, by a blindfolded donkey plodding ceaselessly around in
+his circular path. In the streets we frequently encountered boys and old
+men gathering manure for their winter fuel; and now and then a cripple or
+invalid would accost us as "Hakim" ("Doctor"), for the medical work of the
+missionaries has given these simple-minded folk the impression that all
+foreigners are physicians. Coming up and extending a hand for us to feel
+the pulse they would ask us to do something for the disease, which we
+could see was rapidly carrying them to the grave.
+
+  [Illustration: A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.]
+
+Our first view of Sivas was obtained from the top of Mount Yildiz, on
+which still stands the ruined castle of Mithridates, the Pontine monarch,
+whom Lucullus many times defeated, but never conquered. From this point we
+made a very rapid descent, crossed the Kizil Irmak for the third time by
+an old ruined bridge, and half an hour later saw the "stars and stripes"
+flying above the U. S. consulate. In the society of our representative,
+Mr. Henry M. Jewett, we were destined to spend several weeks; for a day or
+two after our arrival, one of us was taken with a slight attack of typhoid
+fever, supposed to have been contracted by drinking from the roadside
+streams. No better place could have been chosen for such a mishap; for
+recovery was speedy in such comfortable quarters, under the care of the
+missionary ladies.
+
+The comparative size and prosperity of Sivas, in the midst of rather
+barren surroundings, are explained by the fact that it lies at the
+converging point of the chief caravan routes between the Euxine,
+Euphrates, and Mediterranean. Besides being the capital of Rumili, the
+former Seljuk province of Cappadocia, it is the place of residence for a
+French and American consular representative, and an agent of the Russian
+government for the collection of the war indemnity, stipulated in the
+treaty of '78. The dignity of office is here upheld with something of the
+pomp and splendor of the East, even by the representative of democratic
+America. In our tours with Mr. Jewett we were escorted at the head by a
+Circassian _cavass_ (Turkish police), clothed in a long black coat, with a
+huge dagger dangling from a belt of cartridges. Another native cavass,
+with a broadsword dragging at his side, usually brought up the rear. At
+night he was the one to carry the huge lantern, which, according to the
+number of candles, is the insignia of rank. "I must give the Turks what
+they want," said the consul, with a twinkle in his eye--"form and red tape.
+I would not be a consul in their eyes, if I didn't." To illustrate the
+formality of Turkish etiquette he told this story: "A Turk was once
+engaged in saving furniture from his burning home, when he noticed that a
+bystander was rolling a cigarette. He immediately stopped in his hurry,
+struck a match, and offered a light."
+
+  [Illustration: EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.]
+
+The most flagrant example of Turkish formality that came to our notice was
+the following address on an official document to the Sultan:
+
+
+    "The Arbiter; the Absolute; the Soul and Body of the Universe; the
+    Father of all the sovereigns of the earth; His Excellency, the
+    Eagle Monarch; the Cause of the never-changing order of things;
+    the Source of all honor; the Son of the Sultan of Sultans, under
+    whose feet we are dust, whose awful shadow protects us; Abdul
+    Hamid II., Son of Abdul Medjid, whose residence is in Paradise;
+    our glorious Lord, to whose sacred body be given health, and
+    strength, and endless days; whom Allah keeps in his palace, and on
+    his throne with joy and glory, forever. Amen."
+
+
+  [Illustration: PRIMITIVE WEAVING.]
+
+This is not the flattery of a cringing subordinate, for the same spirit is
+revealed in an address by the Sultan himself to his Grand Vizir:
+
+
+    "Most honored Vizir; Maintainer of the good order of the World;
+    Director of public affairs with wisdom and judgment; Accomplisher
+    of the important transactions of mankind with intelligence and
+    good sense; Consolidator of the edifice of Empire and of Glory;
+    endowed by the Most High with abundant gifts; and 'Monshir,' at
+    this time, of my Gate of Felicity; my Vizir Mehmed Pasha, may God
+    be pleased to preserve him long in exalted dignity."
+
+
+Though the Turks cannot be called lazy, yet they like to take their time.
+Patience, they say, belongs to God; hurry, to the devil. Nowhere is this
+so well illustrated as in the manner of shopping in Turkey. This was
+brought particularly to our notice when we visited the Sivas bazaars to
+examine some inlaid silverware, for which the place is celebrated. The
+customer stands in the street inspecting the articles on exhibition; the
+merchant sits on his heels on the booth floor. If the customer is of some
+position in life, he climbs up and sits down on a level with the merchant.
+If he is a foreigner, the merchant is quite deferential. A merchant is not
+a merchant at all, but a host entertaining a guest. Coffee is served; then
+a cigarette rolled up and handed to the "guest," while the various social
+and other local topics are freely discussed. After coffee and smoking the
+question of purchase is gradually approached; not abruptly, as that would
+involve a loss of dignity; but circumspectly, as if the buying of anything
+were a mere afterthought. Maybe, after half an hour, the customer has
+indicated what he wants, and after discussing the quality of the goods,
+the customer asks the price in an off-hand way, as though he were not
+particularly interested. The merchant replies, "Oh, whatever your highness
+pleases," or, "I shall be proud if your highness will do me the honor to
+accept it as a gift." This means nothing whatever, and is merely the
+introduction to the haggling which is sure to follow. The seller, with
+silken manners and brazen countenance, will always name a price four times
+as large as it should be. Then the real business begins. The buyer offers
+one half or one fourth of what he finally expects to pay; and a war of
+words, in a blustering tone, leads up to the close of this every-day
+farce.
+
+The superstition of the Turks is nowhere so apparent as in their fear of
+the "evil eye." Jugs placed around the edge of the roof, or an old shoe
+filled with garlic and blue beets (blue glass balls or rings) are a sure
+guard against this illusion. Whenever a pretty child is playing upon the
+street the passers-by will say: "Oh, what an ugly child!" for fear of
+inciting the evil spirit against its beauty. The peasant classes in Turkey
+are of course the most superstitious because they are the most ignorant.
+They have no education whatever, and can neither read nor write. Stamboul
+is the only great city of which they know. Paris is a term signifying the
+whole outside world. An American missionary was once asked: "In what part
+of Paris is America?" Yet it can be said that they are generally honest,
+and always patient. They earn from about six to eight cents a day. This
+will furnish them with ekmek and pilaff, and that is all they expect. They
+eat meat only on feast-days, and then only mutton. The tax-gatherer is
+their only grievance; they look upon him as a necessary evil. They have no
+idea of being ground down under the oppressor's iron heel. Yet they are
+happy because they are contented, and have no envy. The poorer, the more
+ignorant, a Turk is, the better he seems to be. As he gets money and
+power, and becomes "contaminated" by western civilization, he
+deteriorates. A resident of twenty years' experience said: "In the lowest
+classes I have sometimes found truth, honesty, and gratitude; in the
+middle classes, seldom; in the highest, never." The corruptibility of the
+Turkish official is almost proverbial; but such is to be expected in the
+land where "the public treasury" is regarded as a "sea," and "who does not
+drink of it, as a pig." Peculation and malversation are fully expected in
+the public official. They are necessary evils--_adet_ (custom) has made
+them so. Offices are sold to the highest bidder. The Turkish official is
+one of the politest and most agreeable of men. He is profuse in his
+compliments, but he has no conscience as to bribes, and little regard for
+virtue as its own reward. We are glad to be able to record a brilliant,
+though perhaps theoretical, exception to this general rule. At
+Koch-Hissar, on our way from Sivas to Kara Hissar, a delay was caused by a
+rather serious break in one of our bicycles. In the interval we were the
+invited guests of a district kadi, a venerable-looking and genial old
+gentleman whose acquaintance we had made in an official visit on the
+previous day, as he was then the acting _caimacam_ (mayor). His house was
+situated in a neighboring valley in the shadow of a towering bluff. We
+were ushered into the _selaml�k_, or guest apartment, in company with an
+Armenian friend who had been educated as a doctor in America, and who had
+consented to act as interpreter for the occasion.
+
+The kadi entered with a smile on his countenance, and made the usual
+picturesque form of salutation by describing the figure 3 with his right
+hand from the floor to his forehead. Perhaps it was because he wanted to
+be polite that he said he had enjoyed our company on the previous day, and
+had determined, if possible, to have a more extended conversation. With
+the usual coffee and cigarettes, the kadi became informal and chatty. He
+was evidently a firm believer in predestination, as he remarked that God
+had foreordained our trip to that country, even the food we were to eat,
+and the invention of the extraordinary "cart" on which we were to ride.
+The idea of such a journey, in such a peculiar way, was not to be
+accredited to the ingenuity of man. There was a purpose in it all. When we
+ventured to thank him for his hospitality toward two strangers, and even
+foreigners, he said that this world occupied so small a space in God's
+dominion, that we could well afford to be brothers, one to another, in
+spite of our individual beliefs and opinions. "We may have different
+religious beliefs," said he, "but we all belong to the same great father
+of humanity; just as children of different complexions, dispositions, and
+intellects may belong to one common parent. We should exercise reason
+always, and have charity for other people's opinions."
+
+From charity the conversation naturally turned to justice. We were much
+interested in his opinion on this subject, as that of a Turkish judge, and
+rather high official. "Justice," said he, "should be administered to the
+humblest person; though a king should be the offending party, all alike
+must yield to the sacred law of justice. We must account to God for our
+acts, and not to men."
+
+The regular route from Sivas to Erzerum passes through Erzinjan. From
+this, however, we diverged at Zara, in order to visit the city of Kara
+Hissar, and the neighboring Lidjissy mines, which had been pioneered by
+the Genoese explorers, and were now being worked by a party of Englishmen.
+This divergence on to unbeaten paths was made at a very inopportune
+season; for the rainy spell set in, which lasted, with scarcely any
+intermission, for over a fortnight. At the base of Kosse Dagh, which
+stands upon the watershed between the two largest rivers of Asia Minor,
+the Kizil Irmak and Yeshil Irmak, our road was blocked by a mountain
+freshet, which at its height washed everything before it. We spent a day
+and night on its bank, in a primitive flour-mill, which was so far removed
+from domestic life that we had to send three miles up in the mountains to
+get something to eat. The Yeshil Irmak, which we crossed just before
+reaching Kara Hissar, was above our shoulders as we waded through, holding
+our bicycles and baggage over our heads; while the swift current rolled
+the small boulders against us, and almost knocked us off our feet. There
+were no bridges in this part of the country. With horses and wagons the
+rivers were usually fordable; and what more would you want? With the Turk,
+as with all Asiatics, it is not a question of what is better, but what
+will do. Long before we reached a stream, the inhabitants of a certain
+town or village would gather round, and with troubled countenances say,
+"Christian gentlemen--there is no bridge," pointing to the river beyond,
+and graphically describing that it was over our horses' heads. That would
+settle it, they thought; it never occurred to them that a "Christian
+gentleman" could take off his clothes and wade. Sometimes, as we walked
+along in the mud, the wheels of our bicycles would become so clogged that
+we could not even push them before us. In such a case we would take the
+nearest shelter, whatever it might be. The night before reaching Kara
+Hissar, we entered an abandoned stable, from which everything had fled
+except the fleas. Another night was spent in the pine-forests just on the
+border between Asia Minor and Armenia, which were said to be the haunts of
+the border robbers. Our surroundings could not be relieved by a fire for
+fear of attracting their attention.
+
+  [Illustration: A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+When at last we reached the Trebizond-Erzerum highway at Baiboot, the
+contrast was so great that the scaling of Kop Dagh, on its comparatively
+smooth surface, was a mere breakfast spell. From here we looked down for
+the first time into the valley of the historic Euphrates, and a few hours
+later we were skimming over its bottom lands toward the embattled heights
+of Erzerum.
+
+As we neared the city, some Turkish peasants in the fields caught sight of
+us, and shouted to their companions: "Russians! Russians! There they are!
+Two of them!" This was not the first time we had been taken for the
+subjects of the Czar; the whole country seemed to be in dread of them.
+Erzerum is the capital of that district which Russia will no doubt demand,
+if the stipulated war indemnity is not paid.
+
+The entrance into the city was made to twist and turn among the ramparts,
+so as to avoid a rush in case of an attack. But this was no proof against
+a surprise in the case of the noiseless wheel. In we dashed with a roaring
+wind, past the affrighted guards, and were fifty yards away before they
+could collect their scattered senses. Then suddenly it dawned upon them
+that we were human beings, and foreigners besides--perhaps even the dreaded
+Russian spies. They took after us at full speed, but it was too late.
+Before they reached us we were in the house of the commandant pasha, the
+military governor, to whom we had a letter of introduction from our consul
+at Sivas. That gentleman we found extremely good-natured; he laughed
+heartily at our escapade with the guards. Nothing would do but we must
+visit the Vali, the civil governor, who was also a pasha of considerable
+reputation and influence.
+
+  [Illustration: A VILLAGE SCENE.]
+
+We had intended, but not so soon, to pay an official visit to the Vali to
+present our letter from the Grand Vizir, and to ask his permission to
+proceed to Bayazid, whence we had planned to attempt the ascent of Mount
+Ararat, an experience which will be described in the next chapter. A few
+days before, we heard, a similar application had been made by an English
+traveler from Bagdad, but owing to certain suspicions the permission was
+refused. It was with no little concern, therefore, that we approached the
+Vali's private office in company with his French interpreter.
+Circumstances augured ill at the very start. The Vali was evidently in a
+bad humor, for we overheard him storming in a high key at some one in the
+room with him. As we passed under the heavy matted curtains the two
+attendants who were holding them up cast a rather horrified glance at our
+dusty shoes and unconventional costume. The Vali was sitting in a large
+arm-chair in front of a very small desk, placed at the far end of a
+vacant-looking room. After the usual salaams, he motioned to a seat on the
+divan, and proceeded at once to examine our credentials while we sipped at
+our coffee, and whiffed the small cigarettes which were immediately
+served. This furnished the Vali an opportunity to regain his usual
+composure. He was evidently an autocrat of the severest type; if we
+pleased him, it would be all right; if we did not, it would be all wrong.
+We showed him everything we had, from our Chinese passport to the little
+photographic camera, and related some of the most amusing incidents of our
+journey through his country. From the numerous questions he asked we felt
+certain of his genuine interest, and were more than pleased to see an
+occasional broad smile on his countenance. "Well," said he, as we rose to
+take leave, "your passports will be ready any time after to-morrow; in the
+mean time I shall be pleased to have your horses quartered and fed at
+government expense." This was a big joke for a Turk, and assured us of his
+good-will.
+
+A bicycle exhibition which the Vali had requested was given the morning of
+our departure for Bayazid, on a level stretch of road just outside the
+city. Several missionaries and members of the consulates had gone out in
+carriages, and formed a little group by themselves. We rode up with the
+"stars and stripes" and "star and crescent" fluttering side by side from
+the handle-bars. It was always our custom, especially on diplomatic
+occasions, to have a little flag of the country associated with that of
+our own. This little arrangement evoked a smile from the Vali, who, when
+the exhibition was finished, stepped forward and said, "I am satisfied, I
+am pleased." His richly caparisoned white charger was now brought up.
+Leaping into the saddle, he waved us good-by, and moved away with his
+suite toward the city. We ourselves remained for a few moments to bid
+good-by to our hospitable friends, and then, once more, continued our
+journey toward the east.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    II
+
+
+                        THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT
+
+
+According to tradition, Mount Ararat is the scene of two of the most
+important events in the history of the human race. In the sacred land of
+Eden, which Armenian legend places at its base, the first of human life
+was born; and on its solitary peak the last of human life was saved from
+an all-destroying flood. The remarkable geographical position of this
+mountain seems to justify the Armenian view that it is the center of the
+world. It is on the longest line drawn through the Old World from the Cape
+of Good Hope to Bering Strait; it is also on the line of the great deserts
+and inland seas stretching from Gibraltar to Lake Baikal in Siberia--a line
+of continuous depressions; it is equidistant from the Black and Caspian
+Seas and the Mesopotamian plain, which three depressions are now watered
+by three distinct river-systems emanating from Ararat's immediate
+vicinity. No other region has seen or heard so much of the story of
+mankind. In its grim presence empires have come and gone; cities have
+risen and fallen; human life has soared up on the wings of hope, and
+dashed against the rocks of despair.
+
+To the eye Ararat presents a gently inclined slope of sand and ashes
+rising into a belt of green, another zone of black volcanic rocks streaked
+with snow-beds, and then a glittering crest of silver. From the burning
+desert at its base to the icy pinnacle above, it rises through a vertical
+distance of 13,000 feet. There are but few peaks in the world that rise so
+high (17,250 feet above sea-level) from so low a plain (2000 feet on the
+Russian, and 4000 feet on the Turkish, side), and which, therefore,
+present so grand a spectacle. Unlike many of the world's mountains, it
+stands alone. Little Ararat (12,840 feet above sea-level), and the other
+still smaller heights that dot the plain, only serve as a standard by
+which to measure Ararat's immensity and grandeur.
+
+Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of three great
+empires. On its conical peak converge the dominions of the Czar, the
+Sultan, and the Shah. The Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat
+along the high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through the
+peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the northwest, then
+turns sharply to the west. On the Sardarbulakh pass, between Great and
+Little Ararat, is stationed a handful of Russian Cossacks to remind
+lawless tribes of the guardianship of the "White Sultan."
+
+The two Ararats together form an elliptical mass, about twenty-five miles
+in length, running northwest and southeast, and about half that in width.
+Out of this massive base rise the two Ararat peaks, their bases being
+contiguous up to 8800 feet and their tops about seven miles apart. Little
+Ararat is an almost perfect truncated cone, while Great Ararat is more of
+a broad-shouldered dome supported by strong, rough-ribbed buttresses. The
+isolated position of Ararat, its structure of igneous rocks, the presence
+of small craters and immense volcanic fissures on its slopes, and the
+scori� and ashes on the surrounding plain, establish beyond a doubt its
+volcanic origin. But according to the upheaval theory of the eminent
+geologist, Hermann Abich, who was among the few to make the ascent of the
+mountain, there never was a great central crater in either Great or Little
+Ararat. Certain it is that no craters or signs of craters now exist on the
+summit of either mountain. But Mr. James Bryce, who made the last ascent,
+in 1876, seems to think that there is no sufficient reason why craters
+could not have previously existed, and been filled up by their own
+irruptions. There is no record of any irruption in historical times. The
+only thing approaching it was the earthquake which shook the mountain in
+1840, accompanied by subterranean rumblings, and destructive blasts of
+wind. The Tatar village of Arghuri and a Kurdish encampment on the
+northeast slope were entirely destroyed by the precipitated rocks. Not a
+man was left to tell the story. Mr. Bryce and others have spoken of the
+astonishing height of the snow-line on Mount Ararat, which is placed at
+14,000 feet; while in the Alps it is only about 9000 feet, and in the
+Caucasus on an average 11,000 feet, although they lie in a very little
+higher latitude. They assign, as a reason for this, the exceptionally dry
+region in which Ararat is situated. Mr. Bryce ascended the mountain on
+September 12, when the snow-line was at its very highest, the first large
+snow-bed he encountered being at 12,000 feet. Our own ascent being made as
+early as July 4,--in fact, the earliest ever recorded,--we found some snow
+as low as 8000 feet, and large beds at 10,500 feet. The top of Little
+Ararat was still at that time streaked with snow, but not covered. With so
+many extensive snow-beds, one would naturally expect to find copious
+brooks and streams flowing down the mountain into the plain; but owing to
+the porous and dry nature of the soil, the water is entirely lost before
+reaching the base of the mountain. Even as early as July we saw no stream
+below 6000 feet, and even above this height the mountain freshets
+frequently flowed far beneath the surface under the loosely packed rocks,
+bidding defiance to our efforts to reach them. Notwithstanding the
+scarcity of snow-freshets, there is a middle zone on Mount Ararat,
+extending from about 5000 feet to 9000 feet elevation, which is covered
+with good pasturage, kept green by heavy dews and frequent showers. The
+hot air begins to rise from the desert plain as the morning sun peeps over
+the horizon, and continues through the day; this warm current, striking
+against the snow-covered summit, is condensed into clouds and moisture. In
+consequence, the top of Ararat is usually--during the summer months, at
+least--obscured by clouds from some time after dawn until sunset. On the
+last day of our ascent, however, we were particularly fortunate in having
+a clear summit until 1:15 in the afternoon.
+
+Among the crags of the upper slope are found only a few specimens of the
+wild goat and sheep, and, lower down, the fox, wolf, and lynx. The bird
+and insect life is very scanty, but lizards and scorpions, especially on
+the lowest slopes, are abundant. The rich pasturage of Ararat's middle
+zone attracts pastoral Kurdish tribes. These nomadic shepherds, a few
+Tatars at New Arghuri, and a camp of Russian Cossacks at the well of
+Sardarbulakh, are the only human beings to disturb the quiet solitude of
+this grandest of nature's sanctuaries.
+
+The first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat was in 1829, by Dr. Frederick
+Parrot, a Russo-German professor in the University of Dorpat. He reached
+the summit with a party of three Armenians and two Russian soldiers, after
+two unsuccessful attempts. His ascent, however, was doubted, not only by
+the people in the neighborhood, but by many men of science and position in
+the Russian empire, notwithstanding his clear account, which has been
+confirmed by subsequent observers, and in spite of the testimony of the
+two Russian soldiers who had gone with him.(1) Two of the Armenians who
+reached the summit with him declared that they had gone to a great height,
+but at the point where they had left off had seen much higher tops rising
+around them. This, thereupon, became the opinion of the whole country.
+After Antonomoff, in 1834, Herr Abich, the geologist, made his valuable
+ascent in 1845. He reached the eastern summit, which is only a few feet
+lower than the western, and only a few minutes' walk from it, but was
+obliged to return at once on account of the threatening weather. When he
+produced his companions as witnesses before the authorities at Erivan,
+they turned against him, and solemnly swore that at the point which they
+had reached a higher peak stood between them and the western horizon. This
+strengthened the Armenian belief in the inaccessibility of Ararat, which
+was not dissipated when the Russian military engineer, General Chodzko,
+and an English party made the ascent in 1856. Nor were their prejudiced
+minds convinced by the ascent of Mr. Bryce twenty years later, in 1876.
+Two days after his ascent, that gentleman paid a visit to the Armenian
+monastery at Echmiadzin, and was presented to the archimandrite as the
+Englishman who had just ascended to the top of "Masis." "No," said the
+ecclesiastical dignitary; "that cannot be. No one has ever been there. It
+is impossible." Mr. Bryce himself says: "I am persuaded that there is not
+a person living within sight of Ararat, unless it be some exceptionally
+educated Russian official at Erivan, who believes that any human foot,
+since Father Noah's, has trodden that sacred summit. So much stronger is
+faith than sight; or rather so much stronger is prejudice than evidence."
+
+We had expected, on our arrival in Bayazid, to find in waiting for us a
+Mr. Richardson, an American missionary from Erzerum. Two years later, on
+our arrival home, we received a letter explaining that on his way from Van
+he had been captured by Kurdish brigands, and held a prisoner until
+released through the intervention of the British consul at Erzerum. It was
+some such fate as this that was predicted for us, should we ever attempt
+the ascent of Mount Ararat through the lawless Kurdish tribes upon its
+slopes. Our first duty, therefore, was to see the mutessarif of Bayazid,
+to whom we bore a letter from the Grand Vizir of Turkey, in order to
+ascertain what protection and assistance he would be willing to give us.
+We found with him a Circassian who belonged to the Russian camp at
+Sardarbulakh, on the Ararat pass, and who had accompanied General Chodzko
+on his ascent of the mountain in 1856. Both he and the mutessarif thought
+an ascent so early in the year was impossible; that we ought not to think
+of such a thing until two months later. It was now six weeks earlier than
+the time of General Chodzko's ascent (August 11 to 18), then the earliest
+on record. They both strongly recommended the northwestern slope as being
+more gradual. This is the one that Parrot ascended in 1829, and where
+Abich was repulsed on his third attempt. Though entirely inexperienced in
+mountain-climbing, we ourselves thought that the southeast slope, the one
+taken by General Chodzko, the English party, and Mr. Bryce, was far more
+feasible for a small party. One thing, however, the mutessarif was
+determined upon: we must not approach the mountain without an escort of
+Turkish zaptiehs, as an emblem of government protection. Besides, he would
+send for the chief of the Ararat Kurds, and endeavor to arrange with him
+for our safety and guidance up the mountain. As we emerged into the
+streets an Armenian professor gravely shook his head. "Ah," said he, "you
+will never do it." Then dropping his voice, he told us that those other
+ascents were all fictitious; that the summit of "Masis" had never yet been
+reached except by Noah; and that we were about to attempt what was an
+utter impossibility.
+
+In Bayazid we could not procure even proper wood for alpenstocks. Willow
+branches, two inches thick, very dry and brittle, were the best we could
+obtain. Light as this wood is, the alpenstocks weighed at least seven
+pounds apiece when the iron hooks and points were riveted on at the ends
+by the native blacksmith, for whom we cut paper patterns, of the exact
+size, for everything we wanted. We next had large nails driven into the
+souls of our shoes by a local shoemaker, who made them for us by hand out
+of an old English file, and who wanted to pull them all out again because
+we would not pay him the exorbitant price he demanded. In buying
+provisions for the expedition, we spent three hours among the half
+dilapidated bazaars of the town, which have never been repaired since the
+disastrous Russian bombardment. The most difficult task, perhaps, in our
+work of preparation was to strike a bargain with an Armenian muleteer to
+carry our food and baggage up the mountain on his two little donkeys.
+
+  [Illustration: WHERE THE "ZAPTIEHS" WERE NOT A NUISANCE.]
+
+Evening came, and no word from either the mutessarif or the Kurdish chief.
+Although we were extremely anxious to set off on the expedition before bad
+weather set in, we must not be in a hurry, for the military governor of
+Karakillissa was now the guest of the mutessarif, and it would be an
+interference with his social duties to try to see him until after his
+guest had departed. On the morrow we were sitting in our small dingy room
+after dinner, when a cavalcade hastened up to our inn, and a few minutes
+later we were surprised to hear ourselves addressed in our native tongue.
+Before us stood a dark-complexioned young man, and at his side a small
+wiry old gentleman, who proved to be a native Austrian Tyrolese, who
+followed the profession of an artist in Paris. He was now making his way
+to Erivan, in Russia, on a sight-seeing tour from Trebizond. His companion
+was a Greek from Salonica, who had lived for several years in London,
+whence he had departed not many weeks before, for Teheran, Persia. These
+two travelers had met in Constantinople, and the young Greek, who could
+speak English, Greek, and Turkish, had been acting as interpreter for the
+artist. They had heard of the "devil's carts" when in Van, and had made
+straight for our quarters on their arrival in Bayazid. At this point they
+were to separate. When we learned that the old gentleman (Ignaz Raffl by
+name) was a member of an Alpine club and an experienced mountain-climber,
+we urged him to join in the ascent. Though his shoulders were bent by the
+cares and troubles of sixty-three years, we finally induced him to
+accompany our party. Kantsa, the Greek, reluctantly agreed to do likewise,
+and proved to be an excellent interpreter, but a poor climber.
+
+The following morning we paid the mutessarif a second visit, with Kantsa
+as interpreter. Inasmuch as the Kurdish chief had not arrived, the
+mutessarif said he would make us bearers of a letter to him. Two zaptiehs
+were to accompany us in the morning, while others were to go ahead and
+announce our approach.
+
+At ten minutes of eleven, on the morning of the second of July, our small
+cavalcade, with the two exasperating donkeys at the head laden with mats,
+bags of provisions, extra clothing, alpenstocks, spiked shoes, and coils
+of stout rope, filed down the streets of Bayazid, followed by a curious
+rabble. As Bayazid lies hidden behind a projecting spur of the mountains
+we could obtain no view of the peak itself until we had tramped some
+distance out on the plain. Its huge giant mass broke upon us all at once.
+We stopped and looked--and looked again. No mountain-peak we have seen,
+though several have been higher, has ever inspired the feeling which
+filled us when we looked for the first time upon towering Ararat. We had
+not proceeded far before we descried a party of Kurdish horsemen
+approaching from the mountain. Our zaptiehs advanced rather cautiously to
+meet them, with rifles thrown across the pommels of their saddles. After a
+rather mysterious parley, our zaptiehs signaled that all was well. On
+coming up, they reported that these horsemen belonged to the party that
+was friendly to the Turkish government. The Kurds, they said, were at this
+time divided among themselves, a portion of them having adopted
+conciliatory measures with the government, and the rest holding aloof. But
+we rather considered their little performance as a scheme to extort a
+little more baksheesh for their necessary presence.
+
+  [Illustration: READY FOR THE START.]
+
+The plain we were now on was drained by a tributary of the Aras River, a
+small stream reached after two hours' steady tramping. From the bordering
+hillocks we emerged in a short time upon another vast plateau, which
+stretched far away in a gentle rise to the base of the mountain itself.
+Near by we discovered a lone willow-tree, the only one in the whole sweep
+of our vision, under the gracious foliage of which sat a band of Kurds,
+retired from the heat of the afternoon sun, their horses feeding on some
+swamp grass near at hand. Attracted by this sign of water, we drew near,
+and found a copious spring. A few words from the zaptiehs, who had
+advanced among them, seemed to put the Kurds at their ease, though they
+did not by any means appease their curiosity. They invited us to partake
+of their frugal lunch of ekmek and goat's-milk cheese. Our clothes and
+baggage were discussed piece by piece, with loud expressions of merriment,
+until one of us arose, and, stealing behind the group, snapped the camera.
+"What was that?" said a burly member of the group, as he looked round with
+scowling face at his companions. "Yes; what was that?" they echoed, and
+then made a rush for the manipulator of the black box, which they
+evidently took for some instrument of the black art. The photographer
+stood serenely innocent, and winked at the zaptieh to give the proper
+explanation. He was equal to the occasion. "That," said he, "is an
+instrument for taking time by the sun." At this the box went the round,
+each one gazing intently into the lens, then scratching his head, and
+casting a bewildered look at his nearest neighbor. We noticed that every
+one about us was armed with knife, revolver, and Martini rifle, a belt of
+cartridges surrounding his waist. It occurred to us that Turkey was
+adopting a rather poor method of clipping the wings of these mountain
+birds, by selling them the very best equipments for war. Legally, none but
+government guards are permitted to carry arms, and yet both guns and
+ammunition are sold in the bazaars of almost every city of the Turkish
+dominions. The existence of these people, in their wild, semi-independent
+state, shows not so much the power of the Kurds as the weakness of the
+Turkish government, which desires to use a people of so fierce a
+reputation for the suppression of its other subjects. After half an hour's
+rest, we prepared to decamp, and so did our Kurdish companions. They were
+soon in their saddles, and galloping away in front of us, with their arms
+clanking, and glittering in the afternoon sunlight.
+
+At the spring we had turned off the trail that led over the Sardarbulakh
+pass into Russia, and were now following a horse-path which winds up to
+the Kurdish encampments on the southern slope of the mountain. The plain
+was strewn with sand and rocks, with here and there a bunch of tough, wiry
+grass about a foot and a half high, which, though early in the year, was
+partly dry. It would have been hot work except for the rain of the day
+before and a strong southeast wind. As it was, our feet were blistered and
+bruised, the thin leather sandals worn at the outset offering very poor
+protection. The atmosphere being dry, though not excessively hot, we soon
+began to suffer from thirst. Although we searched diligently for water, we
+did not find it till after two hours more of constant marching, when at a
+height of about 6000 feet, fifty yards from the path, we discerned a
+picturesque cascade of sparkling, cold mountain water. Even the old
+gentleman, Raffl, joined heartily in the gaiety induced by this clear,
+cold water from Ararat's melting snows.
+
+  [Illustration: PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.]
+
+Our ascent for two and a half hours longer was through a luxuriant
+vegetation of flowers, grasses, and weeds, which grew more and more scanty
+as we advanced. Prominent among the specimens were the wild pink, poppy,
+and rose. One small fragrant herb, that was the most abundant of all, we
+were told was used by the Kurds for making tea. All these filled the
+evening air with perfume as we trudged along, passing now and then a
+Kurdish lad, with his flock of sheep and goats feeding on the
+mountain-grass, which was here much more luxuriant than below. Looking
+backward, we saw that we were higher than the precipitous cliffs which
+overtower the town of Bayazid, and which are perhaps from 1500 to 2000
+feet above the lowest part of the plain. The view over the plateau was now
+grand. Though we were all fatigued by the day's work, the cool,
+moisture-laden air of evening revived our flagging spirits. We forged
+ahead with nimble step, joking, and singing a variety of national airs.
+The French "Marseillaise," in which the old gentleman heartily joined,
+echoed and re�choed among the rocks, and caused the shepherd lads and
+their flocks to crane their heads in wonderment. Even the Armenian
+muleteer so far overcame his fear of the Kurdish robbers as to indulge in
+one of his accustomed funeral dirges; but it stopped short, never to go
+again, when we came in sight of the Kurdish encampment. The poor fellow
+instinctively grabbed his donkeys about their necks, as though they were
+about to plunge over a precipice. The zaptiehs dashed ahead with the
+mutessarif's letter to the Kurdish chief. We followed slowly on foot,
+while the Armenian and his two pets kept at a respectful distance in the
+rear.
+
+The disk of the sun had already touched the western horizon when we came
+to the black tents of the Kurdish encampment, which at this time of the
+day presented a rather busy scene. The women seemed to be doing all the
+work, while their lords sat round on their haunches. Some of the women
+were engaged in milking the sheep and goats in an inclosure. Others were
+busy making butter in a churn which was nothing more than a skin vessel
+three feet long, of the shape of a Brazil-nut, suspended from a rude
+tripod; this they swung to and fro to the tune of a weird Kurdish song.
+Behind one of the tents, on a primitive weaving-machine, some of them were
+making tent-roofing and matting. Others still were walking about with a
+ball of wool in one hand and a distaff in the other, spinning yarn. The
+flocks stood round about, bleating and lowing, or chewing their cud in
+quiet contentment. All seemed very domestic and peaceful except the
+Kurdish dogs, which set upon us with loud, fierce growls and gnashing
+teeth.
+
+Not so was it with the Kurdish chief, who by this time had finished
+reading the mutessarif's message, and who now advanced from his tent with
+salaams of welcome. As he stood before us in the glowing sunset, he was a
+rather tall, but well-proportioned man, with black eyes and dark mustache,
+contrasting well with his brown-tanned complexion. Upon his face was the
+stamp of a rather wild and retiring character, although treachery and
+deceit were by no means wanting. He wore a headgear that was something
+between a hat and a turban, and over his baggy Turkish trousers hung a
+long Persian coat of bright-colored, large-figured cloth, bound at the
+waist by a belt of cartridges. Across the shoulders was slung a
+breech-loading Martini rifle, and from his neck dangled a heavy gold
+chain, which was probably the spoil of some predatory expedition. A quiet
+dignity sat on Ismail Deverish's stalwart form.
+
+  [Illustration: THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.]
+
+It was with no little pleasure that we accepted his invitation to a cup of
+tea. After our walk of nineteen miles, in which we had ascended from 3000
+to 7000 feet, we were in fit condition to appreciate a rest. That Kurdish
+tent, as far as we were concerned, was a veritable palace, although we
+were almost blinded by the smoke from the green pine-branches on the
+smoldering fire. We said that the chief invited us to a cup of tea: so he
+did--but we provided the tea; and that, too, not only for our own party,
+but for half a dozen of the chief's personal friends. There being only two
+glasses in the camp, we of course had to wait until our Kurdish
+acquaintances had quenched their burning thirst. In thoughtful mood we
+gazed around through the evening twilight. Far away on the western slope
+we could see some Kurdish women plodding along under heavy burdens of
+pine-branches like those that were now fumigating our eyes and nostrils.
+Across the hills the Kurdish shepherds were driving home their herds and
+flocks to the tinkling of bells. All this, to us, was deeply impressive.
+Such peaceful scenes, we thought, could never be the haunt of warlike
+robbers. The flocks at last came home; the shouts of the shepherds ceased;
+darkness fell; and all was quiet.
+
+One by one the lights in the tents broke out, like the stars above. As the
+darkness deepened, they shone more and more brightly across the
+amphitheater of the encampment. The tent in which we were now sitting was
+oblong in shape, covered with a mixture of goats' and sheep's wool,
+carded, spun, and woven by the Kurdish women. This tenting was all of a
+dark brown or black color. The various strips were badly joined together,
+allowing the snow and rain, during the stormy night that followed, to
+penetrate plentifully. A wickerwork fencing, about three feet high, made
+from the reeds gathered in the swamps of the Aras River, was stretched
+around the bottom of the tent to keep out the cattle as well as to afford
+some little protection from the elements. This same material, of the same
+width or height, was used to partition off the apartments of the women.
+Far from being veiled and shut up in harems, like their Turkish and
+Persian sisters, the Kurdish women come and go among the men, and talk and
+laugh as they please. The thinness and lowness of the partition walls did
+not disturb their astonishing equanimity. In their relations with the men
+the women are extremely free. During the evening we frequently found
+ourselves surrounded by a concourse of these mountain beauties, who would
+sit and stare at us with their black eyes, call attention to our personal
+oddities, and laugh among themselves. Now and then their jokes at our
+expense would produce hilarious laughter among the men. The dress of these
+women consisted of baggy trousers, better described in this country as
+"divided skirts," a bright-colored overskirt and tunic, and a little round
+cloth cap encircled with a band of red and black. Through the right lobe
+of the nose was hung a peculiar button-shaped ornament studded with
+precious stones. This picturesque costume well set off their rich olive
+complexions, and black eyes beneath dark-brown lashes.
+
+There were no signs of an approaching evening meal until we opened our
+provision-bag, and handed over certain articles of raw food to be cooked
+for us. No sooner were the viands intrusted to the care of our hosts, than
+two sets of pots and kettles made their appearance in the other
+compartments. In half an hour our host and friends proceeded to indulge
+their voracious appetites. When our own meal was brought to us some time
+after, we noticed that the fourteen eggs we had doled out had been reduced
+to six; and the other materials suffered a similar reduction, the whole
+thing being so patent as to make their attempt at innocence absurdly
+ludicrous. We thought, however, if Kurdish highway robbery took no worse
+form than this, we could well afford to be content. Supper over, we
+squatted round a slow-burning fire, on the thick felt mats which served as
+carpets, drank tea, and smoked the usual cigarettes. By the light of the
+glowing embers we could watch the faces about us, and catch their
+horrified glances when reference was made to our intended ascent of
+Ak-Dagh, the mysterious abode of the jinn. Before turning in for the
+night, we reconnoitered our situation. The lights in all the tents, save
+our own, were now extinguished. Not a sound was heard, except the heavy
+breathing of some of the slumbering animals about us, or the bark of a dog
+at some distant encampment. The huge dome of Ararat, though six to eight
+miles farther up the slope, seemed to be towering over us like some giant
+monster of another world. We could not see the summit, so far was it above
+the enveloping clouds. We returned to the tent to find that the zaptiehs
+had been given the best places and best covers to sleep in, and that we
+were expected to accommodate ourselves near the door, wrapped up in an old
+Kurdish carpet. Policy was evidently a better developed trait of Kurdish
+character than hospitality.
+
+Although we arose at four, seven o'clock saw us still at the encampment.
+Two hours vanished before our gentlemen zaptiehs condescended to rise from
+their peaceful slumbers; then a great deal of time was unnecessarily
+consumed in eating their special breakfast. We ourselves had to be content
+with ekmek and yaourt (blotting-paper bread and curdled milk). This over,
+they concluded not to go on without sandals to take the place of their
+heavy military boots, as at this point their horses would have to be
+discarded. After we had employed a Kurd to make these for them, they
+declared they were afraid to proceed without the company of ten Kurds
+armed to the teeth. We knew that this was only a scheme on the part of the
+Kurds, with whom the zaptiehs were in league, to extort money from us. We
+still kept cool, and only casually insinuated that we did not have enough
+money to pay for so large a party. This announcement worked like a charm.
+The interest the Kurds had up to this time taken in our venture died away
+at once. Even the three Kurds who, as requested in the message of the
+mutessarif, were to accompany us up the mountain to the snow-line, refused
+absolutely to go. The mention of the mutessarif's name awakened only a
+sneer. We had also relied upon the Kurds for blankets, as we had been
+advised to do by our friends in Bayazid. Those we had already hired they
+now snatched from the donkeys standing before the tent. All this time our
+tall, gaunt, meek-looking muleteer had stood silent. Now his turn had
+come. How far was he to go with his donkeys?--he didn't think it possible
+for him to go much beyond this point. Patience now ceased to be a virtue.
+We cut off discussion at once; told the muleteer he would either go on, or
+lose what he had already earned; and informed the zaptiehs that whatever
+they did would be reported to the mutessarif on our return. Under this
+rather forcible persuasion, they stood not on the order of their going,
+but sullenly followed our little procession out of camp before the
+crestfallen Kurds.
+
+In the absence of guides we were thrown upon our own resources. Far from
+being an assistance, our zaptiehs proved a nuisance. They would carry
+nothing, not even the food they were to eat, and were absolutely ignorant
+of the country we were to traverse. From our observations on the previous
+days, we had decided to strike out on a northeast course, over the gentle
+slope, until we struck the rocky ridges on the southeast buttress of the
+dome. On its projecting rocks, which extended nearer to the summit than
+those of any other part of the mountain, we could avoid the slippery,
+precipitous snow-beds that stretched far down the mountain at this time of
+the year.
+
+Immediately after leaving the encampment, the ascent became steeper and
+more difficult; the small volcanic stones of yesterday now increased to
+huge obstructing boulders, among which the donkeys with difficulty made
+their way. They frequently tipped their loads, or got wedged in between
+two unyielding walls. In the midst of our efforts to extricate them, we
+often wondered how Noah ever managed with the animals from the ark. Had
+these donkeys not been of a philosophical turn of mind, they might have
+offered forcible objections to the way we extricated them from their
+straightened circumstances. A remonstrance on our part for carelessness in
+driving brought from the muleteer a burst of Turkish profanity that made
+the rocks of Ararat resound with indignant echoes. The spirit of
+insubordination seemed to be increasing in direct ratio with the height of
+our ascent.
+
+We came now to a comparatively smooth, green slope, which led up to the
+highest Kurdish encampment met on the line of our ascent, about 7500 feet.
+When in sight of the black tents, the subject of Kurdish guides was again
+broached by the zaptiehs, and immediately they sat down to discuss the
+question. We ourselves were through with discussion, and fully determined
+to have nothing to do with a people who could do absolutely nothing for
+us. We stopped at the tents, and asked for milk. "Yes," they said; "we
+have some": but after waiting for ten minutes, we learned that the milk
+was still in the goats' possession, several hundred yards away among the
+rocks. It dawned upon us that this was only another trick of the zaptiehs
+to get a rest.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.]
+
+We pushed on the next 500 feet of the ascent without much trouble or
+controversy, the silence broken only by the muleteer, who took the _raki_
+bottle off the donkey's pack, and asked if he could take a drink. As we
+had only a limited supply, to be used to dilute the snow-water, we were
+obliged to refuse him.
+
+At 8000 feet we struck our first snowdrift, into which the donkeys sank up
+to their bodies. It required our united efforts to lift them out, and half
+carry them across. Then on we climbed till ten o'clock, to a point about
+9000 feet, where we stopped for lunch in a quiet mountain glen, by the
+side of a rippling mountain rill. This snow-water we drank with raki. The
+view in the mean time had been growing more and more extensive. The plain
+before us had lost nearly all its detail and color, and was merged into
+one vast whole. Though less picturesque, it was incomparably grander. Now
+we could see how, in ages past, the lava had burst out of the lateral
+fissures in the mountain, and flowed in huge streams for miles down the
+slope, and out on the plain below. These beds of lava were gradually
+broken up by the action of the elements, and now presented the appearance
+of ridges of broken volcanic rocks of the most varied and fantastic
+shapes.
+
+It was here that the muleteer showed evident signs of weakening, which
+later on developed into a total collapse. We had come to a broad
+snow-field where the donkeys stuck fast and rolled over helpless in the
+snow. Even after we had unstrapped their baggage and carried it over on
+our shoulders, they could make no headway. The muleteer gave up in
+despair, and refused even to help us carry our loads to the top of an
+adjoining hill, whither the zaptiehs had proceeded to wait for us. In
+consequence, Raffl and we were compelled to carry two donkey-loads of
+baggage for half a mile over the snow-beds and boulders, followed by the
+sulking muleteer, who had deserted his donkeys, rather than be left alone
+himself. On reaching the zaptiehs, we sat down to hold a council on the
+situation; but the clouds, which, during the day, had occasionally
+obscured the top of the mountain, now began to thicken, and it was not
+long before a shower compelled us to beat a hasty retreat to a neighboring
+ledge of rocks. The clouds that were rolling between us and the mountain
+summit seemed but a token of the storm of circumstances. One thing was
+certain, the muleteer could go no farther up the mountain, and yet he was
+mortally afraid to return alone to the Kurdish robbers. He sat down, and
+began to cry like a child. This predicament of their accomplice furnished
+the zaptiehs with a plausible excuse. They now absolutely refused to go
+any farther without him. Our interpreter, the Greek, again joined the
+majority; he was not going to risk the ascent without the Turkish guards,
+and besides, he had now come to the conclusion that we had not sufficient
+blankets to spend a night at so high an altitude. Disappointed, but not
+discouraged, we gazed at the silent old gentleman at our side. In his
+determined countenance we read his answer. Long shall we remember Ignaz
+Raffl as one of the pluckiest, most persevering of old men.
+
+  [Illustration: HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.]
+
+There was now only one plan that could be pursued. Selecting from our
+supplies one small blanket, a felt mat, two long, stout ropes, enough food
+to last us two days, a bottle of cold tea, and a can of Turkish raki, we
+packed them into two bundles to strap on our backs. We then instructed the
+rest of the party to return to the Kurdish encampment and await our
+return. The sky was again clear at 2:30 P. M., when we bade good-by to our
+worthless comrades and resumed the ascent. We were now at a height of nine
+thousand feet, and it was our plan to camp at a point far enough up the
+mountain to enable us to complete the ascent on the following day, and
+return to the Kurdish encampment by nightfall. Beyond us was a region of
+snow and barren rocks, among which we still saw a small purple flower and
+bunches of lichens, which grew more rare as we advanced. Our course
+continued in a northeast direction, toward the main southeast ridge of the
+mountain. Sometimes we were floundering with our heavy loads in the deep
+snow-beds, or scrambling on hands and knees over the huge boulders of the
+rocky seams. Two hours and a half of climbing brought us to the crest of
+the main southeast ridge, about one thousand feet below the base of the
+precipitous dome. At this point our course changed from northeast to
+northwest, and continued so during the rest of the ascent. Little Ararat
+was now in full view. We could even distinguish upon its northwest side a
+deep-cut gorge, which was not visible before. Upon its smooth and perfect
+slopes remained only the tatters of its last winter's garments. We could
+also look far out over the Sardarbulakh ridge, which connects the two
+Ararats, and on which the Cossacks are encamped. It was to them that the
+mutessarif had desired us to go, but we had subsequently determined to
+make the ascent directly from the Turkish side.
+
+  [Illustration: LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.]
+
+Following up this southeast ridge we came at 5:45 P. M. to a point about
+eleven thousand feet. Here the thermometer registered 39� Fahrenheit, and
+was constantly falling. If we should continue on, the cold during the
+night, especially with our scanty clothing, would become intolerable; and
+then, too, we could scarcely find a spot level enough to sleep on. We
+therefore determined to stop here for the night, and to continue the
+ascent at dawn. Some high, rugged crags on the ridge above us attracted
+our attention as affording a comparatively protected lodging. Among these
+we spread our carpet, and piled stones in the intervening spaces to form a
+complete inclosure. Thus busily engaged, we failed for a time to realize
+the grandeur of the situation. Over the vast and misty panorama that
+spread out before us, the lingering rays of the setting sun shed a tinge
+of gold, which was communicated to the snowy beds around us. Behind the
+peak of Little Ararat a brilliant rainbow stretched in one grand archway
+above the weeping clouds. But this was only one turn of nature's
+kaleidoscope. The arch soon faded away, and the shadows lengthened and
+deepened across the plain, and mingled, till all was lost to view behind
+the falling curtains of the night. The Kurdish tents far down the slope,
+and the white curling smoke from their evening camp-fires, we could see no
+more; only the occasional bark of a dog was borne upward through the
+impenetrable darkness.
+
+Colder and colder grew the atmosphere. From 39� the thermometer gradually
+fell to 36�, to 33�, and during the night dropped below freezing-point.
+The snow, which fell from the clouds just over our heads, covered our
+frugal supper-table, on which were placed a few hard-boiled eggs, some
+tough Turkish bread, cheese, and a bottle of tea mixed with raki. Ice-tea
+was no doubt a luxury at this time of the year, but not on Mount Ararat,
+at the height of eleven thousand feet, with the temperature at
+freezing-point. M. Raffl was as cheerful as could be expected under the
+circumstances. He expressed his delight at our progress thus far; and now
+that we were free from our "gentlemen" attendants, he considered our
+chances for success much brighter. We turned in together under our single
+blanket, with the old gentleman between us. He had put on every article of
+clothing, including gloves, hat, hood, cloak, and heavy shoes. For pillows
+we used the provision-bags and camera. The bottle of cold tea we buttoned
+up in our coats to prevent it from freezing. On both sides, and above us,
+lay the pure white snow; below us a huge abyss, into which the rocky ridge
+descended like a darkened stairway to the lower regions. The awful
+stillness was unbroken, save by the whistling of the wind among the rocks.
+Dark masses of clouds seemed to bear down upon us every now and then,
+opening up their trapdoors, and letting down a heavy fall of snow. The
+heat of our bodies melted the ice beneath us, and our clothes became
+saturated with ice-water. Although we were surrounded by snow and ice, we
+were suffering with a burning thirst. Since separating from our companions
+we had found no water whatever, while the single bottle of cold tea we had
+must be preserved for the morrow. Sleep, under such circumstances, and in
+our cramped position, was utterly impossible. At one o'clock the morning
+star peeped above the eastern horizon. This we watched hour after hour, as
+it rose in unrivaled beauty toward the zenith, until at last it began to
+fade away in the first gray streaks of the morning.
+
+  [Illustration: THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND
+  FEET.]
+
+By the light of a flickering candle we ate a hurried breakfast, fastened
+on our spiked shoes, and strapped to our backs a few indispensable
+articles, leaving the rest of our baggage at the camp until our return.
+Just at daybreak, 3:55 A. M., on the 4th of July, we started off on what
+proved to be the hardest day's work we had ever accomplished. We struck
+out at once across the broad snow-field to the second rock rib on the
+right, which seemed to lead up to the only line of rocks above. The
+surface of these large snow-beds had frozen during the night, so that we
+had to cut steps with our ice-picks to keep from slipping down their
+glassy surface. Up this ridge we slowly climbed for three weary hours,
+leaping from boulder to boulder, or dragging ourselves up their
+precipitous sides. The old gentleman halted frequently to rest, and showed
+evident signs of weariness. "It is hard; we must take it slowly," he would
+say (in German) whenever our impatience would get the better of our
+prudence. At seven o'clock we reached a point about 13,500 feet, beyond
+which there seemed to be nothing but the snow-covered slope, with only a
+few projecting rocks along the edge of a tremendous gorge which now broke
+upon our astonished gaze. Toward this we directed our course, and, an hour
+later, stood upon its very verge. Our venerable companion now looked up at
+the precipitous slope above us, where only some stray, projecting rocks
+were left to guide us through the wilderness of snow. "Boys," said he,
+despondently, "I cannot reach the top; I have not rested during the night,
+and I am now falling asleep on my feet; besides, I am very much fatigued."
+This came almost like a sob from a breaking heart. Although the old
+gentleman was opposed to the ascent in the first instance, his old Alpine
+spirit arose within him with all its former vigor when once he had started
+up the mountain slope; and now, when almost in sight of the very goal, his
+strength began to fail him. After much persuasion and encouragement, he
+finally said that if he could get half an hour's rest and sleep, he
+thought he would be able to continue. We then wrapped him up in his
+greatcoat, and dug out a comfortable bed in the snow, while one of us sat
+down, with back against him, to keep him from rolling down the
+mountain-side.
+
+  [Illustration: NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.]
+
+We were now on the chasm's brink, looking down into its unfathomable
+depths. This gigantic rent, hundreds of feet in width and thousands in
+depth, indicates that northwest-southeast line along which the volcanic
+forces of Ararat have acted most powerfully. This fissure is perhaps the
+greatest with which the mountain is seamed, and out of which has
+undoubtedly been discharged a great portion of its lava. Starting from the
+base of the dome, it seemed to pierce the shifting clouds to a point about
+500 feet from the summit. This line is continued out into the plain in a
+series of small volcanoes the craters of which appear to be as perfect as
+though they had been in activity only yesterday. The solid red and yellow
+rocks which lined the sides of the great chasm projected above the
+opposite brink in jagged and appalling cliffs. The whole was incased in a
+mass of huge fantastic icicles, which, glittering in the sunlight, gave it
+the appearance of a natural crystal palace. No more fitting place than
+this could the fancy of the Kurds depict for the home of the terrible
+jinn; no better symbol of nature for the awful jaws of death.
+
+Our companion now awoke considerably refreshed, and the ascent was
+continued close to the chasm's brink. Here were the only rocks to be seen
+in the vast snow-bed around us. Cautiously we proceed, with cat-like
+tread, following directly in one another's footsteps, and holding on to
+our alpenstocks like grim death. A loosened rock would start at first
+slowly, gain momentum, and fairly fly. Striking against some projecting
+ledge, it would bound a hundred feet or more into the air, and then drop
+out of sight among the clouds below. Every few moments we would stop to
+rest; our knees were like lead, and the high altitude made breathing
+difficult. Now the trail of rocks led us within two feet of the chasm's
+edge; we approached it cautiously, probing well for a rock foundation, and
+gazing with dizzy heads into the abyss.
+
+The slope became steeper and steeper, until it abutted in an almost
+precipitous cliff coated with snow and glistening ice. There was no escape
+from it, for all around the snow-beds were too steep and slippery to
+venture an ascent upon them. Cutting steps with our ice-picks, and
+half-crawling, half-dragging ourselves, with the alpenstocks hooked into
+the rocks above, we scaled its height, and advanced to the next abutment.
+Now a cloud, as warm as exhausted steam, enveloped us in the midst of this
+ice and snow. When it cleared away, the sun was reflected with intenser
+brightness. Our faces were already smarting with blisters, and our dark
+glasses afforded but little protection to our aching eyes.
+
+At 11 A. M. we sat down on the snow to eat our last morsel of food. The
+cold chicken and bread tasted like sawdust, for we had no saliva with
+which to masticate them. Our single bottle of tea had given out, and we
+suffered with thirst for several hours. Again the word to start was given.
+We rose at once, but our stiffened legs quivered beneath us, and we leaned
+on our alpenstocks for support. Still we plodded on for two more weary
+hours, cutting our steps in the icy cliffs, or sinking to our thighs in
+the treacherous snow-beds. We could see that we were nearing the top of
+the great chasm, for the clouds, now entirely cleared away, left our view
+unobstructed. We could even descry the black Kurdish tents upon the
+northeast slope, and, far below, the Aras River, like a streak of silver,
+threading its way into the purple distance. The atmosphere about us grew
+colder, and we buttoned up our now too scanty garments. We must be nearing
+the top, we thought, and yet we were not certain, for a huge, precipitous
+cliff, just in front of us, cut off the view.
+
+"Slowly, slowly," feebly shouted the old gentleman, as we began the attack
+on its precipitous sides, now stopping to brush away the treacherous snow,
+or to cut some steps in the solid ice. We pushed and pulled one another
+almost to the top, and then, with one more desperate effort, we stood upon
+a vast and gradually sloping snow-bed. Down we plunged above our knees
+through the yielding surface, and staggered and fell with failing
+strength; then rose once more and plodded on, until at last we sank
+exhausted upon the top of Ararat.
+
+For a moment only we lay gasping for breath; then a full realization of
+our situation dawned upon us, and fanned the few faint sparks of
+enthusiasm that remained in our exhausted bodies. We unfurled upon an
+alpenstock the small silk American flag that we had brought from home, and
+for the first time the "stars and stripes" was given to the breeze on the
+Mountain of the Ark. Four shots fired from our revolvers in commemoration
+of Independence Day broke the stillness of the gorges. Far above the
+clouds, which were rolling below us over three of the most absolute
+monarchies in the world, was celebrated in our simple way a great event of
+republicanism.
+
+Mount Ararat, it will be observed from the accompanying sketch, has two
+tops, a few hundred yards apart, sloping, on the eastern and western
+extremities, into rather prominent abutments, and separated by a snow
+valley, or depression, from 50 to 100 feet in depth. The eastern top, on
+which we were standing, was quite extensive, and 30 to 40 feet lower than
+its western neighbor. Both tops are hummocks on the huge dome of Ararat,
+like the humps on the back of a camel, on neither one of which is there a
+vestige of anything but snow.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT--FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY
+  SALUTE.]
+
+There remained just as little trace of the crosses left by Parrot and
+Chodzko, as of the ark itself. We remembered the pictures we had seen in
+our nursery-books, which represented this mountain-top covered with green
+grass, and Noah stepping out of the ark, in the bright, warm sunshine,
+before the receding waves; and now we looked around and saw this very spot
+covered with perpetual snow. Nor did we see any evidence whatever of a
+former existing crater, except perhaps the snow-filled depression we have
+just mentioned. There was nothing about this perpetual snow-field, and the
+freezing atmosphere that was chilling us to the bone, to remind us that we
+were on the top of an extinct volcano that once trembled with the
+convulsions of subterranean heat.
+
+The view from this towering height was immeasurably extensive, and almost
+too grand. All detail was lost--all color, all outline; even the
+surrounding mountains seemed to be but excrescent ridges of the plain.
+Then, too, we could catch only occasional glimpses, as the clouds shifted
+to and fro. At one time they opened up beneath us, and revealed the Aras
+valley with its glittering ribbon of silver at an abysmal depth below. Now
+and then we could descry the black volcanic peaks of Ali Ghez forty miles
+away to the northwest, and on the southwest the low mountains that
+obscured the town of Bayazid. Of the Caucasus, the mountains about Erzerum
+on the west, and Lake Van on the south, and even of the Caspian Sea, all
+of which are said to be in Ararat's horizon, we could see absolutely
+nothing.
+
+Had it been a clear day we could have seen not only the rival peaks of the
+Caucasus, which for so many years formed the northern wall of the
+civilized world, but, far to the south, we might have descried the
+mountains of Quardu land, where Chaldean legend has placed the landing of
+the ark. We might have gazed, in philosophic mood, over the whole of the
+Aras valley, which for 3000 years or more has been the scene of so much
+misery and conflict. As monuments of two extreme events in this historic
+period, two spots might have attracted our attention--one right below us,
+the ruins of Artaxata, which, according to tradition, was built, as the
+story goes, after the plans of the roving conqueror Hannibal, and stormed
+by the Roman legions, A. D. 58; and farther away to the north, the modern
+fortress of Kars, which so recently reverberated with the thunders of the
+Turkish war.
+
+We were suddenly aroused by the rumbling of thunder below us. A storm was
+rolling rapidly up the southeast slope of the mountain. The atmosphere
+seemed to be boiling over the heated plain below. Higher and higher came
+the clouds, rolling and seething among the grim crags along the chasm; and
+soon we were caught in its embrace. The thermometer dropped at once below
+freezing-point, and the dense mists, driven against us by the hurricane,
+formed icicles on our blistered faces, and froze the ink in our
+fountain-pens. Our summer clothing was wholly inadequate for such an
+unexpected experience; we were chilled to the bone. To have remained where
+we were would have been jeopardizing our health, if not our lives.
+Although we could scarcely see far enough ahead to follow back on the
+track by which we had ascended, yet we were obliged to attempt it at once,
+for the storm around us was increasing every moment; we could even feel
+the charges of electricity whenever we touched the iron points of our
+alpenstocks.
+
+Carefully peering through the clouds, we managed to follow the trail we
+had made along the gradually sloping summit, to the head of the great
+chasm, which now appeared more terrible than ever. We here saw that it
+would be extremely perilous, if not actually impossible, to attempt a
+descent on the rocks along its treacherous edge in such a hurricane. The
+only alternative was to take the precipitous snow-covered slope. Planting
+our ice-hooks deep in the snow behind us, we started. At first the strong
+head wind, which on the top almost took us off our feet, somewhat checked
+our downward career, but it was not long before we attained a velocity
+that made our hair stand on end. It was a thrilling experience; we seemed
+to be sailing through the air itself, for the clouds obscured the slope
+even twenty feet below. Finally we emerged beneath them into the glare of
+the afternoon sunlight; but on we dashed for 6000 feet, leaning heavily on
+the trailing-stocks, which threw up an icy spray in our wake. We never
+once stopped until we reached the bottom of the dome, at our last night's
+camp among the rocks.
+
+In less than an hour we had dashed down, through a distance which it had
+taken us nine and a half hours to ascend. The camp was reached at 4 P. M.,
+just twelve hours from the time we left it. Gathering up the remaining
+baggage, we hurried away to continue the descent. We must make desperate
+efforts to reach the Kurdish encampment by nightfall; for during the last
+twenty-seven hours we had had nothing to drink but half a pint of tea, and
+our thirst by this time became almost intolerable.
+
+The large snow-bed down which we had been sliding now began to show signs
+of treachery. The snow, at this low altitude, had melted out from below,
+to supply the subterranean streams, leaving only a thin crust at the
+surface. It was not long before one of our party fell into one of these
+pitfalls up to his shoulders, and floundered about for some time before he
+could extricate himself from his unexpected snow-bath.
+
+Over the rocks and boulders the descent was much slower and more tedious.
+For two hours we were thus busily engaged, when all at once a shout rang
+out in the clear evening air. Looking up we saw, sure enough, our two
+zaptiehs and muleteer on the very spot where we had left them the evening
+before. Even the two donkeys were on hand to give us a welcoming bray.
+They had come up from the encampment early in the morning, and had been
+scanning the mountain all day long to get some clue to our whereabouts.
+They reported that they had seen us at one time during the morning, and
+had then lost sight of us among the clouds. This solicitude on their part
+was no doubt prompted by the fact that they were to be held by the
+mutessarif of Bayazid as personally responsible for our safe return, and
+perhaps, too, by the hope that they might thus retrieve the good graces
+they had lost the day before, and thereby increase the amount of the
+forthcoming baksheesh. Nothing, now, was too heavy for the donkeys, and
+even the zaptiehs themselves condescended to relieve us of our
+alpenstocks.
+
+That night we sat again around the Kurdish camp-fire, surrounded by the
+same group of curious faces. It was interesting and even amusing to watch
+the bewildered astonishment that overspread their countenances as we
+related our experiences along the slope, and then upon the very top, of
+Ak-Dagh. They listened throughout with profound attention, then looked at
+one another in silence, and gravely shook their heads. They could not
+believe it. It was impossible. Old Ararat stood above us grim and terrible
+beneath the twinkling stars. To them it was, as it always will be, the
+same mysterious, untrodden height--the palace of the jinn.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   III
+
+
+                       THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND
+
+
+"It is all bosh," was the all but universal opinion of Bayazid in regard
+to our alleged ascent of Ararat. None but the Persian consul and the
+mutessarif himself deigned to profess a belief in it, and the gift of
+several letters to Persian officials, and a sumptuous dinner on the eve of
+our departure, went far toward proving their sincerity.
+
+On the morning of July 8, in company with a body-guard of zaptiehs, which
+the mutessarif forced upon us, we wheeled down from the ruined
+embattlements of Bayazid. The assembled rabble raised a lusty cheer at
+parting. An hour later we had surmounted the Kazlee Gool, and the "land of
+Iran" was before us. At our feet lay the Turco-Persian battle-plains of
+Chaldiran, spreading like a desert expanse to the parched barren hills
+beyond, and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the village
+oases. And this, then, was the land where, as the poets say, "the
+nightingale sings, and the rose-tree blossoms," and where "a flower is
+crushed at every step!" More truth, we thought, in the Scotch traveler's
+description, which divides Persia into two portions--"One desert with salt,
+and the other desert without salt." In time we came to McGregor's opinion
+as expressed in his description of Khorassan. "We should fancy," said he,
+"a small green circle round every village indicated on the map, and shade
+all the rest in brown." The mighty hosts whose onward sweep from the Indus
+westward was checked only by the Grecian phalanx upon the field of
+Marathon must have come from the scattered ruins around, which reminded us
+that "Iran was; she is no more." Those myriad ranks of Yenghiz Khan and
+Tamerlane brought death and desolation from Turan to Iran, which so often
+met to act and react upon one another that both are now only landmarks in
+the sea of oblivion.
+
+  [Illustration: HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.]
+
+Our honorary escort accompanied us several miles over the border to the
+Persian village of Killissakend, and there committed us to the hospitality
+of the district khan, with whom we managed to converse in the Turkish
+language, which, strange to say, we found available in all the countries
+that lay in our transcontinental pathway as far as the great wall of
+China. Toward evening we rode in the garden of the harem of the khan, and
+at daybreak the next morning were again in the saddle. By a very early
+start we hoped to escape the burden of excessive hospitality; in other
+words, to get rid of an escort that was an expensive nuisance. At the next
+village we were confronted by what appeared to be a shouting,
+gesticulating maniac. On dismounting, we learned that a harbinger had been
+sent by the khan, the evening before, to have a guard ready to join us as
+we passed through. In fact, two armed _ferashes_ were galloping toward us,
+armed, as we afterward learned, with American rifles, and the usual
+_kamma_, or huge dagger, swinging from a belt of cartridges. These
+fellows, like the zaptiehs, were fond of ostentation. They frequently led
+us a roundabout way to show us off to their relatives or friends in a
+neighboring village. Nature at last came to our deliverance. As we stood
+on a prominent ridge taking a last look at Mount Ararat, now more than
+fifty miles away, a storm came upon us, showering hailstones as large as
+walnuts. The ferashes with frantic steeds dashed ahead to seek a place of
+shelter, and we saw them no more.
+
+Five days in Persia brought us to the shores of Lake Ooroomeeyah, the
+saltest body of water in the world. Early the next morning we were wading
+the chilly waters of the Hadji Chai, and a few hours later found us in the
+English consulate at Tabreez, where we were received by the Persian
+secretary. The English government, it seemed, had become embroiled in a
+local love-affair just at a time when Colonel Stewart was off on
+"diplomatic duty" on the Russian Transcaspian border. An exceptionally
+bright Armenian beauty, a graduate of the American missionary schools at
+this place, had been abducted, it was claimed, by a young Kurdish
+cavalier, and carried away to his mountain home. Her father, who happened
+to be a naturalized English subject, had applied for the assistance of his
+adopted country in obtaining her release. Negotiations were at once set on
+foot between London and Teheran, which finally led to a formal demand upon
+the Kurds by the Shah himself. Upon their repeated refusal, seven thousand
+Persian troops, it was said, were ordered to Soak Boulak, under the
+command of the vice-consul, Mr. Patton. The matter at length assumed such
+an importance as to give rise, in the House of Commons, to the question,
+"Who is Katty Greenfield?" This, in time, was answered by that lady
+herself, who declared under oath that she had become a Mohammedan, and was
+in love with the man with whom she had eloped. More than this, it was
+learned that she had not a drop of English blood in her veins, her father
+being an Austrian, and her mother a native Armenian. Whereupon the Persian
+troopers, with their much disgusted leader, beat an inglorious retreat,
+leaving "Katty Greenfield" mistress of the situation, and of a Kurdish
+heart.
+
+  [Illustration: LEAVING KHOI.]
+
+In Tabreez there is one object sure to attract attention. This is the
+"Ark," or ancient fortified castle of the Persian rulers. High on one of
+the sides, which a recent earthquake has rent from top to bottom, there is
+a little porch whence these Persian "Bluebeards," or rather Redbeards,
+were wont to hurl unruly members of the harem. Under the shadow of these
+gloomy walls was enacted a tragedy of this century. Babism is by no means
+the only heresy that has sprung from the speculative genius of Persia; but
+it is the one that has most deeply moved the society of the present age,
+and the one which still obtains, though in secret and without a leader.
+Its founder, Seyd Mohammed Ali, better known as Bab, or "Gate,"
+promulgated the doctrine of anarchy to the extent of "sparing the rod and
+spoiling the child," and still worse, perhaps, of refusing to the ladies
+no finery that might be at all becoming to their person. While not a
+communist, as he has sometimes been wrongly classed, he exhorted the
+wealthy to regard themselves as only trustees of the poor. With no thought
+at first of acquiring civil power, he and his rapidly increasing following
+were driven to revolt by the persecuting mollas, and the sanguinary
+struggle of 1848 followed. Bab himself was captured, and carried to this
+"most fanatical city of Persia," the burial-place of the sons of Ali. On
+this very spot a company was ordered to despatch him with a volley; but
+when the smoke cleared away, Bab was not to be seen. None of the bullets
+had gone to the mark, and the bird had flown--but not to the safest refuge.
+Had he finally escaped, the miracle thus performed would have made Babism
+invincible. But he was recaptured and despatched, and his body thrown to
+the canine scavengers.
+
+  [Illustration: YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.]
+
+  [Illustration: LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.]
+
+_Tabreez_ (fever-dispelling) was a misnomer in our case. Our sojourn here
+was prolonged for more than a month by a slight attack of typhoid fever,
+which this time seized Sachtleben, and again the kind nursing of the
+missionary ladies hastened recovery. Our mail, in the mean time, having
+been ordered to Teheran, we were granted the privilege of intercepting it.
+For this purpose we were permitted to overhaul the various piles of
+letters strewn over the dirty floor of the distributing-office. Both the
+Turkish and Persian mail is carried in saddle-bags on the backs of
+reinless horses driven at a rapid gallop before the mounted mail-carrier
+or herdsman. Owing to the carelessness of the postal officials, legations
+and consulates employ special couriers.
+
+The proximity of Tabreez to the Russian border makes it politically, as
+well as commercially, one of the most important cities in Persia. For this
+reason it is the place of residence of the Emir-e-Nizam (leader of the
+army), or prime minister, as well as the Vali-Ahd, or Prince Imperial.
+This prince is the Russian candidate, as opposed to the English candidate,
+for the prospective vacancy on the throne. Both of these dignitaries
+invited us to visit them, and showed much interest in our "wonderful wind
+horses," of the speed of which exaggerated reports had circulated through
+the country. We were also favored with a special letter for the journey to
+the capital.
+
+On this stage we started August 15, stopping the first night at
+Turkmanchai, the little village where was signed the famous treaty of 1828
+by virtue of which the Caspian Sea became a Russian lake. The next morning
+we were on the road soon after daybreak, and on approaching the next
+village overtook a curious cavalcade, just concluding a long night's
+journey. This consisted of a Persian palanquin, with its long pole-shafts
+saddled upon the back of a mule at each end; with servants on foot, and a
+body-guard of mounted soldiers. The occupant of this peculiar conveyance
+remained concealed throughout the stampede which our sudden appearance
+occasioned among his hearse-bearing mules, for as such they will appear in
+the sequel. In our first article we mentioned an interview in London with
+Malcolm Khan, the representative of the Shah at the court of St. James.
+Since then, it seemed, he had fallen into disfavor. During the late visit
+of the Shah to England certain members of his retinue were so young, both
+in appearance and conduct, as to be a source of mortification to the
+Europeanized minister. This reached the ears of the Shah some time after
+his return home; and a summons was sent for the accused to repair to
+Teheran. Malcolm Khan, however, was too well versed in Oriental craft to
+fall into such a trap, and announced his purpose to devote his future
+leisure to airing his knowledge of Persian politics in the London press.
+The Persian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Musht-a-Shar-el-Dowlet, then
+residing at Tabreez, who was accused of carrying on a seditious
+correspondence with Malcolm Khan, was differently situated, unfortunately.
+It was during our sojourn in that city that his palatial household was
+raided by a party of soldiers, and he was carried to prison as a common
+felon. Being unable to pay the high price of pardon that was demanded, he
+was forced away, a few days before our departure, on that dreaded journey
+to the capital, which few, if any, ever complete. For on the way they are
+usually met by a messenger, who proffers them a cup of coffee, a sword,
+and a rope, from which they are to choose the method of their doom. This,
+then, was the occupant of the mysterious palanquin, which now was opened
+as we drew up before the village caravansary. Out stepped a man, tall and
+portly, with beard and hair of venerable gray. His keen eye, clear-cut
+features, and dignified bearing, bespoke for him respect even in his
+downfall, while his stooped shoulders and haggard countenance betrayed the
+weight of sorrow and sleepless nights with which he was going to his tomb.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN
+  DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH.]
+
+At Miana, that town made infamous by its venomous insect, is located one
+of the storage-stations of the Indo-European Telegraph Company. Its
+straight lines of iron poles, which we followed very closely from Tabreez
+to Teheran, form only a link in that great wire and cable chain which
+connects Melbourne with London. We spent the following night in the German
+operator's room.
+
+The weakness of the Persian for mendacity is proverbial. One instance of
+this national weakness was attended with considerable inconvenience to us.
+By some mischance we had run by the village where we intended to stop for
+the night, which was situated some distance off the road. Meeting a
+Persian lad, we inquired the distance. He was ready at once with a
+cheerful falsehood. "One farsak" (four miles), he replied, although he
+must have known at the time that the village was already behind us. On we
+pedaled at an increased rate, in order to precede, if possible, the
+approaching darkness; for although traditionally the land of a double
+dawn, Persia has only one twilight, and that closely merged into sunset
+and darkness. One, two farsaks were placed behind us, and still there was
+no sign of a human habitation. At length darkness fell; we were obliged to
+dismount to feel our way. By the gradually rising ground, and the rocks,
+we knew we were off the road. Dropping our wheels, we groped round on
+hands and knees, to find, if possible, some trace of water. With a burning
+thirst, a chilling atmosphere, and swarms of mosquitos biting through our
+clothing, we could not sleep. A slight drizzle began to descend. During
+our gloomy vigil we were glad to hear the sounds of a caravan, toward
+which we groped our way, discerning, at length, a long line of camels
+marching to the music of their lantern-bearing leader. When our
+nickel-plated bars and white helmets flashed in the lantern-light, there
+was a shriek, and the lantern fell to the ground. The rear-guard rushed to
+the front with drawn weapons; but even they started back at the sound of
+our voices, as we attempted in broken Turkish to reassure them.
+Explanations were made, and the camels soon quieted. Thereupon we were
+surrounded with lanterns and firebrands, while the remainder of the
+caravan party was called to the front. Finally we moved on, walking side
+by side with the lantern-bearing leader, who ran ahead now and then to
+make sure of the road. The night was the blackest we had ever seen.
+Suddenly one of the camels disappeared in a ditch, and rolled over with a
+groan. Fortunately, no bones were broken, and the load was replaced. But
+we were off the road, and a search was begun with lights to find the
+beaten path. Footsore and hungry, with an almost intolerable thirst, we
+trudged along till morning, to the ding-dong, ding-dong of the deep-toned
+camel-bells. Finally we reached a sluggish river, but did not dare to
+satisfy our thirst, except by washing out our mouths, and by taking
+occasional swallows, with long intervals of rest, in one of which we fell
+asleep from sheer exhaustion. When we awoke the midday sun was shining,
+and a party of Persian travelers was bending over us.
+
+From the high lands of Azerbeidjan, where, strange to say, nearly all
+Persian pestilences arise, we dropped suddenly into the Kasveen plain, a
+portion of that triangular, dried-up basin of the Persian Mediterranean,
+now for the most part a sandy, saline desert. The argillaceous dust
+accumulated on the Kasveen plain by the weathering of the surrounding
+uplands resembles in appearance the "yellow earth" of the Hoang Ho
+district in China, but remains sterile for the lack of water. Even the
+little moisture that obtains beneath the surface is sapped by the
+_kanots_, or underground canals, which bring to the fevered lips of the
+desert oases the fresh, cool springs of the Elburz. These are dug with
+unerring instinct, and preserved with jealous care by means of shafts or
+slanting wells dug at regular intervals across the plain. Into these we
+would occasionally descend to relieve our reflection-burned--or, as a
+Persian would say, "snow-burned"--faces, while the thermometer above stood
+at 120� in the shade.
+
+Over the level ninety-mile stretch between Kasveen and the capital a
+so-called carriage-road has recently been constructed close to the base of
+the mountain. A sudden turn round a mountain-spur, and before us was
+presented to view Mount Demavend and Teheran. Soon the paved streets,
+sidewalks, lamp-posts, street-railways, and even steam-tramway, of the
+half modern capital were as much of a surprise to us as our "wind horses"
+were to the curious crowds that escorted us to the French Hotel.
+
+  [Illustration: A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.]
+
+From Persia it was our plan to enter Russian central Asia, and thence to
+proceed to China or Siberia. To enter the Transcaspian territory, the
+border-province of the Russian possessions, the sanction of its governor,
+General Kuropatkine, would be quite sufficient; but for the rest of the
+journey through Turkestan the Russian minister in Teheran said we would
+have to await a general permission from St. Petersburg. Six weeks were
+spent with our English and American acquaintances, and still no answer was
+received. Winter was coming on, and something had to be done at once. If
+we were to be debarred from a northern route, we would have to attempt a
+passage into India either through Afghanistan, which we were assured by
+all was quite impossible, or across the deserts of southern Persia and
+Baluchistan. For this latter we had already obtained a possible route from
+the noted traveler, Colonel Stewart, whom we met on his way back to his
+consular post at Tabreez. But just at this juncture the Russian minister
+advised another plan. In order to save time, he said, we might proceed to
+Meshed at once, and if our permission was not telegraphed to us at that
+point, we could then turn south to Baluchistan as a last resort. This, our
+friends unanimously declared, was a Muscovite trick to evade an absolute
+refusal. The Russians, they assured us, would never permit a foreign
+inspection of their doings on the Afghan border; and furthermore, we would
+never be able to cross the uninhabited deserts of Baluchistan. Against all
+protest, we waved "farewell" to the foreign and native throng which had
+assembled to see us off, and on October 5 wheeled out of the fortified
+square on the "Pilgrim Road to Meshed."
+
+Before us now lay six hundred miles of barren hills, swampy _kevirs_,
+brier-covered wastes, and salty deserts, with here and there some
+kanot-fed oases. To the south lay the lifeless desert of Luth, the
+"Persian Sahara," the humidity of which is the lowest yet recorded on the
+face of the globe, and compared with which "the Gobi of China and the
+Kizil-Kum of central Asia are fertile regions." It is our extended and
+rather unique experience on the former of these two that prompts us to
+refrain from further description of desert travel here, where the
+hardships were in a measure ameliorated by frequent stations, and by the
+use of cucumbers and pomegranates, both of which we carried with us on the
+long desert stretches. Melons, too, the finest we have ever seen in any
+land, frequently obviated the necessity of drinking the strongly brackish
+water.
+
+  [Illustration: LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.]
+
+Yet this experience was sufficient to impress us with the fact that the
+national poets, Hafiz and Sadi, like Thomas Moore, have sought in fancy
+what the land of Iran denied them. Those "spicy groves, echoing with the
+nightingale's song," those "rosy bowers and purling brooks," on the whole
+exist, so far as our experience goes, only in the poet's dream.
+
+Leaving on the right the sand-swept ruins of Veramin, that capital of
+Persia before Teheran was even thought of, we traversed the pass of
+Sir-Dara, identified by some as the famous "Caspian Gate," and early in
+the evening entered the village of Aradan. The usual crowd hemmed us in on
+all sides, yelling, "Min, min!" ("Ride, ride!"), which took the place of
+the Turkish refrain of "Bin, bin!" As we rode toward the caravansary they
+shouted, "Faster, faster!" and when we began to distance them, they caught
+at the rear wheels, and sent a shower of stones after us, denting our
+helmets, and bruising our coatless backs. This was too much; we dismounted
+and exhibited the ability to defend ourselves, whereupon they tumbled over
+one another in their haste to get away. But they were at our wheels again
+before we reached the caravansary. Here they surged through the narrow
+gangway, and knocked over the fruit-stands of the bazaars.
+
+We were shown to a room, or windowless cell, in the honeycomb structure
+that surrounded an open quadrangular court, at the time filled with a
+caravan of pilgrims, carrying triangular white and black flags, with the
+Persian coat of arms, the same we have seen over many doorways in Persia
+as warnings of the danger of trespassing upon the religious services held
+within. The cadaverous stench revealed the presence of half-dried human
+bones being carried by relatives and friends for interment in the sacred
+"City of the Silent." Thus dead bodies, in loosely nailed boxes, are
+always traveling from one end of Persia to the other. Among the pilgrims
+were blue and green turbaned Saids, direct descendants of the Prophet, as
+well as white-turbaned mollas. All were sitting about on the _sakoo_, or
+raised platform, just finishing the evening meal. But presently one of the
+mollas ascended the mound in the middle of the stable-yard, and in the
+manner of the muezzin called to prayer. All kneeled, and bowed their heads
+toward Mecca. Then the horses were saddled, the long, narrow boxes
+attached upright to the pack-mules, and the _kajacas_, or double boxes,
+adjusted on the backs of the horses of the ladies. Into these the veiled
+creatures entered, and drew the curtains, while the men leaped into the
+saddle at a signal, and, with the tri-cornered flag at their head, the
+cavalcade moved out on its long night pilgrimage. We now learned that the
+village contained a _chappar khan_, one of those places of rest which have
+recently been provided for the use of foreigners and others, who travel
+_chappar_, or by relays of post-horses. These structures are usually
+distinguished by a single room built on the roof, and projecting some
+distance over the eaves.
+
+  [Illustration: IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.]
+
+To this we repaired at once. Its keeper evinced unusual pride in the
+cleanliness of his apartments, for we were asked to take off our shoes
+before entering. But while our boastful host was kicking up the mats to
+convince us of the truth of his assertions, he suddenly retired behind the
+scenes to rid himself of some of the pests.
+
+  [Illustration: PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.]
+
+Throughout our Asiatic tour eggs were our chief means of subsistence, but
+_pillao_, or boiled rice flavored with grease, we found more particularly
+used in Persia, like _yaourt_ in Turkey. This was prepared with chicken
+whenever it was possible to purchase a fowl, and then we would usually
+make the discovery that a Persian fowl was either wingless, legless, or
+otherwise defective after being prepared by a Persian _fuzul_, or
+foreigner's servant, who, it is said, "shrinks from no baseness in order
+to eat." Though minus these particular appendages, it would invariably
+have a head; for the fanatical Shiah frequently snatched a chicken out of
+our hands to prevent us from wringing or chopping its head off. Even after
+our meal was served, we would keep a sharp lookout upon the unblushing
+pilferers around us, who had called to pay their respects, and to fill the
+room with clouds of smoke from their chibouks and gurgling kalians. For a
+fanatical Shiah will sometimes stick his dirty fingers into the dishes of
+an "unbeliever," even though he may subsequently throw away the
+contaminated vessel. And this extreme fanaticism is to be found in a
+country noted for its extensive latitude in the profession of religious
+beliefs.
+
+  [Illustration: A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.]
+
+A present from the village khan was announced. In stepped two men bearing
+a huge tray filled with melons, apricots, sugar, rock-candy, nuts,
+pistachios, etc., all of which we must, of course, turn over to the
+khan-keeper and his servants, and pay double their value to the bearers,
+as a present. This polite method of extortion was followed the next
+morning by one of a bolder and more peremptory nature. Notwithstanding the
+feast of the night before at our expense, and in addition to furnishing us
+with bedclothes which we really ought to have been paid to sleep in, our
+oily host now insisted upon three or four prices for his lodgings. We
+refused to pay him more than a certain sum, and started to vacate the
+premises. Thereupon he and his grown son caught hold of our bicycles.
+Remonstrances proving of no avail, and being unable to force our passage
+through the narrow doorway with the bicycles in our hands, we dropped
+them, and grappled with our antagonists. A noisy scuffle, and then a heavy
+fall ensued, but luckily we were both on the upper side. This unusual
+disturbance now brought out the inmates of the adjoining _anderoon_. In a
+moment there was a din of feminine screams, and a flutter of garments, and
+then--a crashing of our pith helmets beneath the blows of pokers and
+andirons. The villagers, thus aroused, came at last to our rescue, and at
+once proceeded to patch up a compromise. This, in view of the Amazonian
+reinforcements, who were standing by in readiness for a second onset, we
+were more than pleased to accept. From this inglorious combat we came off
+without serious injury; but with those gentle poker taps were knocked out
+forever all the sweet delusions of the "Light of the Harem."
+
+The great antiquity of this Teheran-Meshed road, which is undoubtedly a
+section of that former commercial highway between two of the most ancient
+capitals in history--Nineveh and Balk, is very graphically shown by the
+caravan ruts at Lasgird. These have been worn in many places to a depth of
+four feet in the solid rock. It was not far beyond this point that we
+began to feel the force of that famous "Damghan wind," so called from the
+city of that name. Of course this wind was against us. In fact, throughout
+our Asiatic tour easterly winds prevailed; and should we ever attempt
+another transcontinental spin we would have a care to travel in the
+opposite direction.
+
+  [Illustration: CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.]
+
+Our peculiar mode of travel subjected us to great extremes in our mode of
+living. Sometimes, indeed, it was a change almost from the sublime to the
+ridiculous, and vice versa--from a stable or sheepfold, with a diet of figs
+and bread, and an irrigating-ditch for a lavatory, to a palace itself, an
+Oriental palace, with all the delicacies of the East, and a host of
+servants to attend to our slightest wish. So it was at Bostam, the
+residence of one of Persia's most influential _hakims_, or governors,
+literally, "pillars of state," who was also a cousin to the Shah himself.
+This potentate we visited in company with an English engineer whom we met
+in transit at Sharoud. It was on the evening before, when at supper with
+this gentleman in his tent, that a special messenger arrived from the
+governor, requesting us, as the invitation ran, "to take our brightness
+into his presence." As we entered, the governor rose from his seat on the
+floor, a courtesy never shown us by a Turkish official. Even the politest
+of them would, just at this particular moment, be conveniently engrossed
+in the examination of some book or paper. His courtesy was further
+extended by locking up our "horses," and making us his "prisoners" until
+the following morning. At the dinner which Mr. Evans and we were invited
+to eat with his excellency, benches had to be especially prepared, as
+there was nothing like a chair to be found on the premises. The governor
+himself took his accustomed position on the floor, with his own private
+dishes around him. From these he would occasionally fish out with his
+fingers some choice lamb _kebabh_ or cabbage _dolmah_, and have it passed
+over to his guests--an act which is considered one of the highest forms of
+Persian hospitality.
+
+With a shifting of the scenes of travel, we stood at sunset on the summit
+of the Binalud mountains, overlooking the valley of the Kashafrud. Our two
+weeks' journey was almost ended, for the city of Meshed was now in view,
+ten miles away. Around us were piles of little stones, to which each pious
+pilgrim adds his quota when first he sees the "Holy Shrine," which we
+beheld shining like a ball of fire in the glow of the setting sun.
+
+  [Illustration: PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.]
+
+While we were building our pyramid a party of returning pilgrims greeted
+us with "Meshedi at last." "Not yet," we answered, for we knew that the
+gates of the Holy City closed promptly at twilight. Yet we determined to
+make the attempt. On we sped, but not with the speed of the falling night.
+Dusk overtook us as we reached the plain. A moving form was revealed to us
+on the bank of the irrigating-canal which skirted the edge of the road.
+Backward it fell as we dashed by, and then the sound of a splash and
+splutter reached us as we disappeared in the darkness. On the morrow we
+learned that the spirits of Hassan and Hussein were seen skimming the
+earth in their flight toward the Holy City. We reached the bridge, and
+crossed the moat, but the gates were closed. We knocked and pounded, but a
+hollow echo was our only response. At last the light of a lantern
+illumined the crevices in the weather-beaten doors, and a weird-looking
+face appeared through the midway opening. "Who's there?" said a voice,
+whose sepulchral tones might have belonged to the sexton of the Holy Tomb.
+"We are _Ferenghis_," we said, "and must get into the city to-night."
+"That is impossible," he answered, "for the gates are locked, and the keys
+have been sent away to the governor's palace." With this the night air
+grew more chill. But another thought struck us at once. We would send a
+note to General McLean, the English consul-general, who was already
+expecting us. This our interlocutor, for a certain _inam_, or Persian
+bakshish, at length agreed to deliver. The general, as we afterward
+learned, sent a servant with a special request to the governor's palace.
+Here, without delay, a squad of horsemen was detailed, and ordered with
+the keys to the "Herat Gate." The crowds in the streets, attracted by this
+unusual turnout at this unusual hour, followed in their wake to the scene
+of disturbance. There was a click of locks, the clanking of chains, and
+the creaking of rusty hinges. The great doors swung open, and a crowd of
+expectant faces received us in the Holy City.
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.]
+
+Meshed claims our attention chiefly for its famous dead. In its sacred
+dust lie buried our old hero Haroun al Raschid, Firdousi, Persia's
+greatest epic poet, and the holy Imaum Riza, within whose shrine every
+criminal may take refuge from even the Shah himself until the payment of a
+blood-tax, or a debtor until the giving of a guarantee for debt. No
+infidel can enter there.
+
+  [Illustration: FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.]
+
+Meshed was the pivotal point upon which our wheel of fortune was to turn.
+We were filled with no little anxiety, therefore, when, on the day after
+our arrival, we received an invitation to call at the Russian
+consulate-general. With great ceremony we were ushered into a suite of
+elegantly furnished rooms, and received by the consul-general and his
+English wife in full dress. Madame de Vlassow was radiant with smiles as
+she served us tea by the side of her steaming silver samovar. She could
+not wait for the circumlocution of diplomacy, but said: "It is all right,
+gentlemen. General Kuropatkine has just telegraphed permission for you to
+proceed to Askabad." This precipitate remark evidently disconcerted the
+consul, who could only nod his head and say, "_Oui, oui_," in affirmation.
+This news lifted a heavy load from our minds; our desert journey of six
+hundred miles, therefore, had not been made in vain, and the prospect
+brightened for a trip through the heart of Asia.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.]
+
+Between the rival hospitality of the Russian and English consulates our
+health was now in jeopardy from excess of kindness. Among other social
+attentions, we received an invitation from Sahib Devan, the governor of
+Khorassan, who next to the Shah is the richest man in Persia. Although
+seventy-six years of age, on the day of our visit to his palace he was
+literally covered with diamonds and precious stones. With the photographer
+to the Shah as German interpreter, we spent half an hour in an interesting
+conversation. Among other topics he mentioned the receipt, a few days
+before, of a peculiar telegram from the Shah: "Cut off the head of any one
+who attempts opposition to the Tobacco Regie"; and this was followed a few
+days after by the inquiry, "How many heads have you taken?" A retinue of
+about three hundred courtiers followed the governor as he walked out with
+feeble steps to the parade-ground. Here a company of Persian cavalry was
+detailed to clear the field for the "wonderful steel horses," which, as
+was said, had come from the capital in two days, a distance of six hundred
+miles. The governors extreme pleasure was afterward expressed in a special
+letter for our journey to the frontier.
+
+  [Illustration: WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.]
+
+  [Illustration: GIVING A "SILENT PILGRIM" A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.]
+
+The military road now completed between Askabad and Meshed reveals the
+extreme weakness of Persia's defense against Russian aggression. Elated by
+her recent successes in the matter of a Russian consul at Meshed, Russia
+has very forcibly invited Persia to construct more than half of a road
+which, in connection with the Transcaspian railway, makes Khorassan almost
+an exclusive Russian market, and opens Persia's richest province to
+Russia's troops and cannon on the prospective march to Herat. At this very
+writing, if the telegraph speaks the truth, the Persian border-province of
+Dereguez is another cession by what the Russians are pleased to call their
+Persian vassal. In addition to its increasing commercial traffic, this
+road is patronized by many Shiah devotees from the north, among whom are
+what the natives term the "silent pilgrims." These are large stones, or
+boulders, rolled along a few feet at a time by the passers-by toward the
+Holy City. We ourselves were employed in this pious work at the close of
+our first day's journey from Meshed when we were suddenly aroused by a
+bantering voice behind us. Looking up, we were hailed by Stagno Navarro,
+the inspector of the Persian telegraph, who was employed with his men on a
+neighboring line. With this gentleman we spent the following night in a
+telegraph station, and passed a pleasant evening chatting over the wires
+with friends in Meshed.
+
+Kuchan, our next stopping-place, lies on the almost imperceptible
+watershed which separates the Herat valley from the Caspian Sea. This
+city, only a few months ago, was entirely destroyed by a severe
+earthquake. Under date of January 28, 1894, the American press reported:
+"The bodies of ten thousand victims of the awful disaster have already
+been recovered. Fifty thousand cattle were destroyed at the same time. The
+once important and beautiful city of twenty thousand people is now only a
+scene of death, desolation, and terror."
+
+From this point to Askabad the construction of the military highway speaks
+well for Russia's engineering skill. It crosses the Kopet Dagh mountains
+over seven distinct passes in a distance of eighty miles. This we
+determined to cover, if possible, in one day, inasmuch as there was no
+intermediate stopping-place, and as we were not a little delighted by the
+idea of at last emerging from semi-barbarism into semi-civilization. At
+sunset we were scaling the fifth ridge since leaving Kuchan at daybreak,
+and a few minutes later rolled up before the Persian custom-house in the
+valley below. There was no evidence of the proximity of a Russian
+frontier, except the extraordinary size of the tea-glasses, from which we
+slaked our intolerable thirst. During the day we had had a surfeit of
+cavernous gorges and commanding pinnacles, but very little water. The only
+copious spring we were able to find was filled at the time with the
+unwashed linen of a Persian traveler, who sat by, smiling in derision, as
+we upbraided him for his disregard of the traveling public.
+
+  [Illustration: AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR
+  ASKABAD.]
+
+It was already dusk when we came in sight of the Russian custom-house, a
+tin-roofed, stone structure, contrasting strongly with the Persian mud
+hovels we had left behind. A Russian official hailed us as we shot by, but
+we could not stop on the down-grade, and, besides, darkness was too
+rapidly approaching to brook any delay. Askabad was twenty-eight miles
+away, and although wearied by an extremely hard day's work, we must sleep
+that night, if possible, in a Russian hotel. Our pace increased with the
+growing darkness until at length we were going at the rate of twelve miles
+per hour down a narrow gorge-like valley toward the seventh and last ridge
+that lay between us and the desert. At 9:30 P. M. we stood upon its
+summit, and before us stretched the sandy wastes of Kara-Kum, enshrouded
+in gloom. Thousands of feet below us the city of Askabad was ablaze with
+lights, shining like beacons on the shore of the desert sea. Strains of
+music from a Russian band stole faintly up through the darkness as we
+dismounted, and contemplated the strange scene, until the shriek of a
+locomotive-whistle startled us from our reveries. Across the desert a
+train of the Transcaspian railway was gliding smoothly along toward the
+city.
+
+  [Illustration: MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.]
+
+A hearty welcome back to civilized life was given us the next evening by
+General Kuropatkine himself, the Governor-General of Transcaspia. During
+the course of a dinner with him and his friends, he kindly assured us that
+no further recommendation was needed than the fact that we were American
+citizens to entitle us to travel from one end of the Russian empire to the
+other.
+
+From Askabad to Samarkand there was a break in the continuity of our
+bicycle journey. Our Russian friends persuaded us to take advantage of the
+Transcaspian railway, and not to hazard a journey across the dreaded
+Kara-Kum sands. Such a journey, made upon the railroad track, where water
+and food were obtainable at regular intervals, would have entailed only a
+small part of the hardships incurred on the deserts in China, yet we were
+more than anxious to reach, before the advent of winter, a point whence we
+could be assured of reaching the Pacific during the following season.
+Through the kindness of the railway authorities at Bokhara station our car
+was side-tracked to enable us to visit, ten miles away, that ancient city
+of the East. On November 6 we reached Samarkand, the ancient capital of
+Tamerlane, and the present terminus of the Transcaspian railway.
+
+  [Illustration: CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.]
+
+  [Illustration: A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A
+  COLLEGE.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IV
+
+
+                   THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA
+
+
+On the morning of November 16 we took a last look at the blue domes and
+minarets of Samarkand, intermingled with the ruins of palaces and tombs,
+and then wheeled away toward the banks of the Zerafshan. Our four days'
+journey of 180 miles along the regular Russian post-road was attended with
+only the usual vicissitudes of ordinary travel. Wading in our Russian
+top-boots through the treacherous fords of the "Snake" defile, we passed
+the pyramidal slate rock known as the "Gate of Tamerlane," and emerged
+upon a strip of the Kizil-Kum steppe, stretching hence in painful monotony
+to the bank of the Sir Daria river. This we crossed by a rude rope-ferry,
+filled at the time with a passing caravan, and then began at once to
+ascend the valley of the Tchirtchick toward Tashkend. The blackened cotton
+which the natives were gathering from the fields, the lowering snow-line
+on the mountains, the muddy roads, the chilling atmosphere, and the
+falling leaves of the giant poplars--all warned us of the approach of
+winter.
+
+We had hoped at least to reach Vernoye, a provincial capital near the
+converging point of the Turkestan, Siberian, and Chinese boundaries,
+whence we could continue, on the opening of the following spring, either
+through Siberia or across the Chinese empire. But in this we were doomed
+to disappointment. The delay on the part of the Russian authorities in
+granting us permission to enter Transcaspia had postponed at least a month
+our arrival in Tashkend, and now, owing to the early advent of the rainy
+season, the roads leading north were almost impassable even for the native
+carts. This fact, together with the reports of heavy snowfalls beyond the
+Alexandrovski mountains, on the road to Vernoye, lent a rather cogent
+influence to the persuasions of our friends to spend the winter among
+them.
+
+  [Illustration: A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.]
+
+Then, too, such a plan, we thought, might not be unproductive of future
+advantages. Thus far we had been journeying through Russian territory
+without a passport. We had no authorization except the telegram to "come
+on," received from General Kuropatkine at Askabad, and the verbal
+permission of Count Rosterzsoff at Samarkand to proceed to Tashkend.
+Furthermore, the passport for which we had just applied to Baron Wrevsky,
+the Governor-General of Turkestan, would be available only as far as the
+border of Siberia, where we should have to apply to the various
+governors-general along our course to the Pacific, in case we should find
+the route across the Chinese empire impracticable. A general permission to
+travel from Tashkend to the Pacific coast, through southern Siberia, could
+be obtained from St. Petersburg only, and that only through the chief
+executive of the province through which we were passing.
+
+Permission to enter Turkestan is by no means easily obtained, as is well
+understood by the student of Russian policy in central Asia. We were not a
+little surprised, therefore, when our request to spend the winter in its
+capital was graciously granted by Baron Wrevsky, as well as the privilege
+for one of us to return in the mean time to London. This we had determined
+on, in order to secure some much-needed bicycle supplies, and to complete
+other arrangements for the success of our enterprise. By lot the return
+trip fell to Sachtleben. Proceeding by the Transcaspian and Transcaucasus
+railroads, the Caspian and Black seas, to Constantinople, and thence by
+the "overland express" to Belgrade, Vienna, Frankfort, and Calais, he was
+able to reach London in sixteen days.
+
+Tashkend, though nearly in the same latitude as New York, is so protected
+by the Alexandrovski mountains from the Siberian blizzards and the
+scorching winds of the Kara-Kum desert as to have an even more moderate
+climate. A tributary of the Tchirtchick river forms the line of
+demarcation between the native and the European portions of the city,
+although the population of the latter is by no means devoid of a native
+element. Both together cover an area as extensive as Paris, though the
+population is only 120,000, of which 100,000 are congregated in the
+native, or Sart, quarter. There is a floating element of Kashgarians,
+Bokhariots, Persians, and Afghans, and a resident majority of Kirghiz,
+Tatars, Jews, Hindus, gypsies, and Sarts, the latter being a generic title
+for the urban, as distinguished from the nomad, people.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.]
+
+Our winter quarters were obtained at the home of a typical Russian family,
+in company with a young reserve officer. He, having finished his
+university career and time of military service, was engaged in Tashkend in
+the interest of his father, a wholesale merchant in Moscow. With him we
+were able to converse either in French or German, both of which languages
+he could speak more purely than his native Russian. Our good-natured,
+corpulent host had emigrated, in the pioneer days, from the steppes of
+southern Russia, and had grown wealthy through the "unearned increment."
+
+The Russian samovar is the characteristic feature of the Russian
+household. Besides a big bowl of cabbage soup at every meal, our Russian
+host would start in with a half-tumbler of vodka, dispose of a bottle of
+beer in the intervals, and then top off with two or three glasses of tea.
+The mistress of the household, being limited in her beverages to tea and
+soup, would usually make up in quantity what was lacking in variety. In
+fact, one day she informed us that she had not imbibed a drop of water for
+over six years. For this, however, there is a very plausible excuse. With
+the water at Tashkend, as with that from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, a
+dangerous worm called _reshta_ is absorbed into the system. Nowhere have
+we drunk better tea than around the steaming samovar of our Tashkend host.
+No peasant is too poor, either in money or in sentiment, to buy and feel
+the cheering influence of tea. Even the Cossack, in his forays into the
+wilds of central Asia, is sustained by it. Unlike the Chinese, the
+Russians consider sugar a necessary concomitant of tea-drinking. There are
+three methods of sweetening tea: to put the sugar in the glass; to place a
+lump of sugar in the mouth, and suck the tea through it; to hang a lump in
+the midst of a tea-drinking circle, to be swung around for each in turn to
+touch with his tongue, and then to take a swallow of tea.
+
+The meaning of the name Tashkend is "city of stone," but a majority of the
+houses are one-story mud structures, built low, so as to prevent any
+disastrous effects from earthquakes. The roofs are so flat and poorly
+constructed that during the rainy season a dry ceiling is rather the
+exception than the rule. Every building is covered with whitewash or white
+paint, and fronts directly on the street. There are plenty of back and
+side yards, but none in front. This is not so bad on the broad streets of
+a Russian town. In Tashkend they are exceptionally wide, with ditches on
+each side through which the water from the Tchirtchick ripples along
+beneath the double, and even quadruple, rows of poplars, acacias, and
+willows. These trees grow here with remarkable luxuriance, from a mere
+twig stuck into the ground. Although twenty years of Russian irrigation
+has given Nature a chance to rear thousands of trees on former barren
+wastes, yet wood is still comparatively scarce and dear.
+
+The administration buildings of the city are for the most part exceedingly
+plain and unpretentious. In striking contrast is the new Russian
+cathedral, the recently erected school, and a large retail store built by
+a resident Greek, all of which are fine specimens of Russian architecture.
+Among its institutions are an observatory, a museum containing an embryo
+collection of Turkestan products and antiquities, and a medical dispensary
+for the natives, where vaccination is performed by graduates of medicine
+in the Tashkend school. The rather extensive library was originally
+collected for the chancellery of the governor-general, and contains the
+best collection of works on central Asia that is to be found in the world,
+including in its scope not only books and pamphlets, but even magazines
+and newspaper articles. For amusements, the city has a theater, a small
+imitation of the opera-house at Paris; and the Military Club, which, with
+its billiards and gambling, and weekly reunions, balls, and concerts,
+though a regular feature of a Russian garrison town, is especially
+pretentious in Tashkend. In size, architecture, and appointments, the
+club-house has no equal, we were told, outside the capital and Moscow.
+
+  [Illustration: PALACE OF THE CZAR'S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.]
+
+Tashkend has long been known as a refuge for damaged reputations and
+shattered fortunes, or "the official purgatory following upon the
+emperor's displeasure." One of the finest houses of the city is occupied
+by the Grand Duke Nicholai Constantinovitch Romanoff, son of the late
+general admiral of the Russian navy, and first cousin to the Czar, who
+seems to be cheerfully resigned to his life in exile. Most of his time is
+occupied with the business of his silk-factory on the outskirts of
+Tashkend, and at his farm near Hodjent, which a certain firm in Chicago,
+at the time of our sojourn, was stocking with irrigating machinery. All of
+his bills are paid with checks drawn on his St. Petersburg trustees. His
+private life is rather unconventional and even democratic. Visitors to his
+household are particularly impressed with the beauty of his wife and the
+size of his liquor glasses. The example of the grand duke illustrates the
+sentiment in favor of industrial pursuits which is growing among the
+military classes, and even among the nobility, of Russia. The government
+itself, thanks to the severe lesson of the Crimean war, has learned that a
+great nation must stand upon a foundation of something more than
+aristocracy and nobility. To this influence is largely due the present
+growing prosperity of Tashkend, which, in military importance, is rapidly
+giving way to Askabad, "the key to Herat."
+
+That spirit of equality and fraternity which characterizes the government
+of a Russian _mir_, or village, has been carried even into central Asia.
+We have frequently seen Russian peasants and natives occupying adjoining
+apartments in the same household, while in the process of trade all
+classes seem to fraternize in an easy and even cordial manner. The same is
+true of the children, who play together indiscriminately in the street.
+Many a one of these heterogeneous groups we have watched "playing marbles"
+with the ankle-bones of sheep, and listened, with some amusement, to their
+half Russian, half native jargon. Schools are now being established to
+educate the native children in the Russian language and methods, and
+native apprentices are being taken in by Russian merchants for the same
+purpose.
+
+In Tashkend, as in every European city of the Orient, drunkenness, and
+gambling, and social laxity have followed upon the introduction of Western
+morals and culture. Jealousy and intrigue among the officers and
+functionaries are also not strange, perhaps, at so great a distance from
+headquarters, where the only avenue to distinction seems to lie through
+the public service. At the various dinner-parties and sociables given
+throughout the winter, the topic of war always met with general welcome.
+On one occasion a report was circulated that Abdurrahman Khan, the Ameer
+of Afghanistan, was lying at the point of death. Great preparations, it
+was said, were being made for an expedition over the Pamir, to establish
+on the throne the Russian candidate, Is-shah Khan from Samarkand, before
+Ayub Khan, the rival British prot�g�, could be brought from India. The
+young officers at once began to discuss their chances for promotion, and
+the number of decorations to be forthcoming from St. Petersburg. The
+social gatherings at Tashkend were more convivial than sociable.
+Acquaintances can eat and drink together with the greatest of good cheer,
+but there is very little sympathy in conversation. It was difficult for
+them to understand why we had come so far to see a country which to many
+of them was a place of exile.
+
+  [Illustration: A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE
+  "FOREIGN DEVILS."]
+
+An early spring did not mean an early departure from winter quarters.
+Impassable roads kept us anxious prisoners for a month and a half after
+the necessary papers had been secured. These included, in addition to the
+local passports, a carte-blanche permission to travel from Tashkend to
+Vladivostock through Turkestan and Siberia, a document obtained from St.
+Petersburg through the United States minister, the Hon. Charles Emory
+Smith. Of this route to the Pacific we were therefore certain, and yet,
+despite the universal opinion that a bicycle journey across the Celestial
+empire was impracticable, we had determined to continue on to the border
+line, and there to seek better information. "Don't go into China" were the
+last words of our many kind friends as we wheeled out of Tashkend on the
+seventh of May.
+
+At Chimkend our course turned abruptly from what was once the main route
+between Russia's European and Asiatic capitals, and along which De
+Lesseps, in his letter to the Czar, proposed a line of railroad to connect
+Orenburg with Samarkand, a distance about equal to that between St.
+Petersburg and Odessa, 1483 miles. This is also the keystone in that wall
+of forts which Russia gradually raised around her unruly nomads of the
+steppes, and where, according to Gortchakoff's circular of 1864, "both
+interest and reason" required her to stop; and yet at that very time
+General Tchernaieff was advancing his forces upon the present capital,
+Tashkend. Here, too, we began that journey of 1500 miles along the
+Celestial mountain range which terminated only when we scaled its summit
+beyond Barkul to descend again into the burning sands of the Desert of
+Gobi. Here runs the great historical highway between China and the West.
+
+From Auli-eta eastward we had before us about 200 miles of a vast steppe
+region. Near the mountains is a wilderness of lakes, swamps, and streams,
+which run dry in summer. This is the country of the "Thousand Springs"
+mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Huen T'sang, and where was established
+the kingdom of Black China, supposed by many to have been one of the
+kingdoms of "Prester John." But far away to our left were the white sands
+of the Ak-Kum, over which the cloudless atmosphere quivers incessantly,
+like the blasts of a furnace. Of all these deserts, occupying probably one
+half of the whole Turkestan steppe, none is more terrible than that of the
+"Golodnaya Steppe," or Steppe of Hunger, to the north of the "White Sands"
+now before us. Even in the cool of evening, it is said that the soles of
+the wayfarer's feet become scorched, and the dog accompanying him finds no
+repose till he has burrowed below the burning surface. The monotonous
+appearance of the steppe itself is only intensified in winter, when the
+snow smooths over the broken surface, and even necessitates the placing of
+mud posts at regular intervals to mark the roadway for the Kirghiz
+post-drivers. But in the spring and autumn its arid surface is clothed, as
+if by enchantment, with verdure and prairie flowers. Both flowers and
+birds are gorgeously colored. One variety, about half the size of the
+jackdaw which infests the houses of Tashkend and Samarkand, has a bright
+blue body and red wings; another, resembling our field-lark in size and
+habits, combines a pink breast with black head and wings. But already this
+springtide splendor was beginning to disappear beneath the glare of
+approaching summer. The long wagon-trains of lumber, and the occasional
+traveler's tarantass rumbling along to the discord of its _duga_ bells,
+were enveloped in a cloud of suffocating dust.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.]
+
+Now and then we would overtake a party of Russian peasants migrating from
+the famine-stricken districts of European Russia to the pioneer colonies
+along this Turkestan highway. The peculiarity of these villages is their
+extreme length, all the houses facing on the one wide street. Most of them
+are merely mud huts, others make pretensions to doors and windows, and a
+coat of whitewash. Near-by usually stands the old battered telega which
+served as a home during many months of travel over the Orenburg highway.
+It speaks well for the colonizing capacity of the Russians that they can
+be induced to come so many hundreds of miles from their native land, to
+settle in such a primitive way among the half-wild tribes of the steppes.
+As yet they do very little farming, but live, like the Kirghiz, by raising
+horses, cows, sheep, and goats, and, in addition, the Russian hog, the
+last resembling very much the wild swine of the jungles. Instead of the
+former military colonies of plundering Cossacks, who really become more
+assimilated to the Kirghiz than these to their conquerors, the _mir_, or
+communal system, is now penetrating these fertile districts, and
+systematically replacing the Mongolian culture. But the ignorance of this
+lower class of Russians is almost as noticeable as that of the natives
+themselves. As soon as we entered a village, the blacksmith left his
+anvil, the carpenter his bench, the storekeeper his counter, and the
+milkmaid her task. After our parade of the principal street, the crowd
+would gather round us at the station-house. All sorts of queries and
+ejaculations would pass among them. One would ask: "Are these gentlemen
+baptized? Are they really Christians?" On account of their extreme
+ignorance these Russian colonists are by no means able to cope with their
+German colleagues, who are given the poorest land, and yet make a better
+living.
+
+The steppe is a good place for learning patience. With the absence of
+landmarks, you seem never to be getting anywhere. It presents the
+appearance of a boundless level expanse, the very undulations of which are
+so uniform as to conceal the intervening troughs. Into these, horsemen,
+and sometimes whole caravans, mysteriously disappear. In this way we were
+often enabled to surprise a herd of gazelles grazing by the roadside. They
+would stand for a moment with necks extended, and then scamper away like a
+shot, springing on their pipe-stem limbs three or four feet into the air.
+Our average rate was about seven miles an hour, although the roads were
+sometimes so soft with dust or sand as to necessitate the laying of straw
+for a foundation. There was scarcely an hour in the day when we were not
+accompanied by from one to twenty Kirghiz horsemen, galloping behind us
+with cries of "Yakshee!" ("Good!") They were especially curious to see how
+we crossed the roadside streams. Standing on the bank, they would watch
+intently every move as we stripped and waded through with bicycles and
+clothing on our shoulders. Then they would challenge us to a race, and, if
+the road permitted, we would endeavor to reveal some of the possibilities
+of the "devil's carts." On an occasion like this occurred one of our few
+mishaps. The road was lined by the occupants of a neighboring tent
+village, who had run out to see the race. One of the Kirghiz turned
+suddenly back in the opposite direction from which he had started. The
+wheel struck him at a rate of fifteen miles per hour, lifting him off his
+feet, and hurling over the handle-bars the rider, who fell upon his left
+arm, and twisted it out of place. With the assistance of the bystanders it
+was pulled back into the socket, and bandaged up till we reached the
+nearest Russian village. Here the only physician was an old blind woman of
+the faith-cure persuasion. Her massage treatment to replace the muscles
+was really effective, and was accompanied by prayers and by signs of the
+cross, a common method of treatment among the lower class of Russians. In
+one instance a cure was supposed to be effected by writing a prayer on a
+piece of buttered bread to be eaten by the patient.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.]
+
+Being users but not patrons of the Russian post-roads, we were not legally
+entitled to the conveniences of the post-stations. Tipping alone, as we
+found on our journey from Samarkand, was not always sufficient to preclude
+a request during the night to vacate the best quarters for the
+post-traveler, especially if he happened to wear the regulation brass
+button. To secure us against this inconvenience, and to gain some special
+attention, a letter was obtained from the overseer of the Turkestan post
+and telegraph district. This proved advantageous on many occasions, and
+once, at Auli-eta, was even necessary. We were surveyed with suspicious
+glances as soon as we entered the station-house, and when we asked for
+water to lave our hands and face, we were directed to the irrigating ditch
+in the street. Our request for a better room was answered by the question,
+if the one we had was not good enough, and how long we intended to occupy
+that. Evidently our English conversation had gained for us the covert
+reputation of being English spies, and this was verified in the minds of
+our hosts when we began to ask questions about the city prisons we had
+passed on our way. To every interrogation they replied, "I don't know."
+But presto, change, on the presentation of documents! Apologies were now
+profuse, and besides tea, bread, and eggs, the usual rations of a Russian
+post-station, we were exceptionally favored with chicken soup and
+_verainyik_, the latter consisting of cheese wrapped and boiled in dough,
+and then served in butter.
+
+It has been the custom for travelers in Russia to decry the Russian
+post-station, but the fact is that an appreciation of this rather
+primitive form of accommodation depends entirely upon whether you approach
+it from a European hotel or from a Persian khan. Some are clean, while
+others are dirty. Nevertheless, it was always a welcome sight to see a
+small white building looming up in the dim horizon at the close of a long
+day's ride, and, on near approach, to observe the black and white striped
+post in front, and idle tarantasses around it. At the door would be found
+the usual crowd of Kirghiz post-drivers. After the presentation of
+documents to the _starosta_, who would hesitate at first about quartering
+our horses in the travelers' room, we would proceed at once to place our
+dust-covered heads beneath the spindle of the washing-tank. Although by
+this dripping-pan arrangement we would usually succeed in getting as much
+water down our backs as on our faces, yet we were consoled by the thought
+that too much was better than not enough, as had been the case in Turkey
+and Persia. Then we would settle down before the steaming samovar to
+meditate in solitude and quiet, while the rays of the declining sun shone
+on the gilded eikon in the corner of the room, and on the chromo-covered
+walls. When darkness fell, and the simmering music of the samovar had
+gradually died away; when the flitting swallows in the room had ceased
+their chirp, and settled down upon the rafters overhead, we ourselves
+would turn in under our fur-lined coats upon the leather-covered benches.
+
+In consequence of the first of a series of accidents to our wheels, we
+were for several days the guests of the director of the botanical gardens
+at Pishpek. As a branch of the Crown botanical gardens at St. Petersburg,
+some valuable experiments were being made here with foreign seeds and
+plants. Peaches, we were told, do not thrive, but apples, pears, cherries,
+and the various kinds of berries, grow as well as they do at home. Rye,
+however, takes three years to reach the height of one year in America.
+Through the Russians, these people have obtained high-flown ideas of
+America and Americans. We saw many chromos of American celebrities in the
+various station-houses, and the most numerous was that of Thomas A.
+Edison. His phonograph, we were told, had already made its appearance in
+Pishpek, but the natives did not seem to realize what it was. "Why," they
+said, "we have often heard better music than that." Dr. Tanner was not
+without his share of fame in this far-away country. During his fast in
+America, a similar, though not voluntary, feat was being performed here. A
+Kirghiz messenger who had been despatched into the mountains during the
+winter was lost in the snow, and remained for twenty-eight days without
+food. He was found at last, crazed by hunger. When asked what he would
+have to eat, he replied, "Everything." They foolishly gave him
+"everything," and in two days he was dead. For a long time he was called
+the "Doctor Tanner of Turkestan."
+
+  [Illustration: UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.]
+
+A divergence of seventy-five miles from the regular post-route was made in
+order to visit Lake Issik Kul, which is probably the largest lake for its
+elevation in the world, being about ten times larger than Lake Geneva, and
+at a height of 5300 feet. Its slightly brackish water, which never
+freezes, teems with several varieties of fish, many of which we helped to
+unhook from a Russian fisherman's line, and then helped to eat in his
+primitive hut near the shore. A Russian Cossack, who had just come over
+the snow-capped Ala Tau, "of the Shade," from Fort Narin, was also
+present, and from the frequent glances cast at the fisherman's daughter we
+soon discovered the object of his visit. The ascent to this lake, through
+the famous Buam Defile, or Happy Pass, afforded some of the grandest
+scenery on our route through Asia. Its seething, foaming, irresistible
+torrent needs only a large volume to make it the equal of the rapids at
+Niagara.
+
+Our return to the post-road was made by an unbeaten track over the Ala Tau
+mountains. From the Chu valley, dotted here and there with Kirghiz tent
+villages and their grazing flocks and herds, we pushed our wheels up the
+broken path, which wound like a mythical stairway far up into the
+low-hanging clouds. We trudged up one of the steepest ascents we have ever
+made with a wheel. The scenery was grand, but lonely. The wild tulips,
+pinks, and verbenas dotting the green slopes furnished the only pleasant
+diversion from our arduous labor. Just as we turned the highest summit,
+the clouds shifted for a moment, and revealed before us two Kirghiz
+horsemen. They started back in astonishment, and gazed at us as though we
+were demons of the air, until we disappeared again down the opposite and
+more gradual slope. Late in the afternoon we emerged upon the plain, but
+no post-road or station-house was in sight, as we expected; nothing but a
+few Kirghiz kibitkas among the straggling rocks, like the tents of the
+Egyptian Arabs among the fallen stones of the pyramids.
+
+  [Illustration: KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.]
+
+Toward these we now directed our course, and, in view of a rapidly
+approaching storm, asked to purchase a night's lodging. This was only too
+willingly granted in anticipation of the coming _tomasha_, or exhibition.
+The milkmaids as they went out to the rows of sheep and goats tied to the
+lines of woolen rope, and the horsemen with reinless horses to drive in
+the ranging herds, spread the news from tent to tent. By the time darkness
+fell the kibitka was filled to overflowing. We were given the seat of
+honor opposite the doorway, bolstered up with blankets and pillows. By the
+light of the fire curling its smoke upward through the central opening in
+the roof, it was interesting to note the faces of our hosts. We had never
+met a people of a more peaceful temperament, and, on the other hand, none
+more easily frightened. A dread of the evil eye is one of their
+characteristics. We had not been settled long before the _ishan_, or
+itinerant dervish, was called in to drive away the evil spirits, which the
+"devil's carts" might possibly have brought. Immediately on entering, he
+began to shrug his shoulders, and to shiver as though passing into a state
+of trance. Our dervish acquaintance was a man of more than average
+intelligence. He had traveled in India, and had even heard some one speak
+of America. This fact alone was sufficient to warrant him in posing as
+instructor for the rest of the assembly. While we were drinking tea, a
+habit they have recently adopted from the Russians, he held forth at great
+length to his audience about the _Amerik�n_.
+
+The rain now began to descend in torrents. The felt covering was drawn
+over the central opening, and propped up at one end with a pole to emit
+the clouds of smoke from the smoldering fire. This was shifted with the
+veering wind. Although a mere circular rib framework covered with white or
+brown felt, according as the occupant is rich or poor, the Kirghiz
+kibitka, or more properly _yurt_, is not as a house builded upon the sand,
+even in the fiercest storm. Its stanchness and comfort are surprising when
+we consider the rapidity with which it may be taken down and transported.
+In half an hour a whole village may vanish, emigrating northward in
+summer, and southward in winter. Many a Kirghiz cavalcade was overtaken on
+the road, with long tent-ribs and felts tied upon the backs of two-humped
+camels, for the Bactrian dromedary has not been able to endure the
+severities of these Northern climates. The men would always be mounted on
+the camels' or horses' backs, while the women would be perched on the oxen
+and bullocks, trained for the saddle and as beasts of burden. The men
+never walk; if there is any leading to be done it falls to the women. The
+constant use of the saddle has made many of the men bandy-legged, which,
+in connection with their usual obesity,--with them a mark of dignity,--gives
+them a comical appearance.
+
+After their curiosity regarding us had been partly satisfied, it was
+suggested that a sheep should be slaughtered in our honor. Neither meat
+nor bread is ever eaten by any but the rich Kirghiz. Their universal
+kumiss, corresponding to the Turkish yaourt, or coagulated milk, and other
+forms of lacteal dishes, sometimes mixed with meal, form the chief diet of
+the poor. The wife of our host, a buxom woman, who, as we had seen, could
+leap upon a horse's back as readily as a man, now entered the doorway,
+carrying a full-grown sheep by its woolly coat. This she twirled over on
+its back, and held down with her knee while the butcher artist drew a
+dagger from his belt, and held it aloft until the assembly stroked their
+scant beards, and uttered the solemn bismillah. Tired out by the day's
+ride, we fell asleep before the arrangements for the feast had been
+completed. When awakened near midnight, we found that the savory odor from
+the huge caldron on the fire had only increased the attraction and the
+crowd. The choicest bits were now selected for the guests. These consisted
+of pieces of liver, served with lumps of fat from the tail of their
+peculiarly fat-tailed sheep. As an act of the highest hospitality, our
+host dipped these into some liquid grease, and then, reaching over, placed
+them in our mouths with his fingers. It required considerable effort on
+this occasion to subject our feelings of nausea to a sense of Kirghiz
+politeness. In keeping with their characteristic generosity, every one in
+the kibitka must partake in some measure of the feast, although the women,
+who had done all the work, must be content with remnants and bones already
+picked over by the host. But this disposition to share everything was not
+without its other aspect; we also were expected to share everything with
+them. We were asked to bestow any little trinket or nick-nack exposed to
+view. Any extra nut on the machine, a handkerchief, a packet of tea, or a
+lump of sugar, excited their cupidity at once. The latter was considered a
+bonbon by the women and younger portion of the spectators. The attractive
+daughter of our host, "Kumiss John," amused herself by stealing lumps of
+sugar from our pockets. When the feast was ended, the beards were again
+stroked, the name of Allah solemnly uttered by way of thanks for the
+bounty of heaven, and then each gave utterance to his appreciation of the
+meal.
+
+Before retiring for the night, the dervish led the prayers, just as he had
+done at sunset. The praying-mats were spread, and all heads bowed toward
+Mecca. The only preparation for retiring was the spreading of blankets
+from the pile in one of the kibitkas. The Kirghiz are not in the habit of
+removing many garments for this purpose, and under the circumstances we
+found this custom a rather convenient one. Six of us turned in on the
+floor together, forming a semicircle, with our feet toward the fire.
+"Kumiss John," who was evidently the pet of the household, had a rudely
+constructed cot at the far end of the kibitka.
+
+Vernoye, the old Almati, with its broad streets, low wood and brick
+houses, and Russian sign-boards, presented a Siberian aspect. The ruins of
+its many disastrous earthquakes lying low on every hand told us at once
+the cause of its deserted thoroughfares. The terrible shocks of the year
+before our visit killed several hundred people, and a whole mountain in
+the vicinity sank. The only hope of its persistent residents is a branch
+from the Transsiberian or Transcaspian railroad, or the reannexation by
+Russia of the fertile province of Ili, to make it an indispensable depot.
+Despite these periodical calamities, Vernoye has had, and is now
+constructing, under the genius of the French architect, Paul L. Gourdet,
+some of the finest edifices to be found in central Asia. The orphan
+asylum, a magnificent three-story structure, is now being built on
+experimental lines, to test its strength against earthquake shocks.
+
+  [Illustration: FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE
+  COSSACKS.]
+
+One of the chief incidents of our pleasant sojourn was afforded by
+Governor Ivanoff. We were invited to head the procession of the Cossacks
+on their annual departure for their summer encampment in the mountains.
+After the usual religious ceremony, they filed out from the city
+parade-ground. Being unavoidably detained for a few moments, we did not
+come up until some time after the column had started. As we dashed by to
+the front with the American and Russian flags fluttering side by side from
+the handle-bars, cheer after cheer arose from the ranks, and even the
+governor and his party doffed their caps in acknowledgment. At the camp we
+were favored with a special exhibition of horsemanship. By a single twist
+of the rein the steeds would fall to the ground, and their riders crouch
+down behind them as a bulwark in battle. Then dashing forward at full
+speed, they would spring to the ground, and leap back again into the
+saddle, or, hanging by their legs, would reach over and pick up a
+handkerchief, cap, or a soldier supposed to be wounded. All these
+movements we photographed with our camera. Of the endurance of these
+Cossacks and their Kirghiz horses we had a practical test. Overtaking a
+Cossack courier in the early part of a day's journey, he became so
+interested in the velocipede, as the Russians call the bicycle, that he
+determined to see as much of it as possible. He stayed with us the whole
+day, over a distance of fifty-five miles. His chief compensation was in
+witnessing the surprise of the natives to whom he would shout across the
+fields to come and see the _tomasha_, adding in explanation that we were
+the American gentlemen who had ridden all the way from America. Our speed
+was not slow, and frequently the poor fellow would have to resort to the
+whip, or shout, "Slowly, gentlemen, my horse is tired; the town is not far
+away, it is not necessary to hurry so." The fact is that in all our
+experience we found no horse of even the famed Kirghiz or Turkoman breed
+that could travel with the same ease and rapidity as ourselves even over
+the most ordinary road.
+
+At Vernoye we began to glean practical information about China, but all
+except our genial host, M. Gourdet, counseled us against our proposed
+journey. He alone, as a traveler of experience, advised a divergence from
+the Siberian route at Altin Imell, in order to visit the Chinese city of
+Kuldja, where, as he said, with the assistance of the resident Russian
+consul we could test the validity of the Chinese passport received, as
+before mentioned, from the Chinese minister at London.
+
+A few days later we were rolling up the valley of the Ili, having crossed
+that river by the well-constructed Russian bridge at Fort Iliysk, the head
+of navigation for the boats from Lake Balkash. New faces here met our
+curious gaze. As an ethnological transition between the inhabitants of
+central Asia and the Chinese, we were now among two distinctly
+agricultural races--the Dungans and Taranchis. As the invited guests of
+these people on several occasions, we were struck with their extreme
+cleanliness, economy, and industry; but their deep-set eyes seem to
+express reckless cruelty.
+
+  [Illustration: STROLLING MUSICIANS.]
+
+The Mohammedan mosques of this people are like the Chinese pagodas in
+outward appearance, while they seem to be Chinese in half-Kirghiz
+garments. Their women, too, do not veil themselves, although they are much
+more shy than their rugged sisters of the steppes. Tenacious of their
+word, these people were also scrupulous about returning favors. Our
+exhibitions were usually rewarded by a spread of sweets and yellow Dungan
+tea. Of this we would partake beneath the shade of their well-trained
+grape-arbors, while listening to the music, or rather discord, of a
+peculiar stringed instrument played by the boys. Its bow of two parts was
+so interlaced with the strings of the instrument as to play upon two at
+every draw. Another musician usually accompanied by beating little sticks
+on a saucer.
+
+These are the people who were introduced by the Manchus to replace the
+Kalmucks in the Kuldja district, and who in 1869 so terribly avenged upon
+their masters the blood they previously caused to flow. The fertile
+province of Kuldja, with a population of 2,500,000, was reduced by their
+massacres to one vast necropolis. On all sides are canals that have become
+swamps, abandoned fields, wasted forests, and towns and villages in ruins,
+in some of which the ground is still strewn with the bleached bones of the
+murdered.
+
+As we ascended the Ili valley piles of stones marked in succession the
+sites of the towns of Turgen, Jarkend, Akkend, and Khorgos, names which
+the Russians are already reviving in their pioneer settlements. The
+largest of these, Jarkend, is the coming frontier town, to take the place
+of evacuated Kuldja. About twenty-two miles east of this point the large
+white Russian fort of Khorgos stands bristling on the bank of the river of
+that name, which, by the treaty of 1881, is now the boundary-line of the
+Celestial empire. On a ledge of rocks overlooking the ford a Russian
+sentinel was walking his beat in the solitude of a dreary outpost. He
+stopped to watch us as we plunged into the flood, with our Russian telega
+for a ferry-boat. "All's well," we heard him cry, as, bumping over the
+rocky bottom, we passed from Russia into China. "Ah, yes," we thought;
+" 'All's well that ends well,' but this is only the beginning."
+
+  [Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.]
+
+A few minutes later we dashed through the arched driveway of the Chinese
+custom-house, and were several yards away before the lounging officials
+realized what it was that flitted across their vision. "Stop! Come back!"
+they shouted in broken Russian. Amid a confusion of chattering voices,
+rustling gowns, clattering shoes, swinging pigtails, and clouds of opium
+and tobacco smoke, we were brought into the presence of the head official.
+Putting on his huge spectacles, he read aloud the vis� written upon our
+American passports by the Chinese minister in London. His wonderment was
+increased when he further read that such a journey was being made on the
+"foot-moved carriages," which were being curiously fingered by the
+attendants. Our garments were minutely scrutinized, especially the
+buttons, while our caps and dark-colored spectacles were taken from our
+heads, and passed round for each to try on in turn, amid much laughter.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.]
+
+Owing to the predominant influence of Russia in these northwestern
+confines, our Russian papers would have been quite sufficient to cross the
+border into Kuldja. It was only beyond this point that our Chinese
+passport would be found necessary, and possibly invalid. After the usual
+vis�s had been stamped and written over, we were off on what proved to be
+our six months' experience in the "Middle Kingdom or Central Empire," as
+the natives call it, for to Chinamen there is a fifth point to the
+compass--the center, which is China. Not far on the road we heard the
+clatter of hoofs behind us. A Kalmuck was dashing toward us with a
+portentous look on his features. We dismounted in apprehension. He stopped
+short some twenty feet away, leaped to the ground, and, crawling up on
+hands and knees, began to _chin-chin_ or knock his head on the ground
+before us. This he continued for some moments, and then without a word
+gazed at us in wild astonishment. Our perplexity over this performance was
+increased when, at a neighboring village, a bewildered Chinaman sprang out
+from the speechless crowd, and threw himself in the road before us. By a
+dexterous turn we missed his head, and passed over his extended queue.
+
+  [Illustration: TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA
+  INN.]
+
+Kuldja, with its Russian consul and Cossack station, still maintains a
+Russian telegraph and postal service. The mail is carried from the border
+in a train of three or four telegas, which rattle along over the primitive
+roads in a cloud of dust, with armed Cossacks galloping before and after,
+and a Russian flag carried by the herald in front. Even in the Kuldja
+post-office a heavily armed picket stands guard over the money-chest. This
+postal caravan we now overtook encamped by a small stream, during the
+glaring heat of the afternoon. We found that we had been expected several
+days before, and that quarters had been prepared for us in the postal
+station at the town of Suidun. Here we spent the night, and continued on
+to Kuldja the following morning.
+
+Although built by the Chinese, who call it Nin-yuan, Kuldja, with its
+houses of beaten earth, strongly resembles the towns of Russian Turkestan.
+Since the evacuation by the Russians the Chinese have built around the
+city the usual quadrangular wall, thirty feet in height and twenty feet in
+width, with parapets still in the course of construction. But the rows of
+poplars, the whitewash, and the telegas were still left to remind us of
+the temporary Russian occupation. For several days we were objects of
+excited interest to the mixed population. The doors and windows of our
+Russian quarters were besieged by crowds. In defense of our host, we gave
+a public exhibition, and with the consent of the _Tootai_ made the circuit
+on the top of the city walls. Fully 3000 people lined the streets and
+housetops to witness the race to which we had been challenged by four
+Dungan horsemen, riding below on the encircling roadway. The distance
+around was two miles. The horsemen started with a rush, and at the end of
+the first mile were ahead. At the third turning we overtook them, and came
+to the finish two hundred yards ahead, amid great excitement. Even the
+commander of the Kuldja forces was brushed aside by the chasing rabble.
+
+  [Illustration: A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    V
+
+
+   OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL
+
+
+Russian influence, which even now predominates at Kuldja, was forcibly
+indicated, the day after our arrival, during our investigations as to the
+validity of our Chinese passports for the journey to Peking. The Russian
+consul, whose favor we had secured in advance through letters from
+Governor Ivanoff at Vernoye, had pronounced them not only good, but by far
+the best that had been presented by any traveler entering China at this
+point. After endeavoring to dissuade us from what he called a foolhardy
+undertaking, even with the most valuable papers, he sent us, with his
+interpreter, to the Kuldja Tootai for the proper vis�.
+
+That dignitary, although deeply interested, was almost amused at the
+boldness of our enterprise. He said that no passport would insure success
+by the method we proposed to pursue; that, before he could allow us to
+make the venture, we must wait for an order from Peking. This, he said,
+would subject us to considerable delay and expense, even if the telegraph
+and post were utilized through Siberia and Kiakhta. This was discouraging
+indeed. But when we discovered, a few minutes later, that his highness had
+to call in the learned secretary to trace our proposed route for him on
+the map of China, and even to locate the capital, Peking, we began to
+question his knowledge of Chinese diplomacy. The matter was again referred
+to the consul, who reported back the following day that his previous
+assurances were reliable, that the Tootai would make the necessary vis�s,
+and send away at once, by the regular relay post across the empire, an
+open letter that could be read by the officials along the route, and be
+delivered long before our arrival at Peking. Such easy success we had not
+anticipated. The difficulty, as well as necessity, of obtaining the proper
+credentials for traveling in China was impressed upon us by the arrest the
+previous day of three Afghan visitors, and by the fact that a German
+traveler had been refused, just a few weeks before, permission even to
+cross the Mozart pass into Kashgar. So much, we thought, for Russian
+friendship.
+
+Upon this assurance of at least official consent to hazard the journey to
+Peking, a telegram was sent to the chief of police at Tomsk, to whose care
+we had directed our letters, photographic material, and bicycle supplies
+to be sent from London in the expectation of being forced to take the
+Siberian route. These last could not have been dispensed with much longer,
+as our cushion-tires, ball-bearings, and axles were badly worn, while the
+rim of one of the rear wheels was broken in eight places for the lack of
+spokes. These supplies, however, did not reach us till six weeks after the
+date of our telegram, to which a prepaid reply was received, after a
+week's delay, asking in advance for the extra postage. This, with that
+prepaid from London, amounted to just fifty dollars. The warm weather,
+after the extreme cold of a Siberian winter, had caused the tires to
+stretch so much beyond their intended size that, on their arrival, they
+were almost unfit for use. Some of our photographic material also had been
+spoiled through the useless inspection of postal officials.
+
+  [Illustration: THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS
+  FAMILY.]
+
+The delay thus caused was well utilized in familiarizing ourselves as much
+as possible with the language and characteristics of the Chinese, for, as
+we were without guides, interpreters, or servants, and in some places
+lacked even official assistance, no travelers, perhaps, were ever more
+dependent upon the people than ourselves. The Chinese language, the most
+primitive in the world, is, for this very reason perhaps, the hardest to
+learn. Its poverty of words reduces its grammar almost to a question of
+syntax and intonation. Many a time our expressions, by a wrong inflection,
+would convey a meaning different from the one intended. Even when told the
+difference, our ears could not detect it.
+
+Our work of preparation was principally a process of elimination. We now
+had to prepare for a forced march in case of necessity. Handle-bars and
+seat-posts were shortened to save weight, and even the leather
+baggage-carriers, fitting in the frames of the machines, which we
+ourselves had patented before leaving England, were replaced by a couple
+of sleeping-bags made for us out of woolen shawls and Chinese
+oiled-canvas. The cutting off of buttons and extra parts of our clothing,
+as well as the shaving of our heads and faces, was also included by our
+friends in the list of curtailments. For the same reason one of our
+cameras, which we always carried on our backs, and refilled at night under
+the bedclothes, we sold to a Chinese photographer at Suidun, to make room
+for an extra provision-bag. The surplus film, with our extra baggage, was
+shipped by post, via Siberia and Kiakhta, to meet us on our arrival in
+Peking.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.]
+
+And now the money problem was the most perplexing of all. "This alone,"
+said the Russian consul, "if nothing else, will defeat your plans." Those
+Western bankers who advertise to furnish "letters of credit to any part of
+the world" are, to say the least, rather sweeping in their assertions. At
+any rate, our own London letter was of no use beyond the Bosporus, except
+with the Persian imperial banks run by an English syndicate. At the
+American Bible House at Constantinople we were allowed, as a personal
+favor, to buy drafts on the various missionaries along the route through
+Asiatic Turkey. But in central Asia we found that the Russian bankers and
+merchants would not handle English paper, and we were therefore compelled
+to send our letter of credit by mail to Moscow. Thither we had recently
+sent it on leaving Tashkend, with instructions to remit in currency to
+Irkutsk, Siberia. We now had to telegraph to that point to re-forward over
+the Kiakhta post-route to Peking. With the cash on hand, and the proceeds
+of the camera, sold for more than half its weight in silver, four and one
+third pounds, we thought we had sufficient money to carry us, or, rather,
+as much as we could carry, to that point; for the weight of the Chinese
+money necessary for a journey of over three thousand miles was, as the
+Russian consul thought, one of the greatest of our almost insurmountable
+obstacles. In the interior of China there is no coin except the _chen_, or
+_sapeks_, an alloy of copper and tin, in the form of a disk, having a hole
+in the center by which the coins may be strung together. The very recently
+coined _liang_, or _tael_, the Mexican piaster specially minted for the
+Chinese market, and the other foreign coins, have not yet penetrated from
+the coast. For six hundred miles over the border, however, we found both
+the Russian money and language serviceable among the Tatar merchants,
+while the _tenga_, or Kashgar silver-piece, was preferred by the natives
+even beyond the Gobi, being much handier than the larger or smaller bits
+of silver broken from the _yamba_ bricks. All, however, would have to be
+weighed in the _tinza_, or small Chinese scales we carried with us, and on
+which were marked the _f�n_, _tchan_, and _liang_ of the monetary scale.
+But the value of these terms is reckoned in _chen_, and changes with
+almost every district. This necessity for vigilance, together with the
+frequency of bad silver and loaded _yambas_, and the propensity of the
+Chinese to "knock down" on even the smallest purchase, tends to convert a
+traveler in China into a veritable Shylock. There being no banks or
+exchanges in the interior, we were obliged to purchase at Kuldja all the
+silver we would need for the entire journey of over three thousand miles.
+"How much would it take?" was the question that our past experience in
+Asiatic travel now aided us to answer. That our calculations were close is
+proved by the fact that we reached Peking with silver in our pockets to
+the value of half a dollar. Our money now constituted the principal part
+of our luggage, which, with camera and film, weighed just twenty-five
+pounds apiece. Most of the silver was chopped up into small bits, and
+placed in the hollow tubing of the machines to conceal it from Chinese
+inquisitiveness, if not something worse. We are glad to say, however, that
+no attempt at robbery was ever discovered, although efforts at extortion
+were frequent, and sometimes, as will appear, of a serious nature.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH
+  ENOUGH CHINESE "CASH" TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT.]
+
+The blowing of the long horns and boom of the mortar cannon at the fort
+awoke us at daylight on the morning of July 13. Farewells had been said
+the night before. Only our good-hearted Russian host was up to put an
+extra morsel in our provision-bag, for, as he said, we could get no food
+until we reached the Kirghiz aouls on the high plateau of the Talki pass,
+by which we were to cut across over unbeaten paths to the regular
+so-called imperial highway, running from Suidun. From the Catholic
+missionaries at Kuldja we had obtained very accurate information about
+this route as far as the Gobi desert. The expression Tian Shan Pe-lu, or
+northern Tian Shan route, in opposition to the Tian Shan Nan-lu, or
+southern Tian Shan route, shows that the Chinese had fully appreciated the
+importance of this historic highway, which continues the road running from
+the extreme western gate of the Great Wall obliquely across Mongolian
+Kan-su, through Hami and Barkul, to Urumtsi. From here the two natural
+highways lead, one to the head-waters of the Black Irtish, the other to
+the passes leading into the Ili valley, and other routes of the
+Arolo-Caspian depression. The latter route, which is now commanded at
+intervals by Chinese forts and military settlements, was recently
+relinquished by Russia only when she had obtained a more permanent footing
+on the former in the trading-posts of Chuguchak and Kobdo, for she very
+early recognized the importance of this most natural entry to the only
+feasible route across the Chinese empire. In a glowing sunset, at the end
+of a hot day's climb, we looked for the last time over the Ili valley, and
+at dusk, an hour later, rolled into one of the Kirghiz aouls that are here
+scattered among the rich pasturage of the plateau.
+
+  [Illustration: A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.]
+
+Even here we found that our reputation had extended from Kuldja. The chief
+advanced with _amans_ of welcome, and the heavy-matted curtains in the
+kibitka doorway were raised, as we passed, in token of honor. When the
+refreshing kumiss was served around the evening camp-fire, the dangers of
+the journey through China were discussed among our hosts with frequent
+looks of misgiving. Thus, from first to last, every judgment was against
+us, and every prediction was of failure, if not of something worse; and
+now, as we stole out from the tent by the light of the rising moon, even
+the specter-like mountain-peaks around us, like symbols of coming events,
+were casting their shadows before. There was something so illusive in the
+scene as to make it very impressive. In the morning, early, a score of
+horsemen were ready to escort us on the road. At parting they all
+dismounted and uttered a prayer to Allah for our safety; and then as we
+rode away, drew their fingers across their throats in silence, and waved a
+solemn good-by. Such was the almost superstitious fear of these western
+nomads for the land which once sent forth a Yengiz Khan along this very
+highway.
+
+  [Illustration: PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.]
+
+Down the narrow valley of the Kuitun, which flows into the Ebi-nor,
+startling the mountain deer from the brink of the tree-arched rivulet, we
+reached a spot which once was the haunt of a band of those border-robbers
+about whom we had heard so much from our apprehensive friends. At the base
+of a volcano-shaped mountain lay the ruins of their former dens, from
+which only a year ago they were wont to sally forth on the passing
+caravans. When they were exterminated by the government, the head of their
+chief, with its dangling queue, was mounted on a pole near-by, and
+preserved in a cage from birds of prey, as a warning to all others who
+might aspire to the same notoriety. In this lonely spot we were forced to
+spend the night, as here occurred, through the carelessness of the Kuldja
+Russian blacksmith, a very serious break in one of our gear wheels. It was
+too late in the day to walk back the sixteen miles to the Kirghiz
+encampment, and there obtain horses for the remaining fifty-eight miles to
+Kuldja, for nowhere else, we concluded, could such a break be mended. Our
+sleeping-bags were now put to a severe test between the damp ground and
+the heavy mountain dew. The penetrating cold, and the occasional
+panther-like cry of some prowling animal, kept us awake the greater part
+of the night, awaiting with revolvers in hand some expected attack.
+
+  [Illustration: THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.]
+
+Five days later we had repassed this spot and were toiling over the sand
+and saline-covered depression of the great "Han-Hai," or Dried-up Sea. The
+mountain freshets, dissolving the salt from their sandy channels, carry it
+down in solution and deposit it with evaporation in massive layers,
+forming a comparatively hard roadway in the midst of the shifting
+sand-dunes. Over these latter our progress was extremely slow. One stretch
+of fifteen miles, which it took us six hours to cover, was as formidable
+as any part of the Turkoman desert along the Transcaspian railway. At an
+altitude of only six hundred feet above the sea, according to our aneroid
+barometer, and beneath the rays of a July sun against which even our felt
+caps were not much protection, we were half-dragging, half-pushing, our
+wheels through a foot of sand, and slapping at the mosquitos swarming upon
+our necks and faces. These pests, which throughout this low country are
+the largest and most numerous we have ever met, are bred in the
+intermediate swamps, which exist only through the negligence of the
+neighboring villagers. At night smoldering fires, which half suffocate the
+human inmates, are built before the doors and windows to keep out the
+intruding insects. All travelers wear gloves, and a huge hood covering the
+head and face up to the eyes, and in their hands carry a horse-tail switch
+to lash back and forth over their shoulders. Being without such protection
+we suffered both day and night.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF
+  KULDJA.]
+
+The mountain freshets all along the road to Urumtsi were more frequent and
+dangerous than any we had yet encountered. Toward evening the melting
+snows, and the condensing currents from the plain heated during the day,
+fill and overflow the channels that in the morning are almost dry. One
+stream, with its ten branches, swept the stones and boulders over a
+shifting channel one mile in width. It was when wading through such
+streams as this, where every effort was required to balance ourselves and
+our luggage, that the mosquitos would make up for lost time with impunity.
+The river, before reaching Manas, was so swift and deep as to necessitate
+the use of regular government carts. A team of three horses, on making a
+misstep, were shifted away from the ford into deep water and carried far
+down the stream. A caravan of Chinese traveling-vans, loaded with goods
+from India, were crossing at the time, on their way to the outlying
+provinces and the Russian border. General Bauman at Vernoye had informed
+us that in this way English goods were swung clear around the circle and
+brought into Russia through the unguarded back door.
+
+With constant wading and tramping, our Russian shoes and stockings, one of
+which was almost torn off by the sly grab of a Chinese spaniel, were no
+longer fit for use. In their place we were now obliged to purchase the
+short, white cloth Chinese socks and string sandals, which for mere
+cycling purposes and wading streams proved an excellent substitute, being
+light and soft on the feet and very quickly dried. The calves of our legs,
+however, being left bare, we were obliged, for state occasions at least,
+to retain and utilize the upper portion of our old stockings. It was owing
+to this scantiness of wardrobe that we were obliged when taking a bath by
+the roadside streams to make a quick wash of our linen, and put it on wet
+to dry, or allow it to flutter from the handle-bars as we rode along. It
+was astonishing even to ourselves how little a man required when once
+beyond the pale of Western conventionalities.
+
+  [Illustration: SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.]
+
+From Manas to Urumtsi we began to strike more tillage and fertility.
+Maize, wheat, and rice were growing, but rather low and thin. The last is
+by no means the staple food of China, as is commonly supposed, except in
+the southern portion. In the northern, and especially the outlying,
+provinces it is considered more a luxury for the wealthy. Millet and
+coarse flour, from which the _mien_ or dough-strings are made, is the
+foundation, at least, for more than half the subsistence of the common
+classes. Nor is there much truth, we think, in the assertion that Chinamen
+eat rats, although we sometimes regretted that they did not. After a month
+or more without meat a dish of rats would have been relished, had we been
+able to get it. On the other hand we have learned that there is a society
+of Chinamen who are vegetarians from choice, and still another that will
+eat the meat of no animal, such as the ass, horse, dog, etc., which can
+serve man in a better way.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM
+  SMOKING.]
+
+Urumtsi, or Hun-miao (red temple) of the Chinese, still retains its
+ancient prestige in being the seat of government for the viceroyalty of
+Sin-tsiang, which includes all that portion of western China lying without
+the limit of Mongolia and Tibet. Thanks to its happy position, it has
+always rapidly recovered after every fresh disaster. It now does
+considerable trade with Russia through the town of Chuguchak, and with
+China through the great gap which here occurs in the Tian Shan range. It
+lies in a picturesque amphitheater behind the solitary "Holy Mount," which
+towers above a well-constructed bridge across its swiftly flowing river.
+This city was one of our principal landmarks across the empire; a long
+stage of the journey was here completed.
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.]
+
+On entering a Chinese city we always made it a rule to run rapidly through
+until we came to an inn, and then lock up our wheels before the crowd
+could collect. Urumtsi, however, was too large and intricate for such a
+manoeuver. We were obliged to dismount in the principal thoroughfare. The
+excited throng pressed in upon us. Among them was a Chinaman who could
+talk a little Russian, and who undertook to direct us to a comfortable inn
+at the far end of the city. This street parade gathered to the inn yard an
+overwhelming mob, and announced to the whole community that "the foreign
+horses" had come. It had been posted, we were told, a month before, that
+"two people of the new world" were coming through on "strange iron
+horses," and every one was requested not to molest them. By this, public
+curiosity was raised to the highest pitch. When we returned from supper at
+a neighboring restaurant, we were treated to a novel scene. The doors and
+windows of our apartments had been blocked with boxes, bales of cotton,
+and huge cart-wheels to keep out the irrepressible throng. Our host was
+agitated to tears; he came out wringing his hands, and urging upon us that
+any attempt on our part to enter would cause a rush that would break his
+house down. We listened to his entreaties on the condition that we should
+be allowed to mount to the roof with a ladder, to get away from the
+annoying curiosity of the crowd. There we sat through the evening
+twilight, while the crowd below, somewhat balked, but not discouraged,
+stood taking in every move. Nightfall and a drizzling rain came at last to
+our relief.
+
+The next morning a squad of soldiers was despatched to raise the siege,
+and at the same time presents began to arrive from the various officials,
+from the Tsongtu, or viceroy, down to the superintendent of the local
+prisons. The matter of how much to accept of a Chinese present, and how
+much to pay for it, in the way of a tip to the bearer, is one of the
+finest points of that finest of fine arts, Chinese etiquette; and yet in
+the midst of such an abundance and variety we were hopelessly at sea.
+Fruits and teas were brought, together with meats and chickens, and even a
+live sheep. Our Chinese visiting-cards--with the Chinese the great insignia
+of rank--were now returned for those sent with the presents, and the hour
+appointed for the exhibition of our bicycles as requested.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.]
+
+Long before the time, the streets and housetops leading from the inn to
+the viceroy's palace at the far end of the city began to fill with people,
+and soldiers were detailed at our request to make an opening for us to
+ride through abreast. This, however, did not prevent the crowd from
+pushing us against each other, or sticking sticks in the wheels, or
+throwing their hats and shoes in front of us, as we rode by. When in sight
+of the viceroy's palace, they closed in on us entirely. It was the worst
+jam we had ever been in. By no possibility could we mount our machines,
+although the mob was growing more and more impatient. They kept shouting
+for us to ride, but would give us no room. Those on the outside pushed the
+inner ones against us. With the greatest difficulty could we preserve our
+equilibrium, and prevent the wheels from being crushed, as we surged along
+toward the palace gate; while all the time our Russian interpreter, Mafoo,
+on horseback in front, continued to shout and gesticulate in the wildest
+manner above their heads. Twenty soldiers had been stationed at the palace
+gate to keep back the mob with cudgels. When we reached them, they pulled
+us and our wheels quickly through into the inclosure, and then tried to
+stem the tide by belaboring the heads and shoulders in reach, including
+those of our unfortunate interpreter, Mafoo. But it was no use. Everything
+was swept away before this surging wave of humanity. The viceroy himself,
+who now came out to receive us, was powerless. All he could do was to
+request them to make room around the palace courtyard for the coming
+exhibition. Thousands of thumbs were uplifted that afternoon, in praise of
+the wonderful _twee-tah-cheh_, or two-wheeled carts, as they witnessed our
+modest attempt at trick riding and special manoeuvering. After refreshments
+in the palace, to which we were invited by the viceroy, we were counseled
+to leave by a rear door, and return by a roundabout way to the inn,
+leaving the mob to wait till dark for our exit from the front.
+
+  [Illustration: A BANK IN URUMTSI.]
+
+The restaurant or tea-house in China takes the place of the Western
+club-room. All the current news and gossip is here circulated and
+discussed over their eating or gambling. One of their games of chance,
+which we have frequently noticed, seems to consist in throwing their
+fingers at one another, and shouting at the top of their voices. It is
+really a matching of numbers, for which the Chinamen make signs on their
+fingers, up to the numeral ten. Our entry into a crowded _dungan_, or
+native Mohammedan restaurant, the next morning, was the signal for
+exciting accounts of the events of the previous day. We were immediately
+invited to take tea with this one, a morning dish of _tung-posas_, or nut
+and sugar dumplings, with another, while a third came over with his can of
+_sojeu_, or Chinese gin, with an invitation "to join him." The Chinese of
+all nations seem to live in order to eat, and from this race of epicures
+has developed a nation of excellent cooks. Our fare in China, outside the
+Gobi district, was far better than in Turkey or Persia, and, for this
+reason, we were better able to endure the increased hardships. A plate of
+sliced meat stewed with vegetables, and served with a piquant sauce,
+sliced radishes and onions with vinegar, two loaves of Chinese _mo-mo_, or
+steamed bread, and a pot of tea, would usually cost us about three and one
+quarter cents apiece. Everything in China is sliced so that it can be
+eaten with the chop-sticks. These we at length learned to manipulate with
+sufficient dexterity to pick up a dove's egg--the highest attainment in the
+chop-stick art. The Chinese have rather a sour than a sweet tooth. Sugar
+is rarely used in anything, and never in tea. The steeped tea-flowers,
+which the higher classes use, are really more tasty without it. In many of
+the smaller towns, our visits to the restaurant would sometimes result in
+considerable damage to its keepers, for the crowd would swarm in after us,
+knocking over the table, stools, and crockery as they went, and collect in
+a circle around us to watch the "foreigners" eat, and to add their opium
+and tobacco smoke to the suffocating atmosphere.
+
+A visit to the local mint in Urumtsi revealed to us the primitive method
+of making the _chen_, or money-disks before mentioned. Each is molded
+instead of cut and stamped as in the West. By its superintendent we were
+invited to a special breakfast on the morning of our departure.
+
+  [Illustration: A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.]
+
+The Chinese are the only people in the Orient, and, so far as we know, in
+the European and Asiatic continents, who resemble the Americans in their
+love for a good, substantial morning meal. This was much better adapted to
+our purpose than the Russian custom, which compelled us to do the greater
+part of our day's work on merely bread and weak tea.
+
+  [Illustration: STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.]
+
+From Urumtsi we had decided to take the northern route to Hami, via
+Gutchen and Barkul, in order to avoid as much as possible the sands of the
+Tarim basin on the southern slope of the Tian Shan mountains. Two guards
+were commissioned by the viceroy to take us in charge, and hand us over to
+the next relay station. Papers were given them to be signed by the
+succeeding authorities on our safe arrival. This plan had been adopted by
+every chief mandarin along the route, in order, not only to follow out the
+request of the London minister as written on the passport, but principally
+to do us honor in return for the favor of a bicycle exhibition; but many
+times we would leave our discomfited guards to return with unsigned
+papers. Had we been traveling in the ordinary way, not only these favors
+might not have been shown us, but our project entirely defeated by local
+obstructions, as was the case with many who attempted the same journey by
+caravan. To the good-will of the mandarins, as well as the people, an
+indispensable concomitant of a journey through China, our bicycles were
+after all our best passports. They everywhere overcame the antipathy for
+the foreigner, and made us cordially welcome.
+
+The costumes of our soldiers were strikingly picturesque. Over the front
+and back of the scarlet waistcoats were worked in black silk letters their
+military credentials. Over their full baggy trousers were drawn their
+riding overalls, which cover only the front and sides of the legs, the
+back being cut out just above the cloth top of their Chinese boots.
+Instead of a cap, they wear a piece of printed cloth wrapped tightly
+around the head, like the American washerwomen. Their well-cushioned
+saddles did not save them from the constant jolting to which our high
+speed subjected them. At every stopping-place they would hold forth at
+length to the curious crowd about their roadside experiences. It was
+amusing to hear their graphic descriptions of the mysterious "ding," by
+which they referred to the ring of the cyclometer at every mile. But the
+phrase _quai-ti-henn_ (very fast), which concluded almost every sentence,
+showed what feature impressed them most. Then, too, they disliked very
+much to travel in the heat of the day, for all summer traveling in China
+is done at night. They would wake us up many hours before daylight to make
+a start, despite our previous request to be left alone. Our week's run to
+Barkul was made, with a good natural road and favoring conditions, at the
+rate of fifty-three miles per day, eight miles more than our general
+average across the empire. From Kuldja to the Great Wall, where our
+cyclometer broke, we took accurate measurements of the distances. In this
+way, we soon discovered that the length of a Chinese _li_ was even more
+changeable than the value of the _tael_. According to time and place, from
+185 to 250 were variously reckoned to a degree, while even a difference in
+direction would very often make a considerable difference in the distance.
+It is needless to say that, at this rate, the guards did not stay with us.
+Official courtesy was now confined to despatches sent in advance. Through
+this exceptionally wild district were encountered several herds of
+antelope and wild asses, which the natives were hunting with their long,
+heavy, fork-resting rifles. Through the exceptional tameness of the
+jack-rabbits along the road, we were sometimes enabled to procure with a
+revolver the luxury of a meat supper.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.]
+
+At Barkul (Tatar) the first evidence of English influence began to appear
+in the place of the fading Russian, although the traces of Russian
+manufacture were by no means wanting far beyond the Great Wall. English
+pulverized sugar now began to take the place of Russian lump. India
+rubber, instead of the Russianized French _elastique_, was the native name
+for our rubber tires. English letters, too, could be recognized on the
+second-hand paper and bagging appropriated to the natives' use, and even
+the gilded buttons worn by the soldiers bore the stamp of "treble gilt."
+From here the road to Hami turns abruptly south, and by a pass of over
+nine thousand feet crosses the declining spurs of the Tian Shan mountains,
+which stand like a barrier between the two great historic highways,
+deflecting the westward waves of migration, some to Kashgaria and others
+to Zungaria. On the southern slope of the pass we met with many large
+caravans of donkeys, dragging down pine-logs to serve as poles in the
+proposed extension of the telegraph-line from Su-Chou to Urumtsi. In June
+of this year the following item appeared in the newspapers:
+
+"Within a few months Peking will be united by wire with St. Petersburg;
+and, in consequence, with the telegraph system of the entire civilized
+world. According to the latest issue of the Turkestan 'Gazette,' the
+telegraph-line from Peking has been brought as far west as the city of
+Kashgar. The European end of the line is at Osh, and a small stretch of
+about 140 miles now alone breaks the direct telegraph communication from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific."
+
+  [Illustration: CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.]
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.]
+
+Hami is one of those cities which may be regarded as indispensable. At the
+edge of the Great Gobi and the converging point of the Nan-lu and
+Pe-lu--that is, the southern and northern routes to the western world--this
+oasis is a necessary resting-place. During our stop of two days, to make
+necessary repairs and recuperate our strength for the hardships of the
+desert, the usual calls were exchanged with the leading officials. In the
+matter of social politeness the Chinese, especially the "literati," have
+reason to look down upon the barbarians of the West. Politeness has been
+likened generally to an air-cushion. There is nothing in it, but it eases
+the jolts wonderfully. As a mere ritual of technicalities it has perhaps
+reached its highest point in China. The multitude of honorific titles, so
+bewildering and even maddening to the Occidental, are here used simply to
+keep in view the fixed relations of graduated superiority. When wishing to
+be exceptionally courteous to "the foreigners," the more experienced
+mandarins would lay their doubled fists in the palms of our hands, instead
+of raising them in front of their foreheads, with the usual salutation
+_Homa_. In shaking hands with a Chinaman we thus very often had our hands
+full. After the exchange of visiting-cards, as an indication that their
+visits would be welcome, they would come on foot, in carts, or palanquins,
+according to their rank, and always attended by a larger or smaller
+retinue. Our return visits would always be made by request, on the wheels,
+either alone or with our interpreter, if we could find one, for our
+Chinese was as yet painfully defective. Russian had served us in good
+stead, though not always directly. In a conversation with the Tootai of
+Schicho, for instance, our Russian had to be translated into Turki and
+thence interpreted in Chinese. The more intelligent of these conversations
+were about our own and other countries of the world, especially England
+and Russia, who, it was rumored, had gone to war on the Afghanistan
+border. But the most of them generally consisted of a series of trivial
+interrogations beginning usually with: "How old are you?" Owing to our
+beards, which were now full grown, and which had gained for us the
+frequent title of _yeh renn_, or wild men, the guesses were far above the
+mark. One was even as high as sixty years, for the reason, as was stated,
+that no Chinaman could raise such a beard before that age. We were
+frequently surprised at their persistence in calling us brothers when
+there was no apparent reason for it, and were finally told that we must be
+"because we were both named _Mister_ on our passports."
+
+  [Illustration: A LESSON IN CHINESE.]
+
+  [Illustration: A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+It was already dusk on the evening of August 10 when we drew up to the
+hamlet of Shang-loo-shwee at the end of the Hami oasis. The Great Gobi, in
+its awful loneliness, stretched out before us, like a vast ocean of
+endless space. The growing darkness threw its mantle on the scene, and
+left imagination to picture for us the nightmare of our boyhood days. We
+seemed, as it were, to be standing at the end of the world, looking out
+into the realm of nowhere. Foreboding thoughts disturbed our repose, as we
+contemplated the four hundred miles of this barren stretch to the Great
+Wall of China. With an early morning start, however, we struck out at once
+over the eighty-five miles of the Takla Makan sands. This was the worst we
+could have, for beyond the caravan station of Kooshee we would strike the
+projecting limits of Mongolian Kan-su. This narrow tract, now lying to our
+left between Hami and the Nan Shan mountains, is characterized by
+considerable diversity in its surface, soil, and climate. Traversed by
+several copious streams from the Nan Shan mountains, and the
+moisture-laden currents from the Bay of Bengal and the Brahmaputra valley,
+its "desert" stretches are not the dismal solitudes of the Tarim basin or
+the "Black" and "Red" sands of central Asia. Water is found almost
+everywhere near the surface, and springs bubble up in the hollows, often
+encircled by exterior oases. Everywhere the ground is traversable by
+horses and carts. This comparatively fertile tract, cutting the Gobi into
+two great sections, has been, ever since its conquest two thousand years
+ago, of vast importance to China, being the only feasible avenue of
+communication with the western provinces, and the more important link in
+the only great highway across the empire. A regular line of caravan
+stations is maintained by the constant traffic both in winter and summer.
+But we were now on a bit of the genuine Gobi--that is, "Sandy Desert"--of
+the Mongolian, or "Shamo" of the Chinese. Everywhere was the same
+interminable picture of vast undulating plains of shifting reddish sands,
+interspersed with quartz pebbles, agates, and carnelians, and relieved
+here and there by patches of wiry shrubs, used as fuel at the desert
+stations, or lines of hillocks succeeding each other like waves on the
+surface of the shoreless deep. The wind, even more than the natural
+barrenness of the soil, prevents the growth of any vegetation except low,
+pliant herbage. Withered plants are uprooted and scattered by the gale
+like patches of foam on the stormy sea. These terrible winds, which of
+course were against us, with the frequently heavy cart-tracks, would make
+it quite impossible to ride. The monotony of many weary hours of plodding
+was relieved only by the bones of some abandoned beast of burden, or the
+occasional train of Chinese carts, or rather two-wheeled vans, loaded with
+merchandise, and drawn by five to six horses or mules. For miles away they
+would see us coming, and crane their necks in wondering gaze as we
+approached. The mulish leaders, with distended ears, would view our
+strange-looking vehicles with suspicion, and then lurch far out in their
+twenty-foot traces, pulling the heavily loaded vehicles from the
+deep-rutted track. But the drivers were too busy with their eyes to notice
+any little divergence of this kind. Dumb with astonishment they continued
+to watch us till we disappeared again toward the opposite horizon. Farther
+on we would meet a party of Chinese emigrants or exiles, on their way to
+the fertile regions that skirt the northern and southern slopes of the
+Tian Shan mountains. By these people even the distant valley of the Ili is
+being largely populated. Being on foot, with their extraordinary loads
+balanced on flexible shoulder-poles, these poor fellows could make only
+one station, or from twelve to twenty miles a day. In the presence of
+their patience and endurance, we were ashamed to think of such a thing as
+hardship.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+The station-houses on the desert were nothing more than a collection of
+mud huts near a surface well of strongly brackish water. Here, most of the
+caravans would put up during the day, and travel at night. There was no
+such thing as a restaurant; each one by turn must do his own cooking in
+the inn kitchen, open to all. We, of course, were expected to carry our
+own provisions and do our own culinary work like any other respectable
+travelers. This we had frequently done before where restaurants were not
+to be found. Many a time we would enter an inn with our arms filled with
+provisions, purchased at the neighboring bazaars, take possession of the
+oven and cooking utensils, and proceed to get up an American meal, while
+all the time a hundred eyes or more would be staring at us in blank
+amazement. But here on the desert we could buy nothing but very coarse
+flour. When asked if they had an egg or a piece of vegetable, they would
+shout "_Ma-you_" ("There is none") in a tone of rebuke, as much as to say:
+"My conscience! man, what do you expect on the Gobi?" We would have to be
+content with our own tea made in the iron pot, fitting in the top of the
+mud oven, and a kind of sweetened bread made up with our supply of sugar
+brought from Hami. This we nicknamed our "Gobi cake," although it did
+taste rather strongly of brackish water and the garlic of previous
+contents of the one common cooking-pot. We would usually take a large
+supply for road use on the following day, or, as sometimes proved, for the
+midnight meal of the half-starved inn-dog. The interim between the evening
+meal and bedtime was always employed in writing notes by the feeble,
+flickering light of a primitive taper-lamp, which was the best we had
+throughout the Chinese journey.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.]
+
+A description of traveling in China would by no means be complete without
+some mention of the vermin which infest, not only inns and houses, but the
+persons of nearly all the lower classes. Lice and fleas seem to be the
+_sine qua non_ of Chinese life, and in fact the itching with some seems to
+furnish the only occasion for exercise. We have seen even shopkeepers
+before their doors on a sunny afternoon, amusing themselves by picking
+these insidious creatures from their inner garments. They are one of the
+necessary evils it seems, and no secret is made of it. The sleeping
+_kangs_ of the Chinese inns, which are made of beaten earth and heated in
+winter like an oven, harbor these pests the year round, not to mention the
+filthy coverlets and greasy pillows that were sometimes offered us. Had we
+not had our own sleeping-bags, and used the camera, provision-bag, and
+coats for pillows, our life would have been intolerable. As it was there
+was but little rest for the weary.
+
+The longest station on the desert was thirty-one miles. This was the only
+time that we suffered at all with thirst. In addition to the high mean
+elevation of the Gobi, about four thousand feet, we had cloudy weather for
+a considerable portion of the journey, and, in the Kan-su district, even a
+heavy thunder-shower. These occasional summer rains form, here and there,
+temporary meres and lakes, which are soon evaporated, leaving nothing
+behind except a saline efflorescence. Elsewhere the ground is furrowed by
+sudden torrents tearing down the slopes of the occasional hills or
+mountains. These dried up river-beds furnished the only continuously hard
+surfaces we found on the Gobi; although even here we were sometimes
+brought up with a round turn in a chuck hole, with the sand flying above
+our heads.
+
+Our aneroid barometer registered approximately six thousand five hundred
+feet, when we reached at dusk the summit of the highest range of hills we
+encountered on the desert journey. But instead of the station-hut we
+expected to find, we were confronted by an old Mongolian monastery. These
+institutions, we had found, were generally situated as this one, at the
+top of some difficult mountain-pass or at the mouth of some cavernous
+gorge, where the pious intercessors might, to the best advantage, strive
+to appease the wrathful forces of nature. In this line of duty the lama
+was no doubt engaged when we walked into his feebly-lighted room, but,
+like all Orientals, he would let nothing interfere with the performance of
+his religious duties. With his gaze centered upon one spot, his fingers
+flew over the string of beads in his lap, and his tongue over the
+stereotyped prayers, with a rapidity that made our head swim. We stood
+unnoticed till the end, when we were at once invited to a cup of tea, and
+directed to our destination, five _li_ beyond. Toward this we plodded
+through the growing darkness and rapidly cooling atmosphere; for in its
+extremes of temperature the Gobi is at once both Siberian and Indian, and
+that, too, within the short period of a few hours. Some of the mornings of
+what proved to be very hot days were cold enough to make our extremities
+fairly tingle.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.]
+
+A constant diet of bread and tea, together with the hard physical exercise
+and mental anxiety, caused our strength at length to fail.
+
+  [Illustration: A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.]
+
+The constant drinking of brackish water made one of us so ill that he
+could retain no food. A high fever set in on the evening of August 15, and
+as we pulled into the station of Bay-doon-sah, he was forced to go to bed
+at once. The other, with the aid of our small medicine supply, endeavored
+to ward off the ominous symptoms. In his anxiety, however, to do all that
+was possible he made a serious blunder. Instead of antipyrin he
+administered the poison, sulphate of zinc, which we carried to relieve our
+eyes when inflamed by the alkali dust. This was swallowed before the truth
+was discovered. It was an anxious moment for us both when we picked up the
+paper from the floor and read the inscription. We could do nothing but
+look at each other in silence. Happily it was an overdose, and the
+vomiting which immediately followed relieved both the patient and the
+anxious doctor. What to do we did not know. The patient now suggested that
+his companion should go on without him, and, if possible, send back
+medical aid or proper food; but not to remain and get worse himself. He,
+on the other hand, refused to leave without the other. Then too, the
+outlying town of Ngan-si-chou, the first where proper food and water could
+be obtained, was only one day's journey away. Another effort was decided
+upon. But when morning came, a violent hurricane from the southeast swept
+the sand in our faces, and fairly blew the sick man over on his wheel.
+Famishing with thirst, tired beyond expression, and burning with fever as
+well as the withering heat, we reached at last the bank of the Su-la-ho.
+Eagerly we plunged into its sluggish waters, and waded through under the
+walls of Ngan-si-chou.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+Ngan-si-chou was almost completely destroyed during the late Dungan
+rebellion. Little is now to be seen except heaps of rubbish, ruined
+temples, and the scattered fragments of idols. The neglected gardens no
+longer check the advancing sands, which in some places were drifting over
+the ramparts. Through its abandoned gateway we almost staggered with
+weakness, and directed our course to the miserable bazaar. The only meat
+we could find was pork, that shibboleth between Mohammedanism and
+Confucianism. The Dungan restaurant-keeper would not cook it, and only
+after much persuasion consented to have it prepared outside and brought
+back to be eaten beneath his roof. With better water and more substantial
+food we began, from this time on, to recuperate. But before us still a
+strong head wind was sweeping over the many desert stretches that lay
+between the oases along the Su-la-ho, and with the constant walking our
+sandals and socks were almost worn away. For this reason we were delayed
+one evening in reaching the town of Dyou-min-shan. In the lonely stillness
+of its twilight a horseman was approaching across the barren plain,
+bearing a huge Chinese lantern in his hand, and singing aloud, as is a
+Chinaman's custom, to drive off the evil spirits of the night. He started
+back, as we suddenly appeared, and then dismounted, hurriedly, to throw
+his lantern's glare upon us. "Are you the two Americans?" he asked in an
+agitated manner. His question was surprising. Out in this desert country
+we were not aware that our identity was known, or our visit expected. He
+then explained that he had been instructed by the magistrate of
+Dyou-min-shan to go out and look for us, and escort us into the town. He
+also mentioned in this connection the name of Ling Darin--a name that we
+had heard spoken of almost with veneration ever since leaving Urumtsi. Who
+this personage was we were unable to find out beyond that he was an
+influential mandarin in the city of Su-chou, now only a day's journey
+away.
+
+  [Illustration: WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.]
+
+Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which our Asiatic journey
+was begun and ended, we now struck, at its extreme western limit, the
+Great Wall of China. The Kiayu-kuan, or "Jade Gate," by which it is here
+intersected, was originally so called from the fact that it led into the
+Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders brought back the precious
+mineral. This, with the Shanghai-kuan near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan,
+on the Nankow pass, are the principal gateways in this "wall of ten
+thousand _li_," which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected the empire
+from the Mongolian nomads for a period of fourteen hundred years. In its
+present condition the Great Wall belongs to various epochs. With the
+sudden and violent transitions of temperature in the severe Mongolian
+climate, it may be doubted whether any portion of Shi Hoangti's original
+work still survives. Nearly all the eastern section, from Ordos to the
+Yellow Sea, was rebuilt in the fifth century, and the double rampart along
+the northwest frontier of the plains of Peking was twice restored in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth. North of Peking, where this prodigious structure
+has a mean height of about twenty-six feet, and width of twenty feet, it
+is still in a state of perfect repair, whereas in many western districts
+along the Gobi frontier, as here before us, it is little more than an
+earthen rampart about fifteen feet in height, while for considerable
+distances, as along the road from Su-chou to Kan-chou, it has entirely
+disappeared for miles at a stretch. Both the gate and the wall at this
+point had been recently repaired. We could now see it rising and falling
+in picturesque undulations as far as the Tibetan ranges. There it stops
+altogether, after a westward course of over fifteen hundred miles. In view
+of what was before us, we could not but smile as we thought of that French
+abb� who undertook, in an elaborate volume, to prove that the "Great Wall
+of China" was nothing more than a myth.
+
+We were now past another long anticipated land-mark, and before us, far
+down in the plain, lay the city of Su-chou, which, as the terminal point
+of the Chinese telegraph-line, would bring us again into electric touch
+with the civilized world. But between us and our goal lay the Edzina
+river, now swollen by a recent freshet. We began to wade cautiously
+through with luggage and wheels balanced on our shoulders. But just at
+that moment we perceived, approaching from the distance, what we took to
+be a mounted Chinese mandarin, and his servant leading behind him two
+richly caparisoned and riderless horses. At sight of us they spurred
+ahead, and reached the opposite bank just as we passed the middle of the
+stream. The leader now rose in his stirrups, waved his hat in the air and
+shouted, in clear though broken English, "Well, gentlemen, you have
+arrived at last!" To hear our mother tongue so unexpectedly spoken in this
+out-of-the-way part of the world, was startling. This strange individual,
+although clad in the regular mandarin garb, was light-complexioned, and
+had an auburn instead of a black queue dangling from his shaven head. He
+grasped us warmly by the hand as we came dripping out of the water, while
+all the time his benevolent countenance fairly beamed with joy. "I am glad
+to see you, gentlemen," he said. "I was afraid you would be taken sick on
+the road ever since I heard you had started across China. I just got the
+news five minutes ago that you were at Kiayu-kuan, and immediately came
+out with these two horses to bring you across the river, which I feared
+would be too deep and swift for you. Mount your ponies, and we will ride
+into the city together."
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.]
+
+It was some time before the idea flashed across our minds that this might
+indeed be the mysterious Ling Darin about whom we had heard so much.
+"Yes," said he, "that is what I am called here, but my real name is
+Splingard." He then went on to tell us that he was a Belgian by birth;
+that he had traveled extensively through China, as the companion of Baron
+Richthofen, and had thus become so thoroughly acquainted with the country
+and its people that on his return to the coast he had been offered by the
+Chinese government the position of custom mandarin at Su-chou, a position
+just then established for the levying of duty on the Russian goods passing
+in through the northwest provinces; that he had adopted the Chinese dress
+and mode of living, and had even married, many years ago, a Chinese girl
+educated at the Catholic schools in Tientsin. We were so absorbed in this
+romantic history that we scarcely noticed the crowds that lined the
+streets leading to the Ling Darin's palace, until the boom of a cannon
+recalled us to our situation. From the smile on the jolly face beside us,
+we knew at once whom we could hold responsible for this reception. The
+palace gates were now thrown open by a host of servants, and in our rags
+and tatters we rolled at once from the hardships of the inhospitable
+desert into the lap of luxury.
+
+A surplus is not always so easily disposed of as a deficit--at least we
+were inclined to think so in the case of our Su-chou diet. The Ling
+Darin's table, which, for the exceptional occasion, was set in the foreign
+fashion with knives and forks, fairly teemed with abundance and variety.
+There was even butter, made from the milk of the Tibetan yak, and
+condensed milk for our coffee, the first we had tasted since leaving
+Turkey, more than a year before. The Ling Darin informed us that a can of
+this milk, which he once presented to Chinese friends, had been mistaken
+for a face cosmetic, and was so used by the ladies of the family. The lack
+of butter has led many of the missionaries in China to substitute lard,
+while the Chinese fry their fat cakes in various oils. The Ling Darin's
+wife we found an excellent and even artistic cook, while his buxom twin
+daughters could read and write their own language--a rare accomplishment
+for a Chinese woman. Being unaccustomed to foreign manners, they would
+never eat at the same table with us, but would come in during the evening
+with their mother, to join the family circle and read aloud to us some of
+their father's official despatches. This they would do with remarkable
+fluency and intelligence.
+
+As guests of our highly respected and even venerated host, we were visited
+by nearly all the magistrates of the city. The Ling Darin was never before
+compelled to answer so many questions. In self-defense he was at last
+forced to get up a stereotyped speech to deliver on each social occasion.
+The people, too, besieged the palace gates, and clamored for an
+exhibition. Although our own clothes had been sent away to be boiled, we
+could not plead this as an excuse. The flowing Chinese garments which had
+been provided from the private wardrobe of the Ling Darin fluttered wildly
+in the breeze, as we rode out through the city at the appointed hour. Our
+Chinese shoes, also, were constantly slipping off, and as we raised the
+foot to readjust them, a shout went up from the crowd for what they
+thought was some fancy touch in the way of riding.
+
+  [Illustration: A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.]
+
+From the barrenness of the Gobi to the rank vegetation of the Edzina
+valley, where the grass and grain were actually falling over from
+excessive weight, was a most relieving change. Water was everywhere. Even
+the roadway served in many places as a temporary irrigating-canal. On the
+journey to Kan-chou we were sometimes compelled to ride on the narrow
+mud-wall fences that separated the flooded fields of wheat, millet, and
+sorghum, the prevailing cereals north of the Hoang-ho river. Fields of
+rice and the opium poppy were sometimes met with, but of the silk-worm and
+tea-plant, which furnish the great staples of the Chinese export trade, we
+saw absolutely nothing on our route through the northern provinces. Apart
+from the "Yellow Lands" of the Hoang-ho, which need no manure, the arable
+regions of China seem to have maintained their fecundity for over four
+thousand years, entirely through the thoughtful care of the peasantry in
+restoring to the soil, under another form, all that the crops have taken
+from it. The plowing of the Chinese is very poor. They scarcely do more
+than scratch the surface of the ground with their bent-stick plows,
+wooden-tooth drills, and wicker-work harrows; and instead of straight
+lines, so dear to the eye of a Western farmer, the ridges and furrows are
+as crooked as serpents. The real secret of their success seems to lie in
+the care they take to replenish the soil. All the sewage of the towns is
+carried out every morning at daybreak by special coolies, to be preserved
+for manure; while the dried herbs, straw, roots, and other vegetable
+refuse, are economized with the greatest care for fuel. The Chinese
+peasant offsets the rudeness of his implements with manual skill. He weeds
+the ground so carefully that there is scarcely a leaf above the ground
+that does not appertain to the crop. All kinds of pumps and hydraulic
+wheels are worked, either by the hand, animals, or the wind. The system of
+tillage, therefore, resembles market-gardening rather than the broad
+method of cultivation common in Europe and America. The land is too
+valuable to be devoted to pasture, and the forests nearly everywhere have
+been sacrificed to tillage to such an extent that the material for the
+enormously thick native coffins has now to be imported from abroad.
+
+Streams and irrigating-ditches were so frequent that we were continually
+saturated with water or covered with mud. Our bare arms and legs were so
+tanned and coated that we were once asked by a group of squalid villagers
+if "foreigners" ever bathed like themselves. On dashing down into a
+village, we would produce consternation or fright, especially among the
+women and children, but after the first onset, giggling would generally
+follow, for our appearance, especially from the rear, seemed to strike
+them as extremely ridiculous. The wheel itself presented various aspects
+to their ignorant fancies. It was called the "flying machine" and
+"foot-going carriage," while some even took it for the "fire-wheel cart,"
+or locomotive, about which they had heard only the vaguest rumors. Their
+ignorance of its source of motive power often prompted them to name it the
+"self-moving cart," just as the natives of Shanghai are wont to call the
+electric-light "the self-coming moon."
+
+In one out-of-the-way village of northwestern China, we were evidently
+taken for some species of centaurs; the people came up to examine us while
+on the wheel to see whether or no rider and wheel were one. We became so
+harassed with importunities to ride that we were compelled at last to seek
+relief in subterfuge, for an absolute refusal, we found, was of no avail.
+We would promise to ride for a certain sum of money, thinking thus to
+throw the burden of refusal on themselves. But, nothing daunted, they
+would pass round the hat. On several occasions, when told that eggs could
+not be bought in the community, an offer of an exhibition would bring them
+out by the dozen. In the same way we received presents of tea, and by this
+means our cash expenses were considerably curtailed. The interest in the
+"foreign horses" was sometimes so great as to stop business and even
+amusements. A rather notable incident of this kind occurred on one of the
+Chinese holidays. The flag-decked streets, as we rode through, were filled
+with the neighboring peasantry, attracted by some traveling theatrical
+troupe engaged for the occasion. In fact, a performance was just then in
+progress at the open-air theater close at hand. Before we were aware of it
+we had rolled into its crowded auditorium. The women were sitting on
+improvised benches, fanning and gossiping, while the men stood about in
+listless groups. But suddenly their attention was aroused by the counter
+attraction, and a general rush followed, to the great detriment of the
+temporary peddlers' stands erected for the occasion. Although entirely
+deserted, and no doubt consumed with curiosity, the actors could not lose
+what the Chinese call "face." They still continued their hideous noises,
+pantomimes, and dialogues to the empty seats.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINAMAN'S WHEELBARROW.]
+
+The last fifty miles into Liang-chou, a city founded by a Catholic
+Chinaman over two hundred years ago, we were compelled to make on foot,
+owing to an accident that caused us serious trouble all through the
+remainder of our Chinese journey. In a rapid descent by a narrow pathway,
+the pedal of one of the machines struck upon a protuberance, concealed by
+a tuft of grass, snapping off the axle, and scattering the ball-bearings
+over the ground. For some miles we pushed along on the bare axle inverted
+in the pedal-crank. But the wrenching the machine thus received soon began
+to tell. With a sudden jolt on a steep descent, it collapsed entirely, and
+precipitated the rider over the handle-bars. The lower part of the frame
+had broken short off, where it was previously cracked, and had bent the
+top bar almost double in the fall. In this sad plight, we were rejoiced to
+find in the "City under the Shade" the Scotch missionary, Mr. Laughton,
+who had founded here the most remote of the China Inland Missions. But
+even with his assistance, and that of the best native mechanic, our
+repairs were ineffective. At several points along the route we were
+delayed on this account. At last the front and rear parts of the machine
+became entirely separated. There was no such thing as steel to be found in
+the country, no tools fit to work with, and no one who knew the first
+principles of soldering. After endeavoring to convince the native
+blacksmiths that a delicate bicycle would not stand pounding like a
+Chinese cart-wheel, we took the matter into our own hands. An iron bar was
+placed in the hollow tubing to hold it in shape, and a band of telegraph
+wire passed round from front to rear, along the upper and lower rods, and
+then twisted so as to bring the two parts as tightly together as possible.
+With a waddling frame, and patched rear-wheel describing eccentric
+revolutions, we must have presented a rather comical appearance over the
+remaining thousand miles to the coast.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.]
+
+Across the Yellow Hoang-ho, which is the largest river we encountered in
+Asia, a pontoon bridge leads into the city of Lan-chou-foo. Its
+strategical position at the point where the Hoang-ho makes its great bend
+to the north, and where the gateway of the West begins, as well as its
+picturesque location in one of the greatest fruit-bearing districts of
+China, makes it one of the most important cities of the empire. On the
+commanding heights across the river, we stopped to photograph the
+picturesque scene. As usual, the crowd swarmed in front of the camera to
+gaze into the mysterious lens. All the missionaries we had met cautioned
+us against taking photographs in China, lest we should do violence to the
+many popular superstitions, but the only trouble we ever experienced in
+this respect was in arousing popular curiosity. We soon learned that in
+order to get something besides Chinese heads in our pictures it was
+necessary first to point the camera in the opposite direction, and then
+wheel suddenly round to the scene we wished to take. As we crossed the
+river, the bridge of boats so creaked and swayed beneath the rushing
+rabble, that we were glad to stand once more upon the terra firma of the
+city streets, which were here paved with granite and marble blocks. As we
+rode down the principal thoroughfare, amid the usual din and uproar, a
+well-dressed Chinaman rushed out from one of the stores and grabbed us by
+the arm. "Do you speak English?" he shouted, with an accent so like an
+American, that we leaped from our wheels at once, and grasped his hand as
+that of a fellow countryman. This, in fact, he proved to be in everything
+but birth. He was one of that party of mandarins' sons which had been sent
+over to our country some years ago, as an experiment by the Chinese
+government, to receive a thorough American training. We cannot here give
+the history of that experiment, as Mr. Woo related it--how they were
+subsequently accused of cutting off their queues and becoming
+denationalized; how, in consequence, they were recalled to their native
+land, and degraded rather than elevated, both by the people and the
+government, because they were foreign in their sentiments and habits; and
+how, at last, they gradually began to force recognition through the power
+of merit alone. He had now been sent out by the government to engineer the
+extension of the telegraph-line from Su-chou to Urumtsi, for it was feared
+by the government that the employment of a foreigner in this capacity
+would only increase the power for evil which the natives already
+attributed to this foreign innovation. The similarity in the phrases,
+_telegraph pole_ and _dry heaven_, had inspired the common belief that the
+line of poles then stretching across the country was responsible for the
+long-existing drought. In one night several miles of poles were sawed
+short off, by the secret order of a banded conspiracy. After several
+decapitations, the poles were now being restored, and labeled with the
+words, "Put up by order of the Emperor."
+
+  [Illustration: TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]
+
+In company with the English missionary, Mr. Redfern, while attempting to
+get out of the city on the way to his mountain home, we were caught in
+another jam. He counseled us to conceal the weapons we were carrying in
+our belts, for fear the sight of them should incite the mob to some act of
+violence. Our own experience, however, had taught us that a revolver in
+China was worth nothing if not shown. For persistence, this mob surpassed
+any we had ever seen. They followed us out of the city and over the three
+miles' stretch to the mission premises, and there announced their
+intention of remaining indefinitely. Again Mr. Redfern feared some
+outbreak, and counseled us to return to the city and apply to the viceroy
+himself for protection. This proved a good move. A special exhibition on
+the palace parade-grounds gained for us the valuable favor of one who was
+only fourth in rank to the emperor himself. A body-guard of soldiers was
+furnished, not only during our sojourn in the city, but for the journey to
+Singan-foo, on which a good reception was everywhere insured by an
+official despatch sent in advance. In order to secure for us future
+respect, a small flag with the government stamp and of yellow color was
+given us to fly by the side of our "stars and stripes." On this was
+inscribed the title of "The Traveling Students," as well as answers to the
+more frequent of the common questions--our nationality, destination, and
+age. The best mechanic in the local cannon-foundry was then ordered to
+make, at government expense, whatever repairs were possible on our
+disabled machines. This, however, as it proved, was not much; most of his
+time was spent in taking measurements and patterns for another purpose. If
+his intentions have been carried out, Lan-chou-foo is to-day possessed of
+a "foot-moving carriage" of home production.
+
+Our sojourn in this city is especially associated with the three names of
+Woo, Choo, and Moo--names by no means uncommon in Chinese nomenclature. We
+heard of a boy named the abstract numeral, "sixty-five," because his
+grandfather happened to reach that age on the very day of his birth. Mr.
+Moo was the local telegraph operator, with whom we, and our friends Woo
+and Choo, of Shanghai, associated. All operators in the Chinese telegraph
+system are required to read and write English. The school established for
+this purpose at Lan-chou we occasionally visited, and assisted the Chinese
+schoolmaster to hear the recitations from Routledge's spelling-book. He,
+in turn, was a frequent partaker of our "foreign chows," which our
+English-speaking friends served with knives and forks borrowed from the
+missionaries. Lily and bamboo roots, sharks' fins and swallows' nests, and
+many other Chinese delicacies, were now served in abundance, and with the
+ever-accompanying bowl of rice. In the matter of eating and drinking,
+Chinese formality is extreme. A round table is the only one that can be
+used in an aristocratic household. The seat of honor is always the one
+next to the wall. Not a mouthful can be taken until the host raises his
+chop-sticks in the air, and gives the signal. Silence then prevails; for
+Confucius says: "When a man eats he has no time for talk." When a cup of
+tea is served to any one in a social party, he must offer it to every one
+in the room, no matter how many there are, before proceeding to drink
+himself. The real basis of Chinese politeness seems to be this: They must
+be polite enough to offer, and you must be polite enough to refuse. Our
+ignorance of this great underlying principle during the early part of the
+Chinese journey led us into errors both many and grievous. In order to
+show a desire to be sociable, we accepted almost everything that was
+offered us, to the great chagrin, we fear, of the courteous donors.
+
+  [Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]
+
+  [Illustration: LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+  FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    VI
+
+
+              AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA
+
+
+Our departure from Lan-chou was not, we thought, regretted by the
+officials themselves, for we heard that apprehension was expressed lest
+the crowds continuing to collect around the telegraph-office should
+indulge in a riot. However, we were loath to leave our genial friends for
+the society of opium-smokers, for we were now in that province of China
+which, next to Sechuen, is most addicted to this habit. From dusk till
+bed-time, the streets of the villages were almost deserted for the squalid
+opium dens. Even our soldier attendant, as soon as the wooden saddle was
+taken from his sore-backed government steed, would produce his portable
+lamp, and proceed to melt on his needle the wax-like contents of a small,
+black box. When of the proper consistency, the paste was rolled on a metal
+plate to point it for the aperture in the flute-shaped pipe. Half the
+night would be given to this process, and a considerable portion of the
+remaining half would be devoted to smoking small pinches of tobacco in the
+peculiar Chinese water-pipe. According to an official note, issued early
+in 1882, by Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of Chinese Customs, considerably
+less than one per cent. of the population is addicted to opium-smoking,
+while those who smoke it to excess are few. More to be feared is the use
+of opium as a poison, especially among Chinese women. The government
+raises large sums from the import duty on opium, and tacitly connives at
+its cultivation in most of the provinces, where the traders and mandarins
+share between them the profits of this officially prohibited drug.
+
+This part of the great historic highway on which we were now traveling,
+between the two bends of the Hoang-ho, was found more extensively
+patronized than heretofore. Besides the usual caravans of horses, donkeys,
+and two-wheeled vans, we occasionally met with a party of shaven-headed
+Tibetans traveling either as emissaries, or as traders in the famous
+Tibetan sheep-skins and furs, and the strongly-scented bags of the
+musk-deer. A funeral cort�ge was also a very frequent sight. Chinese
+custom requires that the remains of the dead be brought back to their
+native place, no matter how far they may have wandered during life, and as
+the carriage of a single body would often be expensive, they are generally
+interred in temporary cemeteries or mortuary villages, until a sufficient
+number can be got together to form a large convoy. Mandarins, however, in
+death as in life, travel alone and with retinue. One coffin we met which
+rested upon poles supported on the shoulders of thirty-two men. Above on
+the coffin was perched the usual white rooster, which is supposed to
+incorporate, during transportation, the spirit of the departed. In funeral
+ceremonies, especially of the father, custom also requires the children to
+give public expression to their grief. Besides many other filial
+observances, the eldest son is in duty bound to render the journey easy
+for the departed by scattering fictitious paper-money, as spirit toll, at
+the various roadside temples.
+
+  [Illustration: OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.]
+
+  [Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.]
+
+Singan-foo, the capital of the Middle Kingdom, under the Tsin dynasty, and
+a city of the first importance more than two thousand years ago, is still
+one of the largest places in the empire, being exceeded in population
+probably by Canton alone. Each of its four walls, facing the cardinal
+points, is over six miles long and is pierced in the center by a
+monumental gate with lofty pavilions. It was here, among the ruins of an
+old Nestorian church, built several centuries before, that was found the
+famous tablet now sought at a high price by the British Museum. The
+harassing mobs gathered from its teeming population, as well as the
+lateness of the season, prompted us to make our sojourn as short as
+possible. Only a day sufficed to reach Tong-quan, which is the central
+stronghold of the Hoang-ho basin, and one of the best defended points in
+China. Here, between precipitous cliffs, this giant stream rushes madly
+by, as if in protest against its sudden deflection. Our ferry this time
+was not the back of a Chinese coolie nor a jolting ox-cart, but a spacious
+flat-boat made to accommodate one or two vehicles at a time. This was
+rowed at the stern, like the gondolas of Venice. The mob of hundreds that
+had been dogging our foot-steps and making life miserable, during our
+brief stop for food, watched our embarkation. We reached the opposite
+shore, a mile below the starting-point, and began to ascend from the
+river-basin to the highlands by an excavated fissure in the famous "yellow
+earth." This gives its name, not only to the river it discolors, but, from
+the extensive region comprised, even to the emperor himself, who takes the
+title of "Yellow Lord," as equivalent to "Master of the World." The
+thickness of this the richest soil in China, which according to Baron
+Richthofen is nothing more than so much dust accumulated during the course
+of ages by the winds from the northern deserts, is in some places at least
+two thousand feet. Much ingenuity has been displayed in overcoming the
+difficulties offered to free communication by the perpendicular walls of
+these yellow lands. Some of the most frequented roads have been excavated
+to depths of from forty to one hundred feet. Being seldom more than eight
+or ten feet wide, the wheeled traffic is conducted by means of sidings,
+like the "stations" in the Suez Canal. Being undrained or unswept by the
+winds, these walled-up tracks are either dust-beds or quagmires, according
+to the season; for us, the autumn rains had converted them into the
+latter. Although on one of the imperial highways which once excited the
+admiration of Marco Polo, we were now treated to some of the worst
+stretches we have ever seen. The mountain ascents, especially those
+stair-like approaches to the "Heavenly Gates" before reaching the Pe-chili
+plains, were steep, gradeless inclines, strewn with huge upturned blocks
+of stone, over which the heavy carts were fairly lifted by the sheer force
+of additional horse-flesh. The bridges, too, whose Roman-like masonry
+attests the high degree of Chinese civilization during the middle ages,
+have long since been abandoned to the ravages of time; while over the
+whole country the late Dungan rebellion has left its countless ruins.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.]
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.]
+
+The people of Shan-si province are noted for their special thrift, but
+this quality we observed was sometimes exhibited at the expense of the
+higher virtue of honesty. One of the most serious of the many cases of
+attempted extortion occurred at a remote country town, where we arrived
+late one evening, after learning to our dismay that one of our remarkably
+few mistakes in the road had brought us just fifty miles out of the way.
+Unusually wearied as we were by the cross-country cuts, we desired to
+retire early. In fact, on this account, we were not so observant of
+Chinese formality as we might have been. We did not heed the hinted
+requests of the visiting officials for a moon-light exhibition, nor go to
+the inn-door to bow them respectfully out. We were glad to take them at
+their word when they said, with the usual hypocritical smirk, "Now, don't
+come out any farther." This indiscretion on our part caused them, as well
+as ourselves, to suffer in the respect of the assembled rabble. With
+official connivance, the latter were now free, they thought, to take
+unusual liberties. So far, in our dealings with the Chinese, we had never
+objected to anything that was reasonable even from the native point of
+view. We had long since learned the force of the Chinese proverb that, "in
+order to avoid suspicion you must not live behind closed doors"; and in
+consequence had always recognized the common prerogative to ransack our
+private quarters and our luggage, so long as nothing was seriously
+disturbed. We never objected, either, to their wetting our paper windows
+with their tongues, so that they might noiselessly slit a hole in them
+with their exceptionally long finger nails, although we did wake up some
+mornings to find the panes entirely gone. It was only at the request of
+the innkeeper that we sometimes undertook the job of cleaning out the
+inn-yard; but this, with the prevalent superstition about the "withering
+touch of the foreigner," was very easily accomplished. Nor had we ever
+shown the slightest resentment at being called "foreign devils"; for this,
+we learned, was, with the younger generation at least, the only title by
+which foreigners were known. But on this particular night, our forbearance
+being quite exhausted, we ejected the intruders bodily. Mid mutterings and
+threats we turned out the lights, and the crowd as well as ourselves
+retired. The next morning the usual exorbitant bill was presented by the
+innkeeper, and, as usual, one half or one third was offered and finally
+accepted, with the customary protestations about being under-paid. The
+innkeeper's grumblings incited the crowd which early assembled, and from
+their whispers and glances we could see that trouble of some kind was
+brewing. We now hastened to get the wheels into the road. Just then the
+innkeeper, at the instigation of the crowd, rushed out and grabbed the
+handle-bars, demanding at the same time a sum that was even in advance of
+his original price. Extortion was now self-evident, and, remonstrance
+being of no avail, we were obliged to protect ourselves with our fists.
+The crowd began to close in upon us, until, with our backs against the
+adjoining wall, we drew our weapons, at which the onward movement changed
+suddenly to a retreat. Then we assumed the aggressive, and regained the
+wheels which had been left in the middle of the road. The innkeeper and
+his friend now caught hold of the rear wheels. Only by seizing their
+queues could we drag them away at all, but even then before we could mount
+they would renew their grasp. It was only after another direct attack upon
+them that we were able to mount, and dash away.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.]
+
+A week's journeying after this unpleasant episode brought us among the
+peanuts, pigs, and pig-tails of the famous Pe-chili plains. Vast fields of
+peanuts were now being plowed, ready to be passed through a huge coarse
+sieve to separate the nuts from the sandy loam. Sweet potatoes, too, were
+plentiful. These, as well as rice balls, boiled with a peculiar dry date
+in a triangular corn-leaf wrapper, we purchased every morning at daybreak
+from the pots of the early street-venders, and then proceeded to the local
+bake-shops, where the rattling of the rolling-pins prophesied of stringy
+fat cakes cooked in boiling linseed oil, and heavy dough biscuits cleaving
+to the urn-like oven.
+
+It was well that we were now approaching the end of our journey, for our
+wheels and clothing were nearly in pieces. Our bare calves were pinched by
+the frost, for on some of the coldest mornings we would find a quarter of
+an inch of ice. Our rest at night was broken for the want of sufficient
+covering. The straw-heated _kangs_ would soon cool off, and leave us half
+the night with only our thin sleeping-bags to ward off rheumatism.
+
+But over the beaten paths made by countless wheelbarrows we were now fast
+nearing the end. It was on the evening of November 3, that the giant walls
+of the great "Residence," as the people call their imperial capital, broke
+suddenly into view through a vista in the surrounding foliage. The goal of
+our three-thousand-one-hundred-and-sixteen-mile journey was now before us,
+and the work of the seventy-first riding day almost ended. With the dusk
+of evening we entered the western gate of the "Manchu City," and began to
+thread its crowded thoroughfares. By the time we reached Legation street
+or, as the natives egotistically call it, "The Street of the Foreign
+Dependencies," night had veiled our haggard features and ragged garments.
+In a dimly lighted courtyard we came face to face with the English
+proprietor of the Hotel de Peking. At our request for lodging, he said,
+"Pardon me, but may I first ask who you are and where you come from?" Our
+unprepossessing appearance was no doubt a sufficient excuse for this
+precaution. But just then his features changed, and he greeted us
+effusively. Explanations were now superfluous. The "North China Herald"
+correspondent at Pao-ting-foo had already published our story to the
+coast.
+
+That evening the son of the United States minister visited us, and offered
+a selection from his own wardrobe until a Chinese tailor could renew our
+clothing. With borrowed plumes we were able to accept invitations from
+foreign and Chinese officials. Polite cross-examinations were not
+infrequent, and we fear that entire faith in our alleged journey was not
+general until, by riding through the dust and mud of Legation street, we
+proved that Chinese roads were not altogether impracticable for bicycle
+traveling.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE PEI-HO.]
+
+The autumn rains had so flooded the low-lying country between the capital
+and its seaport, Tientsin, that we were obliged to abandon the idea of
+continuing to the coast on the wheels, which by this time were in no
+condition to stand unusual strain. On the other hand the house-boat
+journey of thirty-six hours down the Pei-ho river was a rather pleasant
+diversion.
+
+Our first evening on the river was made memorable by an unusual event.
+Suddenly the rattling of tin pans, the tooting of horns, and the shouting
+of men, women, and children, aroused us to the realization that something
+extraordinary was occurring. Then we noticed that the full moon in a
+cloudless sky had already passed the half-way mark in a total eclipse. Our
+boatmen now joined in the general uproar, which reached its height when
+the moon was entirely obscured. In explanation we were told that the
+"Great Dragon" was endeavoring to swallow up the moon, and that the
+loudest possible noise must be made to frighten him away. Shouts hailed
+the reappearance of the moon. Although our boatmen had a smattering of
+pidjin, or business, English, we were unable to get a very clear idea of
+Chinese astronomy. In journeying across the empire we found sufficient
+analogy in the various provincial dialects to enable us to acquire a
+smattering of one from another as we proceeded, but we were now unable to
+see any similarity whatever between "You makee walkee look see," and "You
+go and see," or between "That belong number one pidjin," and "That is a
+first-class business." This jargon has become a distinct dialect on the
+Chinese coast.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.]
+
+On our arrival in Tientsin we called upon the United States Consul,
+Colonel Bowman, to whom we had brought several letters from friends in
+Peking. During a supper at his hospitable home, he suggested that the
+viceroy might be pleased to receive us, and that if we had no objection,
+he would send a communication to the _yamen_, or official residence.
+Colonel Bowman's secretary, Mr. Tenney, who had been some time the
+instructor of the viceroy's sons, and who was on rather intimate terms
+with the viceroy himself, kindly offered to act as interpreter. A
+favorable answer was received the next morning, and the time for our visit
+fixed for the afternoon of the day following. But two hours before the
+appointed time a message was received from the viceroy, stating that he
+was about to receive an unexpected official visit from the _phantai_, or
+treasurer, of the Pe-chili province (over which Li-Hung-Chang himself is
+viceroy), and asking for a postponement of our visit to the following
+morning at 11 o'clock. Even before we had finished reading this unexpected
+message, the booming of cannon along the Pei-ho river announced the
+arrival of the _phantai's_ boats before the city. The postponement of our
+engagement at this late hour threatened to prove rather awkward, inasmuch
+as we had already purchased our steamship tickets for Shanghai, to sail on
+the _Fei-ching_ at five o'clock the next morning. But through the kindness
+of the steamship company it was arranged that we should take a tug-boat at
+Tong-ku, on the line of the Kai-ping railroad, and overtake the steamer
+outside the Taku bar. This we could do by taking the train at Tientsin,
+even as late as seven hours after the departure of the steamer. Steam
+navigation in the Pei-ho river, over the forty or fifty miles' stretch
+from Tientsin to the gulf, is rendered very slow by the sharp turns in the
+narrow stream--the adjoining banks being frequently struck and plowed away
+by the bow or stern of the large ocean steamers.
+
+When we entered the consulate the next morning, we found three palanquins
+and a dozen coolies in waiting to convey our party to the viceroy's
+residence. Under other circumstances we would have patronized our "steeds
+of steel," but a visit to the "biggest" man in China had to be conducted
+in state. We were even in some doubt as to the propriety of appearing
+before his excellency in bicycle costume; but we determined to plead our
+inability to carry luggage as an excuse for this breach of etiquette.
+
+  [Illustration: SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.]
+
+The first peculiarity the Chinese notice in a foreigner is his dress. It
+is a requisite with them that the clothes must be loose, and so draped as
+to conceal the contour of the body. The short sack-coat and tight trousers
+of the foreigner are looked upon as certainly inelegant, if not actually
+indecent.
+
+  [Illustration: WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.]
+
+It was not long before we were out of the foreign settlement, and wending
+our way through the narrow, winding streets, or lanes, of the densely
+populated Chinese city. The palanquins we met were always occupied by some
+high dignitary or official, who went sweeping by with his usual vanguard
+of servants, and his usual frown of excessive dignity. The fact that we,
+plain "foreign devils," were using this mode of locomotion, made us the
+objects of considerable curiosity from the loiterers and passers-by, and
+in fact had this not been the case, we should have felt rather
+uncomfortable. The unsympathetic observation of mobs, and the hideous
+Chinese noises, had become features of our daily life.
+
+The _yamen_ courtyard, as we entered, was filled with empty palanquins and
+coolie servants waiting for the different mandarins who had come on
+official visits. The _yamen_ itself consisted of low one-story structures,
+built in the usual Chinese style, of wood and adobe brick, in a
+quadrangular form around an inner courtyard. The common Chinese paper
+which serves for window-glass had long since vanished from the ravages of
+time, and the finger-punches of vandals. Even here, at the _yamen_ of the
+prime minister of China, dirt and dilapidation were evident on every hand.
+The anteroom into which we were ushered was in keeping with its exterior.
+The paper that covered the low walls and squatty ceiling, as well as the
+calico covering on the divans, was soiled and torn. The room itself was
+filled with mandarins from various parts of the country, waiting for an
+audience with his excellency. Each wore the official robe and dish-pan
+hat, with its particular button or insignia of rank. Each had a portly,
+well-fed appearance, with a pompous, dignified mien overspreading his
+features. The servant by whom we had sent in our Chinese visiting-cards
+returned and asked us to follow him. Passing through several rooms, and
+then along a narrow, darkened hallway, we emerged into an inner courtyard.
+Here there were several servants standing like sentinels in waiting for
+orders; others were hurrying hither and thither with different messages
+intrusted to their care. This was all there was to give to the place the
+air of busy headquarters. On one side of the courtyard the doors of the
+"foreign reception" room opened. Through these we were ushered by the
+liveried servant, who bore a message from the viceroy, asking us to wait a
+few moments until he should finish some important business.
+
+The foreign reception-room in which we were now sitting was the only one
+in any official residence in the empire, and this single instance of
+compliance with foreign customs was significant as bearing upon the
+attitude toward Western ideas of the man who stands at the head of the
+Chinese government. Everything about us was foreign except a Chinese divan
+in one corner of the room. In the middle of the floor stood a circular
+sofa of the latest pattern, with chairs and settees to match, and at one
+end a foreign stove, in which a fire had been recently lighted for our
+coming. Against the wall were placed a full-length mirror, several
+brackets, and some fancy work. The most interesting of the ornaments in
+the room were portraits of Li-Hung-Chang himself, Krupp the gun-maker,
+Armstrong the ship-builder, and the immortal "Chinese Gordon," the only
+foreigner, it is said, who has ever won a spark of admiration from the
+Chinese people.
+
+While we were waiting for the viceroy, his second son, the pupil of Mr.
+Tenney, came in and was introduced in the foreign fashion. His English was
+fluent and correct. He was a bright, intelligent lad of nineteen years,
+then about to take his first trial examinations for the Chinese degree of
+scholarship, which, if attained, would make him eligible for official
+position. Although a son of the viceroy he will have to rise by his own
+merit.
+
+Our conversation with the viceroy's son extended over ten or fifteen
+minutes. He asked many questions about the details of our journey. "How,"
+said he, "could you get along without interpreter, guide, or servant, when
+every foreigner who goes even from here to Peking has to have them?" He
+questioned us as to whether or not the Chinese had ever called us names.
+We replied that we usually traveled in China under the _nom de Chinois_,
+_yang queedza_ (the foreign devils), alias _yeh renn_ (the wild men). A
+blush overspread his cheeks as he said: "I must apologize for my
+countrymen; I hope you will excuse them, for they know no better." The
+young man expressed deep interest in America and American institutions,
+and said if he could obtain his father's consent he would certainly make a
+visit to our country. This was the only son then at home with the viceroy,
+his eldest son being minister to Japan. The youngest, the viceroy's
+favorite, was, it was said, the brightest and most promising. His death
+occurred only a few months before our arrival in Tientsin.
+
+We were holding an animated conversation when the viceroy himself was
+announced. We all stood to show our respect for the prime minister whom
+General Grant included among the three greatest statesmen of his day. The
+viceroy was preceded by two body-servants. We stood before a man who
+appeared to be over six feet in height, although his head and shoulders
+were considerably bent with age. His flowing dress was made of rich
+colored silk, but very plain indeed. Any ornamentation would have been a
+profanation of the natural dignity and stateliness of Li-Hung-Chang. With
+slow pace he walked into the room, stopped a moment to look at us, then
+advanced with outstretched hand, while a faint smile played about his
+features and softened the piercing glance of his eyes. He shook our hands
+heartily in the foreign fashion, and without any show of ceremony led the
+way into an adjoining room, where a long council-table extended over half
+the length. The viceroy took the arm-chair at the head, and motioned us to
+take the two seats on his left, while Mr. Tenney and the viceroy's son sat
+on his right. For almost a minute not a word was said on either side. The
+viceroy had fixed his gaze intently upon us, and, like a good general
+perhaps, was taking a thorough survey of the field before he opened up the
+cannonade of questions that was to follow. We in turn were just as busily
+engaged in taking a mental sketch of his most prominent physical
+characteristics. His face was distinctly oval, tapering from a very broad
+forehead to a sharp pointed chin, half-obscured by his thin, gray
+"goatee." The crown of his head was shaven in the usual Tsing fashion,
+leaving a tuft of hair for a queue, which in the viceroy's case was short
+and very thin. His dry, sallow skin showed signs of wrinkling; a thick
+fold lay under each eye, and at each end of his upper lip. There were no
+prominent cheek-bones or almond-shaped eyes, which are so distinctively
+seen in most of the Mongolian race. Under the scraggy mustache we could
+distinguish a rather benevolent though determined mouth; while his small,
+keen eyes, which were somewhat sunken, gave forth a flash that was perhaps
+but a flickering ember of the fire they once contained. The left eye,
+which was partly closed by a paralytic stroke several years ago, gave him
+a rather artful, waggish appearance. The whole physiognomy was that of a
+man of strong intuition, with the ability to force his point when
+necessary, and the shrewd common sense to yield when desiring to be
+politic.
+
+  [Illustration: FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN
+  CHARACTERS.]
+
+"Well, gentlemen," he said at last, through Mr. Tenney as interpreter,
+"you don't look any the worse for your long journey."
+
+"We are glad to hear your excellency say so," we replied; "it is
+gratifying to know that our appearance speaks well for the treatment we
+have received in China."
+
+We hope our readers will consider the requirements of Chinese etiquette as
+sufficient excuse for our failure to say candidly that, if we looked
+healthy, it was not the fault of his countrymen.
+
+"Of all the countries through which you have passed, which do you consider
+the best?" the viceroy then asked.
+
+In our answer to this question the reader would no doubt expect us to
+follow etiquette, and say that we thought China was the best; and,
+perhaps, the viceroy himself had a similar expectation. But between
+telling a positive lie, and not telling the truth, there is perhaps
+sufficient difference to shield us from the charge of gross inconsistency.
+We answered, therefore, that in many respects, we considered America the
+greatest country we had seen. We ought of course to have said that no
+reasonable person in the world would ever think of putting any other
+country above the Celestial Empire; our bluntness elicited some surprise,
+for the viceroy said:
+
+"If then you thought that America was the best why did you come to see
+other countries?"
+
+"Because until we had seen other countries," we replied, "we did not know
+that America was the best." But this answer the viceroy evidently
+considered a mere subterfuge. He was by no means satisfied.
+
+"What was your real object in undertaking such a peculiar journey?" he
+asked rather impatiently.
+
+"To see and study the world and its peoples," we answered; "to get a
+practical training as a finish to a theoretical education. The bicycle was
+adopted only because we considered it the most convenient means of
+accomplishing that purpose."
+
+The viceroy, however, could not understand how a man should wish to use
+his own strength when he could travel on the physical force of some one
+else; nor why it was that we should adopt a course through central Asia
+and northwestern China when the southern route through India would have
+been far easier and less dangerous. He evidently gave it up as a
+conundrum, and started out on another line.
+
+"Do you consider the Shah of Persia a powerful monarch?" was his next
+question.
+
+"Powerful, perhaps, in the Oriental sense," we replied, "but very weak in
+comparison with the Western nations. Then, too, he seems to be losing the
+power that he does have--he is compelled to play more and more into the
+hands of the Russians."
+
+"Do you think that Russia will eventually try to take possession of
+Persia?" the viceroy interrupted.
+
+"That, of course, is problematical," we answered, with the embarrassment
+men of our age might feel at being instigated to talk politics with a
+prime minister. "What we do know, for certain, is that Russia is now, with
+her Transcaspian railroad, within about forty miles of Meshed, the capital
+of Persia's richest province of Khorasan; that she now has a
+well-engineered and, for a great portion of the way, a macadamized road to
+that city across the Kopet Dagh mountains from Askabad, the capital of
+Russian Transcaspia; and that half that road the Persians were rather
+forcibly invited to construct."
+
+  [Illustration: MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE
+  SHIPPING BUSINESS.]
+
+"Do you think," again interrupted the viceroy, whose interest in the
+Russians now began to take a more domestic turn, "that the Russians would
+like to have the Chinese province of Ili?"
+
+To this question we might very appropriately have said, "No"; for the
+reason that we thought Russia had it already. She is only waiting to draw
+it in, when she feels certain that her Siberian flank is better protected.
+The completion of the Transsiberian railroad, by which troops can be
+readily transported to that portion of her dominion, may change Russia's
+attitude toward the province of Ili. We did not, however, say this to his
+excellency. We merely replied that we believed Russia was seldom known to
+hold aloof from anything of value, which she thought she could get with
+impunity. As she was now sending cart-load after cart-load of goods over
+the border, through Ili, into northern and western China, without paying a
+cent of customs duty, while on the other hand not even a leaf of tea or
+thread of cotton passed over the Russian line from China without the
+payment of an exorbitant tariff; and as she had already established in
+Kuldja a postal, telegraph, and Cossack station, it would seem that she
+does not even now view the province of Ili as wholly foreign to the
+Russian empire.
+
+At this the viceroy cleared his throat, and dropped his eyes in thoughtful
+mood, as much as to say: "Ah, I know the Russians; but there is no help
+for it."
+
+At this point we ventured to ask the viceroy if it were true, as we had
+been informed, that Russia had arranged a treaty with China, by which she
+was entitled to establish consuls in several of the interior provinces of
+the Chinese empire, but he evaded the question with adroitness, and asked:
+
+"Didn't you find the roads very bad in China?"
+
+This question was creditable to the viceroy's knowledge of his own
+country, but to this subject we brought the very best Chinese politeness
+we could muster. We said that inasmuch as China had not yet adopted the
+bicycle, her roads, of course, were not adapted to that mode of
+locomotion.
+
+The viceroy then asked us to describe the bicycle, and inquired if such a
+vehicle did not create considerable consternation among the people.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.]
+
+We told him that the bicycle from a Chinese point of view was capable of
+various descriptions. On the passports given us by the Chinese minister in
+London the bicycle was called "a seat-sitting, foot-moving machine." The
+natives in the interior had applied to it various epithets, among which
+were _yang ma_ (foreign horse), _fei-chay_ (flying-machine), _sz�dzun
+chay_ (self-moving cart), and others. The most graphic description,
+perhaps, was given by a Chinaman whom we overheard relating to his
+neighbors the first appearance of the bicycle in his quiet little village.
+"It is a little mule," said he, "that you drive by the ears, and kick in
+the sides to make him go." A dignified smile overspread the viceroy's
+features.
+
+"Didn't the people try to steal your money?" he next inquired.
+
+"No," we replied. "From our impoverished appearance, they evidently
+thought we had nothing. Our wardrobe being necessarily limited by our mode
+of travel, we were sometimes reduced to the appearance of traveling
+mendicants, and were often the objects of pity or contempt. Either this,
+or our peculiar mode of travel, seemed to dispel all thought of highway
+robbery; we never lost even so much as a button on our journey of over
+three thousand miles across the Chinese empire."
+
+"Did the governors you met treat you well?" he asked; and then immediately
+added: "Being scholars, were you not subjected to some indignity by being
+urged to perform for every mandarin you met?"
+
+"By nearly all the governors," we said, "we were treated very kindly
+indeed; but we were not so certain that the same favors would have been
+extended to us had we not cheerfully consented to give exhibitions of
+bicycle riding."
+
+There was now a lull in the conversation. The viceroy shifted his position
+in his chair, and took another whiff from the long, slender Chinese pipe
+held to his mouth by one of his body-servants. One whiff, and the pipe was
+taken away to be emptied and refilled. After a short respite he again
+resumed the conversation, but the questions he now asked were of a
+personal nature. We enumerate a few of them, without comment, only for the
+purpose of throwing some additional light on the character of our
+questioner.
+
+"About how much did the trip cost you? Do you expect to get back all or
+more than you spent? Will you write a book?
+
+"Did you find on your route any gold or silver deposits?
+
+"Do you like the Chinese diet; and how much did one meal cost you?
+
+"How old are you? [One of the first questions a Chinese host usually asks
+his guest.] Are you married? What is the trade or profession of your
+parents? Are they wealthy? Do they own much land?" (A Chinaman's idea of
+wealth is limited somewhat by the amount of land owned.)
+
+"Will you telegraph to your parents from Shanghai your safe arrival there?
+
+"Were you not rash in attempting such a journey? Suppose you had been
+killed out in the interior of Asia, no one would ever have heard of you
+again.
+
+"Are you Democrats or Republicans?" (The viceroy showed considerable
+knowledge of our government and institutions.)
+
+"Will you run for any political office in America? Do you ever expect to
+get into Congress?
+
+"Do you have to buy offices in America?" was the last inquiry.
+
+There was considerable hesitancy on the part of us both to answer this
+question. Finally we were obliged to admit that sometimes such was the
+case. "Ah," said the viceroy, "that is a very bad thing about American
+politics." But in this censure he was even more severe on his own country
+than America. Referring to ourselves in this connection, the viceroy
+ventured to predict that we might become so well-known as the result of
+our journey that we could get into office without paying for it. "You are
+both young," he added, "and can hope for anything."
+
+During the conversation the viceroy frequently smiled, and sometimes came
+so near overstepping the bounds of Chinese propriety as to chuckle. At
+first his reception was more formal, but his interest soon led him to
+dispense with all formality, and before the close of the interview the
+questions were rapidly asked and discussed. We have had some experience
+with examining attorneys, and an extended acquaintance with the American
+reporter; but we are convinced that for genuine inquisitiveness
+Li-Hung-Chang stands peerless. We made several attempts to take leave, but
+were interrupted each time by a question from the viceroy. Mr. Tenney, in
+fact, became fatigued with the task of interpreting, so that many of the
+long answers were translated by the viceroy's son.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE BRIDE.]
+
+The interview was conducted as nearly as possible in the foreign fashion.
+We smoked cigarettes, and a bottle of champagne was served. Finally the
+interview was brought to a close by a health from the viceroy to
+"Ta-ma-quo" (the great American country).
+
+In conclusion we thanked the viceroy for the honor he had done us. He
+replied that we must not thank him at all; that he was only doing his
+duty. "Scholars," said he, "must receive scholars."
+
+The viceroy rose from his chair with difficulty; the servant took him by
+the elbows and half lifted him to his feet. He then walked slowly out of
+the room with us, and across the courtyard to the main exit. Here he shook
+us heartily by the hand, and bowed us out in the Chinese manner.
+
+Li-Hung-Chang is virtually the emperor of the Celestial Empire; the
+present "Son of Heaven" (the young emperor) has only recently reached his
+majority. Li-Hung-Chang is China's intellectual height, from whom emanate
+nearly all her progressive ideas. He stands to-day in the light of a
+mediator between foreign progressiveness and native prejudice and
+conservatism. It has been said that Li-Hung-Chang is really anti-foreign
+at heart; that he employs the Occidentals only long enough for them to
+teach his own countrymen how to get along without them. Whether this be so
+or not, it is certain that the viceroy recognizes the advantages to be
+derived from foreign methods and inventions, and employs them for the
+advancement of his country. Upon him rests the decision in nearly all the
+great questions of the empire. Scarcely an edict or document of any kind
+is issued that does not go over his signature or under his direct
+supervision. To busy himself with the smallest details is a distinctive
+characteristic of the man. Systematic methods, combined with an
+extraordinary mind, enable him to accomplish his herculean task. In the
+eastern horizon Li-Hung-Chang shines as the brilliant star of morning that
+tells of the coming of a brighter dawn.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 FOOTNOTE
+
+
+    1 Eight years before the first recorded ascent of Ararat by Dr. Parrot
+      (1829), there appeared the following from "Travels in Georgia,
+      Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia," by Sir Robert Ker Porter,
+      who, in his time, was an authority on southwestern Asia: "These
+      inaccessible heights [of Mount Ararat] have never been trod by the
+      foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then; for my idea is
+      that the Ark rested in the space between the two heads (Great and
+      Little Ararat), and not on the top of either. Various attempts have
+      been made in different ages to ascend these tremendous mountain
+      pyramids, but in vain. Their forms, snows, and glaciers are
+      insurmountable obstacles: the distance being so great from the
+      commencement of the icy region to the highest points, cold alone
+      would be the destruction of any one who had the hardihood to
+      persevere."
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+The list of illustrations has been added in the electronic text.
+
+The following typographical errors have been corrected:
+
+      page 82, period changed to comma (after "was")
+      page 140, "Siberan" changed to "Siberian"
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation (_e. g._ "footsteps" and "foot-steps",
+"innkeeper" and "inn-keeper", "moonlight" and "moon-light", "pigtails" and
+"pig-tails", "wickerwork" and "wicker-work"), punctuation or italicizing
+has not been changed. The authors use both "Yengiz" and "Yenghiz",
+"bakshish" and "baksheesh", "pilaff" and "pillao".
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+
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+                                 CREDITS
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+    
+
+    
+      
+        
+    
+
+<div lang="en" class="tei tei-text" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 2.00em" xml:lang="en">
+<div class="tei tei-front" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 2.00em">
+    <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+                <div id="pgheader" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em">The Project Gutenberg EBook of Across Asia on a Bicycle by Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben</p></div><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
+          and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
+          give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
+          Gutenberg License <a href="#pglicense" class="tei tei-ref">included with this
+          eBook</a> or online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license" class="tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a></p></div><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">Title: Across Asia on a Bicycle
+
+Author: Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2010 [Ebook #31111]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+</pre></div>
+            </div>
+            <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+                
+            </div>
+    <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+        <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+        <div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">
+ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+</span></p>
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+      <a name="ill1" id="ill1"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i004.jpg" alt="THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER." title="THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.</span></div></div>
+
+</div><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-titlePage" style="text-align: center">
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-docTitle" style="text-align: center">
+    <span class="tei tei-titlePart" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 173%">ACROSS ASIA ON A</span><br /><span style="font-size: 173%">BICYCLE</span></span><br /><br />
+    <span class="tei tei-titlePart" style="text-align: center">THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS<br />
+FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING</span>
+</span>
+    <br /><br />
+<div class="tei tei-byline" style="text-align: center">BY<br />
+<span class="tei tei-docAuthor" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">THOMAS GASKELL ALLEN, </span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%; font-variant: small-caps">Jr.</span></span></span><br />
+AND<br />
+<span class="tei tei-docAuthor" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">WILLIAM LEWIS SACHTLEBEN</span></span></div>
+<br /><br />
+<span class="tei tei-docImprint" style="text-align: center">NEW YORK<br />
+<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">THE CENTURY CO.</span></span></span>
+    <br />
+<span class="tei tei-docDate" style="text-align: center">1894</span>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb" style="text-align: center"></div>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+ Copyright, 1894, by<br />
+ <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">The Century Co.</span></span>
+</p>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+    <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-style: italic">All rights reserved.</span></span>
+</p>
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">
+       THE DEVINNE PRESS. 
+    </span></p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+    
+        <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">TO<br /><br />
+        <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-style: italic">THOSE AT HOME</span></span><br /><br />
+        WHOSE THOUGHTS AND<br />
+          WISHES WERE EVER<br />
+            WITH US IN OUR<br />
+            WANDERINGS
+        </p>
+    
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexi">[pg xi]</span><a name="Pgxi" id="Pgxi" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc2" id="toc2"></a><a name="pdf3" id="pdf3"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">PREFACE</span></h1>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing
+the most interesting part of a bicycle journey around
+the world,—our ride across Asia. We were actuated by
+no desire to make a <span class="tei tei-q">“record”</span> in bicycle travel, although
+we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous
+land journey ever made around the world.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The day after we were graduated at Washington University,
+St. Louis, Mo., we left for New York. Thence we
+sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890. Just three years
+afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York
+on our wheels, having <span class="tei tei-q">“put a girdle round the earth.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After
+following many of the beaten lines of travel in the British
+Isles we arrived in London, where we formed our plans
+for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most
+dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we
+were told, were western China, the Desert of Gobi, and
+central China. Never since the days of Marco Polo had
+a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese
+empire from the west to Peking.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to
+Paris, across the lowlands of western France to Bordeaux,
+eastward over the Lesser Alps to Marseilles, and along the
+Riviera into Italy. After visiting every important city on
+the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day of
+1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexii">[pg xii]</span><a name="Pg0xii" id="Pg0xii" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>proceeding along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we
+passed the winter. We went to Constantinople by vessel
+in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April, and began
+the long journey described in the following pages. When
+we had finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom,
+we sailed from Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged
+to San Francisco, where we arrived on Christmas
+night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles
+and wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas
+to New York.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+During all of this journey we never employed the services
+of guides or interpreters. We were compelled, therefore,
+to learn a little of the language of every country
+through which we passed. Our independence in this regard
+increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but
+certainly contributed much toward the object we sought—a
+close acquaintance with strange peoples.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+During our travels we took more than two thousand
+five hundred photographs, selections from which are reproduced
+in the illustrations of this volume.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div><a name="Pgxiii" id="Pgxiii" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc4" id="toc4"></a><a name="pdf5" id="pdf5"></a>
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">CONTENTS</span></h1>
+    <table summary="This is a table" cellspacing="0" class="tei tei-table" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"><colgroup span="3"></colgroup><tbody><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 90%">PAGE</span></td>
+        </tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">I.</td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Beyond the Bosporus</span></span></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg001" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">1</a></td>
+        </tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">II.</td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">The Ascent of Mount Ararat</span></span></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg043" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">43</a></td>
+        </tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"> III.</td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Through Persia to Samarkand</span></span></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg083" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">83</a></td>
+        </tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">IV.</td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">The Journey from Samarkand to Kuldja</span></span></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg115" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">115</a></td>
+        </tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">V.</td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Over the Gobi Desert and through the Western Gate of the Great Wall</span></span></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg149" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">149</a></td>
+        </tr><tr class="tei tei-row">
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right">VI.</td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell"><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">An Interview with the Prime Minister of China</span></span></td>
+            <td class="tei tei-cell" style="text-align: right"><a href="#Pg207" class="tei tei-ref" style="text-align: right">207</a></td>
+        </tr></tbody></table>
+
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+</div>
+  <hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+      <a name="toc6" id="toc6"></a><a name="pdf7" id="pdf7"></a>
+    <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">List of Illustrations</span></h1>
+    <ul class="tei tei-index tei-index-ill"><li><a href="#ill1">THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER. [Frontispiece]</a></li><li><a href="#ill10">BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA. [p. 4 and 5]</a></li><li><a href="#ill11">THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.' [p. 6]</a></li><li><a href="#ill12">HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES. [p. 8]</a></li><li><a href="#ill13">AN ANGORA SHEPHERD. [p. 9]</a></li><li><a href="#ill14">1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 11]</a></li><li><a href="#ill15">A CONTRAST. [p. 12]</a></li><li><a href="#ill16">A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL. [p. 13]</a></li><li><a href="#ill17">MILL IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 15]</a></li><li><a href="#ill18">GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR. [p. 16]</a></li><li><a href="#ill19">SCENE AT A GREEK INN. [p. 19]</a></li><li><a href="#ill20">EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD. [p. 20]</a></li><li><a href="#ill21">GRINDING WHEAT. [p. 21]</a></li><li><a href="#ill22">A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER. [p. 22]</a></li><li><a href="#ill23">TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH. [p. 23]</a></li><li><a href="#ill24">THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS. [p. 25]</a></li><li><a href="#ill25">HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS. [p. 26]</a></li><li><a href="#ill26">ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK. [p. 29]</a></li><li><a href="#ill27">A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN. [p. 30]</a></li><li><a href="#ill28">EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE. [p. 32]</a></li><li><a href="#ill29">PRIMITIVE WEAVING. [p. 33]</a></li><li><a href="#ill30">A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 38]</a></li><li><a href="#ill31">A VILLAGE SCENE. [p. 40]</a></li><li><a href="#ill32">[Rural scene without caption.] [p. 42]</a></li><li><a href="#ill35">WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE. [p. 50]</a></li><li><a href="#ill36">READY FOR THE START. [p. 53]</a></li><li><a href="#ill37">PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING. [p. 56]</a></li><li><a href="#ill38">THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT. [p. 59]</a></li><li><a href="#ill39">OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION. [p. 65]</a></li><li><a href="#ill40">HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD. [p. 67]</a></li><li><a href="#ill41">LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW. [p. 69]</a></li><li><a href="#ill42">THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET. [p. 72]</a></li><li><a href="#ill43">NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM. [p. 74]</a></li><li><a href="#ill44">ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE. [p. 78]</a></li><li><a href="#ill47">HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI. [p. 84]</a></li><li><a href="#ill48">LEAVING KHOI. [p. 86]</a></li><li><a href="#ill49">YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]</a></li><li><a href="#ill50">LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]</a></li><li><a href="#ill51">THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH. [p. 91]</a></li><li><a href="#ill52">A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON. [p. 94]</a></li><li><a href="#ill53">LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED. [p. 96]</a></li><li><a href="#ill54">IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD. [p. 98]</a></li><li><a href="#ill55">PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY. [p. 99]</a></li><li><a href="#ill56">A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS. [p. 100]</a></li><li><a href="#ill57">CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD. [p. 102]</a></li><li><a href="#ill58">PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED. [p. 104]</a></li><li><a href="#ill59">RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED. [p. 105]</a></li><li><a href="#ill60">FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED. [p. 106]</a></li><li><a href="#ill61">IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED. [p. 107]</a></li><li><a href="#ill62">WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY. [p. 108]</a></li><li><a href="#ill63">GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED. [p. 109]</a></li><li><a href="#ill64">AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD. [p. 111]</a></li><li><a href="#ill65">MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. [p. 112]</a></li><li><a href="#ill66">CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD. [p. 113]</a></li><li><a href="#ill67">A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE. [p. 114]</a></li><li><a href="#ill70">A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND. [p. 116]</a></li><li><a href="#ill71">OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN. [p. 118]</a></li><li><a href="#ill72">PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND. [p. 121]</a></li><li><a href="#ill73">A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.' [p. 123]</a></li><li><a href="#ill74">VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL. [p. 125]</a></li><li><a href="#ill75">ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE. [p. 129]</a></li><li><a href="#ill76">UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER. [p. 132]</a></li><li><a href="#ill77">KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER. [p. 134]</a></li><li><a href="#ill78">FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS. [p. 138]</a></li><li><a href="#ill79">STROLLING MUSICIANS. [p. 141]</a></li><li><a href="#ill80">THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA. [p. 143]</a></li><li><a href="#ill81">THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA. [p. 145]</a></li><li><a href="#ill82">TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN. [p. 146]</a></li><li><a href="#ill83">A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA. [p. 148]</a></li><li><a href="#ill86">THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY. [p. 151]</a></li><li><a href="#ill87">VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE. [p. 153]</a></li><li><a href="#ill88">OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT. [p. 155]</a></li><li><a href="#ill89">A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA. [p. 158]</a></li><li><a href="#ill90">PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT. [p. 160]</a></li><li><a href="#ill91">THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY. [p. 161]</a></li><li><a href="#ill92">A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA. [p. 163]</a></li><li><a href="#ill93">SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE. [p. 165]</a></li><li><a href="#ill94">THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING. [p. 167]</a></li><li><a href="#ill95">RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS. [p. 168]</a></li><li><a href="#ill96">MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI. [p. 170]</a></li><li><a href="#ill97">A BANK IN URUMTSI. [p. 171]</a></li><li><a href="#ill98">A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 173]</a></li><li><a href="#ill99">STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. [p. 174]</a></li><li><a href="#ill100">A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL. [p. 176]</a></li><li><a href="#ill101">CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI. [p. 178]</a></li><li><a href="#ill102">SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 179]</a></li><li><a href="#ill103">A LESSON IN CHINESE. [p. 180]</a></li><li><a href="#ill104">A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 182]</a></li><li><a href="#ill105">IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 183]</a></li><li><a href="#ill106">STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN. [p. 185]</a></li><li><a href="#ill107">A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI. [p. 187]</a></li><li><a href="#ill108">A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI. [p. 188]</a></li><li><a href="#ill109">A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 189]</a></li><li><a href="#ill110">WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL. [p. 191]</a></li><li><a href="#ill111">RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU. [p. 193]</a></li><li><a href="#ill112">A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN. [p. 196]</a></li><li><a href="#ill113">A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW. [p. 199]</a></li><li><a href="#ill114">MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE. [p. 201]</a></li><li><a href="#ill115">TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 203]</a></li><li><a href="#ill116">MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 205]</a></li><li><a href="#ill117">LI-HUNG-CHANG. [p. 206]</a></li><li><a href="#ill120">OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 209]</a></li><li><a href="#ill121">MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 210]</a></li><li><a href="#ill122">ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE. [p. 211]</a></li><li><a href="#ill123">MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN. [p. 212]</a></li><li><a href="#ill124">MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN. [p. 215]</a></li><li><a href="#ill125">ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 217]</a></li><li><a href="#ill126">A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 218]</a></li><li><a href="#ill127">SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU. [p. 220]</a></li><li><a href="#ill128">WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER. [p. 221]</a></li><li><a href="#ill129">FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS. [p. 225]</a></li><li><a href="#ill130">MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS. [p. 228]</a></li><li><a href="#ill131">A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL. [p. 230]</a></li><li><a href="#ill132">A CHINESE BRIDE. [p. 233]</a></li></ul>
+  </div>
+  <hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">
+ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+</span></p>
+
+<div class="tei tei-pb"></div>        
+    </div>
+</div>
+<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-body" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page1">[pg 1]</span><a name="Pg001" id="Pg001" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE</span></h1>
+
+<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">
+THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS</span><br /><span style="font-size: 144%">
+FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+</span></h1>
+<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+    <a name="toc8" id="toc8"></a><a name="pdf9" id="pdf9"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">I</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">BEYOND THE BOSPORUS</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On a morning early in April the little steamer conveying
+us across from Stamboul touched the wharf
+at Haider Pasha. Amid the rabble of Greeks, Armenians,
+Turks, and Italians we trundled our bicycles across the
+gang-plank, which for us was the threshold of Asia, the
+beginning of an inland journey of seven thousand miles
+from the Bosporus to the Pacific. Through the morning
+fog which enveloped the shipping in the Golden Horn,
+the <span class="tei tei-q">“stars and stripes”</span> at a single masthead were waving
+farewell to two American students fresh from college who
+had nerved themselves for nearly two years of separation
+from the comforts of western civilization.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our guide to the road to Ismid was the little twelve-year-old
+son of an Armenian doctor, whose guests we had
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page2">[pg 2]</span><a name="Pg002" id="Pg002" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>been during our sojourn in Stamboul. He trotted for
+some distance by our side, and then, pressing our hands
+in both of his, he said with childlike sincerity: <span class="tei tei-q">“I hope
+God will take care of you”</span>; for he was possessed with
+the thought popular among Armenians, of pillages and
+massacres by marauding brigands.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The idea of a trip around the world had been conceived
+by us as a practical finish to a theoretical education; and
+the bicycle feature was adopted merely as a means to
+that end. On reaching London we had formed the plan
+of penetrating the heart of the Asiatic continent, instead
+of skirting its more civilized coast-line. For a passport
+and other credentials necessary in journeying through
+Russia and Central Asia we had been advised to make
+application to the Czar’s representative on our arrival at
+Teheran, as we would enter the Russian dominions from
+Persia; and to that end the Russian minister in London
+had provided us with a letter of introduction. In London
+the secretary of the Chinese legation, a Scotchman, had
+assisted us in mapping out a possible route across the
+Celestial empire, although he endeavored, from the very
+start, to dissuade us from our purpose. Application had
+then been made to the Chinese minister himself for the
+necessary passport. The reply we received, though courteous,
+smacked strongly of reproof. <span class="tei tei-q">“Western China,”</span>
+he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“is overrun with lawless bands, and the people
+themselves are very much averse to foreigners. Your
+extraordinary mode of locomotion would subject you to
+annoyance, if not to positive danger, at the hands of a
+people who are naturally curious and superstitious. However,”</span>
+he added, after some reflection, <span class="tei tei-q">“if your minister
+makes a request for a passport we will see what can
+be done. The most I can do will be to ask for you the
+protection and assistance of the officials only; for the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page3">[pg 3]</span><a name="Pg003" id="Pg003" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>people themselves I cannot answer. If you go into that
+country you do so at your own risk.”</span> Minister Lincoln
+was sitting in his private office when we called the next
+morning at the American legation. He listened to the
+recital of our plans, got down the huge atlas from his
+bookcase, and went over with us the route we proposed
+to follow. He did not regard the undertaking as feasible,
+and apprehended that, if he should give his official
+assistance, he would, in a measure, be responsible for the
+result if it should prove unhappy. When assured of the
+consent of our parents, and of our determination to make
+the attempt at all hazards, he picked up his pen and
+began a letter to the Chinese minister, remarking as he
+finished reading it to us, <span class="tei tei-q">“I would much rather not have
+written it.”</span> The documents received from the Chinese
+minister in response to Mr. Lincoln’s letter proved to be
+indispensable when, a year and a half later, we left the
+last outpost of western civilization and plunged into the
+Gobi desert. When we had paid a final visit to the Persian
+minister in London, who had asked to see our bicycles
+and their baggage equipments, he signified his
+intention of writing in our behalf to friends in Teheran;
+and to that capital, after cycling through Europe, we were
+now actually <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">en route</span></span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Since the opening of the Trans-Bosporus Railway, the
+wagon-road to Ismid, and even the Angora military highway
+beyond, have fallen rapidly into disrepair. In April
+they were almost impassable for the wheel, so that for the
+greater part of the way we were obliged to take to the
+track. Like the railway skirting the Italian Riviera, and
+the Patras-Athens line along the Saronic Gulf, this Trans-Bosporus
+road for a great distance scarps and tunnels the
+cliffs along the Gulf of Ismid, and sometimes runs so close
+to the water’s edge that the puffing of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kara vapor</span></span> or
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page4">[pg 4]</span><a name="Pg004" id="Pg004" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“land steamer,”</span> as the Turks call it, is drowned by the
+roaring breakers. The country between Scutari and
+Ismid surpasses in agricultural advantages any part of
+Asiatic Turkey through which we passed. Its fertile soil,
+and the luxuriant vegetation it supports, are, as we afterward
+learned, in striking contrast with the sterile plateaus
+and mountains of the interior, many parts of which are
+as desolate as the deserts of Arabia. In area, Asia Minor
+equals France, but the water-supply of its rivers is only
+one third.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill10" id="ill10"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i018.png" alt="BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA." /></div>
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i019.png" alt="BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA." /></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+One of the principal agents in the work of transforming
+Asia Minor is the railroad, to which the natives have
+taken with unusual readiness. The locomotive is already
+competing with the hundred and sixty thousand camels
+employed in the peninsula caravan-trade. At Geiveh, the
+last station on the Trans-Bosporus Railway, where we left
+the track to follow the Angora highway, the <span class="tei tei-q">“ships of
+the desert”</span> are beginning to transfer their cargoes to the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page5">[pg 5]</span><a name="Pg005" id="Pg005" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“land steamer,”</span> instead of continuing on as in former
+days to the Bosporus.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill11" id="ill11"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i020.png" alt="THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.'" title="THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE “DEVIL’S CARRIAGE.”" /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">DEVIL’S CARRIAGE.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Trans-Bosporus line, in the year of our visit, was
+being built and operated by a German company, under
+the direct patronage of the Sultan. We ventured to ask
+some natives if they thought the Sultan had sufficient
+funds to consummate so gigantic a scheme, and they
+replied, with the deepest reverence: <span class="tei tei-q">“God has given the
+Padishah much property and power, and certainly he
+must give him enough money to utilize it.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A week’s cycling from the Bosporus brought us beyond
+the Allah Dagh mountains, among the barren, variegated
+hills that skirt the Angora plateau. We had already
+passed through Ismid, the ancient Nicomedia and capital
+of Diocletian; and had left behind us the heavily timbered
+valley of the Sakaria, upon whose banks the <span class="tei tei-q">“Freebooter
+of the Bithynian hills”</span> settled with his four hundred tents
+and laid the foundation of the Ottoman empire. Since
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page6">[pg 6]</span><a name="Pg006" id="Pg006" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>leaving Geiveh we had been attended by a mounted
+guard, or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">zaptieh</span></span>, who was sometimes forced upon us by
+the authorities in their anxiety to carry out the wishes
+expressed in the letters of the Grand Vizir. On emerging
+from the door of an inn we frequently found this unexpected
+guard waiting with a Winchester rifle swung over
+his shoulder, and a fleet steed standing by his side. Immediately
+on our appearance he would swing into the
+saddle and charge through the assembled rabble. Away
+we would go at a rapid pace down the streets of the town
+or village, to the utter amazement of the natives and the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page7">[pg 7]</span><a name="Pg007" id="Pg007" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>great satisfaction of our vainglorious zaptieh. As long
+as his horse was fresh, or until we were out of sight of
+the village, he would urge us on with cries of <span class="tei tei-q">“Gellcha-buk”</span>
+(<span class="tei tei-q">“Come on, ride fast”</span>). When a bad piece of road
+or a steep ascent forced us to dismount he would bring
+his horse to a walk, roll a cigarette, and draw invidious
+comparisons between our steeds. His tone, however,
+changed when we reached a decline or long stretch of
+reasonably good road. Then he would cut across country
+to head us off, or shout after us at the top of his voice,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Yavash-yavash”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Slowly, slowly”</span>). On the whole we
+found them good-natured and companionable fellows, notwithstanding
+their interest in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">baksheesh</span></span> which we were
+compelled at last, in self-defense, to fix at one piaster an
+hour. We frequently shared with them our frugal, and
+even scanty meals; and in turn they assisted us in our
+purchases and arrangements for lodgings, for their word,
+we found, was with the common people an almost unwritten
+law. Then, too, they were of great assistance in
+crossing streams where the depth would have necessitated
+the stripping of garments; although their fiery little
+steeds sometimes objected to having an extra rider astride
+their haunches, and a bicycle across their shoulders. They
+seized every opportunity to impress us with the necessity
+of being accompanied by a government representative.
+In some lonely portion of the road, or in the suggestive
+stillness of an evening twilight, our Turkish Don Quixote
+would sometimes cast mysterious glances around him,
+take his Winchester from his shoulder, and throwing it
+across the pommel of his saddle, charge ahead to meet
+the imaginary enemy. But we were more harmful than
+harmed, for, despite our most vigilant care, the bicycles
+were sometimes the occasion of a stampede or runaway
+among the caravans and teams along the highway, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page8">[pg 8]</span><a name="Pg008" id="Pg008" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>we frequently assisted in replacing the loads thus upset.
+On such occasions our pretentious cavalier would remain
+on his horse, smoking his cigarette and smiling disdainfully.
+</p>
+<a name="ill12" id="ill12"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i022.png" alt="HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES." title="HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was in the company of one of these military champions
+that we emerged on the morning of April 12 upon
+the plateau of Angora. On the spring pasture were feeding
+several flocks of the famous Angora goats, and the
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">karamanli</span></span> or fat-tailed sheep, tended by the Yurak shepherds
+and their half-wild and monstrous collies, whose
+half-savage nature fits them to cope with the jackals which
+infest the country. The shepherds did not check their
+sudden onslaught upon us until we were pressed to very
+close quarters, and had drawn our revolvers in self-defense.
+These Yuraks are the nomadic portion of the Turkish
+peasantry. They live in caves or rudely constructed
+huts, shifting their habitation at will, or upon the
+exhaus<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page10">[pg 10]</span><a name="Pg010" id="Pg010" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tion of the pasturage. Their costume is most primitive
+both in style and material; the trousers and caps being
+made of sheepskin and the tunic of plaited wheat-straw.
+In contradistinction to the Yuraks the settled inhabitants
+of the country are called Turks. That term, however,
+which means rustic or clown, is never used by the Turks
+themselves except in derision or disdain; they always
+speak of themselves as <span class="tei tei-q">“Osmanli.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill13" id="ill13"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i023.jpg" alt="AN ANGORA SHEPHERD." title="AN ANGORA SHEPHERD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The great length of the Angora fleece, which sometimes
+reaches eight inches, is due solely to the peculiar
+climate of the locality. The same goats taken elsewhere
+have not thriven. Even the Angora dogs and cats are
+remarkable for the extraordinary length of their fleecy
+covering. On nearing Angora itself, we raced at high
+speed over the undulating plateau. Our zaptieh on his
+jaded horse faded away in the dim distance, and we saw
+him no more. This was our last guard for many weeks
+to come, as we decided to dispense with an escort that
+really retarded us. But on reaching Erzerum, the Vali
+refused us permission to enter the district of Alashgerd
+without a guard, so we were forced to take one.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill14" id="ill14"></a>
+  
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i025.png" alt="1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR." title="1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.</span></div></div>
+  
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We were now on historic ground. To our right, on
+the Owas, a tributary of the Sakaria, was the little village
+of Istanas, where stood the ancient seat of Midas, the
+Phrygian king, and where Alexander the Great cut with
+his sword the Gordian knot to prove his right to the
+rulership of the world. On the plain, over which we were
+now skimming, the great Tatar, Timur, fought the memorable
+battle with Bajazet I., which resulted in the capture
+of the Ottoman conqueror. Since the time that the title
+of Asia applied to the small coast-province of Lydia, this
+country has been the theater for the grandest events in
+human history.
+</p>
+<a name="ill15" id="ill15"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i026.png" alt="A CONTRAST." title="A CONTRAST." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CONTRAST.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The old mud-houses of modern Angora, as we rolled
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page12">[pg 12]</span><a name="Pg012" id="Pg012" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>into the city, contrasted strongly with the cyclopean
+walls of its ancient fortress. After two days in Angora
+we diverged from the direct route to Sivas through Yüzgat,
+so as to visit the city of Kaisarieh. Through the
+efforts of the progressive Vali at Angora, a macadamized
+road was in the course of construction to this point, a
+part of which—to the town of Kirshehr—was already
+completed. Although surrounded by unusual fertility
+and luxuriance for an interior town, the low mud-houses
+and treeless streets give Kirshehr that same thirsty and
+painfully uniform appearance which characterizes every
+village or city in Asiatic Turkey. The mud buildings of
+Babylon, and not the marble edifices of Nineveh, have
+served as models for the Turkish architect. We have
+seen the Turks, when making the mud-straw bricks used
+in house-building, scratch dirt for the purpose from between
+the marble slabs and boulders that lay in profusion
+over the ground. A few of the government buildings
+and some of the larger private residences are improved by
+a coat of whitewash, and now and then the warm spring
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page13">[pg 13]</span><a name="Pg013" id="Pg013" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>showers bring out on the mud roofs a relieving verdure,
+that frequently serves as pasture for the family goat.
+Everything is low and contracted, especially the doorways.
+When a foreigner bumps his head, and demands
+the reason for such stupid architecture, he is met with
+that decisive answer, <span class="tei tei-q">“Adet”</span>—custom, the most powerful
+of all influences in Turkey and the East.
+</p>
+<a name="ill16" id="ill16"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i027.png" alt="A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL." title="A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our entry into Kirshehr was typical of our reception
+everywhere. When we were seen approaching, several
+horsemen came out to get a first look at our strange
+horses. They challenged us to a race, and set a spanking
+pace down into the streets of the town. Before we reached
+the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">khan</span></span>, or inn, we were obliged to dismount. <span class="tei tei-q">“Bin!
+bin!”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Ride! ride!”</span>) went up in a shout. <span class="tei tei-q">“Nimkin
+deyil”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“It is impossible”</span>), we explained, in such a jam;
+and the crowd opened up three or four feet ahead of us.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Bin bocale”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Ride, so that we can see”</span>), they shouted
+again; and some of them rushed up to hold our steeds for
+us to mount. With the greatest difficulty we impressed
+upon our persistent assistants that they could not help us.
+By the time we reached the khan the crowd had become
+almost a mob, pushing and tumbling over one another,
+and yelling to every one in sight that <span class="tei tei-q">“the devil’s carts
+have come.”</span> The
+inn-keeper came
+out, and we had
+to assure him
+that the mob was
+actuated only
+by curiosity. As
+soon as the bicycles
+were over
+the threshold, the
+doors were bolted
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page14">[pg 14]</span><a name="Pg014" id="Pg014" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and braced. The crowds swarmed to the windows. While
+the khanji prepared coffee we sat down to watch the amusing
+by-play and repartee going on around us. Those
+who by virtue of their friendship with the khanji were
+admitted to the room with us began a tirade against the
+boyish curiosity of their less fortunate brethren on the
+outside. Their own curiosity assumed tangible shape.
+Our clothing, and even our hair and faces, were critically
+examined. When we attempted to jot down the
+day’s events in our note-books they crowded closer than
+ever. Our fountain-pen was an additional puzzle to them.
+It was passed around, and explained and commented on
+at length.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our camera was a <span class="tei tei-q">“mysterious”</span> black box. Some said
+it was a telescope, about which they had only a vague
+idea; others, that it was a box containing our money.
+But our map of Asiatic Turkey was to them the most
+curious thing of all. They spread it on the floor, and
+hovered over it, while we pointed to the towns and cities.
+How could we tell where the places were until we had
+been there? How did we even know their names? It
+was wonderful—wonderful! We traced for them our own
+journey, where we had been and where we were going,
+and then endeavored to show them how, by starting from
+our homes and continuing always in an easterly direction,
+we could at last reach our starting-point from the west.
+The more intelligent of them grasped the idea. <span class="tei tei-q">“Around
+the world,”</span> they repeated again and again, with a mystified
+expression.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Relief came at last, in the person of a messenger from
+Osman Beg, the inspector-general of agriculture of the
+Angora vilayet, bearing an invitation to supper. He
+stated that he had already heard of our undertaking
+through the Constantinople press, and desired to make
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page15">[pg 15]</span><a name="Pg015" id="Pg015" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>our acquaintance. His note, which was written in French,
+showed him to be a man of European education; and on
+shaking hands with him a half-hour later, we found him
+to be a man of European origin—an Albanian Greek, and
+a cousin of the Vali at Angora. He said a report had
+gone out that two devils were passing through the country.
+The dinner was one of those incongruous Turkish
+mixtures of sweet and sour, which was by no means relieved
+by the harrowing Turkish music which our host
+ground out from an antiquated hand-organ.
+</p>
+<a name="ill17" id="ill17"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i029.png" alt="MILL IN ASIA MINOR." title="MILL IN ASIA MINOR." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MILL IN ASIA MINOR.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Although it
+was late when
+we returned to
+the khan, we
+found everybody
+still up.
+The room in
+which we were
+to sleep (there
+was only one
+room) was
+filled with a
+crowd of loiterers,
+and tobacco
+smoke.
+Some were
+playing games similar
+to our chess and backgammon,
+while others were
+looking on, and smoking
+the gurgling narghile, or water-pipe.
+The bicycles had been put away under
+lock and key, and the crowd gradually
+dispersed. We lay down in our
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page17">[pg 17]</span><a name="Pg017" id="Pg017" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>clothes, and tried to lose consciousness; but the Turkish
+supper, the tobacco smoke, and the noise of the quarreling
+gamesters, put sleep out of the question. At midnight
+the sudden boom of a cannon reminded us that we
+were in the midst of the Turkish Ramadan. The sound
+of tramping feet, the beating of a bass drum, and the
+whining tones of a Turkish bagpipe, came over the midnight
+air. Nearer it came, and louder grew the sound,
+till it reached the inn door, where it remained for some
+time. The fast of Ramadan commemorates the revelation
+of the Koran to the prophet Mohammed. It lasts
+through the four phases of the moon. From daylight, or,
+as the Koran reads, <span class="tei tei-q">“from the time you can distinguish
+a white thread from a black one,”</span> no good Mussulman
+will eat, drink, or smoke. At midnight the mosques are
+illuminated, and bands of music go about the streets all
+night, making a tremendous uproar. One cannon is fired
+at dusk, to announce the time to break the fast by eating
+supper, another at midnight to arouse the people for the
+preparation of breakfast, and still another at daylight as
+a signal for resuming the fast. This, of course, is very
+hard on the poor man who has to work during the day.
+As a precaution against oversleeping, a watchman goes
+about just before daybreak, and makes a rousing clatter
+at the gate of every Mussulman’s house to warn him that
+if he wants anything to eat he must get it instanter. Our
+roommates evidently intended to make an <span class="tei tei-q">“all night”</span> of
+it, for they forthwith commenced the preparation of their
+morning meal. How it was despatched we do not know,
+for we fell asleep, and were only awakened by the muezzin
+on a neighboring minaret, calling to morning prayer.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill18" id="ill18"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i030.jpg" alt="GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR." title="GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our morning ablutions were usually made <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">à la</span></span> Turk:
+by having water poured upon the hands from a spouted
+vessel. Cleanliness is, with the Turk, perhaps, more than
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page18">[pg 18]</span><a name="Pg018" id="Pg018" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ourselves, the next thing to godliness. But his ideas are
+based upon a very different theory. Although he uses
+no soap for washing either his person or his clothes, yet
+he considers himself much cleaner than the giaour, for the
+reason that he uses running water exclusively, never allowing
+the same particles to touch him the second time.
+A Turk believes that all water is purified after running
+six feet. As a test of his faith we have often seen him
+lading up drinking-water from a stream where the women
+were washing clothes just a few yards above.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill19" id="ill19"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i033.png" alt="SCENE AT A GREEK INN." title="SCENE AT A GREEK INN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">SCENE AT A GREEK INN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+As all cooking and eating had stopped at the sound of
+the morning cannon, we found great difficulty in gathering
+together even a cold breakfast of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ekmek</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yaourt</span></span>, and
+raisins. Ekmek is a cooked bran-flour paste, which has
+the thinness, consistency, and almost the taste of blotting-paper.
+This is the Turkish peasant’s staff of life. He
+carries it with him everywhere; so did we. As it was
+made in huge circular sheets, we would often punch a
+hole in the middle, and slip it up over our arms. This we
+found the handiest and most serviceable mode of transportation,
+being handy to eat without removing our hands
+from the handle-bars, and also answering the purpose of
+sails in case of a favoring wind. Yaourt, another almost
+universal food, is milk curdled with rennet. This, as well
+as all foods that are not liquid, they scoop up with a roll
+of ekmek, a part of the scoop being taken with every
+mouthful. Raisins here, as well as in many other parts
+of the country, are very cheap. We paid two piasters
+(about nine cents) for an <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">oche</span></span> (two and a half pounds),
+but we soon made the discovery that a Turkish oche contained
+a great many <span class="tei tei-q">“stones”</span>—which of course was
+purely accidental. Eggs, also, we found exceedingly
+cheap. On one occasion, twenty-five were set before us,
+in response to our call for eggs to the value of one
+piaster<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page20">[pg 20]</span><a name="Pg020" id="Pg020" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>—four and a half cents. In Asiatic Turkey we had some
+extraordinary dishes served to us, including daintily prepared
+leeches. But the worst mixture, perhaps, was the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Bairam soup,”</span> which contains over a dozen ingredients,
+including peas, prunes, walnuts, cherries, dates, white and
+black beans, apricots, cracked wheat, raisins, etc.—all
+mixed in cold water. Bairam is the period of feasting
+after the Ramadan fast.
+</p>
+<a name="ill20" id="ill20"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i034.png" alt="EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD." title="EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On preparing to leave Kirshehr after our frugal breakfast
+we found that Turkish curiosity had extended even
+to the contents of our baggage, which fitted in the frames
+of the machines. There was nothing missing, however:
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page21">[pg 21]</span><a name="Pg021" id="Pg021" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and we did not lose so much as a button during our sojourn
+among them. Thieving is not one of their faults,
+but they take much latitude in helping themselves. Many
+a time an inn-keeper would <span class="tei tei-q">“help us out”</span> by disposing of
+one third of a chicken that we had paid him a high price
+to prepare.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When we were ready to start the chief of police cleared
+a riding space through the streets, which for an hour had
+been filled with people. As we passed among them they
+shouted <span class="tei tei-q">“Oorooglar olsun”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“May good fortune attend
+you”</span>). <span class="tei tei-q">“Inshallah”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“If it please God”</span>), we replied, and
+waved our helmets in acknowledgment.
+</p>
+<a name="ill21" id="ill21"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i035.png" alt="GRINDING WHEAT." title="GRINDING WHEAT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">GRINDING WHEAT.</span></div></div>
+
+  <a name="ill22" id="ill22"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i036.png" alt="A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER." title="A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At the village of Topakle, on the following night, our
+reception was not so innocent and good-natured. It was
+already dusk when we reached the outskirts of the village,
+where we were at once spied by a young man who was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page22">[pg 22]</span><a name="Pg022" id="Pg022" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>driving in the lowing herd.
+The alarm was given, and
+the people swarmed like so
+many rats from a corn-bin.
+We could see from their
+costume and features that
+they were not pure-blooded
+Turks. We asked if
+we could get food and
+lodging, to which they replied,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Evet, evet”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,
+yes”</span>), but when we asked
+them where, they simply
+pointed ahead, and shouted,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Bin, bin!”</span> We did not
+<span class="tei tei-q">“bin”</span> this time, because
+it was too dark, and the
+streets were bad. We walked, or rather were pushed along
+by the impatient rabble, and almost deafened by their
+shouts of <span class="tei tei-q">“Bin, bin!”</span> At the end of the village we repeated
+our question of where. Again they pointed ahead,
+and shouted, <span class="tei tei-q">“Bin!”</span> Finally an old man led us to what
+seemed to be a private residence, where we had to drag
+our bicycles up a dark narrow stairway to the second
+story. The crowd soon filled the room to suffocation,
+and were not disposed to heed our request to be left
+alone. One stalwart youth showed such a spirit of opposition
+that we were obliged to eject him upon a crowded
+stairway, causing the mob to go down like a row of tenpins.
+Then the owner of the house came in, and in an
+agitated manner declared he could not allow us to remain
+in his house overnight. Our reappearance caused a jeering
+shout to go up from the crowd; but no violence was
+attempted beyond the catching hold of the rear wheel
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page23">[pg 23]</span><a name="Pg023" id="Pg023" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>when our backs were turned, and the throwing of clods
+of earth. They followed us, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">en masse</span></span>, to the edge of
+the village, and there stopped short, to watch us till we
+disappeared in the darkness. The nights at this high
+altitude were chilly. We had no blankets, and not enough
+clothing to warrant a camp among the rocks. There was
+not a twig on the whole plateau with which to build a fire.
+We were alone, however, and that was rest in itself. After
+walking an hour, perhaps, we saw a light gleaming from
+a group of mudhuts a short distance off the road. From
+the numerous flocks around it, we took it to be a shepherds’
+village. Everything was quiet except the restless sheep,
+whose silky fleece glistened in the light of the rising moon.
+Supper was not yet over, for we caught a whiff of its savory
+odor. Leaving our wheels outside, we entered the first
+door we came to, and, following along a narrow passageway,
+emerged into a room where four rather
+rough-look<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page24">[pg 24]</span><a name="Pg024" id="Pg024" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ing shepherds were ladling the soup from a huge bowl in
+their midst. Before they were aware of our presence, we
+uttered the usual salutation <span class="tei tei-q">“Sabala khayr olsun.”</span> This
+startled some little boys who were playing in the corner,
+who yelled, and ran into the haremlük, or women’s apartment.
+This brought to the door the female occupants,
+who also uttered a shriek, and sunk back as if in a swoon.
+It was evident that the visits of giaours to this place had
+been few and far between. The shepherds returned our
+salutation with some hesitation, while their ladles dropped
+into the soup, and their gaze became fixed on our huge
+helmets, our dogskin top-coats, and abbreviated nether
+garments. The women by this time had sufficiently recovered
+from their nervous shock to give scope to their
+usual curiosity through the cracks in the partition. Confidence
+now being inspired by our own composure, we
+were invited to sit down and participate in the evening
+meal. Although it was only a gruel of sour milk and rice,
+we managed to make a meal off it. Meantime the wheels
+had been discovered by some passing neighbor. The news
+was spread throughout the village, and soon an excited
+throng came in with our bicycles borne upon the shoulders
+of two powerful Turks. Again we were besieged with
+entreaties to ride, and, hoping that this would gain for
+us a comfortable night’s rest, we yielded, and, amid peals
+of laughter from a crowd of Turkish peasants, gave an
+exhibition in the moonlight. Our only reward, when we
+returned to our quarters, was two greasy pillows and a
+filthy carpet for a coverlet. But the much needed rest
+we did not secure, for the suspicions aroused by the first
+glance at our bed-cover proved to be well grounded.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill23" id="ill23"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i037.png" alt="TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH." title="TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+About noon on April 20, our road turned abruptly into
+the broad caravan trail that runs between Smyrna and
+Kaisarieh, about ten miles west of the latter city. A long
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page25">[pg 25]</span><a name="Pg025" id="Pg025" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>caravan of camels was moving majestically up the road,
+headed by a little donkey, which the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">devedejee</span></span> (camel-driver)
+was riding with his feet dangling almost to the ground.
+That proverbially stubborn creature moved not a muscle
+until we came alongside, when all at once he gave one of
+his characteristic side lurches, and precipitated the rider
+to the ground. The first camel, with a protesting grunt,
+began to sidle off, and the broadside movement continued
+down the line till the whole caravan stood at an angle of
+about forty-five degrees to the road. The camel of Asia
+Minor does not share that antipathy for the equine species
+which is so general among their Asiatic cousins; but steel
+horses were more than even they could endure.
+</p>
+<a name="ill24" id="ill24"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i039.png" alt="THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS." title="THE “FLIRTING TOWER” IN SIVAS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">FLIRTING TOWER</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> IN SIVAS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A sudden turn in the road now brought us in sight of
+old Arjish Dagh, which towers 13,000 feet above the city
+of Kaisarieh, and whose head and shoulders were covered
+with snow. Native tradition tells us that against this
+lofty summit the ark of Noah struck in the rising flood;
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page26">[pg 26]</span><a name="Pg026" id="Pg026" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and for this reason Noah cursed it, and prayed that it
+might ever be covered with snow. It was in connection
+with this very mountain that we first conceived the idea
+of making the ascent of Ararat. Here and there, on some
+of the most prominent peaks, we could distinguish little
+mounds of earth, the ruined watch-towers of the prehistoric
+Hittites.
+</p>
+<a name="ill25" id="ill25"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i040.png" alt="HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS." title="HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Kaisarieh (ancient Cæsarea) is filled with the ruins and
+the monuments of the fourteenth-century Seljuks. Arrowheads
+and other relics are every day unearthed there, to
+serve as toys for the street urchins. Since the development
+of steam-communication around the coast, it is no
+longer the caravan center that it used to be; but even
+now its <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">charshi</span></span>, or inclosed bazaars, are among the finest
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page27">[pg 27]</span><a name="Pg027" id="Pg027" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in Turkey, being far superior in appearance to those of
+Constantinople. These <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">charshi</span></span> are nothing more than
+narrow streets, inclosed by brick arches, and lined on
+either side with booths. It was through one of these
+that our only route to the khan lay—and yet we felt that
+in such contracted quarters, and in such an excited mob
+as had gathered around us, disaster was sure to follow.
+Our only salvation was to keep ahead of the jam, and get
+through as soon as possible. We started on the spurt;
+and the race began. The unsuspecting merchants and
+their customers were suddenly distracted from their
+thoughts of gain as we whirled by; the crowd close behind
+sweeping everything before it. The falling of barrels
+and boxes, the rattling of tin cans, the crashing of crockery,
+the howling of the vagrant dogs that were trampled
+under foot, only added to the general tumult.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Through the courtesy of Mr. Peet of the American
+Bible House at Constantinople, we were provided with
+letters of introduction to the missionaries at Kaisarieh,
+as well as elsewhere along our route through Asiatic
+Turkey, and upon them we also had drafts to the amount
+of our deposit made at the Bible House before starting.
+Besides, we owed much to the hospitality and kindness of
+these people. The most striking feature of the missionary
+work at Kaisarieh is the education of the Armenian
+women, whose social position seems to be even more
+degraded than that of their Turkish sisters. With the
+native Armenians, as with the Turks, fleshiness adds
+much to the price of a wife. The wife of a missionary
+is to them an object both of wonderment and contempt.
+As she walks along the street, they will whisper to one
+another: <span class="tei tei-q">“There goes a woman who knows all her husband’s
+business; and who can manage just as well as
+himself.”</span> This will generally be followed in an
+under<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page28">[pg 28]</span><a name="Pg028" id="Pg028" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tone by the expression, <span class="tei tei-q">“Madana satana,”</span> which means,
+in common parlance, <span class="tei tei-q">“a female devil.”</span> At first it was a
+struggle to overcome this ignorant prejudice, and to get
+girls to come to the school free of charge; now it is hard
+to find room for them even when they are asked to pay
+for their tuition.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The costume of the Armenian woman is generally of
+some bright-colored cloth, prettily trimmed. Her coiffure,
+always elaborate, sometimes includes a string of gold
+coins, encircling the head, or strung down the plait. A
+silver belt incloses the waist, and a necklace of coins calls
+attention to her pretty neck. When washing clothes by
+the stream, they frequently show a gold ring encircling
+an ankle.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the simplicity of their costumes, as well as in the
+fact that they do not expose the face, the Turkish women
+stand in strong contrast to the Armenian. Baggy trousers
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">à la</span></span> Bloomer, a loose robe skirt opening at the sides,
+and a voluminous shawl-like girdle around the waist and
+body, constitute the main features of the Turkish indoor
+costume. On the street a shroud-like robe called yashmak,
+usually white, but sometimes crimson, purple, or
+black, covers them from head to foot. When we would
+meet a bevy of these creatures on the road in the dusk of
+evening, their white, fluttering garments would give them
+the appearance of winged celestials. The Turkish women
+are generally timorous of men, and especially so of foreigners.
+Those of the rural districts, however, are not
+so shy as their city cousins. We frequently met them at
+work in groups about the villages or in the open fields,
+and would sometimes ask for a drink of water. If they
+were a party of maidens, as was often the case, they would
+draw back and hide behind one another. We would offer
+one of them a ride on our <span class="tei tei-q">“very nice horses.”</span> This
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page29">[pg 29]</span><a name="Pg029" id="Pg029" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>would cause a general giggle among her companions, and
+a drawing of the yashmak closer about the neck and face.
+</p>
+<a name="ill26" id="ill26"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i043.png" alt="ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK." title="ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The road scenes in the interior provinces are but little
+varied. One of the most characteristic features of the
+Anatolian landscape are the storks, which come in flocks
+of thousands from their winter quarters in Egypt and
+build summer nests, unmolested, on the village housetops.
+These, like the crows, magpies, and swallows, prove valuable
+allies to the husbandmen in their war against the
+locust. A still more serviceable friend in this direction
+is the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">smarmar</span></span>, a pink thrush with black wings. Besides
+the various caravan trains of camels, donkeys, horses, and
+mules, the road is frequently dotted with ox-carts, run
+on solid wooden wheels without tires, and drawn by that
+peculiar bovine species, the buffalo. With their distended
+necks, elevated snouts, and hog-like bristles, these animals
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page30">[pg 30]</span><a name="Pg030" id="Pg030" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>present an ugly appearance, especially when wallowing
+in mud puddles.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Now and then in the villages we passed by a primitive
+flour-mill moved by a small stream playing upon a horizontal
+wheel beneath the floor; or, more primitive still,
+by a blindfolded donkey plodding ceaselessly around in
+his circular path. In the streets we frequently encountered
+boys and old men gathering manure for their winter
+fuel; and now and then a cripple or invalid would accost
+us as <span class="tei tei-q">“Hakim”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Doctor”</span>), for the medical work of the
+missionaries has given these simple-minded folk the impression
+that all foreigners are physicians. Coming up
+and extending a hand for us to feel the pulse they would
+ask us to do something for the disease, which we could
+see was rapidly carrying them to the grave.
+</p>
+<a name="ill27" id="ill27"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i044.png" alt="A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN." title="A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our first view of Sivas was obtained from the top of
+Mount Yildiz, on which still stands the ruined castle of
+Mithridates, the Pontine monarch, whom Lucullus many
+times defeated, but never conquered. From this point
+we made a very rapid descent, crossed the Kizil
+Irmak for the third time by an old ruined bridge,
+and half an hour later saw the <span class="tei tei-q">“stars and stripes”</span>
+flying above the U. S. consulate. In the society
+of our representative, Mr. Henry M. Jewett, we
+were destined to spend several weeks; for a
+day or two after our arrival, one
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page31">[pg 31]</span><a name="Pg031" id="Pg031" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of us was taken with a slight attack of typhoid fever,
+supposed to have been contracted by drinking from
+the roadside streams. No better place could have been
+chosen for such a mishap; for recovery was speedy in
+such comfortable quarters, under the care of the missionary
+ladies.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The comparative size and prosperity of Sivas, in the
+midst of rather barren surroundings, are explained by
+the fact that it lies at the converging point of the chief
+caravan routes between the Euxine, Euphrates, and Mediterranean.
+Besides being the capital of Rumili, the former
+Seljuk province of Cappadocia, it is the place of residence
+for a French and American consular representative,
+and an agent of the Russian government for the collection
+of the war indemnity, stipulated in the treaty of ’78.
+The dignity of office is here upheld with something of
+the pomp and splendor of the East, even by the representative
+of democratic America. In our tours with
+Mr. Jewett we were escorted at the head by a Circassian
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">cavass</span></span> (Turkish police), clothed in a long black coat, with
+a huge dagger dangling from a belt of cartridges. Another
+native cavass, with a broadsword dragging at his
+side, usually brought up the rear. At night he was the
+one to carry the huge lantern, which, according to the
+number of candles, is the insignia of rank. <span class="tei tei-q">“I must give
+the Turks what they want,”</span> said the consul, with a twinkle
+in his eye—<span class="tei tei-q">“form and red tape. I would not be a
+consul in their eyes, if I didn’t.”</span> To illustrate the formality
+of Turkish etiquette he told this story: <span class="tei tei-q">“A Turk was
+once engaged in saving furniture from his burning home,
+when he noticed that a bystander was rolling a cigarette.
+He immediately stopped in his hurry, struck a match, and
+offered a light.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill28" id="ill28"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i046.png" alt="EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE." title="EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The most flagrant example of Turkish formality that
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page33">[pg 33]</span><a name="Pg033" id="Pg033" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>came to our notice was the following address on an official
+document to the Sultan:
+</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">The Arbiter; the Absolute; the Soul and Body of the
+Universe; the Father of all the sovereigns of the earth;
+His Excellency, the Eagle Monarch; the Cause of the
+never-changing order of things; the Source of all honor;
+the Son of the Sultan of Sultans, under whose feet we
+are dust, whose awful shadow protects us; Abdul Hamid II.,
+Son of Abdul Medjid, whose residence is in Paradise; our
+glorious Lord, to whose sacred body be given health, and
+strength, and endless days; whom Allah keeps in his palace,
+and on his throne with joy and glory, forever. Amen.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span>
+</div>
+<a name="ill29" id="ill29"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i047.png" alt="PRIMITIVE WEAVING." title="PRIMITIVE WEAVING." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">PRIMITIVE WEAVING.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This is not the flattery of a cringing subordinate, for
+the same spirit is revealed in an address by the Sultan
+himself to his Grand Vizir:
+</p>
+
+<div class="block tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
+<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Most honored Vizir; Maintainer of the good order of
+the World; Director of public affairs with wisdom and
+judgment; Accomplisher of the important transactions of
+mankind with intelligence and good sense; Consolidator
+of the edifice of Empire and of Glory; endowed by the
+Most High with abundant gifts; and </span><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">‘</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Monshir,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">’</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> at this
+time, of my Gate of Felicity; my Vizir Mehmed Pasha,
+</span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page34">[pg 34]</span><a name="Pg034" id="Pg034" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%">may God be pleased to preserve him long in exalted
+dignity.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Though the Turks cannot be called lazy, yet they like
+to take their time. Patience, they say, belongs to God;
+hurry, to the devil. Nowhere is this so well illustrated
+as in the manner of shopping in Turkey. This was
+brought particularly to our notice when we visited the
+Sivas bazaars to examine some inlaid silverware, for
+which the place is celebrated. The customer stands in
+the street inspecting the articles on exhibition; the merchant
+sits on his heels on the booth floor. If the customer
+is of some position in life, he climbs up and sits down on
+a level with the merchant. If he is a foreigner, the merchant
+is quite deferential. A merchant is not a merchant
+at all, but a host entertaining a guest. Coffee is served;
+then a cigarette rolled up and handed to the <span class="tei tei-q">“guest,”</span>
+while the various social and other local topics are freely
+discussed. After coffee and smoking the question of
+purchase is gradually approached; not abruptly, as that
+would involve a loss of dignity; but circumspectly, as if
+the buying of anything were a mere afterthought. Maybe,
+after half an hour, the customer has indicated what he
+wants, and after discussing the quality of the goods, the
+customer asks the price in an off-hand way, as though he
+were not particularly interested. The merchant replies,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, whatever your highness pleases,”</span> or, <span class="tei tei-q">“I shall be
+proud if your highness will do me the honor to accept it
+as a gift.”</span> This means nothing whatever, and is merely
+the introduction to the haggling which is sure to follow.
+The seller, with silken manners and brazen countenance,
+will always name a price four times as large as it should
+be. Then the real business begins. The buyer offers one
+half or one fourth of what he finally expects to pay; and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page35">[pg 35]</span><a name="Pg035" id="Pg035" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>a war of words, in a blustering tone, leads up to the close
+of this every-day farce.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The superstition of the Turks is nowhere so apparent
+as in their fear of the <span class="tei tei-q">“evil eye.”</span> Jugs placed around
+the edge of the roof, or an old shoe filled with garlic and
+blue beets (blue glass balls or rings) are a sure guard
+against this illusion. Whenever a pretty child is playing
+upon the street the passers-by will say: <span class="tei tei-q">“Oh, what an
+ugly child!”</span> for fear of inciting the evil spirit against its
+beauty. The peasant classes in Turkey are of course the
+most superstitious because they are the most ignorant.
+They have no education whatever, and can neither read
+nor write. Stamboul is the only great city of which
+they know. Paris is a term signifying the whole outside
+world. An American missionary was once asked: <span class="tei tei-q">“In
+what part of Paris is America?”</span> Yet it can be said that
+they are generally honest, and always patient. They
+earn from about six to eight cents a day. This will furnish
+them with ekmek and pilaff, and that is all they expect.
+They eat meat only on feast-days, and then only
+mutton. The tax-gatherer is their only grievance; they
+look upon him as a necessary evil. They have no idea of
+being ground down under the oppressor’s iron heel. Yet
+they are happy because they are contented, and have no
+envy. The poorer, the more ignorant, a Turk is, the better
+he seems to be. As he gets money and power, and
+becomes <span class="tei tei-q">“contaminated”</span> by western civilization, he deteriorates.
+A resident of twenty years’ experience said:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“In the lowest classes I have sometimes found truth, honesty,
+and gratitude; in the middle classes, seldom; in the
+highest, never.”</span> The corruptibility of the Turkish official
+is almost proverbial; but such is to be expected in the
+land where <span class="tei tei-q">“the public treasury”</span> is regarded as a <span class="tei tei-q">“sea,”</span>
+and <span class="tei tei-q">“who does not drink of it, as a pig.”</span> Peculation
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page36">[pg 36]</span><a name="Pg036" id="Pg036" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and malversation are fully expected in the public official.
+They are necessary evils—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">adet</span></span> (custom) has made them
+so. Offices are sold to the highest bidder. The Turkish
+official is one of the politest and most agreeable of men.
+He is profuse in his compliments, but he has no conscience
+as to bribes, and little regard for virtue as its own reward.
+We are glad to be able to record a brilliant, though perhaps
+theoretical, exception to this general rule. At Koch-Hissar,
+on our way from Sivas to Kara Hissar, a delay was
+caused by a rather serious break in one of our bicycles.
+In the interval we were the invited guests of a district
+kadi, a venerable-looking and genial old gentleman whose
+acquaintance we had made in an official visit on the previous
+day, as he was then the acting <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">caimacam</span></span> (mayor). His
+house was situated in a neighboring valley in the shadow
+of a towering bluff. We were ushered into the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">selamlük</span></span>,
+or guest apartment, in company with an Armenian friend
+who had been educated as a doctor in America, and who
+had consented to act as interpreter for the occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The kadi entered with a smile on his countenance, and
+made the usual picturesque form of salutation by describing
+the figure 3 with his right hand from the floor to his
+forehead. Perhaps it was because he wanted to be polite
+that he said he had enjoyed our company on the previous
+day, and had determined, if possible, to have a more extended
+conversation. With the usual coffee and cigarettes,
+the kadi became informal and chatty. He was evidently
+a firm believer in predestination, as he remarked that God
+had foreordained our trip to that country, even the food
+we were to eat, and the invention of the extraordinary
+<span class="tei tei-q">“cart”</span> on which we were to ride. The idea of such a
+journey, in such a peculiar way, was not to be accredited
+to the ingenuity of man. There was a purpose in it all.
+When we ventured to thank him for his hospitality
+to<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page37">[pg 37]</span><a name="Pg037" id="Pg037" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ward two strangers, and even foreigners, he said that this
+world occupied so small a space in God’s dominion, that
+we could well afford to be brothers, one to another, in
+spite of our individual beliefs and opinions. <span class="tei tei-q">“We may
+have different religious beliefs,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“but we all belong
+to the same great father of humanity; just as children
+of different complexions, dispositions, and intellects
+may belong to one common parent. We should exercise
+reason always, and have charity for other people’s
+opinions.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From charity the conversation naturally turned to justice.
+We were much interested in his opinion on this
+subject, as that of a Turkish judge, and rather high official.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Justice,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“should be administered to the
+humblest person; though a king should be the offending
+party, all alike must yield to the sacred law of justice.
+We must account to God for our acts, and not to men.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The regular route from Sivas to Erzerum passes through
+Erzinjan. From this, however, we diverged at Zara, in
+order to visit the city of Kara Hissar, and the neighboring
+Lidjissy mines, which had been pioneered by the Genoese
+explorers, and were now being worked by a party of
+Englishmen. This divergence on to unbeaten paths was
+made at a very inopportune season; for the rainy spell
+set in, which lasted, with scarcely any intermission, for
+over a fortnight. At the base of Kosse Dagh, which
+stands upon the watershed between the two largest rivers
+of Asia Minor, the Kizil Irmak and Yeshil Irmak,
+our road was blocked by a mountain freshet, which at its
+height washed everything before it. We spent a day and
+night on its bank, in a primitive flour-mill, which was so
+far removed from domestic life that we had to send three
+miles up in the mountains to get something to eat. The
+Yeshil Irmak, which we crossed just before reaching Kara
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page38">[pg 38]</span><a name="Pg038" id="Pg038" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Hissar, was above our shoulders as we waded through,
+holding our bicycles and baggage over our heads; while
+the swift current rolled the small boulders against us, and
+almost knocked us off our feet. There were no bridges
+in this part of the country. With horses and wagons the
+rivers were usually fordable; and what more would you
+want? With the Turk, as with all Asiatics, it is not a
+question of what is better, but what will do. Long before
+we reached a stream, the inhabitants of a certain town
+or village would gather round, and with troubled countenances
+say, <span class="tei tei-q">“Christian gentlemen—there is no bridge,”</span>
+pointing to the river beyond, and graphically describing
+that it was over our horses’ heads. That would settle it,
+they thought; it never occurred to them that a <span class="tei tei-q">“Christian
+gentleman”</span> could take off his clothes and wade. Sometimes,
+as we walked along in the mud, the wheels of our
+bicycles would become so clogged that we could not even
+push them before us. In such a case we would take the
+nearest shelter, whatever it might be. The night before
+reaching Kara Hissar, we entered an abandoned stable,
+from which everything had fled except the fleas. Another
+night was spent in the pine-forests just on the border
+be<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page39">[pg 39]</span><a name="Pg039" id="Pg039" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tween Asia Minor and Armenia, which were said to be the
+haunts of the border robbers. Our surroundings could
+not be relieved by a fire for fear of attracting their attention.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill30" id="ill30"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i052.png" alt="A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR." title="A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When at last we reached the Trebizond-Erzerum highway
+at Baiboot, the contrast was so great that the scaling
+of Kop Dagh, on its comparatively smooth surface, was
+a mere breakfast spell. From here we looked down for
+the first time into the valley of the historic Euphrates,
+and a few hours later we were skimming over its bottom
+lands toward the embattled heights of Erzerum.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+As we neared the city, some Turkish peasants in the
+fields caught sight of us, and shouted to their companions:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Russians! Russians! There they are! Two of them!”</span>
+This was not the first time we had been taken for the subjects
+of the Czar; the whole country seemed to be in dread
+of them. Erzerum is the capital of that district which
+Russia will no doubt demand, if the stipulated war indemnity
+is not paid.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The entrance into the city was made to twist and turn
+among the ramparts, so as to avoid a rush in case of an
+attack. But this was no proof against a surprise in the
+case of the noiseless wheel. In we dashed with a roaring
+wind, past the affrighted guards, and were fifty yards
+away before they could collect their scattered senses.
+Then suddenly it dawned upon them that we were human
+beings, and foreigners besides—perhaps even the dreaded
+Russian spies. They took after us at full speed, but it
+was too late. Before they reached us we were in the
+house of the commandant pasha, the military governor,
+to whom we had a letter of introduction from our consul
+at Sivas. That gentleman we found extremely good-natured;
+he laughed heartily at our escapade with the
+guards. Nothing would do but we must visit the Vali,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page40">[pg 40]</span><a name="Pg040" id="Pg040" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the civil governor, who was also a pasha of considerable
+reputation and influence.
+</p>
+<a name="ill31" id="ill31"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i054.png" alt="A VILLAGE SCENE." title="A VILLAGE SCENE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A VILLAGE SCENE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We had intended, but not so soon, to pay an official
+visit to the Vali to present our letter from the Grand
+Vizir, and to ask his permission to proceed to Bayazid,
+whence we had planned to attempt the ascent of Mount
+Ararat, an experience which will be described in the next
+chapter. A few days before, we heard, a similar application
+had been made by an English traveler from Bagdad,
+but owing to certain suspicions the permission was refused.
+It was with no little concern, therefore, that we
+approached the Vali’s private office in company with his
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page41">[pg 41]</span><a name="Pg041" id="Pg041" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>French interpreter. Circumstances augured ill at the
+very start. The Vali was evidently in a bad humor, for
+we overheard him storming in a high key at some one in
+the room with him. As we passed under the heavy matted
+curtains the two attendants who were holding them up
+cast a rather horrified glance at our dusty shoes and unconventional
+costume. The Vali was sitting in a large
+arm-chair in front of a very small desk, placed at the far
+end of a vacant-looking room. After the usual salaams,
+he motioned to a seat on the divan, and proceeded at once
+to examine our credentials while we sipped at our coffee,
+and whiffed the small cigarettes which were immediately
+served. This furnished the Vali an opportunity to regain
+his usual composure. He was evidently an autocrat of
+the severest type; if we pleased him, it would be all right;
+if we did not, it would be all wrong. We showed him
+everything we had, from our Chinese passport to the little
+photographic camera, and related some of the most amusing
+incidents of our journey through his country. From
+the numerous questions he asked we felt certain of his
+genuine interest, and were more than pleased to see an
+occasional broad smile on his countenance. <span class="tei tei-q">“Well,”</span> said
+he, as we rose to take leave, <span class="tei tei-q">“your passports will be ready
+any time after to-morrow; in the mean time I shall be
+pleased to have your horses quartered and fed at government
+expense.”</span> This was a big joke for a Turk, and
+assured us of his good-will.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A bicycle exhibition which the Vali had requested was
+given the morning of our departure for Bayazid, on a
+level stretch of road just outside the city. Several missionaries
+and members of the consulates had gone out in
+carriages, and formed a little group by themselves. We
+rode up with the <span class="tei tei-q">“stars and stripes”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“star and crescent”</span>
+fluttering side by side from the handle-bars. It
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page42">[pg 42]</span><a name="Pg042" id="Pg042" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was always our custom, especially on diplomatic occasions,
+to have a little flag of the country associated with
+that of our own. This little arrangement evoked a smile
+from the Vali, who, when the exhibition was finished,
+stepped forward and said, <span class="tei tei-q">“I am satisfied, I am pleased.”</span>
+His richly caparisoned white charger was now brought
+up. Leaping into the saddle, he waved us good-by, and
+moved away with his suite toward the city. We ourselves
+remained for a few moments to bid good-by to our
+hospitable friends, and then, once more, continued our
+journey toward the east.
+</p>
+<a name="ill32" id="ill32"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i056.jpg" alt="[Illustration]" /></div>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page43">[pg 43]</span><a name="Pg043" id="Pg043" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc33" id="toc33"></a><a name="pdf34" id="pdf34"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">II</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+According to tradition, Mount Ararat is the scene
+of two of the most important events in the history
+of the human race. In the sacred land of Eden, which
+Armenian legend places at its base, the first of human
+life was born; and on its solitary peak the last of human
+life was saved from an all-destroying flood. The remarkable
+geographical position of this mountain seems to justify
+the Armenian view that it is the center of the world.
+It is on the longest line drawn through the Old World
+from the Cape of Good Hope to Bering Strait; it is also
+on the line of the great deserts and inland seas stretching
+from Gibraltar to Lake Baikal in Siberia—a line of
+continuous depressions; it is equidistant from the Black
+and Caspian Seas and the Mesopotamian plain, which three
+depressions are now watered by three distinct river-systems
+emanating from Ararat’s immediate vicinity. No
+other region has seen or heard so much of the story of
+mankind. In its grim presence empires have come and
+gone; cities have risen and fallen; human life has soared
+up on the wings of hope, and dashed against the rocks
+of despair.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To the eye Ararat presents a gently inclined slope of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page44">[pg 44]</span><a name="Pg044" id="Pg044" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>sand and ashes rising into a belt of green, another zone
+of black volcanic rocks streaked with snow-beds, and then
+a glittering crest of silver. From the burning desert at
+its base to the icy pinnacle above, it rises through a vertical
+distance of 13,000 feet. There are but few peaks in
+the world that rise so high (17,250 feet above sea-level)
+from so low a plain (2000 feet on the Russian, and 4000
+feet on the Turkish, side), and which, therefore, present
+so grand a spectacle. Unlike many of the world’s mountains,
+it stands alone. Little Ararat (12,840 feet above
+sea-level), and the other still smaller heights that dot the
+plain, only serve as a standard by which to measure Ararat’s
+immensity and grandeur.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of
+three great empires. On its conical peak converge the
+dominions of the Czar, the Sultan, and the Shah. The
+Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat along the
+high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through
+the peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the
+northwest, then turns sharply to the west. On the Sardarbulakh
+pass, between Great and Little Ararat, is stationed
+a handful of Russian Cossacks to remind lawless
+tribes of the guardianship of the <span class="tei tei-q">“White Sultan.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The two Ararats together form an elliptical mass, about
+twenty-five miles in length, running northwest and southeast,
+and about half that in width. Out of this massive
+base rise the two Ararat peaks, their bases being contiguous
+up to 8800 feet and their tops about seven miles
+apart. Little Ararat is an almost perfect truncated cone,
+while Great Ararat is more of a broad-shouldered dome
+supported by strong, rough-ribbed buttresses. The isolated
+position of Ararat, its structure of igneous rocks,
+the presence of small craters and immense volcanic fissures
+on its slopes, and the scoriæ and ashes on the
+sur<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page45">[pg 45]</span><a name="Pg045" id="Pg045" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>rounding plain, establish beyond a doubt its volcanic
+origin. But according to the upheaval theory of the
+eminent geologist, Hermann Abich, who was among the
+few to make the ascent of the mountain, there never was
+a great central crater in either Great or Little Ararat.
+Certain it is that no craters or signs of craters now exist
+on the summit of either mountain. But Mr. James
+Bryce, who made the last ascent, in 1876, seems to think
+that there is no sufficient reason why craters could not
+have previously existed, and been filled up by their own
+irruptions. There is no record of any irruption in historical
+times. The only thing approaching it was the earthquake
+which shook the mountain in 1840, accompanied by
+subterranean rumblings, and destructive blasts of wind.
+The Tatar village of Arghuri and a Kurdish encampment
+on the northeast slope were entirely destroyed by the
+precipitated rocks. Not a man was left to tell the story.
+Mr. Bryce and others have spoken of the astonishing
+height of the snow-line on Mount Ararat, which is placed
+at 14,000 feet; while in the Alps it is only about 9000
+feet, and in the Caucasus on an average 11,000 feet, although
+they lie in a very little higher latitude. They
+assign, as a reason for this, the exceptionally dry region
+in which Ararat is situated. Mr. Bryce ascended the
+mountain on September 12, when the snow-line was at its
+very highest, the first large snow-bed he encountered being
+at 12,000 feet. Our own ascent being made as early
+as July 4,—in fact, the earliest ever recorded,—we found
+some snow as low as 8000 feet, and large beds at 10,500
+feet. The top of Little Ararat was still at that time
+streaked with snow, but not covered. With so many
+extensive snow-beds, one would naturally expect to find
+copious brooks and streams flowing down the mountain
+into the plain; but owing to the porous and dry nature
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page46">[pg 46]</span><a name="Pg046" id="Pg046" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the soil, the water is entirely lost before reaching the
+base of the mountain. Even as early as July we saw no
+stream below 6000 feet, and even above this height the
+mountain freshets frequently flowed far beneath the surface
+under the loosely packed rocks, bidding defiance to
+our efforts to reach them. Notwithstanding the scarcity
+of snow-freshets, there is a middle zone on Mount Ararat,
+extending from about 5000 feet to 9000 feet elevation,
+which is covered with good pasturage, kept green by
+heavy dews and frequent showers. The hot air begins
+to rise from the desert plain as the morning sun peeps
+over the horizon, and continues through the day; this
+warm current, striking against the snow-covered summit,
+is condensed into clouds and moisture. In consequence,
+the top of Ararat is usually—during the summer months,
+at least—obscured by clouds from some time after dawn
+until sunset. On the last day of our ascent, however, we
+were particularly fortunate in having a clear summit until
+1:15 in the afternoon.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Among the crags of the upper slope are found only a
+few specimens of the wild goat and sheep, and, lower
+down, the fox, wolf, and lynx. The bird and insect life
+is very scanty, but lizards and scorpions, especially on the
+lowest slopes, are abundant. The rich pasturage of Ararat’s
+middle zone attracts pastoral Kurdish tribes. These
+nomadic shepherds, a few Tatars at New Arghuri, and a
+camp of Russian Cossacks at the well of Sardarbulakh,
+are the only human beings to disturb the quiet solitude
+of this grandest of nature’s sanctuaries.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat was in 1829,
+by Dr. Frederick Parrot, a Russo-German professor in
+the University of Dorpat. He reached the summit with
+a party of three Armenians and two Russian soldiers,
+after two unsuccessful attempts. His ascent, however,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page47">[pg 47]</span><a name="Pg047" id="Pg047" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was doubted, not only by the people in the neighborhood,
+but by many men of science and position in the Russian
+empire, notwithstanding his clear account, which has been
+confirmed by subsequent observers, and in spite of the
+testimony of the two Russian soldiers who had gone with
+him.<a id="noteref_1" name="noteref_1" href="#note_1"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">1</span></span></a> Two of the Armenians who reached the summit
+with him declared that they had gone to a great height,
+but at the point where they had left off had seen much
+higher tops rising around them. This, thereupon, became
+the opinion of the whole country. After Antonomoff, in
+1834, Herr Abich, the geologist, made his valuable ascent
+in 1845. He reached the eastern summit, which is only a
+few feet lower than the western, and only a few minutes’
+walk from it, but was obliged to return at once on account
+of the threatening weather. When he produced his companions
+as witnesses before the authorities at Erivan,
+they turned against him, and solemnly swore that at the
+point which they had reached a higher peak stood between
+them and the western horizon. This strengthened
+the Armenian belief in the inaccessibility of Ararat, which
+was not dissipated when the Russian military engineer,
+General Chodzko, and an English party made the ascent
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page48">[pg 48]</span><a name="Pg048" id="Pg048" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>in 1856. Nor were their prejudiced minds convinced by
+the ascent of Mr. Bryce twenty years later, in 1876. Two
+days after his ascent, that gentleman paid a visit to the
+Armenian monastery at Echmiadzin, and was presented
+to the archimandrite as the Englishman who had just
+ascended to the top of <span class="tei tei-q">“Masis.”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“No,”</span> said the ecclesiastical
+dignitary; <span class="tei tei-q">“that cannot be. No one has ever
+been there. It is impossible.”</span> Mr. Bryce himself says:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I am persuaded that there is not a person living within
+sight of Ararat, unless it be some exceptionally educated
+Russian official at Erivan, who believes that any human
+foot, since Father Noah’s, has trodden that sacred summit.
+So much stronger is faith than sight; or rather so
+much stronger is prejudice than evidence.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We had expected, on our arrival in Bayazid, to find in
+waiting for us a Mr. Richardson, an American missionary
+from Erzerum. Two years later, on our arrival home, we
+received a letter explaining that on his way from Van
+he had been captured by Kurdish brigands, and held a
+prisoner until released through the intervention of the
+British consul at Erzerum. It was some such fate as this
+that was predicted for us, should we ever attempt the
+ascent of Mount Ararat through the lawless Kurdish
+tribes upon its slopes. Our first duty, therefore, was to
+see the mutessarif of Bayazid, to whom we bore a letter
+from the Grand Vizir of Turkey, in order to ascertain
+what protection and assistance he would be willing to
+give us. We found with him a Circassian who belonged
+to the Russian camp at Sardarbulakh, on the Ararat pass,
+and who had accompanied General Chodzko on his ascent
+of the mountain in 1856. Both he and the mutessarif
+thought an ascent so early in the year was impossible;
+that we ought not to think of such a thing until two
+months later. It was now six weeks earlier than the time
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page49">[pg 49]</span><a name="Pg049" id="Pg049" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of General Chodzko’s ascent (August 11 to 18), then the
+earliest on record. They both strongly recommended
+the northwestern slope as being more gradual. This is
+the one that Parrot ascended in 1829, and where Abich
+was repulsed on his third attempt. Though entirely inexperienced
+in mountain-climbing, we ourselves thought
+that the southeast slope, the one taken by General Chodzko,
+the English party, and Mr. Bryce, was far more feasible
+for a small party. One thing, however, the mutessarif
+was determined upon: we must not approach the mountain
+without an escort of Turkish zaptiehs, as an emblem
+of government protection. Besides, he would send for
+the chief of the Ararat Kurds, and endeavor to arrange
+with him for our safety and guidance up the mountain.
+As we emerged into the streets an Armenian professor
+gravely shook his head. <span class="tei tei-q">“Ah,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“you will never
+do it.”</span> Then dropping his voice, he told us that those
+other ascents were all fictitious; that the summit of <span class="tei tei-q">“Masis”</span>
+had never yet been reached except by Noah; and
+that we were about to attempt what was an utter impossibility.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In Bayazid we could not procure even proper wood for
+alpenstocks. Willow branches, two inches thick, very dry
+and brittle, were the best we could obtain. Light as this
+wood is, the alpenstocks weighed at least seven pounds
+apiece when the iron hooks and points were riveted on at
+the ends by the native blacksmith, for whom we cut paper
+patterns, of the exact size, for everything we wanted. We
+next had large nails driven into the souls of our shoes by
+a local shoemaker, who made them for us by hand out of
+an old English file, and who wanted to pull them all out
+again because we would not pay him the exorbitant price
+he demanded. In buying provisions for the expedition,
+we spent three hours among the half dilapidated bazaars
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page51">[pg 51]</span><a name="Pg051" id="Pg051" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the town, which have never been repaired since the
+disastrous Russian bombardment. The most difficult task,
+perhaps, in our work of preparation was to strike a bargain
+with an Armenian muleteer to carry our food and
+baggage up the mountain on his two little donkeys.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill35" id="ill35"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i064.jpg" alt="WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE." title="WHERE THE “ZAPTIEHS” WERE NOT A NUISANCE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">WHERE THE </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">ZAPTIEHS</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> WERE NOT A NUISANCE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Evening came, and no word from either the mutessarif
+or the Kurdish chief. Although we were extremely anxious
+to set off on the expedition before bad weather set in,
+we must not be in a hurry, for the military governor of
+Karakillissa was now the guest of the mutessarif, and it
+would be an interference with his social duties to try to
+see him until after his guest had departed. On the morrow
+we were sitting in our small dingy room after dinner,
+when a cavalcade hastened up to our inn, and a few minutes
+later we were surprised to hear ourselves addressed
+in our native tongue. Before us stood a dark-complexioned
+young man, and at his side a small wiry old gentleman,
+who proved to be a native Austrian Tyrolese, who
+followed the profession of an artist in Paris. He was
+now making his way to Erivan, in Russia, on a sight-seeing
+tour from Trebizond. His companion was a Greek
+from Salonica, who had lived for several years in London,
+whence he had departed not many weeks before, for Teheran,
+Persia. These two travelers had met in Constantinople,
+and the young Greek, who could speak English,
+Greek, and Turkish, had been acting as interpreter for
+the artist. They had heard of the <span class="tei tei-q">“devil’s carts”</span> when
+in Van, and had made straight for our quarters on their
+arrival in Bayazid. At this point they were to separate.
+When we learned that the old gentleman (Ignaz Raffl by
+name) was a member of an Alpine club and an experienced
+mountain-climber, we urged him to join in the ascent.
+Though his shoulders were bent by the cares and troubles
+of sixty-three years, we finally induced him to accompany
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page52">[pg 52]</span><a name="Pg052" id="Pg052" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>our party. Kantsa, the Greek, reluctantly agreed to do
+likewise, and proved to be an excellent interpreter, but a
+poor climber.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The following morning we paid the mutessarif a second
+visit, with Kantsa as interpreter. Inasmuch as the Kurdish
+chief had not arrived, the mutessarif said he would
+make us bearers of a letter to him. Two zaptiehs were to
+accompany us in the morning, while others were to go
+ahead and announce our approach.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At ten minutes of eleven, on the morning of the second
+of July, our small cavalcade, with the two exasperating
+donkeys at the head laden with mats, bags of provisions,
+extra clothing, alpenstocks, spiked shoes, and coils of
+stout rope, filed down the streets of Bayazid, followed by
+a curious rabble. As Bayazid lies hidden behind a projecting
+spur of the mountains we could obtain no view of
+the peak itself until we had tramped some distance out
+on the plain. Its huge giant mass broke upon us all at
+once. We stopped and looked—and looked again. No
+mountain-peak we have seen, though several have been
+higher, has ever inspired the feeling which filled us when
+we looked for the first time upon towering Ararat. We
+had not proceeded far before we descried a party of Kurdish
+horsemen approaching from the mountain. Our zaptiehs
+advanced rather cautiously to meet them, with rifles
+thrown across the pommels of their saddles. After a
+rather mysterious parley, our zaptiehs signaled that all
+was well. On coming up, they reported that these horsemen
+belonged to the party that was friendly to the Turkish
+government. The Kurds, they said, were at this time
+divided among themselves, a portion of them having
+adopted conciliatory measures with the government, and
+the rest holding aloof. But we rather considered their
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page54">[pg 54]</span><a name="Pg054" id="Pg054" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>little performance as a scheme to extort a little more baksheesh
+for their necessary presence.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill36" id="ill36"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i067.jpg" alt="READY FOR THE START." title="READY FOR THE START." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">READY FOR THE START.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The plain we were now on was drained by a tributary
+of the Aras River, a small stream reached after two
+hours’ steady tramping. From the bordering hillocks
+we emerged in a short time upon another vast plateau,
+which stretched far away in a gentle rise to the base of
+the mountain itself. Near by we discovered a lone willow-tree,
+the only one in the whole sweep of our vision, under
+the gracious foliage of which sat a band of Kurds, retired
+from the heat of the afternoon sun, their horses feeding
+on some swamp grass near at hand. Attracted by this
+sign of water, we drew near, and found a copious spring.
+A few words from the zaptiehs, who had advanced among
+them, seemed to put the Kurds at their ease, though they
+did not by any means appease their curiosity. They invited
+us to partake of their frugal lunch of ekmek and
+goat’s-milk cheese. Our clothes and baggage were discussed
+piece by piece, with loud expressions of merriment,
+until one of us arose, and, stealing behind the group,
+snapped the camera. <span class="tei tei-q">“What was that?”</span> said a burly
+member of the group, as he looked round with scowling
+face at his companions. <span class="tei tei-q">“Yes; what was that?”</span> they
+echoed, and then made a rush for the manipulator of the
+black box, which they evidently took for some instrument
+of the black art. The photographer stood serenely innocent,
+and winked at the zaptieh to give the proper explanation.
+He was equal to the occasion. <span class="tei tei-q">“That,”</span> said he,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“is an instrument for taking time by the sun.”</span> At this
+the box went the round, each one gazing intently into the
+lens, then scratching his head, and casting a bewildered
+look at his nearest neighbor. We noticed that every one
+about us was armed with knife, revolver, and Martini
+rifle, a belt of cartridges surrounding his waist. It
+oc<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page55">[pg 55]</span><a name="Pg055" id="Pg055" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>curred to us that Turkey was adopting a rather poor
+method of clipping the wings of these mountain birds, by
+selling them the very best equipments for war. Legally,
+none but government guards are permitted to carry
+arms, and yet both guns and ammunition are sold in the
+bazaars of almost every city of the Turkish dominions.
+The existence of these people, in their wild, semi-independent
+state, shows not so much the power of the Kurds as
+the weakness of the Turkish government, which desires
+to use a people of so fierce a reputation for the suppression
+of its other subjects. After half an hour’s rest, we
+prepared to decamp, and so did our Kurdish companions.
+They were soon in their saddles, and galloping away in
+front of us, with their arms clanking, and glittering in
+the afternoon sunlight.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At the spring we had turned off the trail that led over
+the Sardarbulakh pass into Russia, and were now following
+a horse-path which winds up to the Kurdish encampments
+on the southern slope of the mountain. The plain
+was strewn with sand and rocks, with here and there a
+bunch of tough, wiry grass about a foot and a half high,
+which, though early in the year, was partly dry. It would
+have been hot work except for the rain of the day before
+and a strong southeast wind. As it was, our feet were
+blistered and bruised, the thin leather sandals worn at
+the outset offering very poor protection. The atmosphere
+being dry, though not excessively hot, we soon began to
+suffer from thirst. Although we searched diligently for
+water, we did not find it till after two hours more of constant
+marching, when at a height of about 6000 feet, fifty
+yards from the path, we discerned a picturesque cascade
+of sparkling, cold mountain water. Even the old gentleman,
+Raffl, joined heartily in the gaiety induced by this
+clear, cold water from Ararat’s melting snows.
+</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page56">[pg 56]</span><a name="Pg056" id="Pg056" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill37" id="ill37"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i070.jpg" alt="PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING." title="PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page57">[pg 57]</span><a name="Pg057" id="Pg057" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our ascent for two and a half hours longer was through
+a luxuriant vegetation of flowers, grasses, and weeds, which
+grew more and more scanty as we advanced. Prominent
+among the specimens were the wild pink, poppy, and rose.
+One small fragrant herb, that was the most abundant of
+all, we were told was used by the Kurds for making tea.
+All these filled the evening air with perfume as we trudged
+along, passing now and then a Kurdish lad, with his flock
+of sheep and goats feeding on the mountain-grass, which
+was here much more luxuriant than below. Looking
+backward, we saw that we were higher than the precipitous
+cliffs which overtower the town of Bayazid, and
+which are perhaps from 1500 to 2000 feet above the lowest
+part of the plain. The view over the plateau was now
+grand. Though we were all fatigued by the day’s work,
+the cool, moisture-laden air of evening revived our flagging
+spirits. We forged ahead with nimble step, joking,
+and singing a variety of national airs. The French <span class="tei tei-q">“Marseillaise,”</span>
+in which the old gentleman heartily joined,
+echoed and reëchoed among the rocks, and caused the
+shepherd lads and their flocks to crane their heads in
+wonderment. Even the Armenian muleteer so far overcame
+his fear of the Kurdish robbers as to indulge in one
+of his accustomed funeral dirges; but it stopped short,
+never to go again, when we came in sight of the Kurdish
+encampment. The poor fellow instinctively grabbed his
+donkeys about their necks, as though they were about to
+plunge over a precipice. The zaptiehs dashed ahead with
+the mutessarif’s letter to the Kurdish chief. We followed
+slowly on foot, while the Armenian and his two pets kept
+at a respectful distance in the rear.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The disk of the sun had already touched the western
+horizon when we came to the black tents of the Kurdish
+encampment, which at this time of the day presented a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page58">[pg 58]</span><a name="Pg058" id="Pg058" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>rather busy scene. The women seemed to be doing all
+the work, while their lords sat round on their haunches.
+Some of the women were engaged in milking the sheep
+and goats in an inclosure. Others were busy making
+butter in a churn which was nothing more than a skin
+vessel three feet long, of the shape of a Brazil-nut, suspended
+from a rude tripod; this they swung to and fro to
+the tune of a weird Kurdish song. Behind one of the
+tents, on a primitive weaving-machine, some of them were
+making tent-roofing and matting. Others still were walking
+about with a ball of wool in one hand and a distaff in
+the other, spinning yarn. The flocks stood round about,
+bleating and lowing, or chewing their cud in quiet contentment.
+All seemed very domestic and peaceful except
+the Kurdish dogs, which set upon us with loud, fierce
+growls and gnashing teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Not so was it with the Kurdish chief, who by this time
+had finished reading the mutessarif’s message, and who
+now advanced from his tent with salaams of welcome.
+As he stood before us in the glowing sunset, he was a
+rather tall, but well-proportioned man, with black eyes
+and dark mustache, contrasting well with his brown-tanned
+complexion. Upon his face was the stamp of a
+rather wild and retiring character, although treachery
+and deceit were by no means wanting. He wore a headgear
+that was something between a hat and a turban, and
+over his baggy Turkish trousers hung a long Persian
+coat of bright-colored, large-figured cloth, bound at the
+waist by a belt of cartridges. Across the shoulders was
+slung a breech-loading Martini rifle, and from his neck
+dangled a heavy gold chain, which was probably the spoil
+of some predatory expedition. A quiet dignity sat on
+Ismail Deverish’s stalwart form.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill38" id="ill38"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i073.jpg" alt="THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT." title="THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.</div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was with no little pleasure that we accepted his
+invi<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page60">[pg 60]</span><a name="Pg060" id="Pg060" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tation to a cup of tea. After our walk of nineteen miles,
+in which we had ascended from 3000 to 7000 feet, we were
+in fit condition to appreciate a rest. That Kurdish tent,
+as far as we were concerned, was a veritable palace, although
+we were almost blinded by the smoke from the
+green pine-branches on the smoldering fire. We said
+that the chief invited us to a cup of tea: so he did—but
+we provided the tea; and that, too, not only for our own
+party, but for half a dozen of the chief’s personal friends.
+There being only two glasses in the camp, we of course
+had to wait until our Kurdish acquaintances had quenched
+their burning thirst. In thoughtful mood we gazed
+around through the evening twilight. Far away on the
+western slope we could see some Kurdish women plodding
+along under heavy burdens of pine-branches like
+those that were now fumigating our eyes and nostrils.
+Across the hills the Kurdish shepherds were driving home
+their herds and flocks to the tinkling of bells. All this,
+to us, was deeply impressive. Such peaceful scenes, we
+thought, could never be the haunt of warlike robbers.
+The flocks at last came home; the shouts of the shepherds
+ceased; darkness fell; and all was quiet.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+One by one the lights in the tents broke out, like the
+stars above. As the darkness deepened, they shone more
+and more brightly across the amphitheater of the encampment.
+The tent in which we were now sitting was oblong
+in shape, covered with a mixture of goats’ and sheep’s
+wool, carded, spun, and woven by the Kurdish women.
+This tenting was all of a dark brown or black color. The
+various strips were badly joined together, allowing the
+snow and rain, during the stormy night that followed, to
+penetrate plentifully. A wickerwork fencing, about three
+feet high, made from the reeds gathered in the swamps of
+the Aras River, was stretched around the bottom of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page61">[pg 61]</span><a name="Pg061" id="Pg061" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tent to keep out the cattle as well as to afford some little
+protection from the elements. This same material, of the
+same width or height, was used to partition off the apartments
+of the women. Far from being veiled and shut
+up in harems, like their Turkish and Persian sisters, the
+Kurdish women come and go among the men, and talk
+and laugh as they please. The thinness and lowness of
+the partition walls did not disturb their astonishing equanimity.
+In their relations with the men the women are
+extremely free. During the evening we frequently found
+ourselves surrounded by a concourse of these mountain
+beauties, who would sit and stare at us with their black
+eyes, call attention to our personal oddities, and laugh
+among themselves. Now and then their jokes at our expense
+would produce hilarious laughter among the men.
+The dress of these women consisted of baggy trousers,
+better described in this country as <span class="tei tei-q">“divided skirts,”</span> a
+bright-colored overskirt and tunic, and a little round cloth
+cap encircled with a band of red and black. Through the
+right lobe of the nose was hung a peculiar button-shaped
+ornament studded with precious stones. This picturesque
+costume well set off their rich olive complexions, and black
+eyes beneath dark-brown lashes.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There were no signs of an approaching evening meal
+until we opened our provision-bag, and handed over certain
+articles of raw food to be cooked for us. No sooner
+were the viands intrusted to the care of our hosts, than
+two sets of pots and kettles made their appearance in the
+other compartments. In half an hour our host and friends
+proceeded to indulge their voracious appetites. When our
+own meal was brought to us some time after, we noticed
+that the fourteen eggs we had doled out had been reduced
+to six; and the other materials suffered a similar reduction,
+the whole thing being so patent as to make their
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page62">[pg 62]</span><a name="Pg062" id="Pg062" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>attempt at innocence absurdly ludicrous. We thought,
+however, if Kurdish highway robbery took no worse form
+than this, we could well afford to be content. Supper
+over, we squatted round a slow-burning fire, on the thick
+felt mats which served as carpets, drank tea, and smoked
+the usual cigarettes. By the light of the glowing embers
+we could watch the faces about us, and catch their horrified
+glances when reference was made to our intended
+ascent of Ak-Dagh, the mysterious abode of the jinn. Before
+turning in for the night, we reconnoitered our situation.
+The lights in all the tents, save our own, were now
+extinguished. Not a sound was heard, except the heavy
+breathing of some of the slumbering animals about us,
+or the bark of a dog at some distant encampment. The
+huge dome of Ararat, though six to eight miles farther
+up the slope, seemed to be towering over us like some
+giant monster of another world. We could not see the
+summit, so far was it above the enveloping clouds. We
+returned to the tent to find that the zaptiehs had been
+given the best places and best covers to sleep in, and that
+we were expected to accommodate ourselves near the door,
+wrapped up in an old Kurdish carpet. Policy was evidently
+a better developed trait of Kurdish character than
+hospitality.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Although we arose at four, seven o’clock saw us still at
+the encampment. Two hours vanished before our gentlemen
+zaptiehs condescended to rise from their peaceful
+slumbers; then a great deal of time was unnecessarily
+consumed in eating their special breakfast. We ourselves
+had to be content with ekmek and yaourt (blotting-paper
+bread and curdled milk). This over, they concluded not
+to go on without sandals to take the place of their heavy
+military boots, as at this point their horses would have to
+be discarded. After we had employed a Kurd to make
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page63">[pg 63]</span><a name="Pg063" id="Pg063" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>these for them, they declared they were afraid to proceed
+without the company of ten Kurds armed to the teeth.
+We knew that this was only a scheme on the part of the
+Kurds, with whom the zaptiehs were in league, to extort
+money from us. We still kept cool, and only casually
+insinuated that we did not have enough money to pay
+for so large a party. This announcement worked like
+a charm. The interest the Kurds had up to this time
+taken in our venture died away at once. Even the three
+Kurds who, as requested in the message of the mutessarif,
+were to accompany us up the mountain to the snow-line,
+refused absolutely to go. The mention of the mutessarif’s
+name awakened only a sneer. We had also relied
+upon the Kurds for blankets, as we had been advised to
+do by our friends in Bayazid. Those we had already
+hired they now snatched from the donkeys standing before
+the tent. All this time our tall, gaunt, meek-looking
+muleteer had stood silent. Now his turn had come. How
+far was he to go with his donkeys?—he didn’t think it
+possible for him to go much beyond this point. Patience
+now ceased to be a virtue. We cut off discussion at once;
+told the muleteer he would either go on, or lose what he
+had already earned; and informed the zaptiehs that whatever
+they did would be reported to the mutessarif on our
+return. Under this rather forcible persuasion, they stood
+not on the order of their going, but sullenly followed our
+little procession out of camp before the crestfallen Kurds.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In the absence of guides we were thrown upon our own
+resources. Far from being an assistance, our zaptiehs
+proved a nuisance. They would carry nothing, not even
+the food they were to eat, and were absolutely ignorant
+of the country we were to traverse. From our observations
+on the previous days, we had decided to strike out
+on a northeast course, over the gentle slope, until we
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page64">[pg 64]</span><a name="Pg064" id="Pg064" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>struck the rocky ridges on the southeast buttress of the
+dome. On its projecting rocks, which extended nearer
+to the summit than those of any other part of the mountain,
+we could avoid the slippery, precipitous snow-beds
+that stretched far down the mountain at this time of the
+year.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Immediately after leaving the encampment, the ascent
+became steeper and more difficult; the small volcanic
+stones of yesterday now increased to huge obstructing
+boulders, among which the donkeys with difficulty made
+their way. They frequently tipped their loads, or got
+wedged in between two unyielding walls. In the midst
+of our efforts to extricate them, we often wondered how
+Noah ever managed with the animals from the ark. Had
+these donkeys not been of a philosophical turn of mind,
+they might have offered forcible objections to the way we
+extricated them from their straightened circumstances.
+A remonstrance on our part for carelessness in driving
+brought from the muleteer a burst of Turkish profanity
+that made the rocks of Ararat resound with indignant
+echoes. The spirit of insubordination seemed to be increasing
+in direct ratio with the height of our ascent.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We came now to a comparatively smooth, green slope,
+which led up to the highest Kurdish encampment met on
+the line of our ascent, about 7500 feet. When in sight of
+the black tents, the subject of Kurdish guides was again
+broached by the zaptiehs, and immediately they sat down
+to discuss the question. We ourselves were through with
+discussion, and fully determined to have nothing to do
+with a people who could do absolutely nothing for us.
+We stopped at the tents, and asked for milk. <span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span>
+they said; <span class="tei tei-q">“we have some”</span>: but after waiting for ten
+minutes, we learned that the milk was still in the goats’
+possession, several hundred yards away among the rocks.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page66">[pg 66]</span><a name="Pg066" id="Pg066" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>It dawned upon us that this was only another trick of the
+zaptiehs to get a rest.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill39" id="ill39"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i079.jpg" alt="OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION." title="OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We pushed on the next 500 feet of the ascent without
+much trouble or controversy, the silence broken only by
+the muleteer, who took the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">raki</span></span> bottle off the donkey’s
+pack, and asked if he could take a drink. As we had
+only a limited supply, to be used to dilute the snow-water,
+we were obliged to refuse him.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At 8000 feet we struck our first snowdrift, into which
+the donkeys sank up to their bodies. It required our
+united efforts to lift them out, and half carry them across.
+Then on we climbed till ten o’clock, to a point about 9000
+feet, where we stopped for lunch in a quiet mountain
+glen, by the side of a rippling mountain rill. This snow-water
+we drank with raki. The view in the mean time
+had been growing more and more extensive. The plain
+before us had lost nearly all its detail and color, and was
+merged into one vast whole. Though less picturesque, it
+was incomparably grander. Now we could see how, in
+ages past, the lava had burst out of the lateral fissures in
+the mountain, and flowed in huge streams for miles down
+the slope, and out on the plain below. These beds of lava
+were gradually broken up by the action of the elements,
+and now presented the appearance of ridges of broken
+volcanic rocks of the most varied and fantastic shapes.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was here that the muleteer showed evident signs of
+weakening, which later on developed into a total collapse.
+We had come to a broad snow-field where the donkeys
+stuck fast and rolled over helpless in the snow. Even
+after we had unstrapped their baggage and carried it
+over on our shoulders, they could make no headway. The
+muleteer gave up in despair, and refused even to help us
+carry our loads to the top of an adjoining hill, whither
+the zaptiehs had proceeded to wait for us. In
+conse<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page68">[pg 68]</span><a name="Pg068" id="Pg068" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>quence, Raffl and we were compelled to carry two donkey-loads
+of baggage for half a mile over the snow-beds and
+boulders, followed by the sulking muleteer, who had deserted
+his donkeys, rather than be left alone himself. On
+reaching the zaptiehs, we sat down to hold a council on
+the situation; but the clouds, which, during the day, had
+occasionally obscured the top of the mountain, now began
+to thicken, and it was not long before a shower compelled
+us to beat a hasty retreat to a neighboring ledge of rocks.
+The clouds that were rolling between us and the mountain
+summit seemed but a token of the storm of circumstances.
+One thing was certain, the muleteer could go
+no farther up the mountain, and yet he was mortally
+afraid to return alone to the Kurdish robbers. He sat
+down, and began to cry like a child. This predicament of
+their accomplice furnished the zaptiehs with a plausible
+excuse. They now absolutely refused to go any farther
+without him. Our interpreter, the Greek, again joined the
+majority; he was not going to risk the ascent without the
+Turkish guards, and besides, he had now come to the conclusion
+that we had not sufficient blankets to spend a
+night at so high an altitude. Disappointed, but not discouraged,
+we gazed at the silent old gentleman at our
+side. In his determined countenance we read his answer.
+Long shall we remember Ignaz Raffl as one of the pluckiest,
+most persevering of old men.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill40" id="ill40"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i081.jpg" alt="HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD." title="HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There was now only one plan that could be pursued.
+Selecting from our supplies one small blanket, a felt mat,
+two long, stout ropes, enough food to last us two days, a
+bottle of cold tea, and a can of Turkish raki, we packed
+them into two bundles to strap on our backs. We then
+instructed the rest of the party to return to the Kurdish
+encampment and await our return. The sky was again
+clear at 2:30 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">P. M.</span></span>, when we bade good-by to our
+    worth<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page69">[pg 69]</span><a name="Pg069" id="Pg069" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>less comrades and resumed the ascent. We were now at
+a height of nine thousand feet, and it was our plan to
+camp at a point far enough up the mountain to enable us
+to complete the ascent on the following day, and return
+to the Kurdish encampment by nightfall. Beyond us was
+a region of snow and barren rocks, among which we still
+saw a small purple flower and bunches of lichens, which
+grew more rare as we advanced. Our course continued
+in a northeast direction, toward the main southeast ridge
+of the mountain. Sometimes we were floundering with
+our heavy loads in the deep snow-beds, or scrambling on
+hands and knees over the huge boulders of the rocky
+seams. Two hours and a half of climbing brought us to
+the crest of the main southeast ridge, about one thousand
+feet below the base of the precipitous dome. At this point
+our course changed from northeast to northwest, and
+con<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page70">[pg 70]</span><a name="Pg070" id="Pg070" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tinued so during the rest of the ascent. Little Ararat
+was now in full view. We could even distinguish upon
+its northwest side a deep-cut gorge, which was not visible
+before. Upon its smooth and perfect slopes remained
+only the tatters of its last winter’s garments. We could
+also look far out over the Sardarbulakh ridge, which connects
+the two Ararats, and on which the Cossacks are encamped.
+It was to them that the mutessarif had desired
+us to go, but we had subsequently determined to make
+the ascent directly from the Turkish side.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill41" id="ill41"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i083.png" alt="LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW." title="LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Following up this southeast ridge we came at 5:45 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">P. M.</span></span>
+to a point about eleven thousand feet. Here the thermometer
+registered 39° Fahrenheit, and was constantly
+falling. If we should continue on, the cold during the
+night, especially with our scanty clothing, would become
+intolerable; and then, too, we could scarcely find a spot
+level enough to sleep on. We therefore determined to
+stop here for the night, and to continue the ascent at
+dawn. Some high, rugged crags on the ridge above us
+attracted our attention as affording a comparatively protected
+lodging. Among these we spread our carpet, and
+piled stones in the intervening spaces to form a complete
+inclosure. Thus busily engaged, we failed for a time to
+realize the grandeur of the situation. Over the vast and
+misty panorama that spread out before us, the lingering
+rays of the setting sun shed a tinge of gold, which was
+communicated to the snowy beds around us. Behind the
+peak of Little Ararat a brilliant rainbow stretched in one
+grand archway above the weeping clouds. But this was
+only one turn of nature’s kaleidoscope. The arch soon
+faded away, and the shadows lengthened and deepened
+across the plain, and mingled, till all was lost to view
+behind the falling curtains of the night. The Kurdish
+tents far down the slope, and the white curling smoke
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page71">[pg 71]</span><a name="Pg071" id="Pg071" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>from their evening camp-fires, we could see no more; only
+the occasional bark of a dog was borne upward through
+the impenetrable darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Colder and colder grew the atmosphere. From 39° the
+thermometer gradually fell to 36°, to 33°, and during the
+night dropped below freezing-point. The snow, which
+fell from the clouds just over our heads, covered our frugal
+supper-table, on which were placed a few hard-boiled
+eggs, some tough Turkish bread, cheese, and a bottle of
+tea mixed with raki. Ice-tea was no doubt a luxury at
+this time of the year, but not on Mount Ararat, at the
+height of eleven thousand feet, with the temperature at
+freezing-point. M. Raffl was as cheerful as could be expected
+under the circumstances. He expressed his delight
+at our progress thus far; and now that we were free from
+our <span class="tei tei-q">“gentlemen”</span> attendants, he considered our chances
+for success much brighter. We turned in together under
+our single blanket, with the old gentleman between us.
+He had put on every article of clothing, including gloves,
+hat, hood, cloak, and heavy shoes. For pillows we used
+the provision-bags and camera. The bottle of cold tea
+we buttoned up in our coats to prevent it from freezing.
+On both sides, and above us, lay the pure white snow; below
+us a huge abyss, into which the rocky ridge descended
+like a darkened stairway to the lower regions. The awful
+stillness was unbroken, save by the whistling of the wind
+among the rocks. Dark masses of clouds seemed to bear
+down upon us every now and then, opening up their trapdoors,
+and letting down a heavy fall of snow. The heat
+of our bodies melted the ice beneath us, and our clothes
+became saturated with ice-water. Although we were surrounded
+by snow and ice, we were suffering with a burning
+thirst. Since separating from our companions we had
+found no water whatever, while the single bottle of cold
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page73">[pg 73]</span><a name="Pg073" id="Pg073" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tea we had must be preserved for the morrow. Sleep,
+under such circumstances, and in our cramped position,
+was utterly impossible. At one o’clock the morning star
+peeped above the eastern horizon. This we watched hour
+after hour, as it rose in unrivaled beauty toward the zenith,
+until at last it began to fade away in the first gray
+streaks of the morning.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill42" id="ill42"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i086.jpg" alt="THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET." title="THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+By the light of a flickering candle we ate a hurried
+breakfast, fastened on our spiked shoes, and strapped to
+our backs a few indispensable articles, leaving the rest of
+our baggage at the camp until our return. Just at daybreak,
+3:55 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">A. M.</span></span>, on the 4th of July, we started off on
+what proved to be the hardest day’s work we had ever
+accomplished. We struck out at once across the broad
+snow-field to the second rock rib on the right, which
+seemed to lead up to the only line of rocks above. The
+surface of these large snow-beds had frozen during the
+night, so that we had to cut steps with our ice-picks to
+keep from slipping down their glassy surface. Up this
+ridge we slowly climbed for three weary hours, leaping
+from boulder to boulder, or dragging ourselves up their
+precipitous sides. The old gentleman halted frequently
+to rest, and showed evident signs of weariness. <span class="tei tei-q">“It is
+hard; we must take it slowly,”</span> he would say (in German)
+whenever our impatience would get the better of our prudence.
+At seven o’clock we reached a point about 13,500
+feet, beyond which there seemed to be nothing but the
+snow-covered slope, with only a few projecting rocks
+along the edge of a tremendous gorge which now broke
+upon our astonished gaze. Toward this we directed our
+course, and, an hour later, stood upon its very verge. Our
+venerable companion now looked up at the precipitous
+slope above us, where only some stray, projecting rocks
+were left to guide us through the wilderness of snow.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page74">[pg 74]</span><a name="Pg074" id="Pg074" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“Boys,”</span> said he, despondently, <span class="tei tei-q">“I cannot reach the top;
+I have not rested during the night, and I am now falling
+asleep on my feet; besides, I am very much fatigued.”</span>
+This came almost like a sob from a breaking heart. Although
+the old gentleman was opposed to the ascent in
+the first instance, his old Alpine spirit arose within him
+with all its former vigor when once he had started up the
+mountain slope; and now, when almost in sight of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page75">[pg 75]</span><a name="Pg075" id="Pg075" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>very goal, his strength began to fail him. After much
+persuasion and encouragement, he finally said that if he
+could get half an hour’s rest and sleep, he thought he
+would be able to continue. We then wrapped him up in
+his greatcoat, and dug out a comfortable bed in the snow,
+while one of us sat down, with back against him, to keep
+him from rolling down the mountain-side.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill43" id="ill43"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i088.jpg" alt="NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM." title="NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We were now on the chasm’s brink, looking down into
+its unfathomable depths. This gigantic rent, hundreds
+of feet in width and thousands in depth, indicates that
+northwest-southeast line along which the volcanic forces
+of Ararat have acted most powerfully. This fissure is
+perhaps the greatest with which the mountain is seamed,
+and out of which has undoubtedly been discharged a great
+portion of its lava. Starting from the base of the dome,
+it seemed to pierce the shifting clouds to a point about
+500 feet from the summit. This line is continued out
+into the plain in a series of small volcanoes the craters of
+which appear to be as perfect as though they had been in
+activity only yesterday. The solid red and yellow rocks
+which lined the sides of the great chasm projected above
+the opposite brink in jagged and appalling cliffs. The
+whole was incased in a mass of huge fantastic icicles,
+which, glittering in the sunlight, gave it the appearance
+of a natural crystal palace. No more fitting place than
+this could the fancy of the Kurds depict for the home of
+the terrible jinn; no better symbol of nature for the awful
+jaws of death.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our companion now awoke considerably refreshed,
+and the ascent was continued close to the chasm’s brink.
+Here were the only rocks to be seen in the vast snow-bed
+around us. Cautiously we proceed, with cat-like tread,
+following directly in one another’s footsteps, and holding
+on to our alpenstocks like grim death. A loosened rock
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page76">[pg 76]</span><a name="Pg076" id="Pg076" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>would start at first slowly, gain momentum, and fairly
+fly. Striking against some projecting ledge, it would
+bound a hundred feet or more into the air, and then drop
+out of sight among the clouds below. Every few moments
+we would stop to rest; our knees were like lead, and the
+high altitude made breathing difficult. Now the trail of
+rocks led us within two feet of the chasm’s edge; we
+approached it cautiously, probing well for a rock foundation,
+and gazing with dizzy heads into the abyss.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The slope became steeper and steeper, until it abutted
+in an almost precipitous cliff coated with snow and glistening
+ice. There was no escape from it, for all around the
+snow-beds were too steep and slippery to venture an ascent
+upon them. Cutting steps with our ice-picks, and
+half-crawling, half-dragging ourselves, with the alpenstocks
+hooked into the rocks above, we scaled its height,
+and advanced to the next abutment. Now a cloud, as
+warm as exhausted steam, enveloped us in the midst of
+this ice and snow. When it cleared away, the sun was
+reflected with intenser brightness. Our faces were already
+smarting with blisters, and our dark glasses afforded but
+little protection to our aching eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At 11 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">A. M.</span></span> we sat down on the snow to eat our last
+morsel of food. The cold chicken and bread tasted like
+sawdust, for we had no saliva with which to masticate
+them. Our single bottle of tea had given out, and we
+suffered with thirst for several hours. Again the word
+to start was given. We rose at once, but our stiffened
+legs quivered beneath us, and we leaned on our alpenstocks
+for support. Still we plodded on for two more
+weary hours, cutting our steps in the icy cliffs, or sinking
+to our thighs in the treacherous snow-beds. We could
+see that we were nearing the top of the great chasm, for
+the clouds, now entirely cleared away, left our view
+un<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page77">[pg 77]</span><a name="Pg077" id="Pg077" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>obstructed. We could even descry the black Kurdish
+tents upon the northeast slope, and, far below, the Aras
+River, like a streak of silver, threading its way into the
+purple distance. The atmosphere about us grew colder,
+and we buttoned up our now too scanty garments. We
+must be nearing the top, we thought, and yet we were not
+certain, for a huge, precipitous cliff, just in front of us,
+cut off the view.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Slowly, slowly,”</span> feebly shouted the old gentleman, as
+we began the attack on its precipitous sides, now stopping
+to brush away the treacherous snow, or to cut some
+steps in the solid ice. We pushed and pulled one another
+almost to the top, and then, with one more desperate
+effort, we stood upon a vast and gradually sloping snow-bed.
+Down we plunged above our knees through the
+yielding surface, and staggered and fell with failing
+strength; then rose once more and plodded on, until at
+last we sank exhausted upon the top of Ararat.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+For a moment only we lay gasping for breath; then
+a full realization of our situation dawned upon us, and
+fanned the few faint sparks of enthusiasm that remained
+in our exhausted bodies. We unfurled upon an alpenstock
+the small silk American flag that we had brought
+from home, and for the first time the <span class="tei tei-q">“stars and stripes”</span>
+was given to the breeze on the Mountain of the Ark.
+Four shots fired from our revolvers in commemoration
+of Independence Day broke the stillness of the gorges.
+Far above the clouds, which were rolling below us over
+three of the most absolute monarchies in the world, was
+celebrated in our simple way a great event of republicanism.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Mount Ararat, it will be observed from the accompanying
+sketch, has two tops, a few hundred yards apart, sloping,
+on the eastern and western extremities, into rather
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page78">[pg 78]</span><a name="Pg078" id="Pg078" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>prominent abutments, and separated by a snow valley, or
+depression, from 50 to 100 feet in depth. The eastern
+top, on which we were standing, was quite extensive, and
+30 to 40 feet lower than its western neighbor. Both tops
+are hummocks on the huge dome of Ararat, like the
+humps on the back of a camel, on neither one of which
+is there a vestige of anything but snow.
+</p>
+<a name="ill44" id="ill44"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i092.jpg" alt="ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT-FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE." title="ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There remained just as little trace of the crosses left by
+Parrot and Chodzko, as of the ark itself. We remembered
+the pictures we had seen in our nursery-books,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page79">[pg 79]</span><a name="Pg079" id="Pg079" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which represented this mountain-top covered with green
+grass, and Noah stepping out of the ark, in the bright,
+warm sunshine, before the receding waves; and now we
+looked around and saw this very spot covered with perpetual
+snow. Nor did we see any evidence whatever of
+a former existing crater, except perhaps the snow-filled
+depression we have just mentioned. There was nothing
+about this perpetual snow-field, and the freezing atmosphere
+that was chilling us to the bone, to remind us that
+we were on the top of an extinct volcano that once trembled
+with the convulsions of subterranean heat.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The view from this towering height was immeasurably
+extensive, and almost too grand. All detail was lost—all
+color, all outline; even the surrounding mountains
+seemed to be but excrescent ridges of the plain. Then,
+too, we could catch only occasional glimpses, as the clouds
+shifted to and fro. At one time they opened up beneath
+us, and revealed the Aras valley with its glittering ribbon
+of silver at an abysmal depth below. Now and then we
+could descry the black volcanic peaks of Ali Ghez forty
+miles away to the northwest, and on the southwest the
+low mountains that obscured the town of Bayazid. Of
+the Caucasus, the mountains about Erzerum on the west,
+and Lake Van on the south, and even of the Caspian Sea,
+all of which are said to be in Ararat’s horizon, we could
+see absolutely nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Had it been a clear day we could have seen not only
+the rival peaks of the Caucasus, which for so many years
+formed the northern wall of the civilized world, but, far
+to the south, we might have descried the mountains of
+Quardu land, where Chaldean legend has placed the landing
+of the ark. We might have gazed, in philosophic
+mood, over the whole of the Aras valley, which for 3000
+years or more has been the scene of so much misery and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page80">[pg 80]</span><a name="Pg080" id="Pg080" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>conflict. As monuments of two extreme events in this
+historic period, two spots might have attracted our attention—one
+right below us, the ruins of Artaxata, which,
+according to tradition, was built, as the story goes, after
+the plans of the roving conqueror Hannibal, and stormed
+by the Roman legions, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">A. D.</span></span> 58; and farther away to the
+north, the modern fortress of Kars, which so recently reverberated
+with the thunders of the Turkish war.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We were suddenly aroused by the rumbling of thunder
+below us. A storm was rolling rapidly up the southeast
+slope of the mountain. The atmosphere seemed to be
+boiling over the heated plain below. Higher and higher
+came the clouds, rolling and seething among the grim
+crags along the chasm; and soon we were caught in its
+embrace. The thermometer dropped at once below freezing-point,
+and the dense mists, driven against us by the
+hurricane, formed icicles on our blistered faces, and froze
+the ink in our fountain-pens. Our summer clothing was
+wholly inadequate for such an unexpected experience; we
+were chilled to the bone. To have remained where we
+were would have been jeopardizing our health, if not our
+lives. Although we could scarcely see far enough ahead
+to follow back on the track by which we had ascended,
+yet we were obliged to attempt it at once, for the storm
+around us was increasing every moment; we could even
+feel the charges of electricity whenever we touched the
+iron points of our alpenstocks.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Carefully peering through the clouds, we managed to
+follow the trail we had made along the gradually sloping
+summit, to the head of the great chasm, which now appeared
+more terrible than ever. We here saw that it
+would be extremely perilous, if not actually impossible,
+to attempt a descent on the rocks along its treacherous
+edge in such a hurricane. The only alternative was to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page81">[pg 81]</span><a name="Pg081" id="Pg081" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>take the precipitous snow-covered slope. Planting our
+ice-hooks deep in the snow behind us, we started. At
+first the strong head wind, which on the top almost took
+us off our feet, somewhat checked our downward career,
+but it was not long before we attained a velocity that
+made our hair stand on end. It was a thrilling experience;
+we seemed to be sailing through the air itself, for
+the clouds obscured the slope even twenty feet below.
+Finally we emerged beneath them into the glare of the
+afternoon sunlight; but on we dashed for 6000 feet, leaning
+heavily on the trailing-stocks, which threw up an icy
+spray in our wake. We never once stopped until we
+reached the bottom of the dome, at our last night’s camp
+among the rocks.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In less than an hour we had dashed down, through a
+distance which it had taken us nine and a half hours to
+ascend. The camp was reached at 4 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">P. M.</span></span>, just twelve
+hours from the time we left it. Gathering up the remaining
+baggage, we hurried away to continue the descent.
+We must make desperate efforts to reach the Kurdish encampment
+by nightfall; for during the last twenty-seven
+hours we had had nothing to drink but half a pint of tea,
+and our thirst by this time became almost intolerable.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The large snow-bed down which we had been sliding
+now began to show signs of treachery. The snow, at this
+low altitude, had melted out from below, to supply the
+subterranean streams, leaving only a thin crust at the
+surface. It was not long before one of our party fell into
+one of these pitfalls up to his shoulders, and floundered
+about for some time before he could extricate himself
+from his unexpected snow-bath.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Over the rocks and boulders the descent was much
+slower and more tedious. For two hours we were thus
+busily engaged, when all at once a shout rang out in the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page82">[pg 82]</span><a name="Pg082" id="Pg082" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>clear evening air. Looking up we saw, sure enough, our
+two zaptiehs and muleteer on the very spot where we had
+left them the evening before. Even the two donkeys were
+on hand to give us a welcoming bray. They had come
+up from the encampment early in the morning, and had
+been scanning the mountain all day long to get some clue
+to our whereabouts. They reported that they had seen
+us at one time during the morning, and had then lost
+sight of us among the clouds. This solicitude on their
+part was no doubt prompted by the fact that they were
+to be held by the mutessarif of Bayazid as personally responsible
+for our safe return, and perhaps, too, by the
+hope that they might thus retrieve the good graces they
+had lost the day before, and thereby increase the amount
+of the forthcoming baksheesh. Nothing, now, was too
+heavy for the donkeys, and even the zaptiehs themselves
+condescended to relieve us of our alpenstocks.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+That night we sat again around the Kurdish camp-fire,
+surrounded by the same group of curious faces. It was
+interesting and even amusing to watch the bewildered
+astonishment that overspread their countenances as we
+related our experiences along the slope, and then upon
+the very top, of Ak-Dagh. They listened throughout with
+profound attention, then looked at one another in silence,
+and gravely shook their heads. They could not believe
+it. It was impossible. Old Ararat stood above us grim
+and terrible beneath the twinkling stars. To them it <a name="corr082" id="corr082" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">was,</span>
+as it always will be, the same mysterious, untrodden height—the
+palace of the jinn.
+</p>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page83">[pg 83]</span><a name="Pg083" id="Pg083" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc45" id="toc45"></a><a name="pdf46" id="pdf46"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">III</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“It is all bosh,”</span> was the all but universal opinion of
+Bayazid in regard to our alleged ascent of Ararat.
+None but the Persian consul and the mutessarif himself
+deigned to profess a belief in it, and the gift of several
+letters to Persian officials, and a sumptuous dinner on
+the eve of our departure, went far toward proving their
+sincerity.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On the morning of July 8, in company with a body-guard
+of zaptiehs, which the mutessarif forced upon us,
+we wheeled down from the ruined embattlements of Bayazid.
+The assembled rabble raised a lusty cheer at parting.
+An hour later we had surmounted the Kazlee Gool,
+and the <span class="tei tei-q">“land of Iran”</span> was before us. At our feet lay
+the Turco-Persian battle-plains of Chaldiran, spreading
+like a desert expanse to the parched barren hills beyond,
+and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the
+village oases. And this, then, was the land where, as the
+poets say, <span class="tei tei-q">“the nightingale sings, and the rose-tree blossoms,”</span>
+and where <span class="tei tei-q">“a flower is crushed at every step!”</span>
+More truth, we thought, in the Scotch traveler’s description,
+which divides Persia into two portions—<span class="tei tei-q">“One desert
+with salt, and the other desert without salt.”</span> In time we
+came to McGregor’s opinion as expressed in his
+descrip<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page84">[pg 84]</span><a name="Pg084" id="Pg084" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tion of Khorassan. <span class="tei tei-q">“We should fancy,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“a small
+green circle round every village indicated on the map, and
+shade all the rest in brown.”</span> The mighty hosts whose
+onward sweep from the Indus westward was checked only
+by the Grecian phalanx upon the field of Marathon must
+have come from the scattered ruins around, which reminded
+us that <span class="tei tei-q">“Iran was; she is no more.”</span> Those
+myriad ranks of Yenghiz Khan and Tamerlane brought
+death and desolation from Turan to Iran, which so often
+met to act and react upon one another that both are now
+only landmarks in the sea of oblivion.
+</p>
+<a name="ill47" id="ill47"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i098.jpg" alt="HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI." title="HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our honorary escort accompanied us several miles over
+the border to the Persian village of Killissakend, and there
+committed us to the hospitality of the district khan, with
+whom we managed to converse in the Turkish language,
+which, strange to say, we found available in all the
+coun<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page85">[pg 85]</span><a name="Pg085" id="Pg085" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tries that lay in our transcontinental pathway as far as
+the great wall of China. Toward evening we rode in the
+garden of the harem of the khan, and at daybreak the
+next morning were again in the saddle. By a very early
+start we hoped to escape the burden of excessive hospitality;
+in other words, to get rid of an escort that was
+an expensive nuisance. At the next village we were confronted
+by what appeared to be a shouting, gesticulating
+maniac. On dismounting, we learned that a harbinger
+had been sent by the khan, the evening before, to have a
+guard ready to join us as we passed through. In fact,
+two armed <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ferashes</span></span> were galloping toward us, armed, as
+we afterward learned, with American rifles, and the usual
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kamma</span></span>, or huge dagger, swinging from a belt of cartridges.
+These fellows, like the zaptiehs, were fond of
+ostentation. They frequently led us a roundabout way
+to show us off to their relatives or friends in a neighboring
+village. Nature at last came to our deliverance. As
+we stood on a prominent ridge taking a last look at Mount
+Ararat, now more than fifty miles away, a storm came
+upon us, showering hailstones as large as walnuts. The
+ferashes with frantic steeds dashed ahead to seek a place
+of shelter, and we saw them no more.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Five days in Persia brought us to the shores of Lake
+Ooroomeeyah, the saltest body of water in the world.
+Early the next morning we were wading the chilly waters
+of the Hadji Chai, and a few hours later found us in the
+English consulate at Tabreez, where we were received by
+the Persian secretary. The English government, it seemed,
+had become embroiled in a local love-affair just at a time
+when Colonel Stewart was off on <span class="tei tei-q">“diplomatic duty”</span> on
+the Russian Transcaspian border. An exceptionally bright
+Armenian beauty, a graduate of the American missionary
+schools at this place, had been abducted, it was claimed,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page86">[pg 86]</span><a name="Pg086" id="Pg086" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>by a young Kurdish cavalier, and carried away to his
+mountain home. Her father, who happened to be a naturalized
+English subject, had applied for the assistance of
+his adopted country in obtaining her release. Negotiations
+were at once set on foot between London and Teheran,
+which finally led to a formal demand upon the Kurds by
+the Shah himself. Upon their repeated refusal, seven
+thousand Persian troops, it was said, were ordered to
+Soak Boulak, under the command of the vice-consul, Mr.
+Patton. The matter at length assumed such an importance
+as to give rise, in the House of Commons, to the
+question, <span class="tei tei-q">“Who is Katty Greenfield?”</span> This, in time,
+was answered by that lady herself, who declared under
+oath that she had become a Mohammedan, and was in
+love with the man with whom she had eloped. More
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page87">[pg 87]</span><a name="Pg087" id="Pg087" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>than this, it was learned that she had not a drop of English
+blood in her veins, her father being an Austrian, and
+her mother a native Armenian. Whereupon the Persian
+troopers, with their much disgusted leader, beat an inglorious
+retreat, leaving <span class="tei tei-q">“Katty Greenfield”</span> mistress of
+the situation, and of a Kurdish heart.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill48" id="ill48"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i100.jpg" alt="LEAVING KHOI." title="LEAVING KHOI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">LEAVING KHOI.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In Tabreez there is one object sure to attract attention.
+This is the <span class="tei tei-q">“Ark,”</span> or ancient fortified castle of the Persian
+rulers. High on one of the sides, which a recent
+earthquake has rent from top to bottom, there is a little
+porch whence these Persian <span class="tei tei-q">“Bluebeards,”</span> or rather Redbeards,
+were wont to hurl unruly members of the harem.
+Under the shadow of these gloomy walls was enacted a
+tragedy of this century. Babism is by no means the only
+heresy that has sprung from the speculative genius of
+Persia; but it is the one that has most deeply moved the
+society of the present age, and the one which still obtains,
+though in secret and without a leader. Its founder, Seyd
+Mohammed Ali, better known as Bab, or <span class="tei tei-q">“Gate,”</span> promulgated
+the doctrine of anarchy to the extent of <span class="tei tei-q">“sparing
+the rod and spoiling the child,”</span> and still worse, perhaps,
+of refusing to the ladies no finery that might be at all
+becoming to their person. While not a communist, as
+he has sometimes been wrongly classed, he exhorted the
+wealthy to regard themselves as only trustees of the poor.
+With no thought at first of acquiring civil power, he and
+his rapidly increasing following were driven to revolt by
+the persecuting mollas, and the sanguinary struggle of
+1848 followed. Bab himself was captured, and carried
+to this <span class="tei tei-q">“most fanatical city of Persia,”</span> the burial-place
+of the sons of Ali. On this very spot a company was
+ordered to despatch him with a volley; but when the
+smoke cleared away, Bab was not to be seen. None of
+the bullets had gone to the mark, and the bird had
+flown<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page89">[pg 89]</span><a name="Pg089" id="Pg089" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>—but not to the safest refuge. Had he finally escaped,
+the miracle thus performed would have made Babism invincible.
+But he was recaptured and despatched, and his
+body thrown to the canine scavengers.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill49" id="ill49"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i102a.jpg" alt="YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ." title="YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.</span></div></div>
+
+<a name="ill50" id="ill50"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i102b.jpg" alt="LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ." title="LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Tabreez</span></span> (fever-dispelling) was a misnomer in our case.
+Our sojourn here was prolonged for more than a month
+by a slight attack of typhoid fever, which this time seized
+Sachtleben, and again the kind nursing of the missionary
+ladies hastened recovery. Our mail, in the mean time,
+having been ordered to Teheran, we were granted the
+privilege of intercepting it. For this purpose we were
+permitted to overhaul the various piles of letters strewn
+over the dirty floor of the distributing-office. Both the
+Turkish and Persian mail is carried in saddle-bags on the
+backs of reinless horses driven at a rapid gallop before
+the mounted mail-carrier or herdsman. Owing to the
+carelessness of the postal officials, legations and consulates
+employ special couriers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The proximity of Tabreez to the Russian border makes
+it politically, as well as commercially, one of the most
+important cities in Persia. For this reason it is the place
+of residence of the Emir-e-Nizam (leader of the army), or
+prime minister, as well as the Vali-Ahd, or Prince Imperial.
+This prince is the Russian candidate, as opposed
+to the English candidate, for the prospective vacancy on
+the throne. Both of these dignitaries invited us to visit
+them, and showed much interest in our <span class="tei tei-q">“wonderful wind
+horses,”</span> of the speed of which exaggerated reports had
+circulated through the country. We were also favored
+with a special letter for the journey to the capital.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On this stage we started August 15, stopping the first
+night at Turkmanchai, the little village where was signed
+the famous treaty of 1828 by virtue of which the Caspian
+Sea became a Russian lake. The next morning we were
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page90">[pg 90]</span><a name="Pg090" id="Pg090" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on the road soon after daybreak, and on approaching the
+next village overtook a curious cavalcade, just concluding
+a long night’s journey. This consisted of a Persian
+palanquin, with its long pole-shafts saddled upon the
+back of a mule at each end; with servants on foot, and a
+body-guard of mounted soldiers. The occupant of this
+peculiar conveyance remained concealed throughout the
+stampede which our sudden appearance occasioned among
+his hearse-bearing mules, for as such they will appear in
+the sequel. In our first article we mentioned an interview
+in London with Malcolm Khan, the representative of the
+Shah at the court of St. James. Since then, it seemed, he
+had fallen into disfavor. During the late visit of the Shah
+to England certain members of his retinue were so young,
+both in appearance and conduct, as to be a source of mortification
+to the Europeanized minister. This reached the
+ears of the Shah some time after his return home; and a
+summons was sent for the accused to repair to Teheran.
+Malcolm Khan, however, was too well versed in Oriental
+craft to fall into such a trap, and announced his purpose
+to devote his future leisure to airing his knowledge of
+Persian politics in the London press. The Persian Minister
+of Foreign Affairs, Musht-a-Shar-el-Dowlet, then residing
+at Tabreez, who was accused of carrying on a seditious
+correspondence with Malcolm Khan, was differently
+situated, unfortunately. It was during our sojourn in
+that city that his palatial household was raided by a party
+of soldiers, and he was carried to prison as a common
+felon. Being unable to pay the high price of pardon that
+was demanded, he was forced away, a few days before
+our departure, on that dreaded journey to the capital,
+which few, if any, ever complete. For on the way they
+are usually met by a messenger, who proffers them a cup
+of coffee, a sword, and a rope, from which they are to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page91">[pg 91]</span><a name="Pg091" id="Pg091" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>choose the method of their doom. This, then, was the
+occupant of the mysterious palanquin, which now was
+opened as we drew up before the village caravansary.
+Out stepped a man, tall and portly, with beard and hair
+of venerable gray. His keen eye, clear-cut features, and
+dignified bearing, bespoke for him respect even in his
+downfall, while his stooped shoulders and haggard countenance
+betrayed the weight of sorrow and sleepless nights
+with which he was going to his tomb.
+</p>
+<a name="ill51" id="ill51"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i105.png" alt="THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH." title="THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT
+THE CALL OF THE SHAH.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At Miana, that town made infamous by its venomous
+insect, is located one of the storage-stations of the Indo-European
+Telegraph Company. Its straight lines of iron
+poles, which we followed very closely from Tabreez to
+Teheran, form only a link in that great wire and cable
+chain which connects Melbourne with London. We spent
+the following night in the German operator’s room.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The weakness of the Persian for mendacity is proverbial.
+One instance of this national weakness was attended
+with considerable inconvenience to us. By some mischance
+we had run by the village where we intended to
+stop for the night, which was situated some distance off
+the road. Meeting a Persian lad, we inquired the
+dis<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page92">[pg 92]</span><a name="Pg092" id="Pg092" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tance. He was ready at once with a cheerful falsehood.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“One farsak”</span> (four miles), he replied, although he must
+have known at the time that the village was already behind
+us. On we pedaled at an increased rate, in order
+to precede, if possible, the approaching darkness; for although
+traditionally the land of a double dawn, Persia has
+only one twilight, and that closely merged into sunset and
+darkness. One, two farsaks were placed behind us, and
+still there was no sign of a human habitation. At length
+darkness fell; we were obliged to dismount to feel our
+way. By the gradually rising ground, and the rocks, we
+knew we were off the road. Dropping our wheels, we
+groped round on hands and knees, to find, if possible,
+some trace of water. With a burning thirst, a chilling
+atmosphere, and swarms of mosquitos biting through our
+clothing, we could not sleep. A slight drizzle began to
+descend. During our gloomy vigil we were glad to hear
+the sounds of a caravan, toward which we groped our
+way, discerning, at length, a long line of camels marching
+to the music of their lantern-bearing leader. When
+our nickel-plated bars and white helmets flashed in the
+lantern-light, there was a shriek, and the lantern fell to
+the ground. The rear-guard rushed to the front with
+drawn weapons; but even they started back at the sound
+of our voices, as we attempted in broken Turkish to reassure
+them. Explanations were made, and the camels soon
+quieted. Thereupon we were surrounded with lanterns
+and firebrands, while the remainder of the caravan party
+was called to the front. Finally we moved on, walking
+side by side with the lantern-bearing leader, who ran
+ahead now and then to make sure of the road. The
+night was the blackest we had ever seen. Suddenly one
+of the camels disappeared in a ditch, and rolled over with
+a groan. Fortunately, no bones were broken, and the load
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page93">[pg 93]</span><a name="Pg093" id="Pg093" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>was replaced. But we were off the road, and a search
+was begun with lights to find the beaten path. Footsore
+and hungry, with an almost intolerable thirst, we trudged
+along till morning, to the ding-dong, ding-dong of the
+deep-toned camel-bells. Finally we reached a sluggish
+river, but did not dare to satisfy our thirst, except by
+washing out our mouths, and by taking occasional swallows,
+with long intervals of rest, in one of which we fell
+asleep from sheer exhaustion. When we awoke the midday
+sun was shining, and a party of Persian travelers was
+bending over us.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From the high lands of Azerbeidjan, where, strange to
+say, nearly all Persian pestilences arise, we dropped suddenly
+into the Kasveen plain, a portion of that triangular,
+dried-up basin of the Persian Mediterranean, now for the
+most part a sandy, saline desert. The argillaceous dust
+accumulated on the Kasveen plain by the weathering of
+the surrounding uplands resembles in appearance the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“yellow earth”</span> of the Hoang Ho district in China, but
+remains sterile for the lack of water. Even the little
+moisture that obtains beneath the surface is sapped by
+the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kanots</span></span>, or underground canals, which bring to the
+fevered lips of the desert oases the fresh, cool springs of
+the Elburz. These are dug with unerring instinct, and
+preserved with jealous care by means of shafts or slanting
+wells dug at regular intervals across the plain. Into
+these we would occasionally descend to relieve our reflection-burned—or,
+as a Persian would say, <span class="tei tei-q">“snow-burned”</span>—faces,
+while the thermometer above stood at 120° in the
+shade.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Over the level ninety-mile stretch between Kasveen and
+the capital a so-called carriage-road has recently been constructed
+close to the base of the mountain. A sudden
+turn round a mountain-spur, and before us was presented
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page94">[pg 94]</span><a name="Pg094" id="Pg094" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to view Mount Demavend and Teheran. Soon the paved
+streets, sidewalks, lamp-posts, street-railways, and even
+steam-tramway, of the half modern capital were as much
+of a surprise to us as our <span class="tei tei-q">“wind horses”</span> were to the curious
+crowds that escorted us to the French Hotel.
+</p>
+<a name="ill52" id="ill52"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i108.jpg" alt="A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON." title="A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From Persia it was our plan to enter Russian central
+Asia, and thence to proceed to China or Siberia. To enter
+the Transcaspian territory, the border-province of the
+Russian possessions, the sanction of its governor, General
+Kuropatkine, would be quite sufficient; but for the rest
+of the journey through Turkestan the Russian minister
+in Teheran said we would have to await a general permission
+from St. Petersburg. Six weeks were spent with
+our English and American acquaintances, and still no
+answer was received. Winter was coming on, and
+some<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page95">[pg 95]</span><a name="Pg095" id="Pg095" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>thing had to be done at once. If we were to be debarred
+from a northern route, we would have to attempt a passage
+into India either through Afghanistan, which we were
+assured by all was quite impossible, or across the deserts
+of southern Persia and Baluchistan. For this latter we
+had already obtained a possible route from the noted
+traveler, Colonel Stewart, whom we met on his way back
+to his consular post at Tabreez. But just at this juncture
+the Russian minister advised another plan. In order to
+save time, he said, we might proceed to Meshed at once,
+and if our permission was not telegraphed to us at that
+point, we could then turn south to Baluchistan as a last
+resort. This, our friends unanimously declared, was a
+Muscovite trick to evade an absolute refusal. The Russians,
+they assured us, would never permit a foreign inspection
+of their doings on the Afghan border; and
+furthermore, we would never be able to cross the uninhabited
+deserts of Baluchistan. Against all protest, we
+waved <span class="tei tei-q">“farewell”</span> to the foreign and native throng which
+had assembled to see us off, and on October 5 wheeled out
+of the fortified square on the <span class="tei tei-q">“Pilgrim Road to Meshed.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Before us now lay six hundred miles of barren hills,
+swampy <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kevirs</span></span>, brier-covered wastes, and salty deserts,
+with here and there some kanot-fed oases. To the south
+lay the lifeless desert of Luth, the <span class="tei tei-q">“Persian Sahara,”</span> the
+humidity of which is the lowest yet recorded on the face
+of the globe, and compared with which <span class="tei tei-q">“the Gobi of China
+and the Kizil-Kum of central Asia are fertile regions.”</span> It
+is our extended and rather unique experience on the former
+of these two that prompts us to refrain from further description
+of desert travel here, where the hardships were
+in a measure ameliorated by frequent stations, and by
+the use of cucumbers and pomegranates, both of which
+we carried with us on the long desert stretches. Melons,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page97">[pg 97]</span><a name="Pg097" id="Pg097" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>too, the finest we have ever seen in any land, frequently
+obviated the necessity of drinking the strongly brackish
+water.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill53" id="ill53"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i110.jpg" alt="LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED." title="LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Yet this experience was sufficient to impress us with the
+fact that the national poets, Hafiz and Sadi, like Thomas
+Moore, have sought in fancy what the land of Iran denied
+them. Those <span class="tei tei-q">“spicy groves, echoing with the nightingale’s
+song,”</span> those <span class="tei tei-q">“rosy bowers and purling brooks,”</span> on
+the whole exist, so far as our experience goes, only in the
+poet’s dream.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Leaving on the right the sand-swept ruins of Veramin,
+that capital of Persia before Teheran was even thought
+of, we traversed the pass of Sir-Dara, identified by some
+as the famous <span class="tei tei-q">“Caspian Gate,”</span> and early in the evening
+entered the village of Aradan. The usual crowd hemmed
+us in on all sides, yelling, <span class="tei tei-q">“Min, min!”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Ride, ride!”</span>),
+which took the place of the Turkish refrain of <span class="tei tei-q">“Bin, bin!”</span>
+As we rode toward the caravansary they shouted, <span class="tei tei-q">“Faster,
+faster!”</span> and when we began to distance them, they caught
+at the rear wheels, and sent a shower of stones after us,
+denting our helmets, and bruising our coatless backs.
+This was too much; we dismounted and exhibited the
+ability to defend ourselves, whereupon they tumbled over
+one another in their haste to get away. But they were
+at our wheels again before we reached the caravansary.
+Here they surged through the narrow gangway, and
+knocked over the fruit-stands of the bazaars.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We were shown to a room, or windowless cell, in the
+honeycomb structure that surrounded an open quadrangular
+court, at the time filled with a caravan of pilgrims,
+carrying triangular white and black flags, with the Persian
+coat of arms, the same we have seen over many doorways
+in Persia as warnings of the danger of trespassing
+upon the religious services held within. The cadaverous
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page98">[pg 98]</span><a name="Pg098" id="Pg098" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>stench revealed the presence of half-dried human bones
+being carried by relatives and friends for interment in the
+sacred <span class="tei tei-q">“City of the Silent.”</span> Thus dead bodies, in loosely
+nailed boxes, are always traveling from one end of Persia
+to the other. Among the pilgrims were blue and green
+turbaned Saids, direct descendants of the Prophet, as well
+as white-turbaned mollas. All were sitting about on the
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sakoo</span></span>, or raised platform, just finishing the evening meal.
+But presently one of the mollas ascended the mound in
+the middle of the stable-yard, and in the manner of the
+muezzin called to prayer. All kneeled, and bowed their
+heads toward Mecca. Then the horses were saddled, the
+long, narrow boxes attached upright to the pack-mules,
+and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kajacas</span></span>, or double boxes, adjusted on the backs
+of the horses of the ladies. Into these the veiled creatures
+entered, and drew the curtains, while the men leaped into
+the saddle at a signal, and, with the tri-cornered flag at
+their head, the cavalcade moved out on its long night pilgrimage.
+We now learned that the village contained a
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">chappar khan</span></span>, one of those places of rest which have
+    re<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page99">[pg 99]</span><a name="Pg099" id="Pg099" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cently been provided for the use of foreigners and others,
+who travel <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">chappar</span></span>, or by relays of post-horses. These
+structures are usually distinguished by a single room built
+on the roof, and projecting some distance over the eaves.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill54" id="ill54"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i112.jpg" alt="IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD." title="IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To this we repaired at once. Its keeper evinced unusual
+pride in the cleanliness of his apartments, for we were
+asked to take off our shoes before entering. But while
+our boastful host was kicking up the mats to convince us
+of the truth of his assertions, he suddenly retired behind
+the scenes to rid himself of some of the pests.
+</p>
+<a name="ill55" id="ill55"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i113.jpg" alt="PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY." title="PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Throughout our Asiatic tour eggs were our chief means
+of subsistence, but <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">pillao</span></span>, or boiled rice flavored with
+grease, we found more particularly used in Persia, like
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yaourt</span></span> in Turkey. This was prepared with chicken whenever
+it was possible to purchase a fowl, and then we would
+usually make the discovery that a Persian fowl was either
+wingless, legless, or otherwise defective after being
+pre<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page100">[pg 100]</span><a name="Pg100" id="Pg100" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>pared by a Persian <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">fuzul</span></span>, or foreigner’s servant, who, it is
+said, <span class="tei tei-q">“shrinks from no baseness in order to eat.”</span> Though
+minus these particular appendages, it would invariably
+have a head; for the fanatical Shiah frequently snatched
+a chicken out of our hands to prevent us from wringing
+or chopping its head off. Even after our meal was served,
+we would keep a sharp lookout upon the unblushing pilferers
+around us, who had called to pay their respects,
+and to fill the room with clouds of smoke from their chibouks
+and gurgling kalians. For a fanatical Shiah will
+sometimes stick his dirty fingers into the dishes of an
+<span class="tei tei-q">“unbeliever,”</span> even though he may subsequently throw
+away the contaminated vessel. And this extreme fanaticism
+is to be found in a country noted for its extensive
+latitude in the profession of religious beliefs.
+</p>
+<a name="ill56" id="ill56"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i114.jpg" alt="A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS." title="A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101">[pg 101]</span><a name="Pg101" id="Pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A present from the village khan was announced. In
+stepped two men bearing a huge tray filled with melons,
+apricots, sugar, rock-candy, nuts, pistachios, etc., all of
+which we must, of course, turn over to the khan-keeper
+and his servants, and pay double their value to the bearers,
+as a present. This polite method of extortion was
+followed the next morning by one of a bolder and more
+peremptory nature. Notwithstanding the feast of the
+night before at our expense, and in addition to furnishing
+us with bedclothes which we really ought to have been
+paid to sleep in, our oily host now insisted upon three or
+four prices for his lodgings. We refused to pay him
+more than a certain sum, and started to vacate the premises.
+Thereupon he and his grown son caught hold of our
+bicycles. Remonstrances proving of no avail, and being
+unable to force our passage through the narrow doorway
+with the bicycles in our hands, we dropped them, and
+grappled with our antagonists. A noisy scuffle, and then
+a heavy fall ensued, but luckily we were both on the upper
+side. This unusual disturbance now brought out the inmates
+of the adjoining <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">anderoon</span></span>. In a moment there was
+a din of feminine screams, and a flutter of garments, and
+then—a crashing of our pith helmets beneath the blows
+of pokers and andirons. The villagers, thus aroused, came
+at last to our rescue, and at once proceeded to patch up a
+compromise. This, in view of the Amazonian reinforcements,
+who were standing by in readiness for a second
+onset, we were more than pleased to accept. From this
+inglorious combat we came off without serious injury;
+but with those gentle poker taps were knocked out forever
+all the sweet delusions of the <span class="tei tei-q">“Light of the Harem.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The great antiquity of this Teheran-Meshed road, which
+is undoubtedly a section of that former commercial highway
+between two of the most ancient capitals in
+history<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span><a name="Pg102" id="Pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>—Nineveh and Balk, is very graphically shown by the
+caravan ruts at Lasgird. These have been worn in many
+places to a depth of four feet in the solid rock. It was
+not far beyond this point that we began to feel the force
+of that famous <span class="tei tei-q">“Damghan wind,”</span> so called from the city
+of that name. Of course this wind was against us. In
+fact, throughout our Asiatic tour easterly winds prevailed;
+and should we ever attempt another transcontinental spin
+we would have a care to travel in the opposite direction.
+</p>
+<a name="ill57" id="ill57"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i116.jpg" alt="CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD." title="CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our peculiar mode of travel subjected us to great extremes
+in our mode of living. Sometimes, indeed, it was
+a change almost from the sublime to the ridiculous, and
+vice versa—from a stable or sheepfold, with a diet of figs
+and bread, and an irrigating-ditch for a lavatory, to a
+palace itself, an Oriental palace, with all the delicacies of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page103">[pg 103]</span><a name="Pg103" id="Pg103" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the East, and a host of servants to attend to our slightest
+wish. So it was at Bostam, the residence of one of Persia’s
+most influential <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">hakims</span></span>, or governors, literally, <span class="tei tei-q">“pillars of
+state,”</span> who was also a cousin to the Shah himself. This
+potentate we visited in company with an English engineer
+whom we met in transit at Sharoud. It was on the evening
+before, when at supper with this gentleman in his
+tent, that a special messenger arrived from the governor,
+requesting us, as the invitation ran, <span class="tei tei-q">“to take our brightness
+into his presence.”</span> As we entered, the governor rose
+from his seat on the floor, a courtesy never shown us by
+a Turkish official. Even the politest of them would, just
+at this particular moment, be conveniently engrossed in
+the examination of some book or paper. His courtesy
+was further extended by locking up our <span class="tei tei-q">“horses,”</span> and
+making us his <span class="tei tei-q">“prisoners”</span> until the following morning.
+At the dinner which Mr. Evans and we were invited to
+eat with his excellency, benches had to be especially prepared,
+as there was nothing like a chair to be found on
+the premises. The governor himself took his accustomed
+position on the floor, with his own private dishes around
+him. From these he would occasionally fish out with his
+fingers some choice lamb <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kebabh</span></span> or cabbage <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dolmah</span></span>, and
+have it passed over to his guests—an act which is considered
+one of the highest forms of Persian hospitality.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+With a shifting of the scenes of travel, we stood at
+sunset on the summit of the Binalud mountains, overlooking
+the valley of the Kashafrud. Our two weeks’ journey
+was almost ended, for the city of Meshed was now in view,
+ten miles away. Around us were piles of little stones, to
+which each pious pilgrim adds his quota when first he sees
+the <span class="tei tei-q">“Holy Shrine,”</span> which we beheld shining like a ball of
+fire in the glow of the setting sun.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill58" id="ill58"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i118.jpg" alt="PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED." title="PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+While we were building our pyramid a party of
+return<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span><a name="Pg104" id="Pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ing pilgrims greeted us with <span class="tei tei-q">“Meshedi at last.”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Not yet,”</span>
+we answered, for we knew that the gates of the Holy City
+closed promptly at twilight. Yet we determined to make
+the attempt. On we sped, but not with the speed of the
+falling night. Dusk overtook us as we reached the plain.
+A moving form was revealed to us on the bank of the
+irrigating-canal which skirted the edge of the road. Backward
+it fell as we dashed by, and then the sound of a
+splash and splutter reached us as we disappeared in the
+darkness. On the morrow we learned that the spirits of
+Hassan and Hussein were seen skimming the earth in their
+flight toward the Holy City. We reached the bridge, and
+crossed the moat, but the gates were closed. We knocked
+and pounded, but a hollow echo was our only response.
+At last the light of a lantern illumined the crevices in the
+weather-beaten doors, and a weird-looking face appeared
+through the midway opening. <span class="tei tei-q">“Who’s there?”</span> said a
+voice, whose sepulchral tones might have belonged to the
+sexton of the Holy Tomb. <span class="tei tei-q">“We are <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ferenghis</span></span>,”</span> we said,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“and must get into the city to-night.”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“That is
+impossi<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page105">[pg 105]</span><a name="Pg105" id="Pg105" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ble,”</span> he answered, <span class="tei tei-q">“for the gates are locked, and the keys
+have been sent away to the governor’s palace.”</span> With this
+the night air grew more chill. But another thought struck
+us at once. We would send a note to General McLean,
+the English consul-general, who was already expecting
+us. This our interlocutor, for a certain <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">inam</span></span>, or Persian
+bakshish, at length agreed to deliver. The general, as we
+afterward learned, sent a servant with a special request
+to the governor’s palace. Here, without delay, a squad of
+horsemen was detailed, and ordered with the keys to the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Herat Gate.”</span> The crowds in the streets, attracted by
+this unusual turnout at this unusual hour, followed in
+their wake to the scene of disturbance. There was a click
+of locks, the clanking of chains, and the creaking of rusty
+hinges. The great doors swung open, and a crowd of expectant
+faces received us in the Holy City.
+</p>
+<a name="ill59" id="ill59"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i119.jpg" alt="RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED." title="RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Meshed claims our attention chiefly for its famous dead.
+In its sacred dust lie buried our old hero Haroun al Raschid,
+Firdousi, Persia’s greatest epic poet, and the holy Imaum
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page106">[pg 106]</span><a name="Pg106" id="Pg106" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Riza, within whose shrine every criminal may take refuge
+from even the Shah himself until the payment of a blood-tax,
+or a debtor until the giving of a guarantee for debt.
+No infidel can enter there.
+</p>
+<a name="ill60" id="ill60"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i120.jpg" alt="FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED." title="FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Meshed was the pivotal point upon which our wheel of
+fortune was to turn. We were filled with no little anxiety,
+therefore, when, on the day after our arrival, we received
+an invitation to call at the Russian consulate-general.
+With great ceremony we were ushered into a suite of elegantly
+furnished rooms, and received by the consul-general
+and his English wife in full dress. Madame de Vlassow
+was radiant with smiles as she served us tea by the side
+of her steaming silver samovar. She could not wait for
+the circumlocution of diplomacy, but said: <span class="tei tei-q">“It is all right,
+gentlemen. General Kuropatkine has just telegraphed
+permission for you to proceed to Askabad.”</span> This precipitate
+remark evidently disconcerted the consul, who could
+only nod his head and say, <span class="tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Oui, oui</span></span>,”</span> in affirmation.
+This news lifted a heavy load from our minds; our desert
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107">[pg 107]</span><a name="Pg107" id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>journey of six hundred miles, therefore, had not been made
+in vain, and the prospect brightened for a trip through
+the heart of Asia.
+</p>
+<a name="ill61" id="ill61"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i121.png" alt="IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED." title="IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Between the rival hospitality of the Russian and English
+consulates our health was now in jeopardy from excess
+of kindness. Among other social attentions, we received
+an invitation from Sahib Devan, the governor of
+Khoras<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108">[pg 108]</span><a name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>san, who next to the Shah is the richest man in Persia.
+Although seventy-six years of age, on the day of our visit
+to his palace he was literally covered with diamonds and
+precious stones. With the photographer to the Shah as
+German interpreter, we spent half an hour in an interesting
+conversation. Among other topics he mentioned the
+receipt, a few days before, of a peculiar telegram from
+the Shah: <span class="tei tei-q">“Cut off the head of any one who attempts opposition
+to the Tobacco Regie”</span>; and this was followed a
+few days after by the inquiry, <span class="tei tei-q">“How many heads have
+you taken?”</span> A retinue of about three hundred courtiers
+followed the governor as he walked out with feeble steps
+to the parade-ground. Here a company of Persian cavalry
+was detailed to clear the field for the <span class="tei tei-q">“wonderful steel
+horses,”</span> which, as was said, had come from the capital in
+two days, a distance of six hundred miles. The governors
+extreme pleasure was afterward expressed in a special
+letter for our journey to the frontier.
+</p>
+<a name="ill62" id="ill62"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i122.jpg" alt="WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY." title="WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109">[pg 109]</span><a name="Pg109" id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill63" id="ill63"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i123.jpg" alt="GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED." title="GIVING A “SILENT PILGRIM” A ROLL TOWARD MESHED." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">GIVING A </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">SILENT PILGRIM</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The military road now completed between Askabad and
+Meshed reveals the extreme weakness of Persia’s defense
+against Russian aggression. Elated by her recent successes
+in the matter of a Russian consul at Meshed, Russia
+has very forcibly invited Persia to construct more than
+half of a road which, in connection with the Transcaspian
+railway, makes Khorassan almost an exclusive Russian
+market, and opens Persia’s richest province to Russia’s
+troops and cannon on the prospective march to Herat.
+At this very writing, if the telegraph speaks the truth, the
+Persian border-province of Dereguez is another cession by
+what the Russians are pleased to call their Persian vassal.
+In addition to its increasing commercial traffic, this road
+is patronized by many Shiah devotees from the north,
+among whom are what the natives term the <span class="tei tei-q">“silent pilgrims.”</span>
+These are large stones, or boulders, rolled along
+a few feet at a time by the passers-by toward the Holy
+City. We ourselves were employed in this pious work at
+the close of our first day’s journey from Meshed when we
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page110">[pg 110]</span><a name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>were suddenly aroused by a bantering voice behind us.
+Looking up, we were hailed by Stagno Navarro, the inspector
+of the Persian telegraph, who was employed with
+his men on a neighboring line. With this gentleman we
+spent the following night in a telegraph station, and
+passed a pleasant evening chatting over the wires with
+friends in Meshed.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Kuchan, our next stopping-place, lies on the almost imperceptible
+watershed which separates the Herat valley
+from the Caspian Sea. This city, only a few months ago,
+was entirely destroyed by a severe earthquake. Under
+date of January 28, 1894, the American press reported:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The bodies of ten thousand victims of the awful disaster
+have already been recovered. Fifty thousand cattle were
+destroyed at the same time. The once important and beautiful
+city of twenty thousand people is now only a scene
+of death, desolation, and terror.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From this point to Askabad the construction of the
+military highway speaks well for Russia’s engineering
+skill. It crosses the Kopet Dagh mountains over seven
+distinct passes in a distance of eighty miles. This we
+determined to cover, if possible, in one day, inasmuch as
+there was no intermediate stopping-place, and as we were
+not a little delighted by the idea of at last emerging from
+semi-barbarism into semi-civilization. At sunset we were
+scaling the fifth ridge since leaving Kuchan at daybreak,
+and a few minutes later rolled up before the Persian custom-house
+in the valley below. There was no evidence
+of the proximity of a Russian frontier, except the extraordinary
+size of the tea-glasses, from which we slaked our
+intolerable thirst. During the day we had had a surfeit
+of cavernous gorges and commanding pinnacles, but very
+little water. The only copious spring we were able to
+find was filled at the time with the unwashed linen of a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111">[pg 111]</span><a name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Persian traveler, who sat by, smiling in derision, as we
+upbraided him for his disregard of the traveling public.
+</p>
+<a name="ill64" id="ill64"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i125.jpg" alt="AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD." title="AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was already dusk when we came in sight of the Russian
+custom-house, a tin-roofed, stone structure, contrasting
+strongly with the Persian mud hovels we had left behind.
+A Russian official hailed us as we shot by, but we
+could not stop on the down-grade, and, besides, darkness
+was too rapidly approaching to brook any delay. Askabad
+was twenty-eight miles away, and although wearied
+by an extremely hard day’s work, we must sleep that night,
+if possible, in a Russian hotel. Our pace increased with
+the growing darkness until at length we were going at
+the rate of twelve miles per hour down a narrow gorge-like
+valley toward the seventh and last ridge that lay between
+us and the desert. At 9:30 <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%">P. M.</span></span> we stood upon its
+summit, and before us stretched the sandy wastes of Kara-Kum,
+enshrouded in gloom. Thousands of feet below us
+the city of Askabad was ablaze with lights, shining like
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112">[pg 112]</span><a name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>beacons on the shore of the desert sea. Strains of music
+from a Russian band stole faintly up through the darkness
+as we dismounted, and contemplated the strange scene,
+until the shriek of a locomotive-whistle startled us from
+our reveries. Across the desert a train of the Transcaspian
+railway was gliding smoothly along toward the city.
+</p>
+<a name="ill65" id="ill65"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i126.jpg" alt="MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND." title="MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A hearty welcome back to civilized life was given us
+the next evening by General Kuropatkine himself, the
+Governor-General of Transcaspia. During the course of
+a dinner with him and his friends, he kindly assured us
+that no further recommendation was needed than the fact
+that we were American citizens to entitle us to travel from
+one end of the Russian empire to the other.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From Askabad to Samarkand there was a break in the
+continuity of our bicycle journey. Our Russian friends
+persuaded us to take advantage of the Transcaspian railway,
+and not to hazard a journey across the dreaded Kara-Kum
+sands. Such a journey, made upon the railroad
+track, where water and food were obtainable at regular
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page113">[pg 113]</span><a name="Pg113" id="Pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>intervals, would have entailed only a small part of the
+hardships incurred on the deserts in China, yet we were
+more than anxious to reach, before the advent of winter,
+a point whence we could be assured of reaching the Pacific
+during the following season. Through the kindness of
+the railway authorities at Bokhara station our car was
+side-tracked to enable us to visit, ten miles away, that ancient
+city of the East. On November 6 we reached Samarkand,
+the ancient capital of Tamerlane, and the present
+terminus of the Transcaspian railway.
+</p>
+<a name="ill66" id="ill66"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i127.jpg" alt="CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD." title="CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114">[pg 114]</span><a name="Pg114" id="Pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+  <a name="ill67" id="ill67"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i128.jpg" alt="A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE." title="A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE.</span></div></div>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115">[pg 115]</span><a name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc68" id="toc68"></a><a name="pdf69" id="pdf69"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">IV</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On the morning of November 16 we took a last look
+at the blue domes and minarets of Samarkand, intermingled
+with the ruins of palaces and tombs, and then
+wheeled away toward the banks of the Zerafshan. Our
+four days’ journey of 180 miles along the regular Russian
+post-road was attended with only the usual vicissitudes
+of ordinary travel. Wading in our Russian top-boots
+through the treacherous fords of the <span class="tei tei-q">“Snake”</span> defile, we
+passed the pyramidal slate rock known as the <span class="tei tei-q">“Gate of
+Tamerlane,”</span> and emerged upon a strip of the Kizil-Kum
+steppe, stretching hence in painful monotony to the bank
+of the Sir Daria river. This we crossed by a rude rope-ferry,
+filled at the time with a passing caravan, and then
+began at once to ascend the valley of the Tchirtchick toward
+Tashkend. The blackened cotton which the natives
+were gathering from the fields, the lowering snow-line on
+the mountains, the muddy roads, the chilling atmosphere,
+and the falling leaves of the giant poplars—all warned
+us of the approach of winter.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We had hoped at least to reach Vernoye, a provincial
+capital near the converging point of the Turkestan, Siberian,
+and Chinese boundaries, whence we could continue,
+on the opening of the following spring, either through
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116">[pg 116]</span><a name="Pg116" id="Pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Siberia or across the Chinese empire. But in this we
+were doomed to disappointment. The delay on the part
+of the Russian authorities in granting us permission to
+enter Transcaspia had postponed at least a month our
+arrival in Tashkend, and now, owing to the early advent
+of the rainy season, the roads leading north were almost
+impassable even for the native carts. This fact, together
+with the reports of heavy snowfalls beyond the Alexandrovski
+mountains, on the road to Vernoye, lent a rather
+cogent influence to the persuasions of our friends to spend
+the winter among them.
+</p>
+<a name="ill70" id="ill70"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i130.jpg" alt="A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND." title="A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Then, too, such a plan, we thought, might not be unproductive
+of future advantages. Thus far we had been
+journeying through Russian territory without a passport.
+We had no authorization except the telegram to <span class="tei tei-q">“come
+on,”</span> received from General Kuropatkine at Askabad, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117">[pg 117]</span><a name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the verbal permission of Count Rosterzsoff at Samarkand
+to proceed to Tashkend. Furthermore, the passport
+for which we had just applied to Baron Wrevsky, the Governor-General
+of Turkestan, would be available only as
+far as the border of Siberia, where we should have to
+apply to the various governors-general along our course
+to the Pacific, in case we should find the route across the
+Chinese empire impracticable. A general permission to
+travel from Tashkend to the Pacific coast, through southern
+Siberia, could be obtained from St. Petersburg only,
+and that only through the chief executive of the province
+through which we were passing.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Permission to enter Turkestan is by no means easily
+obtained, as is well understood by the student of Russian
+policy in central Asia. We were not a little surprised,
+therefore, when our request to spend the winter in its
+capital was graciously granted by Baron Wrevsky, as well
+as the privilege for one of us to return in the mean time
+to London. This we had determined on, in order to secure
+some much-needed bicycle supplies, and to complete
+other arrangements for the success of our enterprise. By
+lot the return trip fell to Sachtleben. Proceeding by the
+Transcaspian and Transcaucasus railroads, the Caspian
+and Black seas, to Constantinople, and thence by the <span class="tei tei-q">“overland
+express”</span> to Belgrade, Vienna, Frankfort, and Calais,
+he was able to reach London in sixteen days.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Tashkend, though nearly in the same latitude as New
+York, is so protected by the Alexandrovski mountains
+from the Siberian blizzards and the scorching winds of
+the Kara-Kum desert as to have an even more moderate
+climate. A tributary of the Tchirtchick river forms the
+line of demarcation between the native and the European
+portions of the city, although the population of the latter
+is by no means devoid of a native element. Both together
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118">[pg 118]</span><a name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>cover an area as extensive as Paris, though the population
+is only 120,000, of which 100,000 are congregated in the
+native, or Sart, quarter. There is a floating element of
+Kashgarians, Bokhariots, Persians, and Afghans, and a
+resident majority of Kirghiz, Tatars, Jews, Hindus, gypsies,
+and Sarts, the latter being a generic title for the urban,
+as distinguished from the nomad, people.
+</p>
+<a name="ill71" id="ill71"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i132.jpg" alt="OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN." title="OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our winter quarters were obtained at the home of a
+typical Russian family, in company with a young reserve
+officer. He, having finished his university career and time
+of military service, was engaged in Tashkend in the interest
+of his father, a wholesale merchant in Moscow. With
+him we were able to converse either in French or German,
+both of which languages he could speak more purely than
+his native Russian. Our good-natured, corpulent host had
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119">[pg 119]</span><a name="Pg119" id="Pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>emigrated, in the pioneer days, from the steppes of southern
+Russia, and had grown wealthy through the <span class="tei tei-q">“unearned
+increment.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Russian samovar is the characteristic feature of the
+Russian household. Besides a big bowl of cabbage soup
+at every meal, our Russian host would start in with a half-tumbler
+of vodka, dispose of a bottle of beer in the intervals,
+and then top off with two or three glasses of tea.
+The mistress of the household, being limited in her beverages
+to tea and soup, would usually make up in quantity
+what was lacking in variety. In fact, one day she informed
+us that she had not imbibed a drop of water for
+over six years. For this, however, there is a very plausible
+excuse. With the water at Tashkend, as with that
+from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, a dangerous worm called
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">reshta</span></span> is absorbed into the system. Nowhere have we
+drunk better tea than around the steaming samovar of
+our Tashkend host. No peasant is too poor, either in
+money or in sentiment, to buy and feel the cheering influence
+of tea. Even the Cossack, in his forays into the wilds
+of central Asia, is sustained by it. Unlike the Chinese,
+the Russians consider sugar a necessary concomitant of
+tea-drinking. There are three methods of sweetening tea:
+to put the sugar in the glass; to place a lump of sugar in
+the mouth, and suck the tea through it; to hang a lump
+in the midst of a tea-drinking circle, to be swung around
+for each in turn to touch with his tongue, and then to
+take a swallow of tea.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The meaning of the name Tashkend is <span class="tei tei-q">“city of stone,”</span>
+but a majority of the houses are one-story mud structures,
+built low, so as to prevent any disastrous effects from
+earthquakes. The roofs are so flat and poorly constructed
+that during the rainy season a dry ceiling is rather the
+exception than the rule. Every building is covered with
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120">[pg 120]</span><a name="Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>whitewash or white paint, and fronts directly on the street.
+There are plenty of back and side yards, but none in front.
+This is not so bad on the broad streets of a Russian town.
+In Tashkend they are exceptionally wide, with ditches on
+each side through which the water from the Tchirtchick
+ripples along beneath the double, and even quadruple,
+rows of poplars, acacias, and willows. These trees grow
+here with remarkable luxuriance, from a mere twig stuck
+into the ground. Although twenty years of Russian irrigation
+has given Nature a chance to rear thousands of
+trees on former barren wastes, yet wood is still comparatively
+scarce and dear.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The administration buildings of the city are for the
+most part exceedingly plain and unpretentious. In striking
+contrast is the new Russian cathedral, the recently
+erected school, and a large retail store built by a resident
+Greek, all of which are fine specimens of Russian architecture.
+Among its institutions are an observatory, a
+museum containing an embryo collection of Turkestan
+products and antiquities, and a medical dispensary for the
+natives, where vaccination is performed by graduates of
+medicine in the Tashkend school. The rather extensive
+library was originally collected for the chancellery of the
+governor-general, and contains the best collection of works
+on central Asia that is to be found in the world, including
+in its scope not only books and pamphlets, but even magazines
+and newspaper articles. For amusements, the city
+has a theater, a small imitation of the opera-house at
+Paris; and the Military Club, which, with its billiards and
+gambling, and weekly reunions, balls, and concerts, though
+a regular feature of a Russian garrison town, is especially
+pretentious in Tashkend. In size, architecture, and appointments,
+the club-house has no equal, we were told, outside
+the capital and Moscow.
+</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page121">[pg 121]</span><a name="Pg121" id="Pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill72" id="ill72"></a>  
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i135.jpg" alt="PALACE OF THE CZAR'S NEPHEW, TASHKEND." title="PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Tashkend has long been known as a refuge for damaged
+reputations and shattered fortunes, or <span class="tei tei-q">“the official purgatory
+following upon the emperor’s displeasure.”</span> One of
+the finest houses of the city is occupied by the Grand
+Duke Nicholai Constantinovitch Romanoff, son of the late
+general admiral of the Russian navy, and first cousin to
+the Czar, who seems to be cheerfully resigned to his life
+in exile. Most of his time is occupied with the business
+of his silk-factory on the outskirts of Tashkend, and at
+his farm near Hodjent, which a certain firm in Chicago,
+at the time of our sojourn, was stocking with irrigating
+machinery. All of his bills are paid with checks drawn
+on his St. Petersburg trustees. His private life is rather
+unconventional and even democratic. Visitors to his
+household are particularly impressed with the beauty of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page122">[pg 122]</span><a name="Pg122" id="Pg122" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>his wife and the size of his liquor glasses. The example
+of the grand duke illustrates the sentiment in favor of
+industrial pursuits which is growing among the military
+classes, and even among the nobility, of Russia. The government
+itself, thanks to the severe lesson of the Crimean
+war, has learned that a great nation must stand upon a
+foundation of something more than aristocracy and nobility.
+To this influence is largely due the present growing
+prosperity of Tashkend, which, in military importance, is
+rapidly giving way to Askabad, <span class="tei tei-q">“the key to Herat.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+That spirit of equality and fraternity which characterizes
+the government of a Russian <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">mir</span></span>, or village, has been carried
+even into central Asia. We have frequently seen
+Russian peasants and natives occupying adjoining apartments
+in the same household, while in the process of trade
+all classes seem to fraternize in an easy and even cordial
+manner. The same is true of the children, who play together
+indiscriminately in the street. Many a one of
+these heterogeneous groups we have watched <span class="tei tei-q">“playing
+marbles”</span> with the ankle-bones of sheep, and listened, with
+some amusement, to their half Russian, half native jargon.
+Schools are now being established to educate the native
+children in the Russian language and methods, and native
+apprentices are being taken in by Russian merchants for
+the same purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In Tashkend, as in every European city of the Orient,
+drunkenness, and gambling, and social laxity have followed
+upon the introduction of Western morals and culture.
+Jealousy and intrigue among the officers and functionaries
+are also not strange, perhaps, at so great a distance
+from headquarters, where the only avenue to distinction
+seems to lie through the public service. At the various
+dinner-parties and sociables given throughout the winter,
+the topic of war always met with general welcome. On
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123">[pg 123]</span><a name="Pg123" id="Pg123" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>one occasion a report was circulated that Abdurrahman
+Khan, the Ameer of Afghanistan, was lying at the point
+of death. Great preparations, it was said, were being made
+for an expedition over the Pamir, to establish on the throne
+the Russian candidate, Is-shah Khan from Samarkand,
+before Ayub Khan, the rival British protégé, could be
+brought from India. The young officers at once began
+to discuss their chances for promotion, and the number
+of decorations to be forthcoming from St. Petersburg.
+The social gatherings at Tashkend were more convivial
+than sociable. Acquaintances can eat and drink together
+with the greatest of good cheer, but there is very little
+sympathy in conversation. It was difficult for them to
+understand why we had come so far to see a country which
+to many of them was a place of exile.
+</p>
+<a name="ill73" id="ill73"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i137.jpg" alt="A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.'" title="A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE “FOREIGN DEVILS.”" /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A
+    SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">FOREIGN DEVILS.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124">[pg 124]</span><a name="Pg124" id="Pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+An early spring did not mean an early departure from
+winter quarters. Impassable roads kept us anxious prisoners
+for a month and a half after the necessary papers
+had been secured. These included, in addition to the local
+passports, a carte-blanche permission to travel from Tashkend
+to Vladivostock through Turkestan and Siberia, a
+document obtained from St. Petersburg through the United
+States minister, the Hon. Charles Emory Smith. Of this
+route to the Pacific we were therefore certain, and yet,
+despite the universal opinion that a bicycle journey across
+the Celestial empire was impracticable, we had determined
+to continue on to the border line, and there to seek better
+information. <span class="tei tei-q">“Don’t go into China”</span> were the last words
+of our many kind friends as we wheeled out of Tashkend
+on the seventh of May.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At Chimkend our course turned abruptly from what
+was once the main route between Russia’s European and
+Asiatic capitals, and along which De Lesseps, in his letter
+to the Czar, proposed a line of railroad to connect Orenburg
+with Samarkand, a distance about equal to that between
+St. Petersburg and Odessa, 1483 miles. This is also
+the keystone in that wall of forts which Russia gradually
+raised around her unruly nomads of the steppes, and where,
+according to Gortchakoff’s circular of 1864, <span class="tei tei-q">“both interest
+and reason”</span> required her to stop; and yet at that very
+time General Tchernaieff was advancing his forces upon
+the present capital, Tashkend. Here, too, we began that
+journey of 1500 miles along the Celestial mountain range
+which terminated only when we scaled its summit beyond
+Barkul to descend again into the burning sands of the
+Desert of Gobi. Here runs the great historical highway
+between China and the West.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From Auli-eta eastward we had before us about 200
+miles of a vast steppe region. Near the mountains is a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126">[pg 126]</span><a name="Pg126" id="Pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>wilderness of lakes, swamps, and streams, which run dry in
+summer. This is the country of the <span class="tei tei-q">“Thousand Springs”</span>
+mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Huen T’sang, and where
+was established the kingdom of Black China, supposed
+by many to have been one of the kingdoms of <span class="tei tei-q">“Prester
+John.”</span> But far away to our left were the white sands of
+the Ak-Kum, over which the cloudless atmosphere quivers
+incessantly, like the blasts of a furnace. Of all these deserts,
+occupying probably one half of the whole Turkestan
+steppe, none is more terrible than that of the <span class="tei tei-q">“Golodnaya
+Steppe,”</span> or Steppe of Hunger, to the north of the <span class="tei tei-q">“White
+Sands”</span> now before us. Even in the cool of evening, it is
+said that the soles of the wayfarer’s feet become scorched,
+and the dog accompanying him finds no repose till he has
+burrowed below the burning surface. The monotonous
+appearance of the steppe itself is only intensified in winter,
+when the snow smooths over the broken surface, and even
+necessitates the placing of mud posts at regular intervals
+to mark the roadway for the Kirghiz post-drivers. But
+in the spring and autumn its arid surface is clothed, as if
+by enchantment, with verdure and prairie flowers. Both
+flowers and birds are gorgeously colored. One variety,
+about half the size of the jackdaw which infests the houses
+of Tashkend and Samarkand, has a bright blue body and
+red wings; another, resembling our field-lark in size and
+habits, combines a pink breast with black head and wings.
+But already this springtide splendor was beginning to disappear
+beneath the glare of approaching summer. The
+long wagon-trains of lumber, and the occasional traveler’s
+tarantass rumbling along to the discord of its <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">duga</span></span> bells,
+were enveloped in a cloud of suffocating dust.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill74" id="ill74"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i139.jpg" alt="VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL." title="VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Now and then we would overtake a party of Russian
+peasants migrating from the famine-stricken districts of
+European Russia to the pioneer colonies along this
+Tur<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127">[pg 127]</span><a name="Pg127" id="Pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>kestan highway. The peculiarity of these villages is their
+extreme length, all the houses facing on the one wide
+street. Most of them are merely mud huts, others make
+pretensions to doors and windows, and a coat of whitewash.
+Near-by usually stands the old battered telega
+which served as a home during many months of travel
+over the Orenburg highway. It speaks well for the colonizing
+capacity of the Russians that they can be induced to
+come so many hundreds of miles from their native land,
+to settle in such a primitive way among the half-wild
+tribes of the steppes. As yet they do very little farming,
+but live, like the Kirghiz, by raising horses, cows, sheep,
+and goats, and, in addition, the Russian hog, the last resembling
+very much the wild swine of the jungles. Instead
+of the former military colonies of plundering Cossacks,
+who really become more assimilated to the Kirghiz
+than these to their conquerors, the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">mir</span></span>, or communal system,
+is now penetrating these fertile districts, and systematically
+replacing the Mongolian culture. But the ignorance
+of this lower class of Russians is almost as noticeable
+as that of the natives themselves. As soon as we
+entered a village, the blacksmith left his anvil, the carpenter
+his bench, the storekeeper his counter, and the milkmaid
+her task. After our parade of the principal street, the
+crowd would gather round us at the station-house. All
+sorts of queries and ejaculations would pass among them.
+One would ask: <span class="tei tei-q">“Are these gentlemen baptized? Are
+they really Christians?”</span> On account of their extreme
+ignorance these Russian colonists are by no means able
+to cope with their German colleagues, who are given the
+poorest land, and yet make a better living.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The steppe is a good place for learning patience. With
+the absence of landmarks, you seem never to be getting
+anywhere. It presents the appearance of a boundless
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page128">[pg 128]</span><a name="Pg128" id="Pg128" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>level expanse, the very undulations of which are so uniform
+as to conceal the intervening troughs. Into these,
+horsemen, and sometimes whole caravans, mysteriously
+disappear. In this way we were often enabled to surprise
+a herd of gazelles grazing by the roadside. They would
+stand for a moment with necks extended, and then scamper
+away like a shot, springing on their pipe-stem limbs
+three or four feet into the air. Our average rate was
+about seven miles an hour, although the roads were sometimes
+so soft with dust or sand as to necessitate the laying
+of straw for a foundation. There was scarcely an
+hour in the day when we were not accompanied by from
+one to twenty Kirghiz horsemen, galloping behind us with
+cries of <span class="tei tei-q">“Yakshee!”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“Good!”</span>) They were especially
+curious to see how we crossed the roadside streams.
+Standing on the bank, they would watch intently every
+move as we stripped and waded through with bicycles and
+clothing on our shoulders. Then they would challenge us
+to a race, and, if the road permitted, we would endeavor
+to reveal some of the possibilities of the <span class="tei tei-q">“devil’s carts.”</span>
+On an occasion like this occurred one of our few mishaps.
+The road was lined by the occupants of a neighboring
+tent village, who had run out to see the race. One of the
+Kirghiz turned suddenly back in the opposite direction
+from which he had started. The wheel struck him at a
+rate of fifteen miles per hour, lifting him off his feet, and
+hurling over the handle-bars the rider, who fell upon his
+left arm, and twisted it out of place. With the assistance
+of the bystanders it was pulled back into the socket, and
+bandaged up till we reached the nearest Russian village.
+Here the only physician was an old blind woman of the
+faith-cure persuasion. Her massage treatment to replace
+the muscles was really effective, and was accompanied by
+prayers and by signs of the cross, a common method of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page130">[pg 130]</span><a name="Pg130" id="Pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>treatment among the lower class of Russians. In one instance
+a cure was supposed to be effected by writing a
+prayer on a piece of buttered bread to be eaten by the
+patient.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill75" id="ill75"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i143.jpg" alt="ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE." title="ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Being users but not patrons of the Russian post-roads,
+we were not legally entitled to the conveniences of the
+post-stations. Tipping alone, as we found on our journey
+from Samarkand, was not always sufficient to preclude a
+request during the night to vacate the best quarters for
+the post-traveler, especially if he happened to wear the
+regulation brass button. To secure us against this inconvenience,
+and to gain some special attention, a letter was
+obtained from the overseer of the Turkestan post and
+telegraph district. This proved advantageous on many
+occasions, and once, at Auli-eta, was even necessary. We
+were surveyed with suspicious glances as soon as we entered
+the station-house, and when we asked for water to
+lave our hands and face, we were directed to the irrigating
+ditch in the street. Our request for a better room
+was answered by the question, if the one we had was not
+good enough, and how long we intended to occupy that.
+Evidently our English conversation had gained for us the
+covert reputation of being English spies, and this was
+verified in the minds of our hosts when we began to ask
+questions about the city prisons we had passed on our
+way. To every interrogation they replied, <span class="tei tei-q">“I don’t know.”</span>
+But presto, change, on the presentation of documents!
+Apologies were now profuse, and besides tea, bread, and
+eggs, the usual rations of a Russian post-station, we were
+exceptionally favored with chicken soup and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">verainyik</span></span>, the
+latter consisting of cheese wrapped and boiled in dough,
+and then served in butter.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It has been the custom for travelers in Russia to decry
+the Russian post-station, but the fact is that an
+appre<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page131">[pg 131]</span><a name="Pg131" id="Pg131" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ciation of this rather primitive form of accommodation
+depends entirely upon whether you approach it from a
+European hotel or from a Persian khan. Some are clean,
+while others are dirty. Nevertheless, it was always a welcome
+sight to see a small white building looming up in
+the dim horizon at the close of a long day’s ride, and, on
+near approach, to observe the black and white striped post
+in front, and idle tarantasses around it. At the door
+would be found the usual crowd of Kirghiz post-drivers.
+After the presentation of documents to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">starosta</span></span>, who
+would hesitate at first about quartering our horses in the
+travelers’ room, we would proceed at once to place our
+dust-covered heads beneath the spindle of the washing-tank.
+Although by this dripping-pan arrangement we
+would usually succeed in getting as much water down our
+backs as on our faces, yet we were consoled by the thought
+that too much was better than not enough, as had been
+the case in Turkey and Persia. Then we would settle
+down before the steaming samovar to meditate in solitude
+and quiet, while the rays of the declining sun shone on
+the gilded eikon in the corner of the room, and on the
+chromo-covered walls. When darkness fell, and the simmering
+music of the samovar had gradually died away;
+when the flitting swallows in the room had ceased their
+chirp, and settled down upon the rafters overhead, we
+ourselves would turn in under our fur-lined coats upon
+the leather-covered benches.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In consequence of the first of a series of accidents to
+our wheels, we were for several days the guests of the
+director of the botanical gardens at Pishpek. As a branch
+of the Crown botanical gardens at St. Petersburg, some
+valuable experiments were being made here with foreign
+seeds and plants. Peaches, we were told, do not thrive,
+but apples, pears, cherries, and the various kinds of
+ber<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132">[pg 132]</span><a name="Pg132" id="Pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ries, grow as well as they do at home. Rye, however,
+takes three years to reach the height of one year in America.
+Through the Russians, these people have obtained
+high-flown ideas of America and Americans. We saw
+many chromos of American celebrities in the various station-houses,
+and the most numerous was that of Thomas
+A. Edison. His phonograph, we were told, had already
+made its appearance in Pishpek, but the natives did not
+seem to realize what it was. <span class="tei tei-q">“Why,”</span> they said, <span class="tei tei-q">“we have
+often heard better music than that.”</span> Dr. Tanner was not
+without his share of fame in this far-away country. During
+his fast in America, a similar, though not voluntary,
+feat was being performed here. A Kirghiz messenger
+who had been despatched into the mountains during the
+winter was lost in the snow, and remained for
+twenty-<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page133">[pg 133]</span><a name="Pg133" id="Pg133" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>eight days without food. He was found at last, crazed
+by hunger. When asked what he would have to eat, he
+replied, <span class="tei tei-q">“Everything.”</span> They foolishly gave him <span class="tei tei-q">“everything,”</span>
+and in two days he was dead. For a long time
+he was called the <span class="tei tei-q">“Doctor Tanner of Turkestan.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill76" id="ill76"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i146.jpg" alt="UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER." title="UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A divergence of seventy-five miles from the regular post-route
+was made in order to visit Lake Issik Kul, which is
+probably the largest lake for its elevation in the world,
+being about ten times larger than Lake Geneva, and at a
+height of 5300 feet. Its slightly brackish water, which
+never freezes, teems with several varieties of fish, many
+of which we helped to unhook from a Russian fisherman’s
+line, and then helped to eat in his primitive hut near the
+shore. A Russian Cossack, who had just come over the
+snow-capped Ala Tau, <span class="tei tei-q">“of the Shade,”</span> from Fort Narin,
+was also present, and from the frequent glances cast at
+the fisherman’s daughter we soon discovered the object of
+his visit. The ascent to this lake, through the famous
+Buam Defile, or Happy Pass, afforded some of the grandest
+scenery on our route through Asia. Its seething, foaming,
+irresistible torrent needs only a large volume to make
+it the equal of the rapids at Niagara.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our return to the post-road was made by an unbeaten
+track over the Ala Tau mountains. From the Chu valley,
+dotted here and there with Kirghiz tent villages and their
+grazing flocks and herds, we pushed our wheels up the
+broken path, which wound like a mythical stairway far
+up into the low-hanging clouds. We trudged up one of
+the steepest ascents we have ever made with a wheel. The
+scenery was grand, but lonely. The wild tulips, pinks,
+and verbenas dotting the green slopes furnished the only
+pleasant diversion from our arduous labor. Just as we
+turned the highest summit, the clouds shifted for a moment,
+and revealed before us two Kirghiz horsemen. They
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page134">[pg 134]</span><a name="Pg134" id="Pg134" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>started back in astonishment, and gazed at us as though
+we were demons of the air, until we disappeared again
+down the opposite and more gradual slope. Late in the
+afternoon we emerged upon the plain, but no post-road or
+station-house was in sight, as we expected; nothing but
+a few Kirghiz kibitkas among the straggling rocks, like
+the tents of the Egyptian Arabs among the fallen stones
+of the pyramids.
+</p>
+<a name="ill77" id="ill77"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i148.jpg" alt="KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER." title="KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Toward these we now directed our course, and, in view
+of a rapidly approaching storm, asked to purchase a night’s
+lodging. This was only too willingly granted in anticipation
+of the coming <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tomasha</span></span>, or exhibition. The milkmaids
+as they went out to the rows of sheep and goats tied to
+the lines of woolen rope, and the horsemen with reinless
+horses to drive in the ranging herds, spread the news from
+tent to tent. By the time darkness fell the kibitka was
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page135">[pg 135]</span><a name="Pg135" id="Pg135" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>filled to overflowing. We were given the seat of honor
+opposite the doorway, bolstered up with blankets and pillows.
+By the light of the fire curling its smoke upward
+through the central opening in the roof, it was interesting
+to note the faces of our hosts. We had never met a people
+of a more peaceful temperament, and, on the other
+hand, none more easily frightened. A dread of the evil
+eye is one of their characteristics. We had not been settled
+long before the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ishan</span></span>, or itinerant dervish, was called
+in to drive away the evil spirits, which the <span class="tei tei-q">“devil’s carts”</span>
+might possibly have brought. Immediately on entering,
+he began to shrug his shoulders, and to shiver as though
+passing into a state of trance. Our dervish acquaintance
+was a man of more than average intelligence. He had
+traveled in India, and had even heard some one speak of
+America. This fact alone was sufficient to warrant him
+in posing as instructor for the rest of the assembly. While
+we were drinking tea, a habit they have recently adopted
+from the Russians, he held forth at great length to his
+audience about the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Amerikón</span></span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The rain now began to descend in torrents. The felt
+covering was drawn over the central opening, and propped
+up at one end with a pole to emit the clouds of smoke
+from the smoldering fire. This was shifted with the veering
+wind. Although a mere circular rib framework covered
+with white or brown felt, according as the occupant
+is rich or poor, the Kirghiz kibitka, or more properly <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yurt</span></span>,
+is not as a house builded upon the sand, even in the fiercest
+storm. Its stanchness and comfort are surprising
+when we consider the rapidity with which it may be taken
+down and transported. In half an hour a whole village
+may vanish, emigrating northward in summer, and southward
+in winter. Many a Kirghiz cavalcade was overtaken
+on the road, with long tent-ribs and felts tied upon the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page136">[pg 136]</span><a name="Pg136" id="Pg136" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>backs of two-humped camels, for the Bactrian dromedary
+has not been able to endure the severities of these Northern
+climates. The men would always be mounted on the
+camels’ or horses’ backs, while the women would be perched
+on the oxen and bullocks, trained for the saddle and as
+beasts of burden. The men never walk; if there is any
+leading to be done it falls to the women. The constant
+use of the saddle has made many of the men bandy-legged,
+which, in connection with their usual obesity,—with them
+a mark of dignity,—gives them a comical appearance.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+After their curiosity regarding us had been partly satisfied,
+it was suggested that a sheep should be slaughtered
+in our honor. Neither meat nor bread is ever eaten by
+any but the rich Kirghiz. Their universal kumiss, corresponding
+to the Turkish yaourt, or coagulated milk, and
+other forms of lacteal dishes, sometimes mixed with meal,
+form the chief diet of the poor. The wife of our host, a
+buxom woman, who, as we had seen, could leap upon a
+horse’s back as readily as a man, now entered the doorway,
+carrying a full-grown sheep by its woolly coat. This
+she twirled over on its back, and held down with her knee
+while the butcher artist drew a dagger from his belt, and
+held it aloft until the assembly stroked their scant beards,
+and uttered the solemn bismillah. Tired out by the day’s
+ride, we fell asleep before the arrangements for the feast
+had been completed. When awakened near midnight, we
+found that the savory odor from the huge caldron on the
+fire had only increased the attraction and the crowd. The
+choicest bits were now selected for the guests. These
+consisted of pieces of liver, served with lumps of fat from
+the tail of their peculiarly fat-tailed sheep. As an act of
+the highest hospitality, our host dipped these into some
+liquid grease, and then, reaching over, placed them in our
+mouths with his fingers. It required considerable effort
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page137">[pg 137]</span><a name="Pg137" id="Pg137" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on this occasion to subject our feelings of nausea to a
+sense of Kirghiz politeness. In keeping with their characteristic
+generosity, every one in the kibitka must partake
+in some measure of the feast, although the women,
+who had done all the work, must be content with remnants
+and bones already picked over by the host. But this disposition
+to share everything was not without its other
+aspect; we also were expected to share everything with
+them. We were asked to bestow any little trinket or nick-nack
+exposed to view. Any extra nut on the machine, a
+handkerchief, a packet of tea, or a lump of sugar, excited
+their cupidity at once. The latter was considered a bonbon
+by the women and younger portion of the spectators.
+The attractive daughter of our host, <span class="tei tei-q">“Kumiss John,”</span>
+amused herself by stealing lumps of sugar from our pockets.
+When the feast was ended, the beards were again
+stroked, the name of Allah solemnly uttered by way of
+thanks for the bounty of heaven, and then each gave
+utterance to his appreciation of the meal.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Before retiring for the night, the dervish led the
+prayers, just as he had done at sunset. The praying-mats
+were spread, and all heads bowed toward Mecca. The
+only preparation for retiring was the spreading of blankets
+from the pile in one of the kibitkas. The Kirghiz are
+not in the habit of removing many garments for this purpose,
+and under the circumstances we found this custom
+a rather convenient one. Six of us turned in on the floor
+together, forming a semicircle, with our feet toward the
+fire. <span class="tei tei-q">“Kumiss John,”</span> who was evidently the pet of the
+household, had a rudely constructed cot at the far end of
+the kibitka.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Vernoye, the old Almati, with its broad streets, low wood
+and brick houses, and Russian sign-boards, presented a
+Siberian aspect. The ruins of its many disastrous
+earth<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139">[pg 139]</span><a name="Pg139" id="Pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>quakes lying low on every hand told us at once the cause
+of its deserted thoroughfares. The terrible shocks of the
+year before our visit killed several hundred people, and a
+whole mountain in the vicinity sank. The only hope of
+its persistent residents is a branch from the Transsiberian
+or Transcaspian railroad, or the reannexation by Russia
+of the fertile province of Ili, to make it an indispensable
+depot. Despite these periodical calamities, Vernoye has
+had, and is now constructing, under the genius of the
+French architect, Paul L. Gourdet, some of the finest edifices
+to be found in central Asia. The orphan asylum, a
+magnificent three-story structure, is now being built on
+experimental lines, to test its strength against earthquake
+shocks.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill78" id="ill78"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i152.jpg" alt="FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS." title="FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+One of the chief incidents of our pleasant sojourn was
+afforded by Governor Ivanoff. We were invited to head
+the procession of the Cossacks on their annual departure
+for their summer encampment in the mountains. After
+the usual religious ceremony, they filed out from the city
+parade-ground. Being unavoidably detained for a few
+moments, we did not come up until some time after the
+column had started. As we dashed by to the front with
+the American and Russian flags fluttering side by side
+from the handle-bars, cheer after cheer arose from the
+ranks, and even the governor and his party doffed their
+caps in acknowledgment. At the camp we were favored
+with a special exhibition of horsemanship. By a single
+twist of the rein the steeds would fall to the ground, and
+their riders crouch down behind them as a bulwark in
+battle. Then dashing forward at full speed, they would
+spring to the ground, and leap back again into the saddle,
+or, hanging by their legs, would reach over and pick up
+a handkerchief, cap, or a soldier supposed to be wounded.
+All these movements we photographed with our camera.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page140">[pg 140]</span><a name="Pg140" id="Pg140" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Of the endurance of these Cossacks and their Kirghiz
+horses we had a practical test. Overtaking a Cossack
+courier in the early part of a day’s journey, he became so
+interested in the velocipede, as the Russians call the bicycle,
+that he determined to see as much of it as possible.
+He stayed with us the whole day, over a distance of fifty-five
+miles. His chief compensation was in witnessing the
+surprise of the natives to whom he would shout across the
+fields to come and see the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tomasha</span></span>, adding in explanation
+that we were the American gentlemen who had ridden
+all the way from America. Our speed was not slow, and
+frequently the poor fellow would have to resort to the
+whip, or shout, <span class="tei tei-q">“Slowly, gentlemen, my horse is tired;
+the town is not far away, it is not necessary to hurry so.”</span>
+The fact is that in all our experience we found no horse
+of even the famed Kirghiz or Turkoman breed that could
+travel with the same ease and rapidity as ourselves even
+over the most ordinary road.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At Vernoye we began to glean practical information
+about China, but all except our genial host, M. Gourdet,
+counseled us against our proposed journey. He alone, as
+a traveler of experience, advised a divergence from the
+<a name="corr140" id="corr140" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-corr">Siberian</span> route at Altin Imell, in order to visit the Chinese
+city of Kuldja, where, as he said, with the assistance of
+the resident Russian consul we could test the validity of
+the Chinese passport received, as before mentioned, from
+the Chinese minister at London.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A few days later we were rolling up the valley of the
+Ili, having crossed that river by the well-constructed Russian
+bridge at Fort Iliysk, the head of navigation for the
+boats from Lake Balkash. New faces here met our curious
+gaze. As an ethnological transition between the inhabitants
+of central Asia and the Chinese, we were now
+among two distinctly agricultural races—the Dungans
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page142">[pg 142]</span><a name="Pg142" id="Pg142" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and Taranchis. As the invited guests of these people on
+several occasions, we were struck with their extreme cleanliness,
+economy, and industry; but their deep-set eyes
+seem to express reckless cruelty.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill79" id="ill79"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i155.jpg" alt="STROLLING MUSICIANS." title="STROLLING MUSICIANS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">STROLLING MUSICIANS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Mohammedan mosques of this people are like the
+Chinese pagodas in outward appearance, while they seem
+to be Chinese in half-Kirghiz garments. Their women,
+too, do not veil themselves, although they are much more
+shy than their rugged sisters of the steppes. Tenacious
+of their word, these people were also scrupulous about
+returning favors. Our exhibitions were usually rewarded
+by a spread of sweets and yellow Dungan tea. Of this
+we would partake beneath the shade of their well-trained
+grape-arbors, while listening to the music, or rather discord,
+of a peculiar stringed instrument played by the boys.
+Its bow of two parts was so interlaced with the strings of
+the instrument as to play upon two at every draw. Another
+musician usually accompanied by beating little sticks
+on a saucer.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+These are the people who were introduced by the Manchus
+to replace the Kalmucks in the Kuldja district, and
+who in 1869 so terribly avenged upon their masters the
+blood they previously caused to flow. The fertile province
+of Kuldja, with a population of 2,500,000, was reduced by
+their massacres to one vast necropolis. On all sides are
+canals that have become swamps, abandoned fields, wasted
+forests, and towns and villages in ruins, in some of which
+the ground is still strewn with the bleached bones of the
+murdered.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+As we ascended the Ili valley piles of stones marked in
+succession the sites of the towns of Turgen, Jarkend, Akkend,
+and Khorgos, names which the Russians are already
+reviving in their pioneer settlements. The largest of these,
+Jarkend, is the coming frontier town, to take the place of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page144">[pg 144]</span><a name="Pg144" id="Pg144" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>evacuated Kuldja. About twenty-two miles east of this
+point the large white Russian fort of Khorgos stands
+bristling on the bank of the river of that name, which, by
+the treaty of 1881, is now the boundary-line of the Celestial
+empire. On a ledge of rocks overlooking the ford a
+Russian sentinel was walking his beat in the solitude of
+a dreary outpost. He stopped to watch us as we plunged
+into the flood, with our Russian telega for a ferry-boat.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“All’s well,”</span> we heard him cry, as, bumping over the
+rocky bottom, we passed from Russia into China. <span class="tei tei-q">“Ah,
+yes,”</span> we thought; <span class="tei tei-q">“ <span class="tei tei-q">‘All’s well that ends well,’</span> but this is
+only the beginning.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill80" id="ill80"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i157.jpg" alt="THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA." title="THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A few minutes later we dashed through the arched
+driveway of the Chinese custom-house, and were several
+yards away before the lounging officials realized what it
+was that flitted across their vision. <span class="tei tei-q">“Stop! Come back!”</span>
+they shouted in broken Russian. Amid a confusion of
+chattering voices, rustling gowns, clattering shoes, swinging
+pigtails, and clouds of opium and tobacco smoke, we
+were brought into the presence of the head official. Putting
+on his huge spectacles, he read aloud the visé written
+upon our American passports by the Chinese minister in
+London. His wonderment was increased when he further
+read that such a journey was being made on the <span class="tei tei-q">“foot-moved
+carriages,”</span> which were being curiously fingered by
+the attendants. Our garments were minutely scrutinized,
+especially the buttons, while our caps and dark-colored
+spectacles were taken from our heads, and passed round
+for each to try on in turn, amid much laughter.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill81" id="ill81"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i159.jpg" alt="THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA." title="THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Owing to the predominant influence of Russia in these
+northwestern confines, our Russian papers would have been
+quite sufficient to cross the border into Kuldja. It was
+only beyond this point that our Chinese passport would
+be found necessary, and possibly invalid. After the usual
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page145">[pg 145]</span><a name="Pg145" id="Pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>visés had been stamped and written over, we were off on
+what proved to be our six months’ experience in the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Middle Kingdom or Central Empire,”</span> as the natives call
+it, for to Chinamen there is a fifth point to the compass—the
+center, which is China. Not far on the road we heard
+the clatter of hoofs behind us. A Kalmuck was dashing
+toward us with a portentous look on his features. We
+dismounted in apprehension. He stopped short some
+twenty feet away, leaped to the ground, and, crawling up
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146">[pg 146]</span><a name="Pg146" id="Pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>on hands and knees, began to <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">chin-chin</span></span> or knock his head
+on the ground before us. This he continued for some
+moments, and then without a word gazed at us in wild
+astonishment. Our perplexity over this performance was
+increased when, at a neighboring village, a bewildered
+Chinaman sprang out from the speechless crowd, and
+threw himself in the road before us. By a dexterous turn
+we missed his head, and passed over his extended queue.
+</p>
+<a name="ill82" id="ill82"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i160.jpg" alt="TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN." title="TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Kuldja, with its Russian consul and Cossack station,
+still maintains a Russian telegraph and postal service.
+The mail is carried from the border in a train of three or
+four telegas, which rattle along over the primitive roads
+in a cloud of dust, with armed Cossacks galloping before
+and after, and a Russian flag carried by the herald in
+front. Even in the Kuldja post-office a heavily armed
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page147">[pg 147]</span><a name="Pg147" id="Pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>picket stands guard over the money-chest. This postal
+caravan we now overtook encamped by a small stream,
+during the glaring heat of the afternoon. We found that
+we had been expected several days before, and that quarters
+had been prepared for us in the postal station at the
+town of Suidun. Here we spent the night, and continued
+on to Kuldja the following morning.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Although built by the Chinese, who call it Nin-yuan,
+Kuldja, with its houses of beaten earth, strongly resembles
+the towns of Russian Turkestan. Since the evacuation
+by the Russians the Chinese have built around the city
+the usual quadrangular wall, thirty feet in height and
+twenty feet in width, with parapets still in the course of
+construction. But the rows of poplars, the whitewash,
+and the telegas were still left to remind us of the temporary
+Russian occupation. For several days we were objects
+of excited interest to the mixed population. The doors
+and windows of our Russian quarters were besieged by
+crowds. In defense of our host, we gave a public exhibition,
+and with the consent of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Tootai</span></span> made the circuit
+on the top of the city walls. Fully 3000 people lined the
+streets and housetops to witness the race to which we had
+been challenged by four Dungan horsemen, riding below
+on the encircling roadway. The distance around was two
+miles. The horsemen started with a rush, and at the end
+of the first mile were ahead. At the third turning we
+overtook them, and came to the finish two hundred yards
+ahead, amid great excitement. Even the commander of
+the Kuldja forces was brushed aside by the chasing rabble.
+</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page148">[pg 148]</span><a name="Pg148" id="Pg148" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill83" id="ill83"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i162.jpg" alt="A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA." title="A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.</span></div></div>
+
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page149">[pg 149]</span><a name="Pg149" id="Pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc84" id="toc84"></a><a name="pdf85" id="pdf85"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">V</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Russian influence, which even now predominates at
+Kuldja, was forcibly indicated, the day after our arrival,
+during our investigations as to the validity of our
+Chinese passports for the journey to Peking. The Russian
+consul, whose favor we had secured in advance through
+letters from Governor Ivanoff at Vernoye, had pronounced
+them not only good, but by far the best that had been
+presented by any traveler entering China at this point.
+After endeavoring to dissuade us from what he called a
+foolhardy undertaking, even with the most valuable papers,
+he sent us, with his interpreter, to the Kuldja Tootai for
+the proper visé.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+That dignitary, although deeply interested, was almost
+amused at the boldness of our enterprise. He said that
+no passport would insure success by the method we proposed
+to pursue; that, before he could allow us to make
+the venture, we must wait for an order from Peking.
+This, he said, would subject us to considerable delay and
+expense, even if the telegraph and post were utilized
+through Siberia and Kiakhta. This was discouraging indeed.
+But when we discovered, a few minutes later, that
+his highness had to call in the learned secretary to trace
+our proposed route for him on the map of China, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150">[pg 150]</span><a name="Pg150" id="Pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>even to locate the capital, Peking, we began to question
+his knowledge of Chinese diplomacy. The matter was
+again referred to the consul, who reported back the following
+day that his previous assurances were reliable,
+that the Tootai would make the necessary visés, and send
+away at once, by the regular relay post across the empire,
+an open letter that could be read by the officials along the
+route, and be delivered long before our arrival at Peking.
+Such easy success we had not anticipated. The difficulty,
+as well as necessity, of obtaining the proper credentials
+for traveling in China was impressed upon us by the arrest
+the previous day of three Afghan visitors, and by the fact
+that a German traveler had been refused, just a few weeks
+before, permission even to cross the Mozart pass into
+Kashgar. So much, we thought, for Russian friendship.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Upon this assurance of at least official consent to hazard
+the journey to Peking, a telegram was sent to the chief
+of police at Tomsk, to whose care we had directed our
+letters, photographic material, and bicycle supplies to be
+sent from London in the expectation of being forced to
+take the Siberian route. These last could not have been
+dispensed with much longer, as our cushion-tires, ball-bearings,
+and axles were badly worn, while the rim of one
+of the rear wheels was broken in eight places for the lack
+of spokes. These supplies, however, did not reach us till
+six weeks after the date of our telegram, to which a prepaid
+reply was received, after a week’s delay, asking in
+advance for the extra postage. This, with that prepaid
+from London, amounted to just fifty dollars. The warm
+weather, after the extreme cold of a Siberian winter, had
+caused the tires to stretch so much beyond their intended
+size that, on their arrival, they were almost unfit for use.
+Some of our photographic material also had been spoiled
+through the useless inspection of postal officials.
+</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page151">[pg 151]</span><a name="Pg151" id="Pg151" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill86" id="ill86"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i165.jpg" alt="THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY." title="THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152">[pg 152]</span><a name="Pg152" id="Pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The delay thus caused was well utilized in familiarizing
+ourselves as much as possible with the language and characteristics
+of the Chinese, for, as we were without guides,
+interpreters, or servants, and in some places lacked even
+official assistance, no travelers, perhaps, were ever more
+dependent upon the people than ourselves. The Chinese
+language, the most primitive in the world, is, for this very
+reason perhaps, the hardest to learn. Its poverty of words
+reduces its grammar almost to a question of syntax and
+intonation. Many a time our expressions, by a wrong inflection,
+would convey a meaning different from the one
+intended. Even when told the difference, our ears could
+not detect it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our work of preparation was principally a process of
+elimination. We now had to prepare for a forced march
+in case of necessity. Handle-bars and seat-posts were
+shortened to save weight, and even the leather baggage-carriers,
+fitting in the frames of the machines, which we
+ourselves had patented before leaving England, were replaced
+by a couple of sleeping-bags made for us out of
+woolen shawls and Chinese oiled-canvas. The cutting off
+of buttons and extra parts of our clothing, as well as the
+shaving of our heads and faces, was also included by our
+friends in the list of curtailments. For the same reason
+one of our cameras, which we always carried on our backs,
+and refilled at night under the bedclothes, we sold to a
+Chinese photographer at Suidun, to make room for an
+extra provision-bag. The surplus film, with our extra
+baggage, was shipped by post, via Siberia and Kiakhta,
+to meet us on our arrival in Peking.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill87" id="ill87"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i167.jpg" alt="VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE." title="VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+And now the money problem was the most perplexing
+of all. <span class="tei tei-q">“This alone,”</span> said the Russian consul, <span class="tei tei-q">“if nothing
+else, will defeat your plans.”</span> Those Western bankers who
+advertise to furnish <span class="tei tei-q">“letters of credit to any part of the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page154">[pg 154]</span><a name="Pg154" id="Pg154" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>world”</span> are, to say the least, rather sweeping in their assertions.
+At any rate, our own London letter was of no
+use beyond the Bosporus, except with the Persian imperial
+banks run by an English syndicate. At the American
+Bible House at Constantinople we were allowed, as a personal
+favor, to buy drafts on the various missionaries along
+the route through Asiatic Turkey. But in central Asia
+we found that the Russian bankers and merchants would
+not handle English paper, and we were therefore compelled
+to send our letter of credit by mail to Moscow. Thither
+we had recently sent it on leaving Tashkend, with instructions
+to remit in currency to Irkutsk, Siberia. We now
+had to telegraph to that point to re-forward over the
+Kiakhta post-route to Peking. With the cash on hand,
+and the proceeds of the camera, sold for more than half
+its weight in silver, four and one third pounds, we thought
+we had sufficient money to carry us, or, rather, as much
+as we could carry, to that point; for the weight of the
+Chinese money necessary for a journey of over three thousand
+miles was, as the Russian consul thought, one of the
+greatest of our almost insurmountable obstacles. In the
+interior of China there is no coin except the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">chen</span></span>, or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sapeks</span></span>,
+an alloy of copper and tin, in the form of a disk, having
+a hole in the center by which the coins may be strung together.
+The very recently coined <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">liang</span></span>, or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tael</span></span>, the Mexican
+piaster specially minted for the Chinese market, and
+the other foreign coins, have not yet penetrated from the
+coast. For six hundred miles over the border, however,
+we found both the Russian money and language serviceable
+among the Tatar merchants, while the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tenga</span></span>, or Kashgar
+silver-piece, was preferred by the natives even beyond
+the Gobi, being much handier than the larger or smaller
+bits of silver broken from the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yamba</span></span> bricks. All, however,
+would have to be weighed in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tinza</span></span>, or small
+    Chi<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page157">[pg 157]</span><a name="Pg157" id="Pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>nese scales we carried with us, and on which were marked
+the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">fün</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tchan</span></span>, and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">liang</span></span> of the monetary scale. But the
+value of these terms is reckoned in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">chen</span></span>, and changes with
+almost every district. This necessity for vigilance, together
+with the frequency of bad silver and loaded <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yambas</span></span>, and
+the propensity of the Chinese to <span class="tei tei-q">“knock down”</span> on even
+the smallest purchase, tends to convert a traveler in China
+into a veritable Shylock. There being no banks or exchanges
+in the interior, we were obliged to purchase at
+Kuldja all the silver we would need for the entire journey
+of over three thousand miles. <span class="tei tei-q">“How much would it
+take?”</span> was the question that our past experience in Asiatic
+travel now aided us to answer. That our calculations
+were close is proved by the fact that we reached Peking
+with silver in our pockets to the value of half a dollar.
+Our money now constituted the principal part of our luggage,
+which, with camera and film, weighed just twenty-five
+pounds apiece. Most of the silver was chopped up
+into small bits, and placed in the hollow tubing of the
+machines to conceal it from Chinese inquisitiveness, if not
+something worse. We are glad to say, however, that no
+attempt at robbery was ever discovered, although efforts
+at extortion were frequent, and sometimes, as will appear,
+of a serious nature.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill88" id="ill88"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i169.jpg" alt="OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT." title="OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE “CASH” TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">OUR 
+    RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">CASH</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA
+    RESTAURANT.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The blowing of the long horns and boom of the mortar
+cannon at the fort awoke us at daylight on the morning
+of July 13. Farewells had been said the night before.
+Only our good-hearted Russian host was up to put an extra
+morsel in our provision-bag, for, as he said, we could
+get no food until we reached the Kirghiz aouls on the
+high plateau of the Talki pass, by which we were to cut
+across over unbeaten paths to the regular so-called imperial
+highway, running from Suidun. From the Catholic
+missionaries at Kuldja we had obtained very accurate
+in<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page159">[pg 159]</span><a name="Pg159" id="Pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>formation about this route as far as the Gobi desert. The
+expression Tian Shan Pe-lu, or northern Tian Shan route,
+in opposition to the Tian Shan Nan-lu, or southern Tian
+Shan route, shows that the Chinese had fully appreciated
+the importance of this historic highway, which continues
+the road running from the extreme western gate of the
+Great Wall obliquely across Mongolian Kan-su, through
+Hami and Barkul, to Urumtsi. From here the two natural
+highways lead, one to the head-waters of the Black
+Irtish, the other to the passes leading into the Ili valley,
+and other routes of the Arolo-Caspian depression. The
+latter route, which is now commanded at intervals by Chinese
+forts and military settlements, was recently relinquished
+by Russia only when she had obtained a more
+permanent footing on the former in the trading-posts of
+Chuguchak and Kobdo, for she very early recognized the
+importance of this most natural entry to the only feasible
+route across the Chinese empire. In a glowing sunset, at
+the end of a hot day’s climb, we looked for the last time
+over the Ili valley, and at dusk, an hour later, rolled into
+one of the Kirghiz aouls that are here scattered among
+the rich pasturage of the plateau.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill89" id="ill89"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i172.jpg" alt="A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA." title="A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Even here we found that our reputation had extended
+from Kuldja. The chief advanced with <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">amans</span></span> of welcome,
+and the heavy-matted curtains in the kibitka doorway
+were raised, as we passed, in token of honor. When the
+refreshing kumiss was served around the evening camp-fire,
+the dangers of the journey through China were discussed
+among our hosts with frequent looks of misgiving.
+Thus, from first to last, every judgment was against us,
+and every prediction was of failure, if not of something
+worse; and now, as we stole out from the tent by the light
+of the rising moon, even the specter-like mountain-peaks
+around us, like symbols of coming events, were casting
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page160">[pg 160]</span><a name="Pg160" id="Pg160" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>their shadows before. There was something so illusive in
+the scene as to make it very impressive. In the morning,
+early, a score of horsemen were ready to escort us on the
+road. At parting they all dismounted and uttered a prayer
+to Allah for our safety; and then as we rode away, drew
+their fingers across their throats in silence, and waved a
+solemn good-by. Such was the almost superstitious fear
+of these western nomads for the land which once sent
+forth a Yengiz Khan along this very highway.
+</p>
+<a name="ill90" id="ill90"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i174.jpg" alt="PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT." title="PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Down the narrow valley of the Kuitun, which flows into
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page161">[pg 161]</span><a name="Pg161" id="Pg161" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the Ebi-nor, startling the mountain deer from the brink
+of the tree-arched rivulet, we reached a spot which once
+was the haunt of a band of those border-robbers about
+whom we had heard so much from our apprehensive
+friends. At the base of a volcano-shaped mountain lay
+the ruins of their former dens, from which only a year
+ago they were wont to sally forth on the passing caravans.
+When they were exterminated by the government, the
+head of their chief, with its dangling queue, was mounted
+on a pole near-by, and preserved in a cage from birds of
+prey, as a warning to all others who might aspire to the
+same notoriety. In this lonely spot we were forced to
+spend the night, as here occurred, through the carelessness
+of the Kuldja Russian blacksmith, a very serious break in
+one of our gear wheels. It was too late in the day to
+walk back the sixteen miles to the Kirghiz encampment,
+and there obtain horses for the remaining fifty-eight miles
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page162">[pg 162]</span><a name="Pg162" id="Pg162" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to Kuldja, for nowhere else, we concluded, could such a
+break be mended. Our sleeping-bags were now put to a
+severe test between the damp ground and the heavy mountain
+dew. The penetrating cold, and the occasional panther-like
+cry of some prowling animal, kept us awake the
+greater part of the night, awaiting with revolvers in hand
+some expected attack.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill91" id="ill91"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i175.jpg" alt="THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY." title="THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Five days later we had repassed this spot and were toiling
+over the sand and saline-covered depression of the
+great <span class="tei tei-q">“Han-Hai,”</span> or Dried-up Sea. The mountain freshets,
+dissolving the salt from their sandy channels, carry it
+down in solution and deposit it with evaporation in massive
+layers, forming a comparatively hard roadway in the
+midst of the shifting sand-dunes. Over these latter our
+progress was extremely slow. One stretch of fifteen miles,
+which it took us six hours to cover, was as formidable as
+any part of the Turkoman desert along the Transcaspian
+railway. At an altitude of only six hundred feet above
+the sea, according to our aneroid barometer, and beneath
+the rays of a July sun against which even our felt caps
+were not much protection, we were half-dragging, half-pushing,
+our wheels through a foot of sand, and slapping
+at the mosquitos swarming upon our necks and faces.
+These pests, which throughout this low country are the
+largest and most numerous we have ever met, are bred in
+the intermediate swamps, which exist only through the
+negligence of the neighboring villagers. At night smoldering
+fires, which half suffocate the human inmates, are
+built before the doors and windows to keep out the intruding
+insects. All travelers wear gloves, and a huge hood
+covering the head and face up to the eyes, and in their
+hands carry a horse-tail switch to lash back and forth
+over their shoulders. Being without such protection we
+suffered both day and night.
+</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page163">[pg 163]</span><a name="Pg163" id="Pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill92" id="ill92"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i177.jpg" alt="A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA." title="A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page164">[pg 164]</span><a name="Pg164" id="Pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The mountain freshets all along the road to Urumtsi
+were more frequent and dangerous than any we had yet
+encountered. Toward evening the melting snows, and
+the condensing currents from the plain heated during the
+day, fill and overflow the channels that in the morning
+are almost dry. One stream, with its ten branches, swept
+the stones and boulders over a shifting channel one mile
+in width. It was when wading through such streams as
+this, where every effort was required to balance ourselves
+and our luggage, that the mosquitos would make up for
+lost time with impunity. The river, before reaching Manas,
+was so swift and deep as to necessitate the use of regular
+government carts. A team of three horses, on making
+a misstep, were shifted away from the ford into deep
+water and carried far down the stream. A caravan of
+Chinese traveling-vans, loaded with goods from India, were
+crossing at the time, on their way to the outlying provinces
+and the Russian border. General Bauman at Vernoye
+had informed us that in this way English goods were
+swung clear around the circle and brought into Russia
+through the unguarded back door.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+With constant wading and tramping, our Russian shoes
+and stockings, one of which was almost torn off by the
+sly grab of a Chinese spaniel, were no longer fit for use.
+In their place we were now obliged to purchase the short,
+white cloth Chinese socks and string sandals, which for
+mere cycling purposes and wading streams proved an excellent
+substitute, being light and soft on the feet and
+very quickly dried. The calves of our legs, however, being
+left bare, we were obliged, for state occasions at least, to
+retain and utilize the upper portion of our old stockings.
+It was owing to this scantiness of wardrobe that we were
+obliged when taking a bath by the roadside streams to
+make a quick wash of our linen, and put it on wet to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page166">[pg 166]</span><a name="Pg166" id="Pg166" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>dry, or allow it to flutter from the handle-bars as we rode
+along. It was astonishing even to ourselves how little a
+man required when once beyond the pale of Western conventionalities.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill93" id="ill93"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i179.jpg" alt="SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE." title="SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From Manas to Urumtsi we began to strike more tillage
+and fertility. Maize, wheat, and rice were growing,
+but rather low and thin. The last is by no means the
+staple food of China, as is commonly supposed, except in
+the southern portion. In the northern, and especially the
+outlying, provinces it is considered more a luxury for the
+wealthy. Millet and coarse flour, from which the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">mien</span></span> or
+dough-strings are made, is the foundation, at least, for
+more than half the subsistence of the common classes.
+Nor is there much truth, we think, in the assertion that
+Chinamen eat rats, although we sometimes regretted that
+they did not. After a month or more without meat a dish
+of rats would have been relished, had we been able to get
+it. On the other hand we have learned that there is a
+society of Chinamen who are vegetarians from choice, and
+still another that will eat the meat of no animal, such as
+the ass, horse, dog, etc., which can serve man in a better
+way.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill94" id="ill94"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i181.jpg" alt="THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING." title="THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Urumtsi, or Hun-miao (red temple) of the Chinese, still
+retains its ancient prestige in being the seat of government
+for the viceroyalty of Sin-tsiang, which includes all
+that portion of western China lying without the limit of
+Mongolia and Tibet. Thanks to its happy position, it has
+always rapidly recovered after every fresh disaster. It
+now does considerable trade with Russia through the town
+of Chuguchak, and with China through the great gap which
+here occurs in the Tian Shan range. It lies in a picturesque
+amphitheater behind the solitary <span class="tei tei-q">“Holy Mount,”</span>
+which towers above a well-constructed bridge across its
+swiftly flowing river. This city was one of our principal
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page168">[pg 168]</span><a name="Pg168" id="Pg168" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>landmarks across the empire; a long stage of the journey
+was here completed.
+</p>
+<a name="ill95" id="ill95"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i182.jpg" alt="RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS." title="RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On entering a Chinese city we always made it a rule to
+run rapidly through until we came to an inn, and then lock
+up our wheels before the crowd could collect. Urumtsi,
+however, was too large and intricate for such a manœuver.
+We were obliged to dismount in the principal thoroughfare.
+The excited throng pressed in upon us. Among
+them was a Chinaman who could talk a little Russian, and
+who undertook to direct us to a comfortable inn at the
+far end of the city. This street parade gathered to the
+inn yard an overwhelming mob, and announced to the
+whole community that <span class="tei tei-q">“the foreign horses”</span> had come.
+It had been posted, we were told, a month before, that
+<span class="tei tei-q">“two people of the new world”</span> were coming through on
+<span class="tei tei-q">“strange iron horses,”</span> and every one was requested not
+to molest them. By this, public curiosity was raised to
+the highest pitch. When we returned from supper at a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page169">[pg 169]</span><a name="Pg169" id="Pg169" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>neighboring restaurant, we were treated to a novel scene.
+The doors and windows of our apartments had been
+blocked with boxes, bales of cotton, and huge cart-wheels
+to keep out the irrepressible throng. Our host was agitated
+to tears; he came out wringing his hands, and urging
+upon us that any attempt on our part to enter would
+cause a rush that would break his house down. We listened
+to his entreaties on the condition that we should be
+allowed to mount to the roof with a ladder, to get away
+from the annoying curiosity of the crowd. There we sat
+through the evening twilight, while the crowd below, somewhat
+balked, but not discouraged, stood taking in every
+move. Nightfall and a drizzling rain came at last to our
+relief.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The next morning a squad of soldiers was despatched
+to raise the siege, and at the same time presents began to
+arrive from the various officials, from the Tsongtu, or viceroy,
+down to the superintendent of the local prisons. The
+matter of how much to accept of a Chinese present, and
+how much to pay for it, in the way of a tip to the bearer,
+is one of the finest points of that finest of fine arts, Chinese
+etiquette; and yet in the midst of such an abundance
+and variety we were hopelessly at sea. Fruits and teas
+were brought, together with meats and chickens, and even
+a live sheep. Our Chinese visiting-cards—with the Chinese
+the great insignia of rank—were now returned for
+those sent with the presents, and the hour appointed for
+the exhibition of our bicycles as requested.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill96" id="ill96"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i184.jpg" alt="MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI." title="MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Long before the time, the streets and housetops leading
+from the inn to the viceroy’s palace at the far end of the
+city began to fill with people, and soldiers were detailed
+at our request to make an opening for us to ride through
+abreast. This, however, did not prevent the crowd from
+pushing us against each other, or sticking sticks in the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page170">[pg 170]</span><a name="Pg170" id="Pg170" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>wheels, or throwing their hats and shoes in front of us, as
+we rode by. When in sight of the viceroy’s palace, they
+closed in on us entirely. It was the worst jam we had
+ever been in. By no possibility could we mount our machines,
+although the mob was growing more and more
+impatient. They kept shouting for us to ride, but would
+give us no room. Those on the outside pushed the inner
+ones against us. With the greatest difficulty could we
+preserve our equilibrium, and prevent the wheels from
+being crushed, as we surged along toward the palace gate;
+while all the time our Russian interpreter, Mafoo, on horseback
+in front, continued to shout and gesticulate in the
+wildest manner above their heads. Twenty soldiers had
+been stationed at the palace gate to keep back the mob
+with cudgels. When we reached them, they pulled us
+and our wheels quickly through into the inclosure, and
+then tried to stem the tide by belaboring the heads and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page171">[pg 171]</span><a name="Pg171" id="Pg171" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>shoulders in reach, including those of our unfortunate
+interpreter, Mafoo. But it was no use. Everything was
+swept away before this surging wave of humanity. The
+viceroy himself, who now came out to receive us, was
+powerless. All he could do was to request them to make
+room around the palace courtyard for the coming exhibition.
+Thousands of thumbs were uplifted that afternoon,
+in praise of the wonderful <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">twee-tah-cheh</span></span>, or two-wheeled
+carts, as they witnessed our modest attempt at trick riding
+and special manœuvering. After refreshments in the
+palace, to which we were invited by the viceroy, we were
+counseled to leave by a rear door, and return by a roundabout
+way to the inn, leaving the mob to wait till dark
+for our exit from the front.
+</p>
+<a name="ill97" id="ill97"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i185.jpg" alt="A BANK IN URUMTSI." title="A BANK IN URUMTSI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A BANK IN URUMTSI.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The restaurant or tea-house in China takes the place of
+the Western club-room. All the current news and gossip
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page172">[pg 172]</span><a name="Pg172" id="Pg172" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>is here circulated and discussed over their eating or gambling.
+One of their games of chance, which we have frequently
+noticed, seems to consist in throwing their fingers
+at one another, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+It is really a matching of numbers, for which the Chinamen
+make signs on their fingers, up to the numeral ten.
+Our entry into a crowded <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dungan</span></span>, or native Mohammedan
+restaurant, the next morning, was the signal for exciting
+accounts of the events of the previous day. We were
+immediately invited to take tea with this one, a morning
+dish of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tung-posas</span></span>, or nut and sugar dumplings, with another,
+while a third came over with his can of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sojeu</span></span>, or
+Chinese gin, with an invitation <span class="tei tei-q">“to join him.”</span> The Chinese
+of all nations seem to live in order to eat, and from
+this race of epicures has developed a nation of excellent
+cooks. Our fare in China, outside the Gobi district, was
+far better than in Turkey or Persia, and, for this reason,
+we were better able to endure the increased hardships.
+A plate of sliced meat stewed with vegetables, and served
+with a piquant sauce, sliced radishes and onions with
+vinegar, two loaves of Chinese <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">mo-mo</span></span>, or steamed bread,
+and a pot of tea, would usually cost us about three and
+one quarter cents apiece. Everything in China is sliced
+so that it can be eaten with the chop-sticks. These we at
+length learned to manipulate with sufficient dexterity to
+pick up a dove’s egg—the highest attainment in the chop-stick
+art. The Chinese have rather a sour than a sweet
+tooth. Sugar is rarely used in anything, and never in
+tea. The steeped tea-flowers, which the higher classes
+use, are really more tasty without it. In many of the
+smaller towns, our visits to the restaurant would sometimes
+result in considerable damage to its keepers, for
+the crowd would swarm in after us, knocking over the
+table, stools, and crockery as they went, and collect in a
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page173">[pg 173]</span><a name="Pg173" id="Pg173" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>circle around us to watch the <span class="tei tei-q">“foreigners”</span> eat, and to
+add their opium and tobacco smoke to the suffocating
+atmosphere.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A visit to the local mint in Urumtsi revealed to us the
+primitive method of making the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">chen</span></span>, or money-disks
+before mentioned. Each is molded instead of cut and
+stamped as in the West. By its superintendent we were
+invited to a special breakfast on the morning of our
+departure.
+</p>
+<a name="ill98" id="ill98"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i187.jpg" alt="A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA." title="A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The Chinese are the only people in the Orient, and, so
+far as we know, in the European and Asiatic continents,
+who resemble the Americans in their love for a good, substantial
+morning meal. This was much better adapted
+to our purpose than the Russian custom, which compelled
+us to do the greater part of our day’s work on merely
+bread and weak tea.
+</p>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page174">[pg 174]</span><a name="Pg174" id="Pg174" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="ill99" id="ill99"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i188.jpg" alt="STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN." title="STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.</span></div></div>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page175">[pg 175]</span><a name="Pg175" id="Pg175" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From Urumtsi we had decided to take the northern
+route to Hami, via Gutchen and Barkul, in order to avoid
+as much as possible the sands of the Tarim basin on the
+southern slope of the Tian Shan mountains. Two guards
+were commissioned by the viceroy to take us in charge,
+and hand us over to the next relay station. Papers were
+given them to be signed by the succeeding authorities on
+our safe arrival. This plan had been adopted by every
+chief mandarin along the route, in order, not only to follow
+out the request of the London minister as written
+on the passport, but principally to do us honor in return
+for the favor of a bicycle exhibition; but many times
+we would leave our discomfited guards to return with unsigned
+papers. Had we been traveling in the ordinary
+way, not only these favors might not have been shown us,
+but our project entirely defeated by local obstructions, as
+was the case with many who attempted the same journey
+by caravan. To the good-will of the mandarins, as well
+as the people, an indispensable concomitant of a journey
+through China, our bicycles were after all our best passports.
+They everywhere overcame the antipathy for the
+foreigner, and made us cordially welcome.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The costumes of our soldiers were strikingly picturesque.
+Over the front and back of the scarlet waistcoats
+were worked in black silk letters their military credentials.
+Over their full baggy trousers were drawn their riding
+overalls, which cover only the front and sides of the legs,
+the back being cut out just above the cloth top of their
+Chinese boots. Instead of a cap, they wear a piece of
+printed cloth wrapped tightly around the head, like the
+American washerwomen. Their well-cushioned saddles
+did not save them from the constant jolting to which our
+high speed subjected them. At every stopping-place they
+would hold forth at length to the curious crowd about
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page176">[pg 176]</span><a name="Pg176" id="Pg176" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>their roadside experiences. It was amusing to hear their
+graphic descriptions of the mysterious <span class="tei tei-q">“ding,”</span> by which
+they referred to the ring of the cyclometer at every mile.
+But the phrase <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quai-ti-henn</span></span> (very fast), which concluded
+almost every sentence, showed what feature impressed
+them most. Then, too, they disliked very much to travel
+in the heat of the day, for all summer traveling in China
+is done at night. They would wake us up many hours
+before daylight to make a start, despite our previous request
+to be left alone. Our week’s run to Barkul was
+made, with a good natural road and favoring conditions,
+at the rate of fifty-three miles per day, eight miles more
+than our general average across the empire. From Kuldja
+to the Great Wall, where our cyclometer broke, we took
+accurate measurements of the distances. In this way, we
+soon discovered that the length of a Chinese <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">li</span></span> was even
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page177">[pg 177]</span><a name="Pg177" id="Pg177" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>more changeable than the value of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tael</span></span>. According to
+time and place, from 185 to 250 were variously reckoned
+to a degree, while even a difference in direction would
+very often make a considerable difference in the distance.
+It is needless to say that, at this rate, the guards did not
+stay with us. Official courtesy was now confined to despatches
+sent in advance. Through this exceptionally wild
+district were encountered several herds of antelope and
+wild asses, which the natives were hunting with their
+long, heavy, fork-resting rifles. Through the exceptional
+tameness of the jack-rabbits along the road, we were sometimes
+enabled to procure with a revolver the luxury of a
+meat supper.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill100" id="ill100"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i190.jpg" alt="A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL." title="A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At Barkul (Tatar) the first evidence of English influence
+began to appear in the place of the fading Russian,
+although the traces of Russian manufacture were by no
+means wanting far beyond the Great Wall. English pulverized
+sugar now began to take the place of Russian
+lump. India rubber, instead of the Russianized French
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">elastique</span></span>, was the native name for our rubber tires. English
+letters, too, could be recognized on the second-hand
+paper and bagging appropriated to the natives’ use, and
+even the gilded buttons worn by the soldiers bore the
+stamp of <span class="tei tei-q">“treble gilt.”</span> From here the road to Hami
+turns abruptly south, and by a pass of over nine thousand
+feet crosses the declining spurs of the Tian Shan mountains,
+which stand like a barrier between the two great
+historic highways, deflecting the westward waves of migration,
+some to Kashgaria and others to Zungaria. On the
+southern slope of the pass we met with many large caravans
+of donkeys, dragging down pine-logs to serve as
+poles in the proposed extension of the telegraph-line from
+Su-Chou to Urumtsi. In June of this year the following
+item appeared in the newspapers:
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page178">[pg 178]</span><a name="Pg178" id="Pg178" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Within a few months Peking will be united by wire
+with St. Petersburg; and, in consequence, with the telegraph
+system of the entire civilized world. According
+to the latest issue of the Turkestan <span class="tei tei-q">‘Gazette,’</span> the telegraph-line
+from Peking has been brought as far west as
+the city of Kashgar. The European end of the line is at
+Osh, and a small stretch of about 140 miles now alone
+breaks the direct telegraph communication from the Atlantic
+to the Pacific.”</span>
+</p>
+<a name="ill101" id="ill101"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i192.jpg" alt="CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI." title="CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.</span></div></div>
+
+<div class="tei tei-tb"> </div>
+  <a name="ill102" id="ill102"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i193.jpg" alt="SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA." title="SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Hami is one of those cities which may be regarded as
+indispensable. At the edge of the Great Gobi and the
+converging point of the Nan-lu and Pe-lu—that is, the
+southern and northern routes to the western world—this
+oasis is a necessary resting-place. During our stop of
+two days, to make necessary repairs and recuperate our
+strength for the hardships of the desert, the usual calls
+were exchanged with the leading officials. In the matter
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page179">[pg 179]</span><a name="Pg179" id="Pg179" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of social politeness the Chinese, especially the <span class="tei tei-q">“literati,”</span>
+have reason to look down upon the barbarians of the
+West. Politeness has been likened generally to an air-cushion.
+There is nothing in it, but it eases the jolts
+wonderfully. As a mere ritual of technicalities it has perhaps
+reached its highest point in China. The multitude
+of honorific titles, so bewildering and even maddening to
+the Occidental, are here used simply to keep in view the
+fixed relations of graduated superiority. When wishing
+to be exceptionally courteous to <span class="tei tei-q">“the foreigners,”</span> the more
+experienced mandarins would lay their doubled fists in the
+palms of our hands, instead of raising them in front of
+their foreheads, with the usual salutation <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Homa</span></span>. In shaking
+hands with a Chinaman we thus very often had our
+hands full. After the exchange of visiting-cards, as an
+indication that their visits would be welcome, they would
+come on foot, in carts, or palanquins, according to their
+rank, and always attended by a larger or smaller retinue.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page180">[pg 180]</span><a name="Pg180" id="Pg180" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>Our return visits would always be made by request, on
+the wheels, either alone or with our interpreter, if we could
+find one, for our Chinese was as yet painfully defective.
+Russian had served us in good stead, though not always
+directly. In a conversation with the Tootai of Schicho,
+for instance, our Russian had to be translated into Turki
+and thence interpreted in Chinese. The more intelligent
+of these conversations were about our own and other
+countries of the world, especially England and Russia,
+who, it was rumored, had gone to war on the Afghanistan
+border. But the most of them generally consisted of a
+series of trivial interrogations beginning usually with:
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page181">[pg 181]</span><a name="Pg181" id="Pg181" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“How old are you?”</span> Owing to our beards, which were
+now full grown, and which had gained for us the frequent
+title of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yeh renn</span></span>, or wild men, the guesses were far above
+the mark. One was even as high as sixty years, for the
+reason, as was stated, that no Chinaman could raise such
+a beard before that age. We were frequently surprised
+at their persistence in calling us brothers when there was
+no apparent reason for it, and were finally told that we
+must be <span class="tei tei-q">“because we were both named <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Mister</span></span> on our passports.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill103" id="ill103"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i194.jpg" alt="A LESSON IN CHINESE." title="A LESSON IN CHINESE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A LESSON IN CHINESE.</span></div></div>
+
+  <a name="ill104" id="ill104"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i196.jpg" alt="A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT." title="A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was already dusk on the evening of August 10 when
+we drew up to the hamlet of Shang-loo-shwee at the end
+of the Hami oasis. The Great Gobi, in its awful loneliness,
+stretched out before us, like a vast ocean of endless
+space. The growing darkness threw its mantle on the
+scene, and left imagination to picture for us the nightmare
+of our boyhood days. We seemed, as it were, to be
+standing at the end of the world, looking out into the
+realm of nowhere. Foreboding thoughts disturbed our
+repose, as we contemplated the four hundred miles of this
+barren stretch to the Great Wall of China. With an early
+morning start, however, we struck out at once over the
+eighty-five miles of the Takla Makan sands. This was the
+worst we could have, for beyond the caravan station of
+Kooshee we would strike the projecting limits of Mongolian
+Kan-su. This narrow tract, now lying to our left
+between Hami and the Nan Shan mountains, is characterized
+by considerable diversity in its surface, soil, and
+climate. Traversed by several copious streams from the
+Nan Shan mountains, and the moisture-laden currents
+from the Bay of Bengal and the Brahmaputra valley, its
+<span class="tei tei-q">“desert”</span> stretches are not the dismal solitudes of the Tarim
+basin or the <span class="tei tei-q">“Black”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“Red”</span> sands of central
+Asia. Water is found almost everywhere near the
+sur<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page182">[pg 182]</span><a name="Pg182" id="Pg182" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>face, and springs bubble up in the hollows, often encircled
+by exterior oases. Everywhere the ground is traversable
+by horses and carts. This comparatively fertile tract,
+cutting the Gobi into two great sections, has been, ever
+since its conquest two thousand years ago, of vast importance
+to China, being the only feasible avenue of communication
+with the western provinces, and the more important
+link in the only great highway across the empire.
+A regular line of caravan stations is maintained by the
+constant traffic both in winter and summer. But we were
+now on a bit of the genuine Gobi—that is, <span class="tei tei-q">“Sandy Desert”</span>—of
+the Mongolian, or <span class="tei tei-q">“Shamo”</span> of the Chinese.
+Everywhere was the same interminable picture of vast
+undulating plains of shifting reddish sands, interspersed
+with quartz pebbles, agates, and carnelians, and relieved
+here and there by patches of wiry shrubs, used as fuel at
+the desert stations, or lines of hillocks succeeding each
+other like waves on the surface of the shoreless deep. The
+wind, even more than the natural barrenness of the soil,
+prevents the growth of any vegetation except low, pliant
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page183">[pg 183]</span><a name="Pg183" id="Pg183" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>herbage. Withered plants are uprooted and scattered by
+the gale like patches of foam on the stormy sea. These
+terrible winds, which of course were against us, with the
+frequently heavy cart-tracks, would make it quite impossible
+to ride. The monotony of many weary hours of
+plodding was relieved only by the bones of some abandoned
+beast of burden, or the occasional train of Chinese
+carts, or rather two-wheeled vans, loaded with merchandise,
+and drawn by five to six horses or mules. For miles
+away they would see us coming, and crane their necks in
+wondering gaze as we approached. The mulish leaders,
+with distended ears, would view our strange-looking vehicles
+with suspicion, and then lurch far out in their twenty-foot
+traces, pulling the heavily loaded vehicles from the
+deep-rutted track. But the drivers were too busy with
+their eyes to notice any little divergence of this kind.
+Dumb with astonishment they continued to watch us till
+we disappeared again toward the opposite horizon. Farther
+on we would meet a party of Chinese emigrants or
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page184">[pg 184]</span><a name="Pg184" id="Pg184" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>exiles, on their way to the fertile regions that skirt the
+northern and southern slopes of the Tian Shan mountains.
+By these people even the distant valley of the Ili is being
+largely populated. Being on foot, with their extraordinary
+loads balanced on flexible shoulder-poles, these poor
+fellows could make only one station, or from twelve to
+twenty miles a day. In the presence of their patience and
+endurance, we were ashamed to think of such a thing as
+hardship.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill105" id="ill105"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i197.png" alt="IN THE GOBI DESERT." title="IN THE GOBI DESERT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">IN THE GOBI DESERT.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The station-houses on the desert were nothing more
+than a collection of mud huts near a surface well of
+strongly brackish water. Here, most of the caravans
+would put up during the day, and travel at night. There
+was no such thing as a restaurant; each one by turn must
+do his own cooking in the inn kitchen, open to all. We,
+of course, were expected to carry our own provisions and
+do our own culinary work like any other respectable travelers.
+This we had frequently done before where restaurants
+were not to be found. Many a time we would enter
+an inn with our arms filled with provisions, purchased at
+the neighboring bazaars, take possession of the oven and
+cooking utensils, and proceed to get up an American meal,
+while all the time a hundred eyes or more would be staring
+at us in blank amazement. But here on the desert
+we could buy nothing but very coarse flour. When asked
+if they had an egg or a piece of vegetable, they would
+shout <span class="tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ma-you</span></span>”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“There is none”</span>) in a tone of rebuke, as
+much as to say: <span class="tei tei-q">“My conscience! man, what do you expect
+on the Gobi?”</span> We would have to be content with
+our own tea made in the iron pot, fitting in the top of the
+mud oven, and a kind of sweetened bread made up with
+our supply of sugar brought from Hami. This we nicknamed
+our <span class="tei tei-q">“Gobi cake,”</span> although it did taste rather
+strongly of brackish water and the garlic of previous
+con<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185">[pg 185]</span><a name="Pg185" id="Pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tents of the one common cooking-pot. We would usually
+take a large supply for road use on the following day, or,
+as sometimes proved, for the midnight meal of the half-starved
+inn-dog. The interim between the evening meal
+and bedtime was always employed in writing notes by the
+feeble, flickering light of a primitive taper-lamp, which
+was the best we had throughout the Chinese journey.
+</p>
+<a name="ill106" id="ill106"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i199.jpg" alt="STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN." title="STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A description of traveling in China would by no means
+be complete without some mention of the vermin which
+infest, not only inns and houses, but the persons of nearly
+all the lower classes. Lice and fleas seem to be the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sine
+qua non</span></span> of Chinese life, and in fact the itching with some
+seems to furnish the only occasion for exercise. We have
+seen even shopkeepers before their doors on a sunny afternoon,
+amusing themselves by picking these insidious
+crea<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186">[pg 186]</span><a name="Pg186" id="Pg186" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tures from their inner garments. They are one of the
+necessary evils it seems, and no secret is made of it. The
+sleeping <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kangs</span></span> of the Chinese inns, which are made of
+beaten earth and heated in winter like an oven, harbor
+these pests the year round, not to mention the filthy coverlets
+and greasy pillows that were sometimes offered us.
+Had we not had our own sleeping-bags, and used the
+camera, provision-bag, and coats for pillows, our life would
+have been intolerable. As it was there was but little rest
+for the weary.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The longest station on the desert was thirty-one miles.
+This was the only time that we suffered at all with thirst.
+In addition to the high mean elevation of the Gobi, about
+four thousand feet, we had cloudy weather for a considerable
+portion of the journey, and, in the Kan-su district,
+even a heavy thunder-shower. These occasional summer
+rains form, here and there, temporary meres and lakes,
+which are soon evaporated, leaving nothing behind except
+a saline efflorescence. Elsewhere the ground is furrowed
+by sudden torrents tearing down the slopes of the occasional
+hills or mountains. These dried up river-beds furnished
+the only continuously hard surfaces we found on
+the Gobi; although even here we were sometimes brought
+up with a round turn in a chuck hole, with the sand flying
+above our heads.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our aneroid barometer registered approximately six
+thousand five hundred feet, when we reached at dusk the
+summit of the highest range of hills we encountered on
+the desert journey. But instead of the station-hut we expected
+to find, we were confronted by an old Mongolian
+monastery. These institutions, we had found, were generally
+situated as this one, at the top of some difficult
+mountain-pass or at the mouth of some cavernous gorge,
+where the pious intercessors might, to the best advantage,
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page187">[pg 187]</span><a name="Pg187" id="Pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>strive to appease the wrathful forces of nature. In this
+line of duty the lama was no doubt engaged when we
+walked into his feebly-lighted room, but, like all Orientals,
+he would let nothing interfere with the performance of
+his religious duties. With his gaze centered upon one
+spot, his fingers flew over the string of beads in his lap,
+and his tongue over the stereotyped prayers, with a rapidity
+that made our head swim. We stood unnoticed till
+the end, when we were at once invited to a cup of tea, and
+directed to our destination, five <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">li</span></span> beyond. Toward this
+we plodded through the growing darkness and rapidly
+cooling atmosphere; for in its extremes of temperature
+the Gobi is at once both Siberian and Indian, and that,
+too, within the short period of a few hours. Some of the
+mornings of what proved to be very hot days were cold
+enough to make our extremities fairly tingle.
+</p>
+<a name="ill107" id="ill107"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i201.jpg" alt="A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI." title="A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A constant diet of bread and tea, together with the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page188">[pg 188]</span><a name="Pg188" id="Pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>hard physical exercise and mental anxiety, caused our
+strength at length to fail.
+</p>
+<a name="ill108" id="ill108"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i202.jpg" alt="A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI." title="A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The constant drinking of brackish water made one of
+us so ill that he could retain no food. A high fever set
+in on the evening of August 15, and as we pulled into
+the station of Bay-doon-sah, he was forced to go to bed
+at once. The other, with the aid of our small medicine
+supply, endeavored to ward off the ominous symptoms.
+In his anxiety, however, to do all that was possible he
+made a serious blunder. Instead of antipyrin he administered
+the poison, sulphate of zinc, which we carried to
+relieve our eyes when inflamed by the alkali dust. This
+was swallowed before the truth was discovered. It was
+an anxious moment for us both when we picked up the
+paper from the floor and read the inscription. We could
+do nothing but look at each other in silence. Happily it
+was an overdose, and the vomiting which immediately
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page189">[pg 189]</span><a name="Pg189" id="Pg189" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>followed relieved both the patient and the anxious doctor.
+What to do we did not know. The patient now suggested
+that his companion should go on without him, and, if
+possible, send back medical aid or proper food; but not
+to remain and get worse himself. He, on the other hand,
+refused to leave without the other. Then too, the outlying
+town of Ngan-si-chou, the first where proper food and
+water could be obtained, was only one day’s journey away.
+Another effort was decided upon. But when morning
+came, a violent hurricane from the southeast swept the
+sand in our faces, and fairly blew the sick man over on
+his wheel. Famishing with thirst, tired beyond expression,
+and burning with fever as well as the withering heat,
+we reached at last the bank of the Su-la-ho. Eagerly we
+plunged into its sluggish waters, and waded through under
+the walls of Ngan-si-chou.
+</p>
+<a name="ill109" id="ill109"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i203.jpg" alt="A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT." title="A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Ngan-si-chou was almost completely destroyed during
+the late Dungan rebellion. Little is now to be seen except
+heaps of rubbish, ruined temples, and the scattered
+fragments of idols. The neglected gardens no longer
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page190">[pg 190]</span><a name="Pg190" id="Pg190" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>check the advancing sands, which in some places were
+drifting over the ramparts. Through its abandoned gateway
+we almost staggered with weakness, and directed our
+course to the miserable bazaar. The only meat we could
+find was pork, that shibboleth between Mohammedanism
+and Confucianism. The Dungan restaurant-keeper would
+not cook it, and only after much persuasion consented to
+have it prepared outside and brought back to be eaten
+beneath his roof. With better water and more substantial
+food we began, from this time on, to recuperate. But before
+us still a strong head wind was sweeping over the
+many desert stretches that lay between the oases along
+the Su-la-ho, and with the constant walking our sandals
+and socks were almost worn away. For this reason we
+were delayed one evening in reaching the town of Dyou-min-shan.
+In the lonely stillness of its twilight a horseman
+was approaching across the barren plain, bearing a
+huge Chinese lantern in his hand, and singing aloud, as
+is a Chinaman’s custom, to drive off the evil spirits of the
+night. He started back, as we suddenly appeared, and
+then dismounted, hurriedly, to throw his lantern’s glare
+upon us. <span class="tei tei-q">“Are you the two Americans?”</span> he asked in an
+agitated manner. His question was surprising. Out in
+this desert country we were not aware that our identity
+was known, or our visit expected. He then explained that
+he had been instructed by the magistrate of Dyou-min-shan
+to go out and look for us, and escort us into the
+town. He also mentioned in this connection the name of
+Ling Darin—a name that we had heard spoken of almost
+with veneration ever since leaving Urumtsi. Who this
+personage was we were unable to find out beyond that he
+was an influential mandarin in the city of Su-chou, now
+only a day’s journey away.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill110" id="ill110"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i205.jpg" alt="WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL." title="WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page191">[pg 191]</span><a name="Pg191" id="Pg191" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>our Asiatic journey was begun and ended, we now struck,
+at its extreme western limit, the Great Wall of China.
+The Kiayu-kuan, or <span class="tei tei-q">“Jade Gate,”</span> by which it is here intersected,
+was originally so called from the fact that it
+led into the Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders
+brought back the precious mineral. This, with the Shanghai-kuan
+near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan, on the Nankow
+pass, are the principal gateways in this <span class="tei tei-q">“wall of ten
+thousand <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">li</span></span>,”</span> which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected
+the empire from the Mongolian nomads for a period
+of fourteen hundred years. In its present condition the
+Great Wall belongs to various epochs. With the sudden
+and violent transitions of temperature in the severe Mongolian
+climate, it may be doubted whether any portion of
+Shi Hoangti’s original work still survives. Nearly all the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page192">[pg 192]</span><a name="Pg192" id="Pg192" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>eastern section, from Ordos to the Yellow Sea, was rebuilt
+in the fifth century, and the double rampart along the
+northwest frontier of the plains of Peking was twice restored
+in the fifteenth and sixteenth. North of Peking,
+where this prodigious structure has a mean height of
+about twenty-six feet, and width of twenty feet, it is still
+in a state of perfect repair, whereas in many western districts
+along the Gobi frontier, as here before us, it is little
+more than an earthen rampart about fifteen feet in height,
+while for considerable distances, as along the road from
+Su-chou to Kan-chou, it has entirely disappeared for miles
+at a stretch. Both the gate and the wall at this point had
+been recently repaired. We could now see it rising and
+falling in picturesque undulations as far as the Tibetan
+ranges. There it stops altogether, after a westward course
+of over fifteen hundred miles. In view of what was before
+us, we could not but smile as we thought of that
+French abbé who undertook, in an elaborate volume, to
+prove that the <span class="tei tei-q">“Great Wall of China”</span> was nothing more
+than a myth.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We were now past another long anticipated land-mark,
+and before us, far down in the plain, lay the city of Su-chou,
+which, as the terminal point of the Chinese telegraph-line,
+would bring us again into electric touch with the
+civilized world. But between us and our goal lay the
+Edzina river, now swollen by a recent freshet. We began
+to wade cautiously through with luggage and wheels
+balanced on our shoulders. But just at that moment we
+perceived, approaching from the distance, what we took
+to be a mounted Chinese mandarin, and his servant leading
+behind him two richly caparisoned and riderless horses.
+At sight of us they spurred ahead, and reached the opposite
+bank just as we passed the middle of the stream. The
+leader now rose in his stirrups, waved his hat in the air
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page193">[pg 193]</span><a name="Pg193" id="Pg193" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and shouted, in clear though broken English, <span class="tei tei-q">“Well, gentlemen,
+you have arrived at last!”</span> To hear our mother
+tongue so unexpectedly spoken in this out-of-the-way part
+of the world, was startling. This strange individual, although
+clad in the regular mandarin garb, was light-complexioned,
+and had an auburn instead of a black queue
+dangling from his shaven head. He grasped us warmly
+by the hand as we came dripping out of the water, while
+all the time his benevolent countenance fairly beamed
+with joy. <span class="tei tei-q">“I am glad to see you, gentlemen,”</span> he said.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“I was afraid you would be taken sick on the road ever
+since I heard you had started across China. I just got
+the news five minutes ago that you were at Kiayu-kuan,
+and immediately came out with these two horses to bring
+you across the river, which I feared would be too deep
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page194">[pg 194]</span><a name="Pg194" id="Pg194" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>and swift for you. Mount your ponies, and we will ride
+into the city together.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill111" id="ill111"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i207.jpg" alt="RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU." title="RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was some time before the idea flashed across our
+minds that this might indeed be the mysterious Ling Darin
+about whom we had heard so much. <span class="tei tei-q">“Yes,”</span> said he,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“that is what I am called here, but my real name is Splingard.”</span>
+He then went on to tell us that he was a Belgian
+by birth; that he had traveled extensively through China,
+as the companion of Baron Richthofen, and had thus become
+so thoroughly acquainted with the country and its
+people that on his return to the coast he had been offered
+by the Chinese government the position of custom mandarin
+at Su-chou, a position just then established for the
+levying of duty on the Russian goods passing in through
+the northwest provinces; that he had adopted the Chinese
+dress and mode of living, and had even married, many
+years ago, a Chinese girl educated at the Catholic schools
+in Tientsin. We were so absorbed in this romantic history
+that we scarcely noticed the crowds that lined the
+streets leading to the Ling Darin’s palace, until the boom
+of a cannon recalled us to our situation. From the smile
+on the jolly face beside us, we knew at once whom we
+could hold responsible for this reception. The palace
+gates were now thrown open by a host of servants, and in
+our rags and tatters we rolled at once from the hardships
+of the inhospitable desert into the lap of luxury.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A surplus is not always so easily disposed of as a deficit—at
+least we were inclined to think so in the case of our
+Su-chou diet. The Ling Darin’s table, which, for the exceptional
+occasion, was set in the foreign fashion with
+knives and forks, fairly teemed with abundance and variety.
+There was even butter, made from the milk of the
+Tibetan yak, and condensed milk for our coffee, the first
+we had tasted since leaving Turkey, more than a year
+be<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page195">[pg 195]</span><a name="Pg195" id="Pg195" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>fore. The Ling Darin informed us that a can of this
+milk, which he once presented to Chinese friends, had been
+mistaken for a face cosmetic, and was so used by the ladies
+of the family. The lack of butter has led many of the
+missionaries in China to substitute lard, while the Chinese
+fry their fat cakes in various oils. The Ling Darin’s wife
+we found an excellent and even artistic cook, while his
+buxom twin daughters could read and write their own
+language—a rare accomplishment for a Chinese woman.
+Being unaccustomed to foreign manners, they would never
+eat at the same table with us, but would come in during
+the evening with their mother, to join the family circle
+and read aloud to us some of their father’s official despatches.
+This they would do with remarkable fluency
+and intelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+As guests of our highly respected and even venerated
+host, we were visited by nearly all the magistrates of the
+city. The Ling Darin was never before compelled to answer
+so many questions. In self-defense he was at last
+forced to get up a stereotyped speech to deliver on each
+social occasion. The people, too, besieged the palace gates,
+and clamored for an exhibition. Although our own clothes
+had been sent away to be boiled, we could not plead this
+as an excuse. The flowing Chinese garments which had
+been provided from the private wardrobe of the Ling Darin
+fluttered wildly in the breeze, as we rode out through
+the city at the appointed hour. Our Chinese shoes, also,
+were constantly slipping off, and as we raised the foot to
+readjust them, a shout went up from the crowd for what
+they thought was some fancy touch in the way of riding.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill112" id="ill112"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i210.jpg" alt="A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN." title="A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+From the barrenness of the Gobi to the rank vegetation
+of the Edzina valley, where the grass and grain were actually
+falling over from excessive weight, was a most relieving
+change. Water was everywhere. Even the roadway
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page196">[pg 196]</span><a name="Pg196" id="Pg196" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>served in many places as a temporary irrigating-canal.
+On the journey to Kan-chou we were sometimes compelled
+to ride on the narrow mud-wall fences that separated the
+flooded fields of wheat, millet, and sorghum, the prevailing
+cereals north of the Hoang-ho river. Fields of rice
+and the opium poppy were sometimes met with, but of the
+silk-worm and tea-plant, which furnish the great staples
+of the Chinese export trade, we saw absolutely nothing on
+our route through the northern provinces. Apart from
+the <span class="tei tei-q">“Yellow Lands”</span> of the Hoang-ho, which need no
+manure, the arable regions of China seem to have maintained
+their fecundity for over four thousand years, entirely
+through the thoughtful care of the peasantry in restoring
+to the soil, under another form, all that the crops
+have taken from it. The plowing of the Chinese is very
+poor. They scarcely do more than scratch the surface
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page197">[pg 197]</span><a name="Pg197" id="Pg197" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>of the ground with their bent-stick plows, wooden-tooth
+drills, and wicker-work harrows; and instead of straight
+lines, so dear to the eye of a Western farmer, the ridges
+and furrows are as crooked as serpents. The real secret
+of their success seems to lie in the care they take to replenish
+the soil. All the sewage of the towns is carried
+out every morning at daybreak by special coolies, to be
+preserved for manure; while the dried herbs, straw, roots,
+and other vegetable refuse, are economized with the greatest
+care for fuel. The Chinese peasant offsets the rudeness
+of his implements with manual skill. He weeds the
+ground so carefully that there is scarcely a leaf above the
+ground that does not appertain to the crop. All kinds of
+pumps and hydraulic wheels are worked, either by the
+hand, animals, or the wind. The system of tillage, therefore,
+resembles market-gardening rather than the broad
+method of cultivation common in Europe and America.
+The land is too valuable to be devoted to pasture, and the
+forests nearly everywhere have been sacrificed to tillage
+to such an extent that the material for the enormously
+thick native coffins has now to be imported from abroad.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Streams and irrigating-ditches were so frequent that
+we were continually saturated with water or covered with
+mud. Our bare arms and legs were so tanned and coated
+that we were once asked by a group of squalid villagers
+if <span class="tei tei-q">“foreigners”</span> ever bathed like themselves. On dashing
+down into a village, we would produce consternation or
+fright, especially among the women and children, but after
+the first onset, giggling would generally follow, for our
+appearance, especially from the rear, seemed to strike them
+as extremely ridiculous. The wheel itself presented various
+aspects to their ignorant fancies. It was called the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“flying machine”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“foot-going carriage,”</span> while some
+even took it for the <span class="tei tei-q">“fire-wheel cart,”</span> or locomotive, about
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page198">[pg 198]</span><a name="Pg198" id="Pg198" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>which they had heard only the vaguest rumors. Their
+ignorance of its source of motive power often prompted
+them to name it the <span class="tei tei-q">“self-moving cart,”</span> just as the natives
+of Shanghai are wont to call the electric-light <span class="tei tei-q">“the self-coming
+moon.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In one out-of-the-way village of northwestern China, we
+were evidently taken for some species of centaurs; the
+people came up to examine us while on the wheel to see
+whether or no rider and wheel were one. We became so
+harassed with importunities to ride that we were compelled
+at last to seek relief in subterfuge, for an absolute
+refusal, we found, was of no avail. We would promise
+to ride for a certain sum of money, thinking thus to
+throw the burden of refusal on themselves. But, nothing
+daunted, they would pass round the hat. On several occasions,
+when told that eggs could not be bought in the
+community, an offer of an exhibition would bring them
+out by the dozen. In the same way we received presents
+of tea, and by this means our cash expenses were considerably
+curtailed. The interest in the <span class="tei tei-q">“foreign horses”</span>
+was sometimes so great as to stop business and even amusements.
+A rather notable incident of this kind occurred
+on one of the Chinese holidays. The flag-decked streets,
+as we rode through, were filled with the neighboring peasantry,
+attracted by some traveling theatrical troupe engaged
+for the occasion. In fact, a performance was just
+then in progress at the open-air theater close at hand.
+Before we were aware of it we had rolled into its crowded
+auditorium. The women were sitting on improvised
+benches, fanning and gossiping, while the men stood about
+in listless groups. But suddenly their attention was
+aroused by the counter attraction, and a general rush followed,
+to the great detriment of the temporary peddlers’ stands
+erected for the occasion. Although entirely
+de<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page199">[pg 199]</span><a name="Pg199" id="Pg199" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>serted, and no doubt consumed with curiosity, the actors
+could not lose what the Chinese call <span class="tei tei-q">“face.”</span> They still
+continued their hideous noises, pantomimes, and dialogues
+to the empty seats.
+</p>
+<a name="ill113" id="ill113"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i213.jpg" alt="A CHINAMAN'S WHEELBARROW." title="A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The last fifty miles into Liang-chou, a city founded by
+a Catholic Chinaman over two hundred years ago, we
+were compelled to make on foot, owing to an accident
+that caused us serious trouble all through the remainder
+of our Chinese journey. In a rapid descent by a narrow
+pathway, the pedal of one of the machines struck upon a
+protuberance, concealed by a tuft of grass, snapping off
+the axle, and scattering the ball-bearings over the ground.
+For some miles we pushed along on the bare axle inverted
+in the pedal-crank. But the wrenching the machine thus
+received soon began to tell. With a sudden jolt on a
+steep descent, it collapsed entirely, and precipitated the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page200">[pg 200]</span><a name="Pg200" id="Pg200" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>rider over the handle-bars. The lower part of the frame
+had broken short off, where it was previously cracked,
+and had bent the top bar almost double in the fall. In
+this sad plight, we were rejoiced to find in the <span class="tei tei-q">“City
+under the Shade”</span> the Scotch missionary, Mr. Laughton,
+who had founded here the most remote of the China Inland
+Missions. But even with his assistance, and that of
+the best native mechanic, our repairs were ineffective.
+At several points along the route we were delayed on this
+account. At last the front and rear parts of the machine
+became entirely separated. There was no such thing as
+steel to be found in the country, no tools fit to work with,
+and no one who knew the first principles of soldering.
+After endeavoring to convince the native blacksmiths that
+a delicate bicycle would not stand pounding like a Chinese
+cart-wheel, we took the matter into our own hands. An
+iron bar was placed in the hollow tubing to hold it in
+shape, and a band of telegraph wire passed round from
+front to rear, along the upper and lower rods, and then
+twisted so as to bring the two parts as tightly together as
+possible. With a waddling frame, and patched rear-wheel
+describing eccentric revolutions, we must have presented
+a rather comical appearance over the remaining thousand
+miles to the coast.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill114" id="ill114"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i215.jpg" alt="MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE." title="MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Across the Yellow Hoang-ho, which is the largest river
+we encountered in Asia, a pontoon bridge leads into the
+city of Lan-chou-foo. Its strategical position at the point
+where the Hoang-ho makes its great bend to the north,
+and where the gateway of the West begins, as well as its
+picturesque location in one of the greatest fruit-bearing
+districts of China, makes it one of the most important
+cities of the empire. On the commanding heights across
+the river, we stopped to photograph the picturesque scene.
+As usual, the crowd swarmed in front of the camera to
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page201">[pg 201]</span><a name="Pg201" id="Pg201" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>gaze into the mysterious lens. All the missionaries we
+had met cautioned us against taking photographs in
+China, lest we should do violence to the many popular
+superstitions, but the only trouble we ever experienced in
+this respect was in arousing popular curiosity. We soon
+learned that in order to get something besides Chinese
+heads in our pictures it was necessary first to point the
+camera in the opposite direction, and then wheel suddenly
+round to the scene we wished to take. As we crossed the
+river, the bridge of boats so creaked and swayed beneath
+the rushing rabble, that we were glad to stand once more
+upon the terra firma of the city streets, which were here
+paved with granite and marble blocks. As we rode down
+the principal thoroughfare, amid the usual din and uproar,
+a well-dressed Chinaman rushed out from one of the stores
+and grabbed us by the arm. <span class="tei tei-q">“Do you speak English?”</span>
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page202">[pg 202]</span><a name="Pg202" id="Pg202" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>he shouted, with an accent so like an American, that we
+leaped from our wheels at once, and grasped his hand as
+that of a fellow countryman. This, in fact, he proved to
+be in everything but birth. He was one of that party of
+mandarins’ sons which had been sent over to our country
+some years ago, as an experiment by the Chinese government,
+to receive a thorough American training. We cannot
+here give the history of that experiment, as Mr. Woo
+related it—how they were subsequently accused of cutting
+off their queues and becoming denationalized; how,
+in consequence, they were recalled to their native land,
+and degraded rather than elevated, both by the people
+and the government, because they were foreign in their
+sentiments and habits; and how, at last, they gradually
+began to force recognition through the power of merit
+alone. He had now been sent out by the government to
+engineer the extension of the telegraph-line from Su-chou
+to Urumtsi, for it was feared by the government that the
+employment of a foreigner in this capacity would only
+increase the power for evil which the natives already attributed
+to this foreign innovation. The similarity in the
+phrases, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">telegraph pole</span></span> and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dry heaven</span></span>, had inspired the
+common belief that the line of poles then stretching
+across the country was responsible for the long-existing
+drought. In one night several miles of poles were sawed
+short off, by the secret order of a banded conspiracy.
+After several decapitations, the poles were now being
+restored, and labeled with the words, <span class="tei tei-q">“Put up by order
+of the Emperor.”</span>
+</p>
+  <a name="ill115" id="ill115"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i217.jpg" alt="TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO." title="TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In company with the English missionary, Mr. Redfern,
+while attempting to get out of the city on the way to his
+mountain home, we were caught in another jam. He
+counseled us to conceal the weapons we were carrying in
+our belts, for fear the sight of them should incite the mob
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page203">[pg 203]</span><a name="Pg203" id="Pg203" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to some act of violence. Our own experience, however,
+had taught us that a revolver in China was worth nothing if
+not shown. For persistence, this mob surpassed any we had
+ever seen. They followed us out of the city and over the
+three miles’ stretch to the mission premises, and there announced
+their intention of remaining indefinitely. Again
+Mr. Redfern feared some outbreak, and counseled us to return
+to the city and apply to the viceroy himself for protection.
+This proved a good move. A special exhibition on the
+palace parade-grounds gained for us the valuable favor of
+one who was only fourth in rank to the emperor himself.
+A body-guard of soldiers was furnished, not only during
+our sojourn in the city, but for the journey to Singan-foo,
+on which a good reception was everywhere insured by an
+official despatch sent in advance. In order to secure for
+us future respect, a small flag with the government stamp
+and of yellow color was given us to fly by the side of our
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page204">[pg 204]</span><a name="Pg204" id="Pg204" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span class="tei tei-q">“stars and stripes.”</span> On this was inscribed the title of
+<span class="tei tei-q">“The Traveling Students,”</span> as well as answers to the more
+frequent of the common questions—our nationality, destination,
+and age. The best mechanic in the local cannon-foundry
+was then ordered to make, at government expense,
+whatever repairs were possible on our disabled machines.
+This, however, as it proved, was not much; most of his
+time was spent in taking measurements and patterns for
+another purpose. If his intentions have been carried out,
+Lan-chou-foo is to-day possessed of a <span class="tei tei-q">“foot-moving carriage”</span>
+of home production.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our sojourn in this city is especially associated with
+the three names of Woo, Choo, and Moo—names by no
+means uncommon in Chinese nomenclature. We heard of
+a boy named the abstract numeral, <span class="tei tei-q">“sixty-five,”</span> because
+his grandfather happened to reach that age on the very
+day of his birth. Mr. Moo was the local telegraph operator,
+with whom we, and our friends Woo and Choo, of
+Shanghai, associated. All operators in the Chinese telegraph
+system are required to read and write English.
+The school established for this purpose at Lan-chou we
+occasionally visited, and assisted the Chinese schoolmaster
+to hear the recitations from Routledge’s spelling-book.
+He, in turn, was a frequent partaker of our <span class="tei tei-q">“foreign
+chows,”</span> which our English-speaking friends served with
+knives and forks borrowed from the missionaries. Lily
+and bamboo roots, sharks’ fins and swallows’ nests, and
+many other Chinese delicacies, were now served in abundance,
+and with the ever-accompanying bowl of rice. In
+the matter of eating and drinking, Chinese formality is
+extreme. A round table is the only one that can be used
+in an aristocratic household. The seat of honor is always
+the one next to the wall. Not a mouthful can be taken
+until the host raises his chop-sticks in the air, and gives
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page205">[pg 205]</span><a name="Pg205" id="Pg205" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>the signal. Silence then prevails; for Confucius says:
+<span class="tei tei-q">“When a man eats he has no time for talk.”</span> When a
+cup of tea is served to any one in a social party, he must
+offer it to every one in the room, no matter how many
+there are, before proceeding to drink himself. The real
+basis of Chinese politeness seems to be this: They must
+be polite enough to offer, and you must be polite enough
+to refuse. Our ignorance of this great underlying principle
+during the early part of the Chinese journey led us
+into errors both many and grievous. In order to show a
+desire to be sociable, we accepted almost everything that
+was offered us, to the great chagrin, we fear, of the
+courteous donors.
+</p>
+<a name="ill116" id="ill116"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i219.jpg" alt="MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO." title="MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.</span></div></div>
+
+    <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page206">[pg 206]</span><a name="Pg206" id="Pg206" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+  <a name="ill117" id="ill117"></a>
+  
+      
+      
+          <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i220.jpg" alt="LI-HUNG-CHANG." title="LI-HUNG-CHANG. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+      </span><br /><span style="font-size: 90%">
+      FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.</span></div></div>
+      
+  
+</div><hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+  
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page207">[pg 207]</span><a name="Pg207" id="Pg207" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+<a name="toc118" id="toc118"></a><a name="pdf119" id="pdf119"></a>
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">VI</span></h2>
+
+<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA</span></h2>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our departure from Lan-chou was not, we thought,
+regretted by the officials themselves, for we heard
+that apprehension was expressed lest the crowds continuing
+to collect around the telegraph-office should indulge
+in a riot. However, we were loath to leave our genial
+friends for the society of opium-smokers, for we were now
+in that province of China which, next to Sechuen, is most
+addicted to this habit. From dusk till bed-time, the streets
+of the villages were almost deserted for the squalid opium
+dens. Even our soldier attendant, as soon as the wooden
+saddle was taken from his sore-backed government steed,
+would produce his portable lamp, and proceed to melt on
+his needle the wax-like contents of a small, black box.
+When of the proper consistency, the paste was rolled on
+a metal plate to point it for the aperture in the flute-shaped
+pipe. Half the night would be given to this process,
+and a considerable portion of the remaining half
+would be devoted to smoking small pinches of tobacco in
+the peculiar Chinese water-pipe. According to an official
+note, issued early in 1882, by Mr. Hart, Inspector-General
+of Chinese Customs, considerably less than one per cent.
+of the population is addicted to opium-smoking, while
+those who smoke it to excess are few. More to be feared
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page208">[pg 208]</span><a name="Pg208" id="Pg208" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>is the use of opium as a poison, especially among Chinese
+women. The government raises large sums from the import
+duty on opium, and tacitly connives at its cultivation
+in most of the provinces, where the traders and mandarins
+share between them the profits of this officially prohibited
+drug.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This part of the great historic highway on which we
+were now traveling, between the two bends of the Hoang-ho,
+was found more extensively patronized than heretofore.
+Besides the usual caravans of horses, donkeys, and
+two-wheeled vans, we occasionally met with a party of
+shaven-headed Tibetans traveling either as emissaries, or
+as traders in the famous Tibetan sheep-skins and furs, and
+the strongly-scented bags of the musk-deer. A funeral
+cortège was also a very frequent sight. Chinese custom
+requires that the remains of the dead be brought back
+to their native place, no matter how far they may have
+wandered during life, and as the carriage of a single body
+would often be expensive, they are generally interred in
+temporary cemeteries or mortuary villages, until a sufficient
+number can be got together to form a large convoy.
+Mandarins, however, in death as in life, travel alone and
+with retinue. One coffin we met which rested upon poles
+supported on the shoulders of thirty-two men. Above on
+the coffin was perched the usual white rooster, which is
+supposed to incorporate, during transportation, the spirit
+of the departed. In funeral ceremonies, especially of the
+father, custom also requires the children to give public
+expression to their grief. Besides many other filial observances,
+the eldest son is in duty bound to render the
+journey easy for the departed by scattering fictitious paper-money,
+as spirit toll, at the various roadside temples.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill120" id="ill120"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i223.jpg" alt="OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO." title="OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.</span></div></div>
+
+  <a name="ill121" id="ill121"></a>
+
+  <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i224.jpg" alt="MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO." title="MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Singan-foo, the capital of the Middle Kingdom, under
+the Tsin dynasty, and a city of the first importance more
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page210">[pg 210]</span><a name="Pg210" id="Pg210" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>than two thousand years ago, is still one of the largest
+places in the empire, being exceeded in population probably
+by Canton alone. Each of its four walls, facing the
+cardinal points, is over six miles long and is pierced in
+the center by a monumental gate with lofty pavilions. It
+was here, among the ruins of an old Nestorian church,
+built several centuries before, that was found the famous
+tablet now sought at a high price by the British Museum.
+The harassing mobs gathered from its teeming population,
+as well as the lateness of the season, prompted us to make
+our sojourn as short as possible. Only a day sufficed to
+reach Tong-quan, which is the central stronghold of the
+Hoang-ho basin, and one of the best defended points in
+China. Here, between precipitous cliffs, this giant stream
+rushes madly by, as if in protest against its sudden
+deflec<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page211">[pg 211]</span><a name="Pg211" id="Pg211" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tion. Our ferry this time was not the back of a Chinese
+coolie nor a jolting ox-cart, but a spacious flat-boat made
+to accommodate one or two vehicles at a time. This was
+rowed at the stern, like the gondolas of Venice. The mob
+of hundreds that had been dogging our foot-steps and
+making life miserable, during our brief stop for food,
+watched our embarkation. We reached the opposite
+shore, a mile below the starting-point, and began to ascend
+from the river-basin to the highlands by an excavated
+fissure in the famous <span class="tei tei-q">“yellow earth.”</span> This gives
+its name, not only to the river it discolors, but, from the
+extensive region comprised, even to the emperor himself,
+who takes the title of <span class="tei tei-q">“Yellow Lord,”</span> as equivalent to
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Master of the World.”</span> The thickness of this the richest
+soil in China, which according to Baron Richthofen is
+nothing more than so much dust accumulated during the
+course of ages by the winds from the northern deserts, is
+in some places at least two thousand feet. Much ingenuity
+has been displayed in overcoming the difficulties offered
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page212">[pg 212]</span><a name="Pg212" id="Pg212" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>to free communication by the perpendicular walls of these
+yellow lands. Some of the most frequented roads have
+been excavated to depths of from forty to one hundred
+feet. Being seldom more than eight or ten feet wide, the
+wheeled traffic is conducted by means of sidings, like the
+<span class="tei tei-q">“stations”</span> in the Suez Canal. Being undrained or unswept
+by the winds, these walled-up tracks are either dust-beds
+or quagmires, according to the season; for us, the
+autumn rains had converted them into the latter. Although
+on one of the imperial highways which once excited
+the admiration of Marco Polo, we were now treated
+to some of the worst stretches we have ever seen. The
+mountain ascents, especially those stair-like approaches to
+the <span class="tei tei-q">“Heavenly Gates”</span> before reaching the Pe-chili plains,
+were steep, gradeless inclines, strewn with huge upturned
+blocks of stone, over which the heavy carts were fairly
+lifted by the sheer force of additional horse-flesh. The
+bridges, too, whose Roman-like masonry attests the high
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page213">[pg 213]</span><a name="Pg213" id="Pg213" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>degree of Chinese civilization during the middle ages,
+have long since been abandoned to the ravages of time;
+while over the whole country the late Dungan rebellion
+has left its countless ruins.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill122" id="ill122"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i225.jpg" alt="ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE." title="ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.</span></div></div>
+
+  <a name="ill123" id="ill123"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i226.jpg" alt="MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN." title="MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The people of Shan-si province are noted for their special
+thrift, but this quality we observed was sometimes
+exhibited at the expense of the higher virtue of honesty.
+One of the most serious of the many cases of attempted
+extortion occurred at a remote country town, where we
+arrived late one evening, after learning to our dismay that
+one of our remarkably few mistakes in the road had
+brought us just fifty miles out of the way. Unusually
+wearied as we were by the cross-country cuts, we desired
+to retire early. In fact, on this account, we were not so
+observant of Chinese formality as we might have been.
+We did not heed the hinted requests of the visiting officials
+for a moon-light exhibition, nor go to the inn-door
+to bow them respectfully out. We were glad to take them
+at their word when they said, with the usual hypocritical
+smirk, <span class="tei tei-q">“Now, don’t come out any farther.”</span> This indiscretion
+on our part caused them, as well as ourselves, to
+suffer in the respect of the assembled rabble. With official
+connivance, the latter were now free, they thought, to
+take unusual liberties. So far, in our dealings with the
+Chinese, we had never objected to anything that was reasonable
+even from the native point of view. We had long
+since learned the force of the Chinese proverb that, <span class="tei tei-q">“in
+order to avoid suspicion you must not live behind closed
+doors”</span>; and in consequence had always recognized the
+common prerogative to ransack our private quarters and
+our luggage, so long as nothing was seriously disturbed.
+We never objected, either, to their wetting our paper windows
+with their tongues, so that they might noiselessly
+slit a hole in them with their exceptionally long finger
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page214">[pg 214]</span><a name="Pg214" id="Pg214" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>nails, although we did wake up some mornings to find the
+panes entirely gone. It was only at the request of the
+innkeeper that we sometimes undertook the job of cleaning
+out the inn-yard; but this, with the prevalent superstition
+about the <span class="tei tei-q">“withering touch of the foreigner,”</span> was
+very easily accomplished. Nor had we ever shown the
+slightest resentment at being called <span class="tei tei-q">“foreign devils”</span>; for
+this, we learned, was, with the younger generation at least,
+the only title by which foreigners were known. But on
+this particular night, our forbearance being quite exhausted,
+we ejected the intruders bodily. Mid mutterings
+and threats we turned out the lights, and the crowd as
+well as ourselves retired. The next morning the usual
+exorbitant bill was presented by the innkeeper, and, as
+usual, one half or one third was offered and finally accepted,
+with the customary protestations about being
+under-paid. The innkeeper’s grumblings incited the
+crowd which early assembled, and from their whispers
+and glances we could see that trouble of some kind was
+brewing. We now hastened to get the wheels into the
+road. Just then the innkeeper, at the instigation of the
+crowd, rushed out and grabbed the handle-bars, demanding
+at the same time a sum that was even in advance of
+his original price. Extortion was now self-evident, and,
+remonstrance being of no avail, we were obliged to protect
+ourselves with our fists. The crowd began to close
+in upon us, until, with our backs against the adjoining
+wall, we drew our weapons, at which the onward movement
+changed suddenly to a retreat. Then we assumed
+the aggressive, and regained the wheels which had been
+left in the middle of the road. The innkeeper and his
+friend now caught hold of the rear wheels. Only by seizing
+their queues could we drag them away at all, but even
+then before we could mount they would renew their grasp.
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page215">[pg 215]</span><a name="Pg215" id="Pg215" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>It was only after another direct attack upon them that
+we were able to mount, and dash away.
+</p>
+<a name="ill124" id="ill124"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i229.jpg" alt="MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN." title="MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+A week’s journeying after this unpleasant episode
+brought us among the peanuts, pigs, and pig-tails of the
+famous Pe-chili plains. Vast fields of peanuts were now
+being plowed, ready to be passed through a huge coarse
+sieve to separate the nuts from the sandy loam. Sweet
+potatoes, too, were plentiful. These, as well as rice balls,
+boiled with a peculiar dry date in a triangular corn-leaf
+wrapper, we purchased every morning at daybreak from
+the pots of the early street-venders, and then proceeded
+to the local bake-shops, where the rattling of the rolling-pins
+prophesied of stringy fat cakes cooked in boiling linseed
+oil, and heavy dough biscuits cleaving to the urn-like
+oven.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was well that we were now approaching the end of
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page216">[pg 216]</span><a name="Pg216" id="Pg216" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>our journey, for our wheels and clothing were nearly in
+pieces. Our bare calves were pinched by the frost, for
+on some of the coldest mornings we would find a quarter
+of an inch of ice. Our rest at night was broken for the
+want of sufficient covering. The straw-heated <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">kangs</span></span> would
+soon cool off, and leave us half the night with only our
+thin sleeping-bags to ward off rheumatism.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+But over the beaten paths made by countless wheelbarrows
+we were now fast nearing the end. It was on the
+evening of November 3, that the giant walls of the great
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Residence,”</span> as the people call their imperial capital, broke
+suddenly into view through a vista in the surrounding
+foliage. The goal of our three-thousand-one-hundred-and-sixteen-mile
+journey was now before us, and the work of
+the seventy-first riding day almost ended. With the dusk
+of evening we entered the western gate of the <span class="tei tei-q">“Manchu
+City,”</span> and began to thread its crowded thoroughfares.
+By the time we reached Legation street or, as the natives
+egotistically call it, <span class="tei tei-q">“The Street of the Foreign Dependencies,”</span>
+night had veiled our haggard features and ragged
+garments. In a dimly lighted courtyard we came face to
+face with the English proprietor of the Hotel de Peking.
+At our request for lodging, he said, <span class="tei tei-q">“Pardon me, but may
+I first ask who you are and where you come from?”</span> Our
+unprepossessing appearance was no doubt a sufficient
+excuse for this precaution. But just then his features
+changed, and he greeted us effusively. Explanations were
+now superfluous. The <span class="tei tei-q">“North China Herald”</span> correspondent
+at Pao-ting-foo had already published our story to the
+coast.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+That evening the son of the United States minister
+visited us, and offered a selection from his own wardrobe
+until a Chinese tailor could renew our clothing. With
+borrowed plumes we were able to accept invitations from
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page217">[pg 217]</span><a name="Pg217" id="Pg217" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>foreign and Chinese officials. Polite cross-examinations
+were not infrequent, and we fear that entire faith in our
+alleged journey was not general until, by riding through
+the dust and mud of Legation street, we proved that Chinese
+roads were not altogether impracticable for bicycle
+traveling.
+</p>
+<a name="ill125" id="ill125"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i231.jpg" alt="ON THE PEI-HO." title="ON THE PEI-HO." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">ON THE PEI-HO.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The autumn rains had so flooded the low-lying country
+between the capital and its seaport, Tientsin, that we were
+obliged to abandon the idea of continuing to the coast on
+the wheels, which by this time were in no condition to
+stand unusual strain. On the other hand the house-boat
+journey of thirty-six hours down the Pei-ho river was a
+rather pleasant diversion.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our first evening on the river was made memorable by
+an unusual event. Suddenly the rattling of tin pans, the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page218">[pg 218]</span><a name="Pg218" id="Pg218" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>tooting of horns, and the shouting of men, women, and
+children, aroused us to the realization that something extraordinary
+was occurring. Then we noticed that the full
+moon in a cloudless sky had already passed the half-way
+mark in a total eclipse. Our boatmen now joined in the
+general uproar, which reached its height when the moon
+was entirely obscured. In explanation we were told that
+the <span class="tei tei-q">“Great Dragon”</span> was endeavoring to swallow up the
+moon, and that the loudest possible noise must be made
+to frighten him away. Shouts hailed the reappearance
+of the moon. Although our boatmen had a smattering
+of pidjin, or business, English, we were unable to get a
+very clear idea of Chinese astronomy. In journeying
+across the empire we found sufficient analogy in the various
+provincial dialects to enable us to acquire a smattering
+of one from another as we proceeded, but we were
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page219">[pg 219]</span><a name="Pg219" id="Pg219" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>now unable to see any similarity whatever between <span class="tei tei-q">“You
+makee walkee look see,”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“You go and see,”</span> or between
+<span class="tei tei-q">“That belong number one pidjin,”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“That is a first-class
+business.”</span> This jargon has become a distinct dialect
+on the Chinese coast.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill126" id="ill126"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i232.jpg" alt="A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO." title="A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+On our arrival in Tientsin we called upon the United
+States Consul, Colonel Bowman, to whom we had brought
+several letters from friends in Peking. During a supper
+at his hospitable home, he suggested that the viceroy
+might be pleased to receive us, and that if we had no
+objection, he would send a communication to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yamen</span></span>,
+or official residence. Colonel Bowman’s secretary, Mr. Tenney,
+who had been some time the instructor of the viceroy’s
+sons, and who was on rather intimate terms with the
+viceroy himself, kindly offered to act as interpreter. A
+favorable answer was received the next morning, and the
+time for our visit fixed for the afternoon of the day following.
+But two hours before the appointed time a message
+was received from the viceroy, stating that he was
+about to receive an unexpected official visit from the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">phantai</span></span>,
+or treasurer, of the Pe-chili province (over which Li-Hung-Chang
+himself is viceroy), and asking for a postponement
+of our visit to the following morning at 11
+o’clock. Even before we had finished reading this unexpected
+message, the booming of cannon along the Pei-ho
+river announced the arrival of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">phantai’s</span></span> boats before
+the city. The postponement of our engagement at this
+late hour threatened to prove rather awkward, inasmuch
+as we had already purchased our steamship tickets for
+Shanghai, to sail on the <span class="tei tei-name"><span style="font-style: italic">Fei-ching</span></span> at five o’clock the next
+morning. But through the kindness of the steamship
+company it was arranged that we should take a tug-boat
+at Tong-ku, on the line of the Kai-ping railroad, and overtake
+the steamer outside the Taku bar. This we could
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page220">[pg 220]</span><a name="Pg220" id="Pg220" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>do by taking the train at Tientsin, even as late as seven
+hours after the departure of the steamer. Steam navigation
+in the Pei-ho river, over the forty or fifty miles’
+stretch from Tientsin to the gulf, is rendered very slow
+by the sharp turns in the narrow stream—the adjoining
+banks being frequently struck and plowed away by the
+bow or stern of the large ocean steamers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+When we entered the consulate the next morning, we
+found three palanquins and a dozen coolies in waiting to
+convey our party to the viceroy’s residence. Under other
+circumstances we would have patronized our <span class="tei tei-q">“steeds of
+steel,”</span> but a visit to the <span class="tei tei-q">“biggest”</span> man in China had to
+be conducted in state. We were even in some doubt as
+to the propriety of appearing before his excellency in
+bicycle costume; but we determined to plead our inability
+to carry luggage as an excuse for this breach of etiquette.
+</p>
+<a name="ill127" id="ill127"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i234.jpg" alt="SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU." title="SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The first peculiarity the Chinese notice in a foreigner
+is his dress. It is a requisite with them that the clothes
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page221">[pg 221]</span><a name="Pg221" id="Pg221" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>must be loose, and so draped as to conceal the contour of
+the body. The short sack-coat and tight trousers of the
+foreigner are looked upon as certainly inelegant, if not
+actually indecent.
+</p>
+<a name="ill128" id="ill128"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i235.jpg" alt="WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER." title="WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+It was not long before we were out of the foreign settlement,
+and wending our way through the narrow, winding
+streets, or lanes, of the densely populated Chinese city.
+The palanquins we met were always occupied by some
+high dignitary or official, who went sweeping by with his
+usual vanguard of servants, and his usual frown of excessive
+dignity. The fact that we, plain <span class="tei tei-q">“foreign devils,”</span>
+were using this mode of locomotion, made us the objects
+of considerable curiosity from the loiterers and passers-by,
+and in fact had this not been the case, we should have
+felt rather uncomfortable. The unsympathetic observation
+of mobs, and the hideous Chinese noises, had become
+features of our daily life.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page222">[pg 222]</span><a name="Pg222" id="Pg222" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yamen</span></span> courtyard, as we entered, was filled with
+empty palanquins and coolie servants waiting for the
+different mandarins who had come on official visits. The
+<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yamen</span></span> itself consisted of low one-story structures, built in
+the usual Chinese style, of wood and adobe brick, in a
+quadrangular form around an inner courtyard. The common
+Chinese paper which serves for window-glass had
+long since vanished from the ravages of time, and the
+finger-punches of vandals. Even here, at the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yamen</span></span> of
+the prime minister of China, dirt and dilapidation were
+evident on every hand. The anteroom into which we
+were ushered was in keeping with its exterior. The paper
+that covered the low walls and squatty ceiling, as well as
+the calico covering on the divans, was soiled and torn.
+The room itself was filled with mandarins from various
+parts of the country, waiting for an audience with his excellency.
+Each wore the official robe and dish-pan hat,
+with its particular button or insignia of rank. Each had
+a portly, well-fed appearance, with a pompous, dignified
+mien overspreading his features. The servant by whom
+we had sent in our Chinese visiting-cards returned and
+asked us to follow him. Passing through several rooms,
+and then along a narrow, darkened hallway, we emerged
+into an inner courtyard. Here there were several servants
+standing like sentinels in waiting for orders; others
+were hurrying hither and thither with different messages
+intrusted to their care. This was all there was to give to
+the place the air of busy headquarters. On one side of
+the courtyard the doors of the <span class="tei tei-q">“foreign reception”</span> room
+opened. Through these we were ushered by the liveried
+servant, who bore a message from the viceroy, asking us
+to wait a few moments until he should finish some important
+business.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The foreign reception-room in which we were now
+sit<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page223">[pg 223]</span><a name="Pg223" id="Pg223" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ting was the only one in any official residence in the empire,
+and this single instance of compliance with foreign
+customs was significant as bearing upon the attitude toward
+Western ideas of the man who stands at the head of
+the Chinese government. Everything about us was foreign
+except a Chinese divan in one corner of the room.
+In the middle of the floor stood a circular sofa of the
+latest pattern, with chairs and settees to match, and at
+one end a foreign stove, in which a fire had been recently
+lighted for our coming. Against the wall were placed a
+full-length mirror, several brackets, and some fancy work.
+The most interesting of the ornaments in the room were
+portraits of Li-Hung-Chang himself, Krupp the gun-maker,
+Armstrong the ship-builder, and the immortal <span class="tei tei-q">“Chinese
+Gordon,”</span> the only foreigner, it is said, who has ever won
+a spark of admiration from the Chinese people.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+While we were waiting for the viceroy, his second son,
+the pupil of Mr. Tenney, came in and was introduced in
+the foreign fashion. His English was fluent and correct.
+He was a bright, intelligent lad of nineteen years, then
+about to take his first trial examinations for the Chinese
+degree of scholarship, which, if attained, would make him
+eligible for official position. Although a son of the viceroy
+he will have to rise by his own merit.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Our conversation with the viceroy’s son extended over
+ten or fifteen minutes. He asked many questions about
+the details of our journey. <span class="tei tei-q">“How,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“could you
+get along without interpreter, guide, or servant, when
+every foreigner who goes even from here to Peking has
+to have them?”</span> He questioned us as to whether or not
+the Chinese had ever called us names. We replied that
+we usually traveled in China under the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">nom de Chinois</span></span>,
+    <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yang queedza</span></span> (the foreign devils), alias <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yeh renn</span></span> (the wild
+men). A blush overspread his cheeks as he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I must
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page224">[pg 224]</span><a name="Pg224" id="Pg224" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>apologize for my countrymen; I hope you will excuse
+them, for they know no better.”</span> The young man expressed
+deep interest in America and American institutions,
+and said if he could obtain his father’s consent he
+would certainly make a visit to our country. This was
+the only son then at home with the viceroy, his eldest son
+being minister to Japan. The youngest, the viceroy’s favorite,
+was, it was said, the brightest and most promising.
+His death occurred only a few months before our arrival
+in Tientsin.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We were holding an animated conversation when the
+viceroy himself was announced. We all stood to show
+our respect for the prime minister whom General Grant
+included among the three greatest statesmen of his day.
+The viceroy was preceded by two body-servants. We
+stood before a man who appeared to be over six feet in
+height, although his head and shoulders were considerably
+bent with age. His flowing dress was made of rich colored
+silk, but very plain indeed. Any ornamentation
+would have been a profanation of the natural dignity and
+stateliness of Li-Hung-Chang. With slow pace he walked
+into the room, stopped a moment to look at us, then advanced
+with outstretched hand, while a faint smile played
+about his features and softened the piercing glance of his
+eyes. He shook our hands heartily in the foreign fashion,
+and without any show of ceremony led the way into an
+adjoining room, where a long council-table extended over
+half the length. The viceroy took the arm-chair at the
+head, and motioned us to take the two seats on his left,
+while Mr. Tenney and the viceroy’s son sat on his right.
+For almost a minute not a word was said on either side.
+The viceroy had fixed his gaze intently upon us, and, like
+a good general perhaps, was taking a thorough survey of
+the field before he opened up the cannonade of questions
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page225">[pg 225]</span><a name="Pg225" id="Pg225" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>that was to follow. We in turn were just as busily engaged
+in taking a mental sketch of his most prominent
+physical characteristics. His face was distinctly oval,
+tapering from a very broad forehead to a sharp pointed
+chin, half-obscured by his thin, gray <span class="tei tei-q">“goatee.”</span> The crown
+of his head was shaven in the usual Tsing fashion, leaving
+a tuft of hair for a queue, which in the viceroy’s case
+was short and very thin. His dry, sallow skin showed
+signs of wrinkling; a thick fold lay under each eye, and
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page226">[pg 226]</span><a name="Pg226" id="Pg226" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>at each end of his upper lip. There were no prominent
+cheek-bones or almond-shaped eyes, which are so distinctively
+seen in most of the Mongolian race. Under the
+scraggy mustache we could distinguish a rather benevolent
+though determined mouth; while his small, keen eyes,
+which were somewhat sunken, gave forth a flash that was
+perhaps but a flickering ember of the fire they once contained.
+The left eye, which was partly closed by a paralytic
+stroke several years ago, gave him a rather artful,
+waggish appearance. The whole physiognomy was that
+of a man of strong intuition, with the ability to force his
+point when necessary, and the shrewd common sense to
+yield when desiring to be politic.
+</p>
+  <a name="ill129" id="ill129"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i239.jpg" alt="FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS." title="FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Well, gentlemen,”</span> he said at last, through Mr. Tenney
+as interpreter, <span class="tei tei-q">“you don’t look any the worse for your
+long journey.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“We are glad to hear your excellency say so,”</span> we replied;
+<span class="tei tei-q">“it is gratifying to know that our appearance
+speaks well for the treatment we have received in China.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We hope our readers will consider the requirements of
+Chinese etiquette as sufficient excuse for our failure to
+say candidly that, if we looked healthy, it was not the
+fault of his countrymen.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Of all the countries through which you have passed,
+which do you consider the best?”</span> the viceroy then asked.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In our answer to this question the reader would no
+doubt expect us to follow etiquette, and say that we
+thought China was the best; and, perhaps, the viceroy
+himself had a similar expectation. But between telling
+a positive lie, and not telling the truth, there is perhaps
+sufficient difference to shield us from the charge of gross
+inconsistency. We answered, therefore, that in many respects,
+we considered America the greatest country we had
+seen. We ought of course to have said that no reasonable
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page227">[pg 227]</span><a name="Pg227" id="Pg227" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>person in the world would ever think of putting any other
+country above the Celestial Empire; our bluntness elicited
+some surprise, for the viceroy said:
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“If then you thought that America was the best why
+did you come to see other countries?”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Because until we had seen other countries,”</span> we replied,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“we did not know that America was the best.”</span> But this
+answer the viceroy evidently considered a mere subterfuge.
+He was by no means satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“What was your real object in undertaking such a
+peculiar journey?”</span> he asked rather impatiently.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“To see and study the world and its peoples,”</span> we answered;
+<span class="tei tei-q">“to get a practical training as a finish to a theoretical
+education. The bicycle was adopted only because
+we considered it the most convenient means of accomplishing
+that purpose.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The viceroy, however, could not understand how a man
+should wish to use his own strength when he could travel
+on the physical force of some one else; nor why it was
+that we should adopt a course through central Asia and
+northwestern China when the southern route through
+India would have been far easier and less dangerous. He
+evidently gave it up as a conundrum, and started out on
+another line.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Do you consider the Shah of Persia a powerful monarch?”</span>
+was his next question.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Powerful, perhaps, in the Oriental sense,”</span> we replied,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“but very weak in comparison with the Western nations.
+Then, too, he seems to be losing the power that he does
+have—he is compelled to play more and more into the
+hands of the Russians.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Do you think that Russia will eventually try to take
+possession of Persia?”</span> the viceroy interrupted.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“That, of course, is problematical,”</span> we answered, with the
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page228">[pg 228]</span><a name="Pg228" id="Pg228" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>embarrassment men of our age might feel at being instigated
+to talk politics with a prime minister. <span class="tei tei-q">“What we
+do know, for certain, is that Russia is now, with her Transcaspian
+railroad, within about forty miles of Meshed, the
+capital of Persia’s richest province of Khorasan; that she
+now has a well-engineered and, for a great portion of the
+way, a macadamized road to that city across the Kopet
+Dagh mountains from Askabad, the capital of Russian
+Transcaspia; and that half that road the Persians were
+rather forcibly invited to construct.”</span>
+</p>
+<a name="ill130" id="ill130"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i242.jpg" alt="MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS." title="MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING
+    BUSINESS.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Do you think,”</span> again interrupted the viceroy, whose
+interest in the Russians now began to take a more domestic
+turn, <span class="tei tei-q">“that the Russians would like to have the Chinese
+province of Ili?”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+To this question we might very appropriately have said,
+<span class="tei tei-q">“No”</span>; for the reason that we thought Russia had it
+al<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page229">[pg 229]</span><a name="Pg229" id="Pg229" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>ready. She is only waiting to draw it in, when she feels
+certain that her Siberian flank is better protected. The
+completion of the Transsiberian railroad, by which troops
+can be readily transported to that portion of her dominion,
+may change Russia’s attitude toward the province of
+Ili. We did not, however, say this to his excellency. We
+merely replied that we believed Russia was seldom known
+to hold aloof from anything of value, which she thought
+she could get with impunity. As she was now sending
+cart-load after cart-load of goods over the border, through
+Ili, into northern and western China, without paying a
+cent of customs duty, while on the other hand not even a
+leaf of tea or thread of cotton passed over the Russian
+line from China without the payment of an exorbitant
+tariff; and as she had already established in Kuldja a
+postal, telegraph, and Cossack station, it would seem that
+she does not even now view the province of Ili as wholly
+foreign to the Russian empire.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At this the viceroy cleared his throat, and dropped his
+eyes in thoughtful mood, as much as to say: <span class="tei tei-q">“Ah, I know
+the Russians; but there is no help for it.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+At this point we ventured to ask the viceroy if it were
+true, as we had been informed, that Russia had arranged
+a treaty with China, by which she was entitled to establish
+consuls in several of the interior provinces of the Chinese
+empire, but he evaded the question with adroitness, and
+asked:
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Didn’t you find the roads very bad in China?”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+This question was creditable to the viceroy’s knowledge
+of his own country, but to this subject we brought the
+very best Chinese politeness we could muster. We said
+that inasmuch as China had not yet adopted the bicycle,
+her roads, of course, were not adapted to that mode of
+locomotion.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page230">[pg 230]</span><a name="Pg230" id="Pg230" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The viceroy then asked us to describe the bicycle, and
+inquired if such a vehicle did not create considerable consternation
+among the people.
+</p>
+<a name="ill131" id="ill131"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i244.jpg" alt="A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL." title="A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+We told him that the bicycle from a Chinese point of
+view was capable of various descriptions. On the passports
+given us by the Chinese minister in London the
+bicycle was called <span class="tei tei-q">“a seat-sitting, foot-moving machine.”</span>
+The natives in the interior had applied to it various epithets,
+among which were <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">yang ma</span></span> (foreign horse), <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">fei-chay</span></span>
+(flying-machine), <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">szüdzun chay</span></span> (self-moving cart), and
+others. The most graphic description, perhaps, was given
+by a Chinaman whom we overheard relating to his neighbors
+the first appearance of the bicycle in his quiet little village.
+<span class="tei tei-q">“It is a little mule,”</span> said he, <span class="tei tei-q">“that you drive by the
+ears, and kick in the sides to make him go.”</span> A dignified
+smile overspread the viceroy’s features.
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page231">[pg 231]</span><a name="Pg231" id="Pg231" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Didn’t the people try to steal your money?”</span> he next
+inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“No,”</span> we replied. <span class="tei tei-q">“From our impoverished appearance,
+they evidently thought we had nothing. Our wardrobe
+being necessarily limited by our mode of travel, we
+were sometimes reduced to the appearance of traveling
+mendicants, and were often the objects of pity or contempt.
+Either this, or our peculiar mode of travel, seemed
+to dispel all thought of highway robbery; we never lost
+even so much as a button on our journey of over three
+thousand miles across the Chinese empire.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Did the governors you met treat you well?”</span> he asked;
+and then immediately added: <span class="tei tei-q">“Being scholars, were you
+not subjected to some indignity by being urged to perform
+for every mandarin you met?”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“By nearly all the governors,”</span> we said, <span class="tei tei-q">“we were treated
+very kindly indeed; but we were not so certain that the
+same favors would have been extended to us had we
+not cheerfully consented to give exhibitions of bicycle
+riding.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There was now a lull in the conversation. The viceroy
+shifted his position in his chair, and took another whiff
+from the long, slender Chinese pipe held to his mouth by
+one of his body-servants. One whiff, and the pipe was
+taken away to be emptied and refilled. After a short respite
+he again resumed the conversation, but the questions
+he now asked were of a personal nature. We enumerate
+a few of them, without comment, only for the purpose of
+throwing some additional light on the character of our
+questioner.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“About how much did the trip cost you? Do you expect
+to get back all or more than you spent? Will you
+write a book?</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Did you find on your route any gold or silver deposits?</span>
+</p>
+
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page232">[pg 232]</span><a name="Pg232" id="Pg232" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Do you like the Chinese diet; and how much did one
+meal cost you?</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“How old are you? [One of the first questions a Chinese
+host usually asks his guest.] Are you married? What
+is the trade or profession of your parents? Are they
+wealthy? Do they own much land?”</span> (A Chinaman’s idea
+of wealth is limited somewhat by the amount of land
+owned.)</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Will you telegraph to your parents from Shanghai
+your safe arrival there?</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Were you not rash in attempting such a journey?
+Suppose you had been killed out in the interior of Asia,
+no one would ever have heard of you again.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Are you Democrats or Republicans?”</span> (The viceroy
+showed considerable knowledge of our government and
+institutions.)
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Will you run for any political office in America? Do
+you ever expect to get into Congress?</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+<span class="tei tei-q">“Do you have to buy offices in America?”</span> was the last
+inquiry.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+There was considerable hesitancy on the part of us both
+to answer this question. Finally we were obliged to
+admit that sometimes such was the case. <span class="tei tei-q">“Ah,”</span> said the
+viceroy, <span class="tei tei-q">“that is a very bad thing about American politics.”</span>
+But in this censure he was even more severe on
+his own country than America. Referring to ourselves
+in this connection, the viceroy ventured to predict that we
+might become so well-known as the result of our journey
+that we could get into office without paying for it. <span class="tei tei-q">“You
+are both young,”</span> he added, <span class="tei tei-q">“and can hope for anything.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+During the conversation the viceroy frequently smiled,
+and sometimes came so near overstepping the bounds of
+Chinese propriety as to chuckle. At first his reception
+was more formal, but his interest soon led him to dispense
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page233">[pg 233]</span><a name="Pg233" id="Pg233" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>with all formality, and before the close of the interview
+the questions were rapidly asked and discussed. We have
+had some experience with examining attorneys, and an
+extended acquaintance with the American reporter; but
+we are convinced that for genuine inquisitiveness Li-Hung-Chang
+stands peerless. We made several attempts
+to take leave, but were interrupted each time by a question
+from the viceroy. Mr. Tenney, in fact, became fatigued
+with the task of interpreting, so that many of the
+long answers were translated by the viceroy’s son.
+</p>
+<a name="ill132" id="ill132"></a>
+
+    <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p><div class="tei tei-figure" style="text-align: center"><img src="images/i247.jpg" alt="A CHINESE BRIDE." title="A CHINESE BRIDE." /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A CHINESE BRIDE.</span></div></div>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The interview was conducted as nearly as possible in
+the foreign fashion. We smoked cigarettes, and a bottle
+of champagne was served. Finally the interview was
+brought to a close by a health from the viceroy to <span class="tei tei-q">“Ta-mā-quo”</span>
+(the great American country).
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+In conclusion we thanked the viceroy for the honor he
+<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page234">[pg 234]</span><a name="Pg234" id="Pg234" class="tei tei-anchor"></a>had done us. He replied that we must not thank him at
+all; that he was only doing his duty. <span class="tei tei-q">“Scholars,”</span> said
+he, <span class="tei tei-q">“must receive scholars.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+The viceroy rose from his chair with difficulty; the servant
+took him by the elbows and half lifted him to his feet.
+He then walked slowly out of the room with us, and across
+the courtyard to the main exit. Here he shook us heartily
+by the hand, and bowed us out in the Chinese manner.
+</p>
+
+<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
+Li-Hung-Chang is virtually the emperor of the Celestial
+Empire; the present <span class="tei tei-q">“Son of Heaven”</span> (the young emperor)
+has only recently reached his majority. Li-Hung-Chang
+is China’s intellectual height, from whom emanate
+nearly all her progressive ideas. He stands to-day in the
+light of a mediator between foreign progressiveness and
+native prejudice and conservatism. It has been said that
+Li-Hung-Chang is really anti-foreign at heart; that he
+employs the Occidentals only long enough for them to
+teach his own countrymen how to get along without them.
+Whether this be so or not, it is certain that the viceroy
+recognizes the advantages to be derived from foreign
+methods and inventions, and employs them for the advancement
+of his country. Upon him rests the decision
+in nearly all the great questions of the empire. Scarcely
+an edict or document of any kind is issued that does not
+go over his signature or under his direct supervision. To
+busy himself with the smallest details is a distinctive
+characteristic of the man. Systematic methods, combined
+with an extraordinary mind, enable him to accomplish his
+herculean task. In the eastern horizon Li-Hung-Chang
+shines as the brilliant star of morning that tells of the
+coming of a brighter dawn.
+</p>
+    </div>
+        </div>
+        <div class="tei tei-back" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
+            <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+            
+                
+                
+                    <hr class="doublepage" /><div id="footnotes" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em">
+                        <a name="toc133" id="toc133"></a>
+                        <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Footnote</span></h1>
+                        <dl class="tei tei-list-footnotes"><dt class="tei tei-notelabel"><a id="note_1" name="note_1" href="#noteref_1">1.</a></dt><dd class="tei tei-notetext">Eight years before the first recorded ascent of Ararat by Dr. Parrot
+(1829), there appeared the following from <span class="tei tei-q">“Travels in Georgia,
+Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia,”</span> by Sir Robert Ker Porter,
+who, in his time, was an authority on southwestern Asia: <span class="tei tei-q">“These
+inaccessible heights [of Mount Ararat] have never been trod by the
+foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then; for my idea is that
+the Ark rested in the space between the two heads (Great and Little
+Ararat), and not on the top of either. Various attempts have been
+made in different ages to ascend these tremendous mountain pyramids,
+but in vain. Their forms, snows, and glaciers are insurmountable
+obstacles: the distance being so great from the commencement
+of the icy region to the highest points, cold alone would be the destruction
+of any one who had the hardihood to persevere.”</span></dd></dl>
+                    </div>
+                
+            
+            </div>
+            <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="boxed tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+                <a name="pdf134" id="pdf134"></a><a name="toc135" id="toc135"></a>
+                <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Transcriber’s Note</span></h1>
+              <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The list of illustrations has been added in the electronic text.</p>
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The illustrations have been placed between paragraphs
+                    in the electronic text. The page they are printed on in the original edition
+                    can be seen in the list of illustrations.</p>
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Pages only containing
+                    images have been left out in the pagination on the margin.</p>
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">The following typographical errors have been corrected:</p>
+            <table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr082" class="tei tei-ref">page 82</a>, period changed to comma (after <span class="tei tei-q">“was”</span>)</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><a href="#corr140" class="tei tei-ref">page 140</a>, <span class="tei tei-q">“Siberan”</span> changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“Siberian”</span></td></tr></tbody></table>
+                <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Inconsistent hyphenation (<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">e. g.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-q">“footsteps”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“foot-steps”</span>,
+                    <span class="tei tei-q">“innkeeper”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“inn-keeper”</span>,
+                    <span class="tei tei-q">“moonlight”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“moon-light”</span>,
+                    <span class="tei tei-q">“pigtails”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“pig-tails”</span>,
+                    <span class="tei tei-q">“wickerwork”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“wicker-work”</span>), punctuation or italicizing has not been changed.
+                    The authors use both <span class="tei tei-q">“Yengiz”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“Yenghiz”</span>, <span class="tei tei-q">“bakshish”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“baksheesh”</span>,
+                    <span class="tei tei-q">“pilaff”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“pillao”</span>.</p>
+            </div>
+            <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
+                <div id="pgfooter" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+</pre><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader136" id="rightpageheader136"></a><a name="pgtoc137" id="pgtoc137"></a><a name="pdf138" id="pdf138"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Credits</span></h1><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr><th class="tei tei-label tei-label-gloss">January 29, 2010  </th></tr><tr><td class="tei tei-item tei-item-gloss"><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><span class="tei tei-respStmt">
+                <span class="tei tei-resp">Produced by the Bookworm and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+                    at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public
+                    domain material from the Google Print project.)</span>
+            </span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader139" id="rightpageheader139"></a><a name="pgtoc140" id="pgtoc140"></a><a name="pdf141" id="pdf141"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h1><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This file should be named 
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@@ -0,0 +1,7173 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
+<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd">
+<TEI.2 lang="en">
+    <teiHeader>
+        <fileDesc>
+            <titleStmt>
+                <title>Across Asia on a Bicycle</title>
+                <author><name reg="Allen, Thomas Gaskell">Thomas Gaskell Allen</name> and <name reg="Sachtleben, William Lewis">William Lewis Sachtleben</name></author>
+            </titleStmt>
+            <editionStmt><edition n="1">Project Gutenberg TEI Edition 1</edition></editionStmt>
+            <publicationStmt>
+                <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher>
+                <date value="2010-01-29">January 29, 2010</date>
+                <idno type='etext-no'>31111</idno>
+                <availability>
+                    <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+                        restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+                        the terms of the Project Gutenberg License online at
+                        www.gutenberg.org/license</p>
+                </availability>
+            </publicationStmt>
+            <sourceDesc>
+                <bibl><author>Thomas Gaskell Allen</author>
+                <author><name reg="Allen, Thomas Gaskell">Thomas Gaskell Allen</name>,
+                <name reg="Sachtleben, William Lewis">William Lewis Sachtleben</name></author>
+                <title>Across Asia on a bicycle:
+                The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking</title>
+                <imprint><pubPlace>New York</pubPlace>
+                <publisher>Century</publisher>
+                <date>1894</date></imprint>
+                </bibl>
+            </sourceDesc>
+        </fileDesc>
+        <encodingDesc>
+            <p>See Transcriber’s note at the back.</p>
+        </encodingDesc>
+        <profileDesc>
+          <langUsage>
+                <language id="en">English</language>
+            </langUsage>
+        </profileDesc>
+        <revisionDesc>
+          <change>
+            <date value="2010-01-29">January 29, 2010</date>
+            <respStmt>
+                <resp>Produced by the Bookworm and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+                    at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public
+                    domain material from the Google Print project.)</resp>
+            </respStmt>
+            <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item>
+          </change>
+        </revisionDesc>
+    </teiHeader>
+
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+            </char>
+            <char id="U0x2009">
+        <charName>thinsp</charName>
+        <desc>THIN SPACE</desc>
+        <mapping></mapping>
+            </char>
+            <char id="U0x2018">
+        <charName>lsquo</charName>
+        <desc>LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK</desc>
+        <mapping>'</mapping>
+    </char>
+    <char id="U0x2019">
+        <charName>rsquo</charName>
+        <desc>RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK</desc>
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+        <desc>RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK</desc>
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+            <char id="U0x0101">
+                <charName>Latin small letter a with macron</charName>
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+<text lang="en">
+<front>
+    <div>
+                <divGen type="pgheader" />
+            </div>
+            <div>
+                <divGen type="encodingDesc" />
+            </div>
+    <div>
+        <pb rend="page-break-before: right"/>
+        <pb/>
+
+<p rend="center; font-size: large">
+ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+</p>
+<pb/>
+      <index index="ill" level1="THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER. [Frontispiece]"/>
+<pgIf output='txt'><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i004.jpg"><head rend="small">THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.</head><figDesc>THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+</div><titlePage rend="center; page-break-before: right">
+<pb/>
+
+<docTitle>
+    <titlePart rend="font-size: xx-large">ACROSS ASIA ON A<lb/>BICYCLE</titlePart><lb/><lb/>
+    <titlePart>THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS<lb/>
+FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING</titlePart>
+</docTitle>
+    <lb/><lb/>
+<byline>BY<lb/>
+<docAuthor rend="font-size: large">THOMAS GASKELL ALLEN, <hi rend='smallcaps'>Jr.</hi></docAuthor><lb/>
+AND<lb/>
+<docAuthor rend="font-size: large">WILLIAM LEWIS SACHTLEBEN</docAuthor></byline>
+<lb/><lb/>
+<docImprint>NEW YORK<lb/>
+<hi rend="font-size: large">THE CENTURY CO.</hi></docImprint>
+    <lb/>
+<docDate>1894</docDate>
+
+</titlePage><div rend="page-break-before: always; center">
+<pb/>
+<p>
+ Copyright, 1894, by<lb/>
+ <hi rend='smallcaps'>The Century Co.</hi>
+</p>
+<p>
+    <hi rend='italic'>All rights reserved.</hi>
+</p>
+    <p rend="margin-top: 2em; font-size: small">
+       THE DEVINNE PRESS. 
+    </p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/>
+    
+        <p rend="center">TO<lb/><lb/>
+        <hi>THOSE AT HOME</hi><lb/><lb/>
+        WHOSE THOUGHTS AND<lb/>
+          WISHES WERE EVER<lb/>
+            WITH US IN OUR<lb/>
+            WANDERINGS
+        </p>
+    
+<pb/>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n='xi'/><anchor id='Pgxi'/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf"/>
+<head>PREFACE</head>
+
+<p>
+This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing
+the most interesting part of a bicycle journey around
+the world,—our ride across Asia. We were actuated by
+no desire to make a <q>record</q> in bicycle travel, although
+we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous
+land journey ever made around the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The day after we were graduated at Washington University,
+St. Louis, Mo., we left for New York. Thence we
+sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890. Just three years
+afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York
+on our wheels, having <q>put a girdle round the earth.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After
+following many of the beaten lines of travel in the British
+Isles we arrived in London, where we formed our plans
+for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most
+dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we
+were told, were western China, the Desert of Gobi, and
+central China. Never since the days of Marco Polo had
+a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese
+empire from the west to Peking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to
+Paris, across the lowlands of western France to Bordeaux,
+eastward over the Lesser Alps to Marseilles, and along the
+Riviera into Italy. After visiting every important city on
+the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day of
+1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras,
+<pb n='xii'/><anchor id='Pg0xii'/>proceeding along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we
+passed the winter. We went to Constantinople by vessel
+in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April, and began
+the long journey described in the following pages. When
+we had finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom,
+we sailed from Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged
+to San Francisco, where we arrived on Christmas
+night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles
+and wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas
+to New York.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During all of this journey we never employed the services
+of guides or interpreters. We were compelled, therefore,
+to learn a little of the language of every country
+through which we passed. Our independence in this regard
+increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but
+certainly contributed much toward the object we sought—a
+close acquaintance with strange peoples.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During our travels we took more than two thousand
+five hundred photographs, selections from which are reproduced
+in the illustrations of this volume.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/><anchor id='Pgxiii'/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf"/>
+<head>CONTENTS</head>
+    <table rend="tblcolumns: 'r lw(50m) r'; latexcolumns: 'r p{6cm} r'">
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"></cell>
+            <cell></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right; font-size: small">PAGE</cell>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right">I.</cell>
+            <cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Beyond the Bosporus</hi></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg001">1</ref></cell>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right">II.</cell>
+            <cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Ascent of Mount Ararat</hi></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg043">43</ref></cell>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right">&nbsp;III.</cell>
+            <cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Through Persia to Samarkand</hi></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg083">83</ref></cell>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right">IV.</cell>
+            <cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>The Journey from Samarkand to Kuldja</hi></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg115">115</ref></cell>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right">V.</cell>
+            <cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>Over the Gobi Desert and through the Western Gate of the Great Wall</hi></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg149">149</ref></cell>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right">VI.</cell>
+            <cell><hi rend='smallcaps'>An Interview with the Prime Minister of China</hi></cell>
+            <cell rend="text-align: right"><ref target="Pg207">207</ref></cell>
+        </row>
+    </table>
+
+<pb/>
+</div>
+  <div type="illustrations" rend="page-break-before: always">
+      <index index="toc"/><index index="pdf"/>
+    <head>List of Illustrations</head>
+    <divGen type="ill"/>
+  </div>
+  <div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb/>
+
+<p rend="center; font-size: large">
+ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+</p>
+
+<pb/>        
+    </div>
+</front>
+<body rend="page-break-before: right">
+<pb n="1"/><anchor id="Pg001"/>
+
+<head>ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE</head>
+
+<head type="sub">
+THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS<lb/>
+FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+</head>
+<div>
+    <index index="toc"/><index index="pdf" level1="I. Beyond the Bosporus"/>
+<head>I</head>
+
+<head type="sub">BEYOND THE BOSPORUS</head>
+
+<p>
+On a morning early in April the little steamer conveying
+us across from Stamboul touched the wharf
+at Haider Pasha. Amid the rabble of Greeks, Armenians,
+Turks, and Italians we trundled our bicycles across the
+gang-plank, which for us was the threshold of Asia, the
+beginning of an inland journey of seven thousand miles
+from the Bosporus to the Pacific. Through the morning
+fog which enveloped the shipping in the Golden Horn,
+the <q>stars and stripes</q> at a single masthead were waving
+farewell to two American students fresh from college who
+had nerved themselves for nearly two years of separation
+from the comforts of western civilization.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our guide to the road to Ismid was the little twelve-year-old
+son of an Armenian doctor, whose guests we had
+<pb n="2"/><anchor id="Pg002"/>been during our sojourn in Stamboul. He trotted for
+some distance by our side, and then, pressing our hands
+in both of his, he said with childlike sincerity: <q>I hope
+God will take care of you</q>; for he was possessed with
+the thought popular among Armenians, of pillages and
+massacres by marauding brigands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The idea of a trip around the world had been conceived
+by us as a practical finish to a theoretical education; and
+the bicycle feature was adopted merely as a means to
+that end. On reaching London we had formed the plan
+of penetrating the heart of the Asiatic continent, instead
+of skirting its more civilized coast-line. For a passport
+and other credentials necessary in journeying through
+Russia and Central Asia we had been advised to make
+application to the Czar’s representative on our arrival at
+Teheran, as we would enter the Russian dominions from
+Persia; and to that end the Russian minister in London
+had provided us with a letter of introduction. In London
+the secretary of the Chinese legation, a Scotchman, had
+assisted us in mapping out a possible route across the
+Celestial empire, although he endeavored, from the very
+start, to dissuade us from our purpose. Application had
+then been made to the Chinese minister himself for the
+necessary passport. The reply we received, though courteous,
+smacked strongly of reproof. <q>Western China,</q>
+he said, <q>is overrun with lawless bands, and the people
+themselves are very much averse to foreigners. Your
+extraordinary mode of locomotion would subject you to
+annoyance, if not to positive danger, at the hands of a
+people who are naturally curious and superstitious. However,</q>
+he added, after some reflection, <q>if your minister
+makes a request for a passport we will see what can
+be done. The most I can do will be to ask for you the
+protection and assistance of the officials only; for the
+<pb n="3"/><anchor id="Pg003"/>people themselves I cannot answer. If you go into that
+country you do so at your own risk.</q> Minister Lincoln
+was sitting in his private office when we called the next
+morning at the American legation. He listened to the
+recital of our plans, got down the huge atlas from his
+bookcase, and went over with us the route we proposed
+to follow. He did not regard the undertaking as feasible,
+and apprehended that, if he should give his official
+assistance, he would, in a measure, be responsible for the
+result if it should prove unhappy. When assured of the
+consent of our parents, and of our determination to make
+the attempt at all hazards, he picked up his pen and
+began a letter to the Chinese minister, remarking as he
+finished reading it to us, <q>I would much rather not have
+written it.</q> The documents received from the Chinese
+minister in response to Mr. Lincoln’s letter proved to be
+indispensable when, a year and a half later, we left the
+last outpost of western civilization and plunged into the
+Gobi desert. When we had paid a final visit to the Persian
+minister in London, who had asked to see our bicycles
+and their baggage equipments, he signified his
+intention of writing in our behalf to friends in Teheran;
+and to that capital, after cycling through Europe, we were
+now actually <hi rend="italic">en route</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since the opening of the Trans-Bosporus Railway, the
+wagon-road to Ismid, and even the Angora military highway
+beyond, have fallen rapidly into disrepair. In April
+they were almost impassable for the wheel, so that for the
+greater part of the way we were obliged to take to the
+track. Like the railway skirting the Italian Riviera, and
+the Patras-Athens line along the Saronic Gulf, this Trans-Bosporus
+road for a great distance scarps and tunnels the
+cliffs along the Gulf of Ismid, and sometimes runs so close
+to the water’s edge that the puffing of the <hi rend="italic">kara vapor</hi> or
+<pb n="4"/><anchor id="Pg004"/><q>land steamer,</q> as the Turks call it, is drowned by the
+roaring breakers. The country between Scutari and
+Ismid surpasses in agricultural advantages any part of
+Asiatic Turkey through which we passed. Its fertile soil,
+and the luxuriant vegetation it supports, are, as we afterward
+learned, in striking contrast with the sterile plateaus
+and mountains of the interior, many parts of which are
+as desolate as the deserts of Arabia. In area, Asia Minor
+equals France, but the water-supply of its rivers is only
+one third.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA. [p. 4 and 5]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i018.png"><figDesc>BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA.</figDesc></figure>
+  </p>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i019.png"><figDesc>BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen &amp; Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+One of the principal agents in the work of transforming
+Asia Minor is the railroad, to which the natives have
+taken with unusual readiness. The locomotive is already
+competing with the hundred and sixty thousand camels
+employed in the peninsula caravan-trade. At Geiveh, the
+last station on the Trans-Bosporus Railway, where we left
+the track to follow the Angora highway, the <q>ships of
+the desert</q> are beginning to transfer their cargoes to the
+<pb n="5"/><anchor id="Pg005"/><q>land steamer,</q> instead of continuing on as in former
+days to the Bosporus.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.' [p. 6]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE <q>DEVIL’S CARRIAGE.</q>]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i020.png"><head rend="small">THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE <q>DEVIL’S CARRIAGE.</q></head><figDesc>THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.'</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The Trans-Bosporus line, in the year of our visit, was
+being built and operated by a German company, under
+the direct patronage of the Sultan. We ventured to ask
+some natives if they thought the Sultan had sufficient
+funds to consummate so gigantic a scheme, and they
+replied, with the deepest reverence: <q>God has given the
+Padishah much property and power, and certainly he
+must give him enough money to utilize it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A week’s cycling from the Bosporus brought us beyond
+the Allah Dagh mountains, among the barren, variegated
+hills that skirt the Angora plateau. We had already
+passed through Ismid, the ancient Nicomedia and capital
+of Diocletian; and had left behind us the heavily timbered
+valley of the Sakaria, upon whose banks the <q>Freebooter
+of the Bithynian hills</q> settled with his four hundred tents
+and laid the foundation of the Ottoman empire. Since
+<pb n="6"/><anchor id="Pg006"/>leaving Geiveh we had been attended by a mounted
+guard, or <hi rend="italic">zaptieh</hi>, who was sometimes forced upon us by
+the authorities in their anxiety to carry out the wishes
+expressed in the letters of the Grand Vizir. On emerging
+from the door of an inn we frequently found this unexpected
+guard waiting with a Winchester rifle swung over
+his shoulder, and a fleet steed standing by his side. Immediately
+on our appearance he would swing into the
+saddle and charge through the assembled rabble. Away
+we would go at a rapid pace down the streets of the town
+or village, to the utter amazement of the natives and the
+<pb n="7"/><anchor id="Pg007"/>great satisfaction of our vainglorious zaptieh. As long
+as his horse was fresh, or until we were out of sight of
+the village, he would urge us on with cries of <q>Gellcha-buk</q>
+(<q>Come on, ride fast</q>). When a bad piece of road
+or a steep ascent forced us to dismount he would bring
+his horse to a walk, roll a cigarette, and draw invidious
+comparisons between our steeds. His tone, however,
+changed when we reached a decline or long stretch of
+reasonably good road. Then he would cut across country
+to head us off, or shout after us at the top of his voice,
+<q>Yavash-yavash</q> (<q>Slowly, slowly</q>). On the whole we
+found them good-natured and companionable fellows, notwithstanding
+their interest in <hi rend="italic">baksheesh</hi> which we were
+compelled at last, in self-defense, to fix at one piaster an
+hour. We frequently shared with them our frugal, and
+even scanty meals; and in turn they assisted us in our
+purchases and arrangements for lodgings, for their word,
+we found, was with the common people an almost unwritten
+law. Then, too, they were of great assistance in
+crossing streams where the depth would have necessitated
+the stripping of garments; although their fiery little
+steeds sometimes objected to having an extra rider astride
+their haunches, and a bicycle across their shoulders. They
+seized every opportunity to impress us with the necessity
+of being accompanied by a government representative.
+In some lonely portion of the road, or in the suggestive
+stillness of an evening twilight, our Turkish Don Quixote
+would sometimes cast mysterious glances around him,
+take his Winchester from his shoulder, and throwing it
+across the pommel of his saddle, charge ahead to meet
+the imaginary enemy. But we were more harmful than
+harmed, for, despite our most vigilant care, the bicycles
+were sometimes the occasion of a stampede or runaway
+among the caravans and teams along the highway, and
+<pb n="8"/><anchor id="Pg008"/>we frequently assisted in replacing the loads thus upset.
+On such occasions our pretentious cavalier would remain
+on his horse, smoking his cigarette and smiling disdainfully.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES. [p. 8]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i022.png"><head rend="small">HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES.</head><figDesc>HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+It was in the company of one of these military champions
+that we emerged on the morning of April 12 upon
+the plateau of Angora. On the spring pasture were feeding
+several flocks of the famous Angora goats, and the
+<hi rend="italic">karamanli</hi> or fat-tailed sheep, tended by the Yurak shepherds
+and their half-wild and monstrous collies, whose
+half-savage nature fits them to cope with the jackals which
+infest the country. The shepherds did not check their
+sudden onslaught upon us until we were pressed to very
+close quarters, and had drawn our revolvers in self-defense.
+These Yuraks are the nomadic portion of the Turkish
+peasantry. They live in caves or rudely constructed
+huts, shifting their habitation at will, or upon the
+exhaus<pb n="10"/><anchor id="Pg010"/>tion of the pasturage. Their costume is most primitive
+both in style and material; the trousers and caps being
+made of sheepskin and the tunic of plaited wheat-straw.
+In contradistinction to the Yuraks the settled inhabitants
+of the country are called Turks. That term, however,
+which means rustic or clown, is never used by the Turks
+themselves except in derision or disdain; they always
+speak of themselves as <q>Osmanli.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="AN ANGORA SHEPHERD. [p. 9]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i023.jpg"><head rend="small">AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.</head><figDesc>AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The great length of the Angora fleece, which sometimes
+reaches eight inches, is due solely to the peculiar
+climate of the locality. The same goats taken elsewhere
+have not thriven. Even the Angora dogs and cats are
+remarkable for the extraordinary length of their fleecy
+covering. On nearing Angora itself, we raced at high
+speed over the undulating plateau. Our zaptieh on his
+jaded horse faded away in the dim distance, and we saw
+him no more. This was our last guard for many weeks
+to come, as we decided to dispense with an escort that
+really retarded us. But on reaching Erzerum, the Vali
+refused us permission to enter the district of Alashgerd
+without a guard, so we were forced to take one.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 11]"/>
+  <pgIf output="txt"><then>
+    <p rend="ill">[Illustration: 1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.]</p>
+  </then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i025.png"><head rend="small">1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.</head><figDesc>1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.</figDesc></figure></p>
+  </else></pgIf>
+<p>
+We were now on historic ground. To our right, on
+the Owas, a tributary of the Sakaria, was the little village
+of Istanas, where stood the ancient seat of Midas, the
+Phrygian king, and where Alexander the Great cut with
+his sword the Gordian knot to prove his right to the
+rulership of the world. On the plain, over which we were
+now skimming, the great Tatar, Timur, fought the memorable
+battle with Bajazet I., which resulted in the capture
+of the Ottoman conqueror. Since the time that the title
+of Asia applied to the small coast-province of Lydia, this
+country has been the theater for the grandest events in
+human history.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A CONTRAST. [p. 12]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CONTRAST.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i026.png"><head rend="small">A CONTRAST.</head><figDesc>A CONTRAST.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The old mud-houses of modern Angora, as we rolled
+<pb n="12"/><anchor id="Pg012"/>into the city, contrasted strongly with the cyclopean
+walls of its ancient fortress. After two days in Angora
+we diverged from the direct route to Sivas through Yüzgat,
+so as to visit the city of Kaisarieh. Through the
+efforts of the progressive Vali at Angora, a macadamized
+road was in the course of construction to this point, a
+part of which—to the town of Kirshehr—was already
+completed. Although surrounded by unusual fertility
+and luxuriance for an interior town, the low mud-houses
+and treeless streets give Kirshehr that same thirsty and
+painfully uniform appearance which characterizes every
+village or city in Asiatic Turkey. The mud buildings of
+Babylon, and not the marble edifices of Nineveh, have
+served as models for the Turkish architect. We have
+seen the Turks, when making the mud-straw bricks used
+in house-building, scratch dirt for the purpose from between
+the marble slabs and boulders that lay in profusion
+over the ground. A few of the government buildings
+and some of the larger private residences are improved by
+a coat of whitewash, and now and then the warm spring
+<pb n="13"/><anchor id="Pg013"/>showers bring out on the mud roofs a relieving verdure,
+that frequently serves as pasture for the family goat.
+Everything is low and contracted, especially the doorways.
+When a foreigner bumps his head, and demands
+the reason for such stupid architecture, he is met with
+that decisive answer, <q>Adet</q>—custom, the most powerful
+of all influences in Turkey and the East.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL. [p. 13]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i027.png"><head rend="small">A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.</head><figDesc>A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Our entry into Kirshehr was typical of our reception
+everywhere. When we were seen approaching, several
+horsemen came out to get a first look at our strange
+horses. They challenged us to a race, and set a spanking
+pace down into the streets of the town. Before we reached
+the <hi rend="italic">khan</hi>, or inn, we were obliged to dismount. <q>Bin!
+bin!</q> (<q>Ride! ride!</q>) went up in a shout. <q>Nimkin
+deyil</q> (<q>It is impossible</q>), we explained, in such a jam;
+and the crowd opened up three or four feet ahead of us.
+<q>Bin bocale</q> (<q>Ride, so that we can see</q>), they shouted
+again; and some of them rushed up to hold our steeds for
+us to mount. With the greatest difficulty we impressed
+upon our persistent assistants that they could not help us.
+By the time we reached the khan the crowd had become
+almost a mob, pushing and tumbling over one another,
+and yelling to every one in sight that <q>the devil’s carts
+have come.</q> The
+inn-keeper came
+out, and we had
+to assure him
+that the mob was
+actuated only
+by curiosity. As
+soon as the bicycles
+were over
+the threshold, the
+doors were bolted
+<pb n="14"/><anchor id="Pg014"/>and braced. The crowds swarmed to the windows. While
+the khanji prepared coffee we sat down to watch the amusing
+by-play and repartee going on around us. Those
+who by virtue of their friendship with the khanji were
+admitted to the room with us began a tirade against the
+boyish curiosity of their less fortunate brethren on the
+outside. Their own curiosity assumed tangible shape.
+Our clothing, and even our hair and faces, were critically
+examined. When we attempted to jot down the
+day’s events in our note-books they crowded closer than
+ever. Our fountain-pen was an additional puzzle to them.
+It was passed around, and explained and commented on
+at length.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our camera was a <q>mysterious</q> black box. Some said
+it was a telescope, about which they had only a vague
+idea; others, that it was a box containing our money.
+But our map of Asiatic Turkey was to them the most
+curious thing of all. They spread it on the floor, and
+hovered over it, while we pointed to the towns and cities.
+How could we tell where the places were until we had
+been there? How did we even know their names? It
+was wonderful—wonderful! We traced for them our own
+journey, where we had been and where we were going,
+and then endeavored to show them how, by starting from
+our homes and continuing always in an easterly direction,
+we could at last reach our starting-point from the west.
+The more intelligent of them grasped the idea. <q>Around
+the world,</q> they repeated again and again, with a mystified
+expression.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Relief came at last, in the person of a messenger from
+Osman Beg, the inspector-general of agriculture of the
+Angora vilayet, bearing an invitation to supper. He
+stated that he had already heard of our undertaking
+through the Constantinople press, and desired to make
+<pb n="15"/><anchor id="Pg015"/>our acquaintance. His note, which was written in French,
+showed him to be a man of European education; and on
+shaking hands with him a half-hour later, we found him
+to be a man of European origin—an Albanian Greek, and
+a cousin of the Vali at Angora. He said a report had
+gone out that two devils were passing through the country.
+The dinner was one of those incongruous Turkish
+mixtures of sweet and sour, which was by no means relieved
+by the harrowing Turkish music which our host
+ground out from an antiquated hand-organ.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="MILL IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 15]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MILL IN ASIA MINOR.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i029.png"><head rend="small">MILL IN ASIA MINOR.</head><figDesc>MILL IN ASIA MINOR.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Although it
+was late when
+we returned to
+the khan, we
+found everybody
+still up.
+The room in
+which we were
+to sleep (there
+was only one
+room) was
+filled with a
+crowd of loiterers,
+and tobacco
+smoke.
+Some were
+playing games similar
+to our chess and backgammon,
+while others were
+looking on, and smoking
+the gurgling narghile, or water-pipe.
+The bicycles had been put away under
+lock and key, and the crowd gradually
+dispersed. We lay down in our
+<pb n="17"/><anchor id="Pg017"/>clothes, and tried to lose consciousness; but the Turkish
+supper, the tobacco smoke, and the noise of the quarreling
+gamesters, put sleep out of the question. At midnight
+the sudden boom of a cannon reminded us that we
+were in the midst of the Turkish Ramadan. The sound
+of tramping feet, the beating of a bass drum, and the
+whining tones of a Turkish bagpipe, came over the midnight
+air. Nearer it came, and louder grew the sound,
+till it reached the inn door, where it remained for some
+time. The fast of Ramadan commemorates the revelation
+of the Koran to the prophet Mohammed. It lasts
+through the four phases of the moon. From daylight, or,
+as the Koran reads, <q>from the time you can distinguish
+a white thread from a black one,</q> no good Mussulman
+will eat, drink, or smoke. At midnight the mosques are
+illuminated, and bands of music go about the streets all
+night, making a tremendous uproar. One cannon is fired
+at dusk, to announce the time to break the fast by eating
+supper, another at midnight to arouse the people for the
+preparation of breakfast, and still another at daylight as
+a signal for resuming the fast. This, of course, is very
+hard on the poor man who has to work during the day.
+As a precaution against oversleeping, a watchman goes
+about just before daybreak, and makes a rousing clatter
+at the gate of every Mussulman’s house to warn him that
+if he wants anything to eat he must get it instanter. Our
+roommates evidently intended to make an <q>all night</q> of
+it, for they forthwith commenced the preparation of their
+morning meal. How it was despatched we do not know,
+for we fell asleep, and were only awakened by the muezzin
+on a neighboring minaret, calling to morning prayer.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR. [p. 16]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i030.jpg"><head rend="small">GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.</head><figDesc>GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Our morning ablutions were usually made <hi rend="italic">à la</hi> Turk:
+by having water poured upon the hands from a spouted
+vessel. Cleanliness is, with the Turk, perhaps, more than
+<pb n="18"/><anchor id="Pg018"/>ourselves, the next thing to godliness. But his ideas are
+based upon a very different theory. Although he uses
+no soap for washing either his person or his clothes, yet
+he considers himself much cleaner than the giaour, for the
+reason that he uses running water exclusively, never allowing
+the same particles to touch him the second time.
+A Turk believes that all water is purified after running
+six feet. As a test of his faith we have often seen him
+lading up drinking-water from a stream where the women
+were washing clothes just a few yards above.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="SCENE AT A GREEK INN. [p. 19]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: SCENE AT A GREEK INN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i033.png"><head rend="small">SCENE AT A GREEK INN.</head><figDesc>SCENE AT A GREEK INN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+As all cooking and eating had stopped at the sound of
+the morning cannon, we found great difficulty in gathering
+together even a cold breakfast of <hi rend="italic">ekmek</hi>, <hi rend="italic">yaourt</hi>, and
+raisins. Ekmek is a cooked bran-flour paste, which has
+the thinness, consistency, and almost the taste of blotting-paper.
+This is the Turkish peasant’s staff of life. He
+carries it with him everywhere; so did we. As it was
+made in huge circular sheets, we would often punch a
+hole in the middle, and slip it up over our arms. This we
+found the handiest and most serviceable mode of transportation,
+being handy to eat without removing our hands
+from the handle-bars, and also answering the purpose of
+sails in case of a favoring wind. Yaourt, another almost
+universal food, is milk curdled with rennet. This, as well
+as all foods that are not liquid, they scoop up with a roll
+of ekmek, a part of the scoop being taken with every
+mouthful. Raisins here, as well as in many other parts
+of the country, are very cheap. We paid two piasters
+(about nine cents) for an <hi rend="italic">oche</hi> (two and a half pounds),
+but we soon made the discovery that a Turkish oche contained
+a great many <q>stones</q>—which of course was
+purely accidental. Eggs, also, we found exceedingly
+cheap. On one occasion, twenty-five were set before us,
+in response to our call for eggs to the value of one
+piaster<pb n="20"/><anchor id="Pg020"/>—four and a half cents. In Asiatic Turkey we had some
+extraordinary dishes served to us, including daintily prepared
+leeches. But the worst mixture, perhaps, was the
+<q>Bairam soup,</q> which contains over a dozen ingredients,
+including peas, prunes, walnuts, cherries, dates, white and
+black beans, apricots, cracked wheat, raisins, etc.—all
+mixed in cold water. Bairam is the period of feasting
+after the Ramadan fast.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD. [p. 20]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i034.png"><head rend="small">EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.</head><figDesc>EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+On preparing to leave Kirshehr after our frugal breakfast
+we found that Turkish curiosity had extended even
+to the contents of our baggage, which fitted in the frames
+of the machines. There was nothing missing, however:
+<pb n="21"/><anchor id="Pg021"/>and we did not lose so much as a button during our sojourn
+among them. Thieving is not one of their faults,
+but they take much latitude in helping themselves. Many
+a time an inn-keeper would <q>help us out</q> by disposing of
+one third of a chicken that we had paid him a high price
+to prepare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we were ready to start the chief of police cleared
+a riding space through the streets, which for an hour had
+been filled with people. As we passed among them they
+shouted <q>Oorooglar olsun</q> (<q>May good fortune attend
+you</q>). <q>Inshallah</q> (<q>If it please God</q>), we replied, and
+waved our helmets in acknowledgment.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="GRINDING WHEAT. [p. 21]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: GRINDING WHEAT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i035.png" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">GRINDING WHEAT.</head><figDesc>GRINDING WHEAT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER. [p. 22]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i036.png"><head rend="small">A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.</head><figDesc>A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+At the village of Topakle, on the following night, our
+reception was not so innocent and good-natured. It was
+already dusk when we reached the outskirts of the village,
+where we were at once spied by a young man who was
+<pb n="22"/><anchor id="Pg022"/>driving in the lowing herd.
+The alarm was given, and
+the people swarmed like so
+many rats from a corn-bin.
+We could see from their
+costume and features that
+they were not pure-blooded
+Turks. We asked if
+we could get food and
+lodging, to which they replied,
+<q>Evet, evet</q> (<q>Yes,
+yes</q>), but when we asked
+them where, they simply
+pointed ahead, and shouted,
+<q>Bin, bin!</q> We did not
+<q>bin</q> this time, because
+it was too dark, and the
+streets were bad. We walked, or rather were pushed along
+by the impatient rabble, and almost deafened by their
+shouts of <q>Bin, bin!</q> At the end of the village we repeated
+our question of where. Again they pointed ahead,
+and shouted, <q>Bin!</q> Finally an old man led us to what
+seemed to be a private residence, where we had to drag
+our bicycles up a dark narrow stairway to the second
+story. The crowd soon filled the room to suffocation,
+and were not disposed to heed our request to be left
+alone. One stalwart youth showed such a spirit of opposition
+that we were obliged to eject him upon a crowded
+stairway, causing the mob to go down like a row of tenpins.
+Then the owner of the house came in, and in an
+agitated manner declared he could not allow us to remain
+in his house overnight. Our reappearance caused a jeering
+shout to go up from the crowd; but no violence was
+attempted beyond the catching hold of the rear wheel
+<pb n="23"/><anchor id="Pg023"/>when our backs were turned, and the throwing of clods
+of earth. They followed us, <hi rend="italic">en masse</hi>, to the edge of
+the village, and there stopped short, to watch us till we
+disappeared in the darkness. The nights at this high
+altitude were chilly. We had no blankets, and not enough
+clothing to warrant a camp among the rocks. There was
+not a twig on the whole plateau with which to build a fire.
+We were alone, however, and that was rest in itself. After
+walking an hour, perhaps, we saw a light gleaming from
+a group of mudhuts a short distance off the road. From
+the numerous flocks around it, we took it to be a shepherds’
+village. Everything was quiet except the restless sheep,
+whose silky fleece glistened in the light of the rising moon.
+Supper was not yet over, for we caught a whiff of its savory
+odor. Leaving our wheels outside, we entered the first
+door we came to, and, following along a narrow passageway,
+emerged into a room where four rather
+rough-look<pb n="24"/><anchor id="Pg024"/>ing shepherds were ladling the soup from a huge bowl in
+their midst. Before they were aware of our presence, we
+uttered the usual salutation <q>Sabala khayr olsun.</q> This
+startled some little boys who were playing in the corner,
+who yelled, and ran into the haremlük, or women’s apartment.
+This brought to the door the female occupants,
+who also uttered a shriek, and sunk back as if in a swoon.
+It was evident that the visits of giaours to this place had
+been few and far between. The shepherds returned our
+salutation with some hesitation, while their ladles dropped
+into the soup, and their gaze became fixed on our huge
+helmets, our dogskin top-coats, and abbreviated nether
+garments. The women by this time had sufficiently recovered
+from their nervous shock to give scope to their
+usual curiosity through the cracks in the partition. Confidence
+now being inspired by our own composure, we
+were invited to sit down and participate in the evening
+meal. Although it was only a gruel of sour milk and rice,
+we managed to make a meal off it. Meantime the wheels
+had been discovered by some passing neighbor. The news
+was spread throughout the village, and soon an excited
+throng came in with our bicycles borne upon the shoulders
+of two powerful Turks. Again we were besieged with
+entreaties to ride, and, hoping that this would gain for
+us a comfortable night’s rest, we yielded, and, amid peals
+of laughter from a crowd of Turkish peasants, gave an
+exhibition in the moonlight. Our only reward, when we
+returned to our quarters, was two greasy pillows and a
+filthy carpet for a coverlet. But the much needed rest
+we did not secure, for the suspicions aroused by the first
+glance at our bed-cover proved to be well grounded.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH. [p. 23]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i037.png" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.</head><figDesc>TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+About noon on April 20, our road turned abruptly into
+the broad caravan trail that runs between Smyrna and
+Kaisarieh, about ten miles west of the latter city. A long
+<pb n="25"/><anchor id="Pg025"/>caravan of camels was moving majestically up the road,
+headed by a little donkey, which the <hi rend="italic">devedejee</hi> (camel-driver)
+was riding with his feet dangling almost to the ground.
+That proverbially stubborn creature moved not a muscle
+until we came alongside, when all at once he gave one of
+his characteristic side lurches, and precipitated the rider
+to the ground. The first camel, with a protesting grunt,
+began to sidle off, and the broadside movement continued
+down the line till the whole caravan stood at an angle of
+about forty-five degrees to the road. The camel of Asia
+Minor does not share that antipathy for the equine species
+which is so general among their Asiatic cousins; but steel
+horses were more than even they could endure.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS. [p. 25]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE <q>FLIRTING TOWER</q> IN SIVAS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i039.png"><head rend="small">THE <q>FLIRTING TOWER</q> IN SIVAS.</head><figDesc>THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A sudden turn in the road now brought us in sight of
+old Arjish Dagh, which towers 13,000 feet above the city
+of Kaisarieh, and whose head and shoulders were covered
+with snow. Native tradition tells us that against this
+lofty summit the ark of Noah struck in the rising flood;
+<pb n="26"/><anchor id="Pg026"/>and for this reason Noah cursed it, and prayed that it
+might ever be covered with snow. It was in connection
+with this very mountain that we first conceived the idea
+of making the ascent of Ararat. Here and there, on some
+of the most prominent peaks, we could distinguish little
+mounds of earth, the ruined watch-towers of the prehistoric
+Hittites.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS. [p. 26]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i040.png" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.</head><figDesc>HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Kaisarieh (ancient Cæsarea) is filled with the ruins and
+the monuments of the fourteenth-century Seljuks. Arrowheads
+and other relics are every day unearthed there, to
+serve as toys for the street urchins. Since the development
+of steam-communication around the coast, it is no
+longer the caravan center that it used to be; but even
+now its <hi rend="italic">charshi</hi>, or inclosed bazaars, are among the finest
+<pb n="27"/><anchor id="Pg027"/>in Turkey, being far superior in appearance to those of
+Constantinople. These <hi rend="italic">charshi</hi> are nothing more than
+narrow streets, inclosed by brick arches, and lined on
+either side with booths. It was through one of these
+that our only route to the khan lay—and yet we felt that
+in such contracted quarters, and in such an excited mob
+as had gathered around us, disaster was sure to follow.
+Our only salvation was to keep ahead of the jam, and get
+through as soon as possible. We started on the spurt;
+and the race began. The unsuspecting merchants and
+their customers were suddenly distracted from their
+thoughts of gain as we whirled by; the crowd close behind
+sweeping everything before it. The falling of barrels
+and boxes, the rattling of tin cans, the crashing of crockery,
+the howling of the vagrant dogs that were trampled
+under foot, only added to the general tumult.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Through the courtesy of Mr. Peet of the American
+Bible House at Constantinople, we were provided with
+letters of introduction to the missionaries at Kaisarieh,
+as well as elsewhere along our route through Asiatic
+Turkey, and upon them we also had drafts to the amount
+of our deposit made at the Bible House before starting.
+Besides, we owed much to the hospitality and kindness of
+these people. The most striking feature of the missionary
+work at Kaisarieh is the education of the Armenian
+women, whose social position seems to be even more
+degraded than that of their Turkish sisters. With the
+native Armenians, as with the Turks, fleshiness adds
+much to the price of a wife. The wife of a missionary
+is to them an object both of wonderment and contempt.
+As she walks along the street, they will whisper to one
+another: <q>There goes a woman who knows all her husband’s
+business; and who can manage just as well as
+himself.</q> This will generally be followed in an
+under<pb n="28"/><anchor id="Pg028"/>tone by the expression, <q>Madana satana,</q> which means,
+in common parlance, <q>a female devil.</q> At first it was a
+struggle to overcome this ignorant prejudice, and to get
+girls to come to the school free of charge; now it is hard
+to find room for them even when they are asked to pay
+for their tuition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The costume of the Armenian woman is generally of
+some bright-colored cloth, prettily trimmed. Her coiffure,
+always elaborate, sometimes includes a string of gold
+coins, encircling the head, or strung down the plait. A
+silver belt incloses the waist, and a necklace of coins calls
+attention to her pretty neck. When washing clothes by
+the stream, they frequently show a gold ring encircling
+an ankle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the simplicity of their costumes, as well as in the
+fact that they do not expose the face, the Turkish women
+stand in strong contrast to the Armenian. Baggy trousers
+<hi rend="italic">à la</hi> Bloomer, a loose robe skirt opening at the sides,
+and a voluminous shawl-like girdle around the waist and
+body, constitute the main features of the Turkish indoor
+costume. On the street a shroud-like robe called yashmak,
+usually white, but sometimes crimson, purple, or
+black, covers them from head to foot. When we would
+meet a bevy of these creatures on the road in the dusk of
+evening, their white, fluttering garments would give them
+the appearance of winged celestials. The Turkish women
+are generally timorous of men, and especially so of foreigners.
+Those of the rural districts, however, are not
+so shy as their city cousins. We frequently met them at
+work in groups about the villages or in the open fields,
+and would sometimes ask for a drink of water. If they
+were a party of maidens, as was often the case, they would
+draw back and hide behind one another. We would offer
+one of them a ride on our <q>very nice horses.</q> This
+<pb n="29"/><anchor id="Pg029"/>would cause a general giggle among her companions, and
+a drawing of the yashmak closer about the neck and face.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK. [p. 29]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i043.png" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.</head><figDesc>ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The road scenes in the interior provinces are but little
+varied. One of the most characteristic features of the
+Anatolian landscape are the storks, which come in flocks
+of thousands from their winter quarters in Egypt and
+build summer nests, unmolested, on the village housetops.
+These, like the crows, magpies, and swallows, prove valuable
+allies to the husbandmen in their war against the
+locust. A still more serviceable friend in this direction
+is the <hi rend="italic">smarmar</hi>, a pink thrush with black wings. Besides
+the various caravan trains of camels, donkeys, horses, and
+mules, the road is frequently dotted with ox-carts, run
+on solid wooden wheels without tires, and drawn by that
+peculiar bovine species, the buffalo. With their distended
+necks, elevated snouts, and hog-like bristles, these animals
+<pb n="30"/><anchor id="Pg030"/>present an ugly appearance, especially when wallowing
+in mud puddles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now and then in the villages we passed by a primitive
+flour-mill moved by a small stream playing upon a horizontal
+wheel beneath the floor; or, more primitive still,
+by a blindfolded donkey plodding ceaselessly around in
+his circular path. In the streets we frequently encountered
+boys and old men gathering manure for their winter
+fuel; and now and then a cripple or invalid would accost
+us as <q>Hakim</q> (<q>Doctor</q>), for the medical work of the
+missionaries has given these simple-minded folk the impression
+that all foreigners are physicians. Coming up
+and extending a hand for us to feel the pulse they would
+ask us to do something for the disease, which we could
+see was rapidly carrying them to the grave.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN. [p. 30]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i044.png" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.</head><figDesc>A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Our first view of Sivas was obtained from the top of
+Mount Yildiz, on which still stands the ruined castle of
+Mithridates, the Pontine monarch, whom Lucullus many
+times defeated, but never conquered. From this point
+we made a very rapid descent, crossed the Kizil
+Irmak for the third time by an old ruined bridge,
+and half an hour later saw the <q>stars and stripes</q>
+flying above the U. S. consulate. In the society
+of our representative, Mr. Henry M. Jewett, we
+were destined to spend several weeks; for a
+day or two after our arrival, one
+<pb n="31"/><anchor id="Pg031"/>of us was taken with a slight attack of typhoid fever,
+supposed to have been contracted by drinking from
+the roadside streams. No better place could have been
+chosen for such a mishap; for recovery was speedy in
+such comfortable quarters, under the care of the missionary
+ladies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The comparative size and prosperity of Sivas, in the
+midst of rather barren surroundings, are explained by
+the fact that it lies at the converging point of the chief
+caravan routes between the Euxine, Euphrates, and Mediterranean.
+Besides being the capital of Rumili, the former
+Seljuk province of Cappadocia, it is the place of residence
+for a French and American consular representative,
+and an agent of the Russian government for the collection
+of the war indemnity, stipulated in the treaty of ’78.
+The dignity of office is here upheld with something of
+the pomp and splendor of the East, even by the representative
+of democratic America. In our tours with
+Mr. Jewett we were escorted at the head by a Circassian
+<hi rend="italic">cavass</hi> (Turkish police), clothed in a long black coat, with
+a huge dagger dangling from a belt of cartridges. Another
+native cavass, with a broadsword dragging at his
+side, usually brought up the rear. At night he was the
+one to carry the huge lantern, which, according to the
+number of candles, is the insignia of rank. <q>I must give
+the Turks what they want,</q> said the consul, with a twinkle
+in his eye—<q>form and red tape. I would not be a
+consul in their eyes, if I didn’t.</q> To illustrate the formality
+of Turkish etiquette he told this story: <q>A Turk was
+once engaged in saving furniture from his burning home,
+when he noticed that a bystander was rolling a cigarette.
+He immediately stopped in his hurry, struck a match, and
+offered a light.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE. [p. 32]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i046.png" rend="quer"><head rend="small">EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.</head><figDesc>EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The most flagrant example of Turkish formality that
+<pb n="33"/><anchor id="Pg033"/>came to our notice was the following address on an official
+document to the Sultan:
+</p>
+
+<p rend="display">
+<q>The Arbiter; the Absolute; the Soul and Body of the
+Universe; the Father of all the sovereigns of the earth;
+His Excellency, the Eagle Monarch; the Cause of the
+never-changing order of things; the Source of all honor;
+the Son of the Sultan of Sultans, under whose feet we
+are dust, whose awful shadow protects us; Abdul Hamid II.,
+Son of Abdul Medjid, whose residence is in Paradise; our
+glorious Lord, to whose sacred body be given health, and
+strength, and endless days; whom Allah keeps in his palace,
+and on his throne with joy and glory, forever. Amen.</q>
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="PRIMITIVE WEAVING. [p. 33]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: PRIMITIVE WEAVING.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i047.png" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">PRIMITIVE WEAVING.</head><figDesc>PRIMITIVE WEAVING.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+This is not the flattery of a cringing subordinate, for
+the same spirit is revealed in an address by the Sultan
+himself to his Grand Vizir:
+</p>
+
+<p rend="display">
+<q>Most honored Vizir; Maintainer of the good order of
+the World; Director of public affairs with wisdom and
+judgment; Accomplisher of the important transactions of
+mankind with intelligence and good sense; Consolidator
+of the edifice of Empire and of Glory; endowed by the
+Most High with abundant gifts; and <q>Monshir,</q> at this
+time, of my Gate of Felicity; my Vizir Mehmed Pasha,
+<pb n="34"/><anchor id="Pg034"/>may God be pleased to preserve him long in exalted
+dignity.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though the Turks cannot be called lazy, yet they like
+to take their time. Patience, they say, belongs to God;
+hurry, to the devil. Nowhere is this so well illustrated
+as in the manner of shopping in Turkey. This was
+brought particularly to our notice when we visited the
+Sivas bazaars to examine some inlaid silverware, for
+which the place is celebrated. The customer stands in
+the street inspecting the articles on exhibition; the merchant
+sits on his heels on the booth floor. If the customer
+is of some position in life, he climbs up and sits down on
+a level with the merchant. If he is a foreigner, the merchant
+is quite deferential. A merchant is not a merchant
+at all, but a host entertaining a guest. Coffee is served;
+then a cigarette rolled up and handed to the <q>guest,</q>
+while the various social and other local topics are freely
+discussed. After coffee and smoking the question of
+purchase is gradually approached; not abruptly, as that
+would involve a loss of dignity; but circumspectly, as if
+the buying of anything were a mere afterthought. Maybe,
+after half an hour, the customer has indicated what he
+wants, and after discussing the quality of the goods, the
+customer asks the price in an off-hand way, as though he
+were not particularly interested. The merchant replies,
+<q>Oh, whatever your highness pleases,</q> or, <q>I shall be
+proud if your highness will do me the honor to accept it
+as a gift.</q> This means nothing whatever, and is merely
+the introduction to the haggling which is sure to follow.
+The seller, with silken manners and brazen countenance,
+will always name a price four times as large as it should
+be. Then the real business begins. The buyer offers one
+half or one fourth of what he finally expects to pay; and
+<pb n="35"/><anchor id="Pg035"/>a war of words, in a blustering tone, leads up to the close
+of this every-day farce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The superstition of the Turks is nowhere so apparent
+as in their fear of the <q>evil eye.</q> Jugs placed around
+the edge of the roof, or an old shoe filled with garlic and
+blue beets (blue glass balls or rings) are a sure guard
+against this illusion. Whenever a pretty child is playing
+upon the street the passers-by will say: <q>Oh, what an
+ugly child!</q> for fear of inciting the evil spirit against its
+beauty. The peasant classes in Turkey are of course the
+most superstitious because they are the most ignorant.
+They have no education whatever, and can neither read
+nor write. Stamboul is the only great city of which
+they know. Paris is a term signifying the whole outside
+world. An American missionary was once asked: <q>In
+what part of Paris is America?</q> Yet it can be said that
+they are generally honest, and always patient. They
+earn from about six to eight cents a day. This will furnish
+them with ekmek and pilaff, and that is all they expect.
+They eat meat only on feast-days, and then only
+mutton. The tax-gatherer is their only grievance; they
+look upon him as a necessary evil. They have no idea of
+being ground down under the oppressor’s iron heel. Yet
+they are happy because they are contented, and have no
+envy. The poorer, the more ignorant, a Turk is, the better
+he seems to be. As he gets money and power, and
+becomes <q>contaminated</q> by western civilization, he deteriorates.
+A resident of twenty years’ experience said:
+<q>In the lowest classes I have sometimes found truth, honesty,
+and gratitude; in the middle classes, seldom; in the
+highest, never.</q> The corruptibility of the Turkish official
+is almost proverbial; but such is to be expected in the
+land where <q>the public treasury</q> is regarded as a <q>sea,</q>
+and <q>who does not drink of it, as a pig.</q> Peculation
+<pb n="36"/><anchor id="Pg036"/>and malversation are fully expected in the public official.
+They are necessary evils—<hi rend="italic">adet</hi> (custom) has made them
+so. Offices are sold to the highest bidder. The Turkish
+official is one of the politest and most agreeable of men.
+He is profuse in his compliments, but he has no conscience
+as to bribes, and little regard for virtue as its own reward.
+We are glad to be able to record a brilliant, though perhaps
+theoretical, exception to this general rule. At Koch-Hissar,
+on our way from Sivas to Kara Hissar, a delay was
+caused by a rather serious break in one of our bicycles.
+In the interval we were the invited guests of a district
+kadi, a venerable-looking and genial old gentleman whose
+acquaintance we had made in an official visit on the previous
+day, as he was then the acting <hi rend="italic">caimacam</hi> (mayor). His
+house was situated in a neighboring valley in the shadow
+of a towering bluff. We were ushered into the <hi rend="italic">selamlük</hi>,
+or guest apartment, in company with an Armenian friend
+who had been educated as a doctor in America, and who
+had consented to act as interpreter for the occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The kadi entered with a smile on his countenance, and
+made the usual picturesque form of salutation by describing
+the figure 3 with his right hand from the floor to his
+forehead. Perhaps it was because he wanted to be polite
+that he said he had enjoyed our company on the previous
+day, and had determined, if possible, to have a more extended
+conversation. With the usual coffee and cigarettes,
+the kadi became informal and chatty. He was evidently
+a firm believer in predestination, as he remarked that God
+had foreordained our trip to that country, even the food
+we were to eat, and the invention of the extraordinary
+<q>cart</q> on which we were to ride. The idea of such a
+journey, in such a peculiar way, was not to be accredited
+to the ingenuity of man. There was a purpose in it all.
+When we ventured to thank him for his hospitality
+to<pb n="37"/><anchor id="Pg037"/>ward two strangers, and even foreigners, he said that this
+world occupied so small a space in God’s dominion, that
+we could well afford to be brothers, one to another, in
+spite of our individual beliefs and opinions. <q>We may
+have different religious beliefs,</q> said he, <q>but we all belong
+to the same great father of humanity; just as children
+of different complexions, dispositions, and intellects
+may belong to one common parent. We should exercise
+reason always, and have charity for other people’s
+opinions.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From charity the conversation naturally turned to justice.
+We were much interested in his opinion on this
+subject, as that of a Turkish judge, and rather high official.
+<q>Justice,</q> said he, <q>should be administered to the
+humblest person; though a king should be the offending
+party, all alike must yield to the sacred law of justice.
+We must account to God for our acts, and not to men.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The regular route from Sivas to Erzerum passes through
+Erzinjan. From this, however, we diverged at Zara, in
+order to visit the city of Kara Hissar, and the neighboring
+Lidjissy mines, which had been pioneered by the Genoese
+explorers, and were now being worked by a party of
+Englishmen. This divergence on to unbeaten paths was
+made at a very inopportune season; for the rainy spell
+set in, which lasted, with scarcely any intermission, for
+over a fortnight. At the base of Kosse Dagh, which
+stands upon the watershed between the two largest rivers
+of Asia Minor, the Kizil Irmak and Yeshil Irmak,
+our road was blocked by a mountain freshet, which at its
+height washed everything before it. We spent a day and
+night on its bank, in a primitive flour-mill, which was so
+far removed from domestic life that we had to send three
+miles up in the mountains to get something to eat. The
+Yeshil Irmak, which we crossed just before reaching Kara
+<pb n="38"/><anchor id="Pg038"/>Hissar, was above our shoulders as we waded through,
+holding our bicycles and baggage over our heads; while
+the swift current rolled the small boulders against us, and
+almost knocked us off our feet. There were no bridges
+in this part of the country. With horses and wagons the
+rivers were usually fordable; and what more would you
+want? With the Turk, as with all Asiatics, it is not a
+question of what is better, but what will do. Long before
+we reached a stream, the inhabitants of a certain town
+or village would gather round, and with troubled countenances
+say, <q>Christian gentlemen—there is no bridge,</q>
+pointing to the river beyond, and graphically describing
+that it was over our horses’ heads. That would settle it,
+they thought; it never occurred to them that a <q>Christian
+gentleman</q> could take off his clothes and wade. Sometimes,
+as we walked along in the mud, the wheels of our
+bicycles would become so clogged that we could not even
+push them before us. In such a case we would take the
+nearest shelter, whatever it might be. The night before
+reaching Kara Hissar, we entered an abandoned stable,
+from which everything had fled except the fleas. Another
+night was spent in the pine-forests just on the border
+be<pb n="39"/><anchor id="Pg039"/>tween Asia Minor and Armenia, which were said to be the
+haunts of the border robbers. Our surroundings could
+not be relieved by a fire for fear of attracting their attention.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 38]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i052.png" rend="quer"><head rend="small">A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.</head><figDesc>A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+When at last we reached the Trebizond-Erzerum highway
+at Baiboot, the contrast was so great that the scaling
+of Kop Dagh, on its comparatively smooth surface, was
+a mere breakfast spell. From here we looked down for
+the first time into the valley of the historic Euphrates,
+and a few hours later we were skimming over its bottom
+lands toward the embattled heights of Erzerum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we neared the city, some Turkish peasants in the
+fields caught sight of us, and shouted to their companions:
+<q>Russians! Russians! There they are! Two of them!</q>
+This was not the first time we had been taken for the subjects
+of the Czar; the whole country seemed to be in dread
+of them. Erzerum is the capital of that district which
+Russia will no doubt demand, if the stipulated war indemnity
+is not paid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The entrance into the city was made to twist and turn
+among the ramparts, so as to avoid a rush in case of an
+attack. But this was no proof against a surprise in the
+case of the noiseless wheel. In we dashed with a roaring
+wind, past the affrighted guards, and were fifty yards
+away before they could collect their scattered senses.
+Then suddenly it dawned upon them that we were human
+beings, and foreigners besides—perhaps even the dreaded
+Russian spies. They took after us at full speed, but it
+was too late. Before they reached us we were in the
+house of the commandant pasha, the military governor,
+to whom we had a letter of introduction from our consul
+at Sivas. That gentleman we found extremely good-natured;
+he laughed heartily at our escapade with the
+guards. Nothing would do but we must visit the Vali,
+<pb n="40"/><anchor id="Pg040"/>the civil governor, who was also a pasha of considerable
+reputation and influence.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A VILLAGE SCENE. [p. 40]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A VILLAGE SCENE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i054.png" rend="gross"><head rend="small">A VILLAGE SCENE.</head><figDesc>A VILLAGE SCENE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+We had intended, but not so soon, to pay an official
+visit to the Vali to present our letter from the Grand
+Vizir, and to ask his permission to proceed to Bayazid,
+whence we had planned to attempt the ascent of Mount
+Ararat, an experience which will be described in the next
+chapter. A few days before, we heard, a similar application
+had been made by an English traveler from Bagdad,
+but owing to certain suspicions the permission was refused.
+It was with no little concern, therefore, that we
+approached the Vali’s private office in company with his
+<pb n="41"/><anchor id="Pg041"/>French interpreter. Circumstances augured ill at the
+very start. The Vali was evidently in a bad humor, for
+we overheard him storming in a high key at some one in
+the room with him. As we passed under the heavy matted
+curtains the two attendants who were holding them up
+cast a rather horrified glance at our dusty shoes and unconventional
+costume. The Vali was sitting in a large
+arm-chair in front of a very small desk, placed at the far
+end of a vacant-looking room. After the usual salaams,
+he motioned to a seat on the divan, and proceeded at once
+to examine our credentials while we sipped at our coffee,
+and whiffed the small cigarettes which were immediately
+served. This furnished the Vali an opportunity to regain
+his usual composure. He was evidently an autocrat of
+the severest type; if we pleased him, it would be all right;
+if we did not, it would be all wrong. We showed him
+everything we had, from our Chinese passport to the little
+photographic camera, and related some of the most amusing
+incidents of our journey through his country. From
+the numerous questions he asked we felt certain of his
+genuine interest, and were more than pleased to see an
+occasional broad smile on his countenance. <q>Well,</q> said
+he, as we rose to take leave, <q>your passports will be ready
+any time after to-morrow; in the mean time I shall be
+pleased to have your horses quartered and fed at government
+expense.</q> This was a big joke for a Turk, and
+assured us of his good-will.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A bicycle exhibition which the Vali had requested was
+given the morning of our departure for Bayazid, on a
+level stretch of road just outside the city. Several missionaries
+and members of the consulates had gone out in
+carriages, and formed a little group by themselves. We
+rode up with the <q>stars and stripes</q> and <q>star and crescent</q>
+fluttering side by side from the handle-bars. It
+<pb n="42"/><anchor id="Pg042"/>was always our custom, especially on diplomatic occasions,
+to have a little flag of the country associated with
+that of our own. This little arrangement evoked a smile
+from the Vali, who, when the exhibition was finished,
+stepped forward and said, <q>I am satisfied, I am pleased.</q>
+His richly caparisoned white charger was now brought
+up. Leaping into the saddle, he waved us good-by, and
+moved away with his suite toward the city. We ourselves
+remained for a few moments to bid good-by to our
+hospitable friends, and then, once more, continued our
+journey toward the east.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="[Rural scene without caption.] [p. 42]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i056.jpg" rend="gross"><figDesc>[Illustration]</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="43"/><anchor id="Pg043"/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf" level1="II. The ascent of Mount Ararat"/>
+<head>II</head>
+
+<head type="sub">THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT</head>
+
+<p>
+According to tradition, Mount Ararat is the scene
+of two of the most important events in the history
+of the human race. In the sacred land of Eden, which
+Armenian legend places at its base, the first of human
+life was born; and on its solitary peak the last of human
+life was saved from an all-destroying flood. The remarkable
+geographical position of this mountain seems to justify
+the Armenian view that it is the center of the world.
+It is on the longest line drawn through the Old World
+from the Cape of Good Hope to Bering Strait; it is also
+on the line of the great deserts and inland seas stretching
+from Gibraltar to Lake Baikal in Siberia—a line of
+continuous depressions; it is equidistant from the Black
+and Caspian Seas and the Mesopotamian plain, which three
+depressions are now watered by three distinct river-systems
+emanating from Ararat’s immediate vicinity. No
+other region has seen or heard so much of the story of
+mankind. In its grim presence empires have come and
+gone; cities have risen and fallen; human life has soared
+up on the wings of hope, and dashed against the rocks
+of despair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To the eye Ararat presents a gently inclined slope of
+<pb n="44"/><anchor id="Pg044"/>sand and ashes rising into a belt of green, another zone
+of black volcanic rocks streaked with snow-beds, and then
+a glittering crest of silver. From the burning desert at
+its base to the icy pinnacle above, it rises through a vertical
+distance of 13,000 feet. There are but few peaks in
+the world that rise so high (17,250 feet above sea-level)
+from so low a plain (2000 feet on the Russian, and 4000
+feet on the Turkish, side), and which, therefore, present
+so grand a spectacle. Unlike many of the world’s mountains,
+it stands alone. Little Ararat (12,840 feet above
+sea-level), and the other still smaller heights that dot the
+plain, only serve as a standard by which to measure Ararat’s
+immensity and grandeur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of
+three great empires. On its conical peak converge the
+dominions of the Czar, the Sultan, and the Shah. The
+Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat along the
+high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through
+the peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the
+northwest, then turns sharply to the west. On the Sardarbulakh
+pass, between Great and Little Ararat, is stationed
+a handful of Russian Cossacks to remind lawless
+tribes of the guardianship of the <q>White Sultan.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two Ararats together form an elliptical mass, about
+twenty-five miles in length, running northwest and southeast,
+and about half that in width. Out of this massive
+base rise the two Ararat peaks, their bases being contiguous
+up to 8800 feet and their tops about seven miles
+apart. Little Ararat is an almost perfect truncated cone,
+while Great Ararat is more of a broad-shouldered dome
+supported by strong, rough-ribbed buttresses. The isolated
+position of Ararat, its structure of igneous rocks,
+the presence of small craters and immense volcanic fissures
+on its slopes, and the scoriæ and ashes on the
+sur<pb n="45"/><anchor id="Pg045"/>rounding plain, establish beyond a doubt its volcanic
+origin. But according to the upheaval theory of the
+eminent geologist, Hermann Abich, who was among the
+few to make the ascent of the mountain, there never was
+a great central crater in either Great or Little Ararat.
+Certain it is that no craters or signs of craters now exist
+on the summit of either mountain. But Mr. James
+Bryce, who made the last ascent, in 1876, seems to think
+that there is no sufficient reason why craters could not
+have previously existed, and been filled up by their own
+irruptions. There is no record of any irruption in historical
+times. The only thing approaching it was the earthquake
+which shook the mountain in 1840, accompanied by
+subterranean rumblings, and destructive blasts of wind.
+The Tatar village of Arghuri and a Kurdish encampment
+on the northeast slope were entirely destroyed by the
+precipitated rocks. Not a man was left to tell the story.
+Mr. Bryce and others have spoken of the astonishing
+height of the snow-line on Mount Ararat, which is placed
+at 14,000 feet; while in the Alps it is only about 9000
+feet, and in the Caucasus on an average 11,000 feet, although
+they lie in a very little higher latitude. They
+assign, as a reason for this, the exceptionally dry region
+in which Ararat is situated. Mr. Bryce ascended the
+mountain on September 12, when the snow-line was at its
+very highest, the first large snow-bed he encountered being
+at 12,000 feet. Our own ascent being made as early
+as July 4,—in fact, the earliest ever recorded,—we found
+some snow as low as 8000 feet, and large beds at 10,500
+feet. The top of Little Ararat was still at that time
+streaked with snow, but not covered. With so many
+extensive snow-beds, one would naturally expect to find
+copious brooks and streams flowing down the mountain
+into the plain; but owing to the porous and dry nature
+<pb n="46"/><anchor id="Pg046"/>of the soil, the water is entirely lost before reaching the
+base of the mountain. Even as early as July we saw no
+stream below 6000 feet, and even above this height the
+mountain freshets frequently flowed far beneath the surface
+under the loosely packed rocks, bidding defiance to
+our efforts to reach them. Notwithstanding the scarcity
+of snow-freshets, there is a middle zone on Mount Ararat,
+extending from about 5000 feet to 9000 feet elevation,
+which is covered with good pasturage, kept green by
+heavy dews and frequent showers. The hot air begins
+to rise from the desert plain as the morning sun peeps
+over the horizon, and continues through the day; this
+warm current, striking against the snow-covered summit,
+is condensed into clouds and moisture. In consequence,
+the top of Ararat is usually—during the summer months,
+at least—obscured by clouds from some time after dawn
+until sunset. On the last day of our ascent, however, we
+were particularly fortunate in having a clear summit until
+1:15 in the afternoon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among the crags of the upper slope are found only a
+few specimens of the wild goat and sheep, and, lower
+down, the fox, wolf, and lynx. The bird and insect life
+is very scanty, but lizards and scorpions, especially on the
+lowest slopes, are abundant. The rich pasturage of Ararat’s
+middle zone attracts pastoral Kurdish tribes. These
+nomadic shepherds, a few Tatars at New Arghuri, and a
+camp of Russian Cossacks at the well of Sardarbulakh,
+are the only human beings to disturb the quiet solitude
+of this grandest of nature’s sanctuaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat was in 1829,
+by Dr. Frederick Parrot, a Russo-German professor in
+the University of Dorpat. He reached the summit with
+a party of three Armenians and two Russian soldiers,
+after two unsuccessful attempts. His ascent, however,
+<pb n="47"/><anchor id="Pg047"/>was doubted, not only by the people in the neighborhood,
+but by many men of science and position in the Russian
+empire, notwithstanding his clear account, which has been
+confirmed by subsequent observers, and in spite of the
+testimony of the two Russian soldiers who had gone with
+him.<note place="foot">Eight years before the first recorded ascent of Ararat by Dr. Parrot
+(1829), there appeared the following from <q>Travels in Georgia,
+Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia,</q> by Sir Robert Ker Porter,
+who, in his time, was an authority on southwestern Asia: <q>These
+inaccessible heights [of Mount Ararat] have never been trod by the
+foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then; for my idea is that
+the Ark rested in the space between the two heads (Great and Little
+Ararat), and not on the top of either. Various attempts have been
+made in different ages to ascend these tremendous mountain pyramids,
+but in vain. Their forms, snows, and glaciers are insurmountable
+obstacles: the distance being so great from the commencement
+of the icy region to the highest points, cold alone would be the destruction
+of any one who had the hardihood to persevere.</q></note> Two of the Armenians who reached the summit
+with him declared that they had gone to a great height,
+but at the point where they had left off had seen much
+higher tops rising around them. This, thereupon, became
+the opinion of the whole country. After Antonomoff, in
+1834, Herr Abich, the geologist, made his valuable ascent
+in 1845. He reached the eastern summit, which is only a
+few feet lower than the western, and only a few minutes’
+walk from it, but was obliged to return at once on account
+of the threatening weather. When he produced his companions
+as witnesses before the authorities at Erivan,
+they turned against him, and solemnly swore that at the
+point which they had reached a higher peak stood between
+them and the western horizon. This strengthened
+the Armenian belief in the inaccessibility of Ararat, which
+was not dissipated when the Russian military engineer,
+General Chodzko, and an English party made the ascent
+<pb n="48"/><anchor id="Pg048"/>in 1856. Nor were their prejudiced minds convinced by
+the ascent of Mr. Bryce twenty years later, in 1876. Two
+days after his ascent, that gentleman paid a visit to the
+Armenian monastery at Echmiadzin, and was presented
+to the archimandrite as the Englishman who had just
+ascended to the top of <q>Masis.</q> <q>No,</q> said the ecclesiastical
+dignitary; <q>that cannot be. No one has ever
+been there. It is impossible.</q> Mr. Bryce himself says:
+<q>I am persuaded that there is not a person living within
+sight of Ararat, unless it be some exceptionally educated
+Russian official at Erivan, who believes that any human
+foot, since Father Noah’s, has trodden that sacred summit.
+So much stronger is faith than sight; or rather so
+much stronger is prejudice than evidence.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had expected, on our arrival in Bayazid, to find in
+waiting for us a Mr. Richardson, an American missionary
+from Erzerum. Two years later, on our arrival home, we
+received a letter explaining that on his way from Van
+he had been captured by Kurdish brigands, and held a
+prisoner until released through the intervention of the
+British consul at Erzerum. It was some such fate as this
+that was predicted for us, should we ever attempt the
+ascent of Mount Ararat through the lawless Kurdish
+tribes upon its slopes. Our first duty, therefore, was to
+see the mutessarif of Bayazid, to whom we bore a letter
+from the Grand Vizir of Turkey, in order to ascertain
+what protection and assistance he would be willing to
+give us. We found with him a Circassian who belonged
+to the Russian camp at Sardarbulakh, on the Ararat pass,
+and who had accompanied General Chodzko on his ascent
+of the mountain in 1856. Both he and the mutessarif
+thought an ascent so early in the year was impossible;
+that we ought not to think of such a thing until two
+months later. It was now six weeks earlier than the time
+<pb n="49"/><anchor id="Pg049"/>of General Chodzko’s ascent (August 11 to 18), then the
+earliest on record. They both strongly recommended
+the northwestern slope as being more gradual. This is
+the one that Parrot ascended in 1829, and where Abich
+was repulsed on his third attempt. Though entirely inexperienced
+in mountain-climbing, we ourselves thought
+that the southeast slope, the one taken by General Chodzko,
+the English party, and Mr. Bryce, was far more feasible
+for a small party. One thing, however, the mutessarif
+was determined upon: we must not approach the mountain
+without an escort of Turkish zaptiehs, as an emblem
+of government protection. Besides, he would send for
+the chief of the Ararat Kurds, and endeavor to arrange
+with him for our safety and guidance up the mountain.
+As we emerged into the streets an Armenian professor
+gravely shook his head. <q>Ah,</q> said he, <q>you will never
+do it.</q> Then dropping his voice, he told us that those
+other ascents were all fictitious; that the summit of <q>Masis</q>
+had never yet been reached except by Noah; and
+that we were about to attempt what was an utter impossibility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Bayazid we could not procure even proper wood for
+alpenstocks. Willow branches, two inches thick, very dry
+and brittle, were the best we could obtain. Light as this
+wood is, the alpenstocks weighed at least seven pounds
+apiece when the iron hooks and points were riveted on at
+the ends by the native blacksmith, for whom we cut paper
+patterns, of the exact size, for everything we wanted. We
+next had large nails driven into the souls of our shoes by
+a local shoemaker, who made them for us by hand out of
+an old English file, and who wanted to pull them all out
+again because we would not pay him the exorbitant price
+he demanded. In buying provisions for the expedition,
+we spent three hours among the half dilapidated bazaars
+<pb n="51"/><anchor id="Pg051"/>of the town, which have never been repaired since the
+disastrous Russian bombardment. The most difficult task,
+perhaps, in our work of preparation was to strike a bargain
+with an Armenian muleteer to carry our food and
+baggage up the mountain on his two little donkeys.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE. [p. 50]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: WHERE THE <q>ZAPTIEHS</q> WERE NOT A NUISANCE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i064.jpg" rend="quer"><head rend="small">WHERE THE <q>ZAPTIEHS</q> WERE NOT A NUISANCE.</head><figDesc>WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Evening came, and no word from either the mutessarif
+or the Kurdish chief. Although we were extremely anxious
+to set off on the expedition before bad weather set in,
+we must not be in a hurry, for the military governor of
+Karakillissa was now the guest of the mutessarif, and it
+would be an interference with his social duties to try to
+see him until after his guest had departed. On the morrow
+we were sitting in our small dingy room after dinner,
+when a cavalcade hastened up to our inn, and a few minutes
+later we were surprised to hear ourselves addressed
+in our native tongue. Before us stood a dark-complexioned
+young man, and at his side a small wiry old gentleman,
+who proved to be a native Austrian Tyrolese, who
+followed the profession of an artist in Paris. He was
+now making his way to Erivan, in Russia, on a sight-seeing
+tour from Trebizond. His companion was a Greek
+from Salonica, who had lived for several years in London,
+whence he had departed not many weeks before, for Teheran,
+Persia. These two travelers had met in Constantinople,
+and the young Greek, who could speak English,
+Greek, and Turkish, had been acting as interpreter for
+the artist. They had heard of the <q>devil’s carts</q> when
+in Van, and had made straight for our quarters on their
+arrival in Bayazid. At this point they were to separate.
+When we learned that the old gentleman (Ignaz Raffl by
+name) was a member of an Alpine club and an experienced
+mountain-climber, we urged him to join in the ascent.
+Though his shoulders were bent by the cares and troubles
+of sixty-three years, we finally induced him to accompany
+<pb n="52"/><anchor id="Pg052"/>our party. Kantsa, the Greek, reluctantly agreed to do
+likewise, and proved to be an excellent interpreter, but a
+poor climber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following morning we paid the mutessarif a second
+visit, with Kantsa as interpreter. Inasmuch as the Kurdish
+chief had not arrived, the mutessarif said he would
+make us bearers of a letter to him. Two zaptiehs were to
+accompany us in the morning, while others were to go
+ahead and announce our approach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At ten minutes of eleven, on the morning of the second
+of July, our small cavalcade, with the two exasperating
+donkeys at the head laden with mats, bags of provisions,
+extra clothing, alpenstocks, spiked shoes, and coils of
+stout rope, filed down the streets of Bayazid, followed by
+a curious rabble. As Bayazid lies hidden behind a projecting
+spur of the mountains we could obtain no view of
+the peak itself until we had tramped some distance out
+on the plain. Its huge giant mass broke upon us all at
+once. We stopped and looked—and looked again. No
+mountain-peak we have seen, though several have been
+higher, has ever inspired the feeling which filled us when
+we looked for the first time upon towering Ararat. We
+had not proceeded far before we descried a party of Kurdish
+horsemen approaching from the mountain. Our zaptiehs
+advanced rather cautiously to meet them, with rifles
+thrown across the pommels of their saddles. After a
+rather mysterious parley, our zaptiehs signaled that all
+was well. On coming up, they reported that these horsemen
+belonged to the party that was friendly to the Turkish
+government. The Kurds, they said, were at this time
+divided among themselves, a portion of them having
+adopted conciliatory measures with the government, and
+the rest holding aloof. But we rather considered their
+<pb n="54"/><anchor id="Pg054"/>little performance as a scheme to extort a little more baksheesh
+for their necessary presence.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="READY FOR THE START. [p. 53]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: READY FOR THE START.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i067.jpg"><head rend="small">READY FOR THE START.</head><figDesc>READY FOR THE START.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The plain we were now on was drained by a tributary
+of the Aras River, a small stream reached after two
+hours’ steady tramping. From the bordering hillocks
+we emerged in a short time upon another vast plateau,
+which stretched far away in a gentle rise to the base of
+the mountain itself. Near by we discovered a lone willow-tree,
+the only one in the whole sweep of our vision, under
+the gracious foliage of which sat a band of Kurds, retired
+from the heat of the afternoon sun, their horses feeding
+on some swamp grass near at hand. Attracted by this
+sign of water, we drew near, and found a copious spring.
+A few words from the zaptiehs, who had advanced among
+them, seemed to put the Kurds at their ease, though they
+did not by any means appease their curiosity. They invited
+us to partake of their frugal lunch of ekmek and
+goat’s-milk cheese. Our clothes and baggage were discussed
+piece by piece, with loud expressions of merriment,
+until one of us arose, and, stealing behind the group,
+snapped the camera. <q>What was that?</q> said a burly
+member of the group, as he looked round with scowling
+face at his companions. <q>Yes; what was that?</q> they
+echoed, and then made a rush for the manipulator of the
+black box, which they evidently took for some instrument
+of the black art. The photographer stood serenely innocent,
+and winked at the zaptieh to give the proper explanation.
+He was equal to the occasion. <q>That,</q> said he,
+<q>is an instrument for taking time by the sun.</q> At this
+the box went the round, each one gazing intently into the
+lens, then scratching his head, and casting a bewildered
+look at his nearest neighbor. We noticed that every one
+about us was armed with knife, revolver, and Martini
+rifle, a belt of cartridges surrounding his waist. It
+oc<pb n="55"/><anchor id="Pg055"/>curred to us that Turkey was adopting a rather poor
+method of clipping the wings of these mountain birds, by
+selling them the very best equipments for war. Legally,
+none but government guards are permitted to carry
+arms, and yet both guns and ammunition are sold in the
+bazaars of almost every city of the Turkish dominions.
+The existence of these people, in their wild, semi-independent
+state, shows not so much the power of the Kurds as
+the weakness of the Turkish government, which desires
+to use a people of so fierce a reputation for the suppression
+of its other subjects. After half an hour’s rest, we
+prepared to decamp, and so did our Kurdish companions.
+They were soon in their saddles, and galloping away in
+front of us, with their arms clanking, and glittering in
+the afternoon sunlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the spring we had turned off the trail that led over
+the Sardarbulakh pass into Russia, and were now following
+a horse-path which winds up to the Kurdish encampments
+on the southern slope of the mountain. The plain
+was strewn with sand and rocks, with here and there a
+bunch of tough, wiry grass about a foot and a half high,
+which, though early in the year, was partly dry. It would
+have been hot work except for the rain of the day before
+and a strong southeast wind. As it was, our feet were
+blistered and bruised, the thin leather sandals worn at
+the outset offering very poor protection. The atmosphere
+being dry, though not excessively hot, we soon began to
+suffer from thirst. Although we searched diligently for
+water, we did not find it till after two hours more of constant
+marching, when at a height of about 6000 feet, fifty
+yards from the path, we discerned a picturesque cascade
+of sparkling, cold mountain water. Even the old gentleman,
+Raffl, joined heartily in the gaiety induced by this
+clear, cold water from Ararat’s melting snows.
+</p>
+<pb n="56"/><anchor id="Pg056"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING. [p. 56]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i070.jpg"><head rend="small">PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.</head><figDesc>PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="57"/><anchor id="Pg057"/>
+<p>
+Our ascent for two and a half hours longer was through
+a luxuriant vegetation of flowers, grasses, and weeds, which
+grew more and more scanty as we advanced. Prominent
+among the specimens were the wild pink, poppy, and rose.
+One small fragrant herb, that was the most abundant of
+all, we were told was used by the Kurds for making tea.
+All these filled the evening air with perfume as we trudged
+along, passing now and then a Kurdish lad, with his flock
+of sheep and goats feeding on the mountain-grass, which
+was here much more luxuriant than below. Looking
+backward, we saw that we were higher than the precipitous
+cliffs which overtower the town of Bayazid, and
+which are perhaps from 1500 to 2000 feet above the lowest
+part of the plain. The view over the plateau was now
+grand. Though we were all fatigued by the day’s work,
+the cool, moisture-laden air of evening revived our flagging
+spirits. We forged ahead with nimble step, joking,
+and singing a variety of national airs. The French <q>Marseillaise,</q>
+in which the old gentleman heartily joined,
+echoed and reëchoed among the rocks, and caused the
+shepherd lads and their flocks to crane their heads in
+wonderment. Even the Armenian muleteer so far overcame
+his fear of the Kurdish robbers as to indulge in one
+of his accustomed funeral dirges; but it stopped short,
+never to go again, when we came in sight of the Kurdish
+encampment. The poor fellow instinctively grabbed his
+donkeys about their necks, as though they were about to
+plunge over a precipice. The zaptiehs dashed ahead with
+the mutessarif’s letter to the Kurdish chief. We followed
+slowly on foot, while the Armenian and his two pets kept
+at a respectful distance in the rear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The disk of the sun had already touched the western
+horizon when we came to the black tents of the Kurdish
+encampment, which at this time of the day presented a
+<pb n="58"/><anchor id="Pg058"/>rather busy scene. The women seemed to be doing all
+the work, while their lords sat round on their haunches.
+Some of the women were engaged in milking the sheep
+and goats in an inclosure. Others were busy making
+butter in a churn which was nothing more than a skin
+vessel three feet long, of the shape of a Brazil-nut, suspended
+from a rude tripod; this they swung to and fro to
+the tune of a weird Kurdish song. Behind one of the
+tents, on a primitive weaving-machine, some of them were
+making tent-roofing and matting. Others still were walking
+about with a ball of wool in one hand and a distaff in
+the other, spinning yarn. The flocks stood round about,
+bleating and lowing, or chewing their cud in quiet contentment.
+All seemed very domestic and peaceful except
+the Kurdish dogs, which set upon us with loud, fierce
+growls and gnashing teeth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not so was it with the Kurdish chief, who by this time
+had finished reading the mutessarif’s message, and who
+now advanced from his tent with salaams of welcome.
+As he stood before us in the glowing sunset, he was a
+rather tall, but well-proportioned man, with black eyes
+and dark mustache, contrasting well with his brown-tanned
+complexion. Upon his face was the stamp of a
+rather wild and retiring character, although treachery
+and deceit were by no means wanting. He wore a headgear
+that was something between a hat and a turban, and
+over his baggy Turkish trousers hung a long Persian
+coat of bright-colored, large-figured cloth, bound at the
+waist by a belt of cartridges. Across the shoulders was
+slung a breech-loading Martini rifle, and from his neck
+dangled a heavy gold chain, which was probably the spoil
+of some predatory expedition. A quiet dignity sat on
+Ismail Deverish’s stalwart form.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT. [p. 59]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i073.jpg"><head>THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.</head><figDesc>THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+It was with no little pleasure that we accepted his
+invi<pb n="60"/><anchor id="Pg060"/>tation to a cup of tea. After our walk of nineteen miles,
+in which we had ascended from 3000 to 7000 feet, we were
+in fit condition to appreciate a rest. That Kurdish tent,
+as far as we were concerned, was a veritable palace, although
+we were almost blinded by the smoke from the
+green pine-branches on the smoldering fire. We said
+that the chief invited us to a cup of tea: so he did—but
+we provided the tea; and that, too, not only for our own
+party, but for half a dozen of the chief’s personal friends.
+There being only two glasses in the camp, we of course
+had to wait until our Kurdish acquaintances had quenched
+their burning thirst. In thoughtful mood we gazed
+around through the evening twilight. Far away on the
+western slope we could see some Kurdish women plodding
+along under heavy burdens of pine-branches like
+those that were now fumigating our eyes and nostrils.
+Across the hills the Kurdish shepherds were driving home
+their herds and flocks to the tinkling of bells. All this,
+to us, was deeply impressive. Such peaceful scenes, we
+thought, could never be the haunt of warlike robbers.
+The flocks at last came home; the shouts of the shepherds
+ceased; darkness fell; and all was quiet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One by one the lights in the tents broke out, like the
+stars above. As the darkness deepened, they shone more
+and more brightly across the amphitheater of the encampment.
+The tent in which we were now sitting was oblong
+in shape, covered with a mixture of goats’ and sheep’s
+wool, carded, spun, and woven by the Kurdish women.
+This tenting was all of a dark brown or black color. The
+various strips were badly joined together, allowing the
+snow and rain, during the stormy night that followed, to
+penetrate plentifully. A wickerwork fencing, about three
+feet high, made from the reeds gathered in the swamps of
+the Aras River, was stretched around the bottom of the
+<pb n="61"/><anchor id="Pg061"/>tent to keep out the cattle as well as to afford some little
+protection from the elements. This same material, of the
+same width or height, was used to partition off the apartments
+of the women. Far from being veiled and shut
+up in harems, like their Turkish and Persian sisters, the
+Kurdish women come and go among the men, and talk
+and laugh as they please. The thinness and lowness of
+the partition walls did not disturb their astonishing equanimity.
+In their relations with the men the women are
+extremely free. During the evening we frequently found
+ourselves surrounded by a concourse of these mountain
+beauties, who would sit and stare at us with their black
+eyes, call attention to our personal oddities, and laugh
+among themselves. Now and then their jokes at our expense
+would produce hilarious laughter among the men.
+The dress of these women consisted of baggy trousers,
+better described in this country as <q>divided skirts,</q> a
+bright-colored overskirt and tunic, and a little round cloth
+cap encircled with a band of red and black. Through the
+right lobe of the nose was hung a peculiar button-shaped
+ornament studded with precious stones. This picturesque
+costume well set off their rich olive complexions, and black
+eyes beneath dark-brown lashes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were no signs of an approaching evening meal
+until we opened our provision-bag, and handed over certain
+articles of raw food to be cooked for us. No sooner
+were the viands intrusted to the care of our hosts, than
+two sets of pots and kettles made their appearance in the
+other compartments. In half an hour our host and friends
+proceeded to indulge their voracious appetites. When our
+own meal was brought to us some time after, we noticed
+that the fourteen eggs we had doled out had been reduced
+to six; and the other materials suffered a similar reduction,
+the whole thing being so patent as to make their
+<pb n="62"/><anchor id="Pg062"/>attempt at innocence absurdly ludicrous. We thought,
+however, if Kurdish highway robbery took no worse form
+than this, we could well afford to be content. Supper
+over, we squatted round a slow-burning fire, on the thick
+felt mats which served as carpets, drank tea, and smoked
+the usual cigarettes. By the light of the glowing embers
+we could watch the faces about us, and catch their horrified
+glances when reference was made to our intended
+ascent of Ak-Dagh, the mysterious abode of the jinn. Before
+turning in for the night, we reconnoitered our situation.
+The lights in all the tents, save our own, were now
+extinguished. Not a sound was heard, except the heavy
+breathing of some of the slumbering animals about us,
+or the bark of a dog at some distant encampment. The
+huge dome of Ararat, though six to eight miles farther
+up the slope, seemed to be towering over us like some
+giant monster of another world. We could not see the
+summit, so far was it above the enveloping clouds. We
+returned to the tent to find that the zaptiehs had been
+given the best places and best covers to sleep in, and that
+we were expected to accommodate ourselves near the door,
+wrapped up in an old Kurdish carpet. Policy was evidently
+a better developed trait of Kurdish character than
+hospitality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Although we arose at four, seven o’clock saw us still at
+the encampment. Two hours vanished before our gentlemen
+zaptiehs condescended to rise from their peaceful
+slumbers; then a great deal of time was unnecessarily
+consumed in eating their special breakfast. We ourselves
+had to be content with ekmek and yaourt (blotting-paper
+bread and curdled milk). This over, they concluded not
+to go on without sandals to take the place of their heavy
+military boots, as at this point their horses would have to
+be discarded. After we had employed a Kurd to make
+<pb n="63"/><anchor id="Pg063"/>these for them, they declared they were afraid to proceed
+without the company of ten Kurds armed to the teeth.
+We knew that this was only a scheme on the part of the
+Kurds, with whom the zaptiehs were in league, to extort
+money from us. We still kept cool, and only casually
+insinuated that we did not have enough money to pay
+for so large a party. This announcement worked like
+a charm. The interest the Kurds had up to this time
+taken in our venture died away at once. Even the three
+Kurds who, as requested in the message of the mutessarif,
+were to accompany us up the mountain to the snow-line,
+refused absolutely to go. The mention of the mutessarif’s
+name awakened only a sneer. We had also relied
+upon the Kurds for blankets, as we had been advised to
+do by our friends in Bayazid. Those we had already
+hired they now snatched from the donkeys standing before
+the tent. All this time our tall, gaunt, meek-looking
+muleteer had stood silent. Now his turn had come. How
+far was he to go with his donkeys?—he didn’t think it
+possible for him to go much beyond this point. Patience
+now ceased to be a virtue. We cut off discussion at once;
+told the muleteer he would either go on, or lose what he
+had already earned; and informed the zaptiehs that whatever
+they did would be reported to the mutessarif on our
+return. Under this rather forcible persuasion, they stood
+not on the order of their going, but sullenly followed our
+little procession out of camp before the crestfallen Kurds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the absence of guides we were thrown upon our own
+resources. Far from being an assistance, our zaptiehs
+proved a nuisance. They would carry nothing, not even
+the food they were to eat, and were absolutely ignorant
+of the country we were to traverse. From our observations
+on the previous days, we had decided to strike out
+on a northeast course, over the gentle slope, until we
+<pb n="64"/><anchor id="Pg064"/>struck the rocky ridges on the southeast buttress of the
+dome. On its projecting rocks, which extended nearer
+to the summit than those of any other part of the mountain,
+we could avoid the slippery, precipitous snow-beds
+that stretched far down the mountain at this time of the
+year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Immediately after leaving the encampment, the ascent
+became steeper and more difficult; the small volcanic
+stones of yesterday now increased to huge obstructing
+boulders, among which the donkeys with difficulty made
+their way. They frequently tipped their loads, or got
+wedged in between two unyielding walls. In the midst
+of our efforts to extricate them, we often wondered how
+Noah ever managed with the animals from the ark. Had
+these donkeys not been of a philosophical turn of mind,
+they might have offered forcible objections to the way we
+extricated them from their straightened circumstances.
+A remonstrance on our part for carelessness in driving
+brought from the muleteer a burst of Turkish profanity
+that made the rocks of Ararat resound with indignant
+echoes. The spirit of insubordination seemed to be increasing
+in direct ratio with the height of our ascent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We came now to a comparatively smooth, green slope,
+which led up to the highest Kurdish encampment met on
+the line of our ascent, about 7500 feet. When in sight of
+the black tents, the subject of Kurdish guides was again
+broached by the zaptiehs, and immediately they sat down
+to discuss the question. We ourselves were through with
+discussion, and fully determined to have nothing to do
+with a people who could do absolutely nothing for us.
+We stopped at the tents, and asked for milk. <q>Yes,</q>
+they said; <q>we have some</q>: but after waiting for ten
+minutes, we learned that the milk was still in the goats’
+possession, several hundred yards away among the rocks.
+<pb n="66"/><anchor id="Pg066"/>It dawned upon us that this was only another trick of the
+zaptiehs to get a rest.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION. [p. 65]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i079.jpg"><head rend="small">OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.</head><figDesc>OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+We pushed on the next 500 feet of the ascent without
+much trouble or controversy, the silence broken only by
+the muleteer, who took the <hi rend="italic">raki</hi> bottle off the donkey’s
+pack, and asked if he could take a drink. As we had
+only a limited supply, to be used to dilute the snow-water,
+we were obliged to refuse him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At 8000 feet we struck our first snowdrift, into which
+the donkeys sank up to their bodies. It required our
+united efforts to lift them out, and half carry them across.
+Then on we climbed till ten o’clock, to a point about 9000
+feet, where we stopped for lunch in a quiet mountain
+glen, by the side of a rippling mountain rill. This snow-water
+we drank with raki. The view in the mean time
+had been growing more and more extensive. The plain
+before us had lost nearly all its detail and color, and was
+merged into one vast whole. Though less picturesque, it
+was incomparably grander. Now we could see how, in
+ages past, the lava had burst out of the lateral fissures in
+the mountain, and flowed in huge streams for miles down
+the slope, and out on the plain below. These beds of lava
+were gradually broken up by the action of the elements,
+and now presented the appearance of ridges of broken
+volcanic rocks of the most varied and fantastic shapes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was here that the muleteer showed evident signs of
+weakening, which later on developed into a total collapse.
+We had come to a broad snow-field where the donkeys
+stuck fast and rolled over helpless in the snow. Even
+after we had unstrapped their baggage and carried it
+over on our shoulders, they could make no headway. The
+muleteer gave up in despair, and refused even to help us
+carry our loads to the top of an adjoining hill, whither
+the zaptiehs had proceeded to wait for us. In
+conse<pb n="68"/><anchor id="Pg068"/>quence, Raffl and we were compelled to carry two donkey-loads
+of baggage for half a mile over the snow-beds and
+boulders, followed by the sulking muleteer, who had deserted
+his donkeys, rather than be left alone himself. On
+reaching the zaptiehs, we sat down to hold a council on
+the situation; but the clouds, which, during the day, had
+occasionally obscured the top of the mountain, now began
+to thicken, and it was not long before a shower compelled
+us to beat a hasty retreat to a neighboring ledge of rocks.
+The clouds that were rolling between us and the mountain
+summit seemed but a token of the storm of circumstances.
+One thing was certain, the muleteer could go
+no farther up the mountain, and yet he was mortally
+afraid to return alone to the Kurdish robbers. He sat
+down, and began to cry like a child. This predicament of
+their accomplice furnished the zaptiehs with a plausible
+excuse. They now absolutely refused to go any farther
+without him. Our interpreter, the Greek, again joined the
+majority; he was not going to risk the ascent without the
+Turkish guards, and besides, he had now come to the conclusion
+that we had not sufficient blankets to spend a
+night at so high an altitude. Disappointed, but not discouraged,
+we gazed at the silent old gentleman at our
+side. In his determined countenance we read his answer.
+Long shall we remember Ignaz Raffl as one of the pluckiest,
+most persevering of old men.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD. [p. 67]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i081.jpg"><head rend="small">HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.</head><figDesc>HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+There was now only one plan that could be pursued.
+Selecting from our supplies one small blanket, a felt mat,
+two long, stout ropes, enough food to last us two days, a
+bottle of cold tea, and a can of Turkish raki, we packed
+them into two bundles to strap on our backs. We then
+instructed the rest of the party to return to the Kurdish
+encampment and await our return. The sky was again
+clear at 2:30 <hi rend="small">P.&nbsp;M.</hi>, when we bade good-by to our
+    worth<pb n="69"/><anchor id="Pg069"/>less comrades and resumed the ascent. We were now at
+a height of nine thousand feet, and it was our plan to
+camp at a point far enough up the mountain to enable us
+to complete the ascent on the following day, and return
+to the Kurdish encampment by nightfall. Beyond us was
+a region of snow and barren rocks, among which we still
+saw a small purple flower and bunches of lichens, which
+grew more rare as we advanced. Our course continued
+in a northeast direction, toward the main southeast ridge
+of the mountain. Sometimes we were floundering with
+our heavy loads in the deep snow-beds, or scrambling on
+hands and knees over the huge boulders of the rocky
+seams. Two hours and a half of climbing brought us to
+the crest of the main southeast ridge, about one thousand
+feet below the base of the precipitous dome. At this point
+our course changed from northeast to northwest, and
+con<pb n="70"/><anchor id="Pg070"/>tinued so during the rest of the ascent. Little Ararat
+was now in full view. We could even distinguish upon
+its northwest side a deep-cut gorge, which was not visible
+before. Upon its smooth and perfect slopes remained
+only the tatters of its last winter’s garments. We could
+also look far out over the Sardarbulakh ridge, which connects
+the two Ararats, and on which the Cossacks are encamped.
+It was to them that the mutessarif had desired
+us to go, but we had subsequently determined to make
+the ascent directly from the Turkish side.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW. [p. 69]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i083.png"><head rend="small">LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.</head><figDesc>LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Following up this southeast ridge we came at 5:45 <hi rend="small">P.&nbsp;M.</hi>
+to a point about eleven thousand feet. Here the thermometer
+registered 39° Fahrenheit, and was constantly
+falling. If we should continue on, the cold during the
+night, especially with our scanty clothing, would become
+intolerable; and then, too, we could scarcely find a spot
+level enough to sleep on. We therefore determined to
+stop here for the night, and to continue the ascent at
+dawn. Some high, rugged crags on the ridge above us
+attracted our attention as affording a comparatively protected
+lodging. Among these we spread our carpet, and
+piled stones in the intervening spaces to form a complete
+inclosure. Thus busily engaged, we failed for a time to
+realize the grandeur of the situation. Over the vast and
+misty panorama that spread out before us, the lingering
+rays of the setting sun shed a tinge of gold, which was
+communicated to the snowy beds around us. Behind the
+peak of Little Ararat a brilliant rainbow stretched in one
+grand archway above the weeping clouds. But this was
+only one turn of nature’s kaleidoscope. The arch soon
+faded away, and the shadows lengthened and deepened
+across the plain, and mingled, till all was lost to view
+behind the falling curtains of the night. The Kurdish
+tents far down the slope, and the white curling smoke
+<pb n="71"/><anchor id="Pg071"/>from their evening camp-fires, we could see no more; only
+the occasional bark of a dog was borne upward through
+the impenetrable darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Colder and colder grew the atmosphere. From 39° the
+thermometer gradually fell to 36°, to 33°, and during the
+night dropped below freezing-point. The snow, which
+fell from the clouds just over our heads, covered our frugal
+supper-table, on which were placed a few hard-boiled
+eggs, some tough Turkish bread, cheese, and a bottle of
+tea mixed with raki. Ice-tea was no doubt a luxury at
+this time of the year, but not on Mount Ararat, at the
+height of eleven thousand feet, with the temperature at
+freezing-point. M. Raffl was as cheerful as could be expected
+under the circumstances. He expressed his delight
+at our progress thus far; and now that we were free from
+our <q>gentlemen</q> attendants, he considered our chances
+for success much brighter. We turned in together under
+our single blanket, with the old gentleman between us.
+He had put on every article of clothing, including gloves,
+hat, hood, cloak, and heavy shoes. For pillows we used
+the provision-bags and camera. The bottle of cold tea
+we buttoned up in our coats to prevent it from freezing.
+On both sides, and above us, lay the pure white snow; below
+us a huge abyss, into which the rocky ridge descended
+like a darkened stairway to the lower regions. The awful
+stillness was unbroken, save by the whistling of the wind
+among the rocks. Dark masses of clouds seemed to bear
+down upon us every now and then, opening up their trapdoors,
+and letting down a heavy fall of snow. The heat
+of our bodies melted the ice beneath us, and our clothes
+became saturated with ice-water. Although we were surrounded
+by snow and ice, we were suffering with a burning
+thirst. Since separating from our companions we had
+found no water whatever, while the single bottle of cold
+<pb n="73"/><anchor id="Pg073"/>tea we had must be preserved for the morrow. Sleep,
+under such circumstances, and in our cramped position,
+was utterly impossible. At one o’clock the morning star
+peeped above the eastern horizon. This we watched hour
+after hour, as it rose in unrivaled beauty toward the zenith,
+until at last it began to fade away in the first gray
+streaks of the morning.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET. [p. 72]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i086.jpg"><head rend="small">THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET.</head><figDesc>THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+By the light of a flickering candle we ate a hurried
+breakfast, fastened on our spiked shoes, and strapped to
+our backs a few indispensable articles, leaving the rest of
+our baggage at the camp until our return. Just at daybreak,
+3:55 <hi rend="small">A.&nbsp;M.</hi>, on the 4th of July, we started off on
+what proved to be the hardest day’s work we had ever
+accomplished. We struck out at once across the broad
+snow-field to the second rock rib on the right, which
+seemed to lead up to the only line of rocks above. The
+surface of these large snow-beds had frozen during the
+night, so that we had to cut steps with our ice-picks to
+keep from slipping down their glassy surface. Up this
+ridge we slowly climbed for three weary hours, leaping
+from boulder to boulder, or dragging ourselves up their
+precipitous sides. The old gentleman halted frequently
+to rest, and showed evident signs of weariness. <q>It is
+hard; we must take it slowly,</q> he would say (in German)
+whenever our impatience would get the better of our prudence.
+At seven o’clock we reached a point about 13,500
+feet, beyond which there seemed to be nothing but the
+snow-covered slope, with only a few projecting rocks
+along the edge of a tremendous gorge which now broke
+upon our astonished gaze. Toward this we directed our
+course, and, an hour later, stood upon its very verge. Our
+venerable companion now looked up at the precipitous
+slope above us, where only some stray, projecting rocks
+were left to guide us through the wilderness of snow.
+<pb n="74"/><anchor id="Pg074"/><q>Boys,</q> said he, despondently, <q>I cannot reach the top;
+I have not rested during the night, and I am now falling
+asleep on my feet; besides, I am very much fatigued.</q>
+This came almost like a sob from a breaking heart. Although
+the old gentleman was opposed to the ascent in
+the first instance, his old Alpine spirit arose within him
+with all its former vigor when once he had started up the
+mountain slope; and now, when almost in sight of the
+<pb n="75"/><anchor id="Pg075"/>very goal, his strength began to fail him. After much
+persuasion and encouragement, he finally said that if he
+could get half an hour’s rest and sleep, he thought he
+would be able to continue. We then wrapped him up in
+his greatcoat, and dug out a comfortable bed in the snow,
+while one of us sat down, with back against him, to keep
+him from rolling down the mountain-side.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM. [p. 74]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="gross" url="images/i088.jpg"><head rend="small">NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.</head><figDesc>NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+We were now on the chasm’s brink, looking down into
+its unfathomable depths. This gigantic rent, hundreds
+of feet in width and thousands in depth, indicates that
+northwest-southeast line along which the volcanic forces
+of Ararat have acted most powerfully. This fissure is
+perhaps the greatest with which the mountain is seamed,
+and out of which has undoubtedly been discharged a great
+portion of its lava. Starting from the base of the dome,
+it seemed to pierce the shifting clouds to a point about
+500 feet from the summit. This line is continued out
+into the plain in a series of small volcanoes the craters of
+which appear to be as perfect as though they had been in
+activity only yesterday. The solid red and yellow rocks
+which lined the sides of the great chasm projected above
+the opposite brink in jagged and appalling cliffs. The
+whole was incased in a mass of huge fantastic icicles,
+which, glittering in the sunlight, gave it the appearance
+of a natural crystal palace. No more fitting place than
+this could the fancy of the Kurds depict for the home of
+the terrible jinn; no better symbol of nature for the awful
+jaws of death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our companion now awoke considerably refreshed,
+and the ascent was continued close to the chasm’s brink.
+Here were the only rocks to be seen in the vast snow-bed
+around us. Cautiously we proceed, with cat-like tread,
+following directly in one another’s footsteps, and holding
+on to our alpenstocks like grim death. A loosened rock
+<pb n="76"/><anchor id="Pg076"/>would start at first slowly, gain momentum, and fairly
+fly. Striking against some projecting ledge, it would
+bound a hundred feet or more into the air, and then drop
+out of sight among the clouds below. Every few moments
+we would stop to rest; our knees were like lead, and the
+high altitude made breathing difficult. Now the trail of
+rocks led us within two feet of the chasm’s edge; we
+approached it cautiously, probing well for a rock foundation,
+and gazing with dizzy heads into the abyss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The slope became steeper and steeper, until it abutted
+in an almost precipitous cliff coated with snow and glistening
+ice. There was no escape from it, for all around the
+snow-beds were too steep and slippery to venture an ascent
+upon them. Cutting steps with our ice-picks, and
+half-crawling, half-dragging ourselves, with the alpenstocks
+hooked into the rocks above, we scaled its height,
+and advanced to the next abutment. Now a cloud, as
+warm as exhausted steam, enveloped us in the midst of
+this ice and snow. When it cleared away, the sun was
+reflected with intenser brightness. Our faces were already
+smarting with blisters, and our dark glasses afforded but
+little protection to our aching eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At 11 <hi rend="small">A.&nbsp;M.</hi> we sat down on the snow to eat our last
+morsel of food. The cold chicken and bread tasted like
+sawdust, for we had no saliva with which to masticate
+them. Our single bottle of tea had given out, and we
+suffered with thirst for several hours. Again the word
+to start was given. We rose at once, but our stiffened
+legs quivered beneath us, and we leaned on our alpenstocks
+for support. Still we plodded on for two more
+weary hours, cutting our steps in the icy cliffs, or sinking
+to our thighs in the treacherous snow-beds. We could
+see that we were nearing the top of the great chasm, for
+the clouds, now entirely cleared away, left our view
+un<pb n="77"/><anchor id="Pg077"/>obstructed. We could even descry the black Kurdish
+tents upon the northeast slope, and, far below, the Aras
+River, like a streak of silver, threading its way into the
+purple distance. The atmosphere about us grew colder,
+and we buttoned up our now too scanty garments. We
+must be nearing the top, we thought, and yet we were not
+certain, for a huge, precipitous cliff, just in front of us,
+cut off the view.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Slowly, slowly,</q> feebly shouted the old gentleman, as
+we began the attack on its precipitous sides, now stopping
+to brush away the treacherous snow, or to cut some
+steps in the solid ice. We pushed and pulled one another
+almost to the top, and then, with one more desperate
+effort, we stood upon a vast and gradually sloping snow-bed.
+Down we plunged above our knees through the
+yielding surface, and staggered and fell with failing
+strength; then rose once more and plodded on, until at
+last we sank exhausted upon the top of Ararat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a moment only we lay gasping for breath; then
+a full realization of our situation dawned upon us, and
+fanned the few faint sparks of enthusiasm that remained
+in our exhausted bodies. We unfurled upon an alpenstock
+the small silk American flag that we had brought
+from home, and for the first time the <q>stars and stripes</q>
+was given to the breeze on the Mountain of the Ark.
+Four shots fired from our revolvers in commemoration
+of Independence Day broke the stillness of the gorges.
+Far above the clouds, which were rolling below us over
+three of the most absolute monarchies in the world, was
+celebrated in our simple way a great event of republicanism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mount Ararat, it will be observed from the accompanying
+sketch, has two tops, a few hundred yards apart, sloping,
+on the eastern and western extremities, into rather
+<pb n="78"/><anchor id="Pg078"/>prominent abutments, and separated by a snow valley, or
+depression, from 50 to 100 feet in depth. The eastern
+top, on which we were standing, was quite extensive, and
+30 to 40 feet lower than its western neighbor. Both tops
+are hummocks on the huge dome of Ararat, like the
+humps on the back of a camel, on neither one of which
+is there a vestige of anything but snow.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE. [p. 78]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i092.jpg"><head rend="small">ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE.</head><figDesc>ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT-FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+There remained just as little trace of the crosses left by
+Parrot and Chodzko, as of the ark itself. We remembered
+the pictures we had seen in our nursery-books,
+<pb n="79"/><anchor id="Pg079"/>which represented this mountain-top covered with green
+grass, and Noah stepping out of the ark, in the bright,
+warm sunshine, before the receding waves; and now we
+looked around and saw this very spot covered with perpetual
+snow. Nor did we see any evidence whatever of
+a former existing crater, except perhaps the snow-filled
+depression we have just mentioned. There was nothing
+about this perpetual snow-field, and the freezing atmosphere
+that was chilling us to the bone, to remind us that
+we were on the top of an extinct volcano that once trembled
+with the convulsions of subterranean heat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The view from this towering height was immeasurably
+extensive, and almost too grand. All detail was lost—all
+color, all outline; even the surrounding mountains
+seemed to be but excrescent ridges of the plain. Then,
+too, we could catch only occasional glimpses, as the clouds
+shifted to and fro. At one time they opened up beneath
+us, and revealed the Aras valley with its glittering ribbon
+of silver at an abysmal depth below. Now and then we
+could descry the black volcanic peaks of Ali Ghez forty
+miles away to the northwest, and on the southwest the
+low mountains that obscured the town of Bayazid. Of
+the Caucasus, the mountains about Erzerum on the west,
+and Lake Van on the south, and even of the Caspian Sea,
+all of which are said to be in Ararat’s horizon, we could
+see absolutely nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had it been a clear day we could have seen not only
+the rival peaks of the Caucasus, which for so many years
+formed the northern wall of the civilized world, but, far
+to the south, we might have descried the mountains of
+Quardu land, where Chaldean legend has placed the landing
+of the ark. We might have gazed, in philosophic
+mood, over the whole of the Aras valley, which for 3000
+years or more has been the scene of so much misery and
+<pb n="80"/><anchor id="Pg080"/>conflict. As monuments of two extreme events in this
+historic period, two spots might have attracted our attention—one
+right below us, the ruins of Artaxata, which,
+according to tradition, was built, as the story goes, after
+the plans of the roving conqueror Hannibal, and stormed
+by the Roman legions, <hi rend="small">A.&nbsp;D.</hi> 58; and farther away to the
+north, the modern fortress of Kars, which so recently reverberated
+with the thunders of the Turkish war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were suddenly aroused by the rumbling of thunder
+below us. A storm was rolling rapidly up the southeast
+slope of the mountain. The atmosphere seemed to be
+boiling over the heated plain below. Higher and higher
+came the clouds, rolling and seething among the grim
+crags along the chasm; and soon we were caught in its
+embrace. The thermometer dropped at once below freezing-point,
+and the dense mists, driven against us by the
+hurricane, formed icicles on our blistered faces, and froze
+the ink in our fountain-pens. Our summer clothing was
+wholly inadequate for such an unexpected experience; we
+were chilled to the bone. To have remained where we
+were would have been jeopardizing our health, if not our
+lives. Although we could scarcely see far enough ahead
+to follow back on the track by which we had ascended,
+yet we were obliged to attempt it at once, for the storm
+around us was increasing every moment; we could even
+feel the charges of electricity whenever we touched the
+iron points of our alpenstocks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carefully peering through the clouds, we managed to
+follow the trail we had made along the gradually sloping
+summit, to the head of the great chasm, which now appeared
+more terrible than ever. We here saw that it
+would be extremely perilous, if not actually impossible,
+to attempt a descent on the rocks along its treacherous
+edge in such a hurricane. The only alternative was to
+<pb n="81"/><anchor id="Pg081"/>take the precipitous snow-covered slope. Planting our
+ice-hooks deep in the snow behind us, we started. At
+first the strong head wind, which on the top almost took
+us off our feet, somewhat checked our downward career,
+but it was not long before we attained a velocity that
+made our hair stand on end. It was a thrilling experience;
+we seemed to be sailing through the air itself, for
+the clouds obscured the slope even twenty feet below.
+Finally we emerged beneath them into the glare of the
+afternoon sunlight; but on we dashed for 6000 feet, leaning
+heavily on the trailing-stocks, which threw up an icy
+spray in our wake. We never once stopped until we
+reached the bottom of the dome, at our last night’s camp
+among the rocks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In less than an hour we had dashed down, through a
+distance which it had taken us nine and a half hours to
+ascend. The camp was reached at 4 <hi rend="small">P.&nbsp;M.</hi>, just twelve
+hours from the time we left it. Gathering up the remaining
+baggage, we hurried away to continue the descent.
+We must make desperate efforts to reach the Kurdish encampment
+by nightfall; for during the last twenty-seven
+hours we had had nothing to drink but half a pint of tea,
+and our thirst by this time became almost intolerable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The large snow-bed down which we had been sliding
+now began to show signs of treachery. The snow, at this
+low altitude, had melted out from below, to supply the
+subterranean streams, leaving only a thin crust at the
+surface. It was not long before one of our party fell into
+one of these pitfalls up to his shoulders, and floundered
+about for some time before he could extricate himself
+from his unexpected snow-bath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Over the rocks and boulders the descent was much
+slower and more tedious. For two hours we were thus
+busily engaged, when all at once a shout rang out in the
+<pb n="82"/><anchor id="Pg082"/>clear evening air. Looking up we saw, sure enough, our
+two zaptiehs and muleteer on the very spot where we had
+left them the evening before. Even the two donkeys were
+on hand to give us a welcoming bray. They had come
+up from the encampment early in the morning, and had
+been scanning the mountain all day long to get some clue
+to our whereabouts. They reported that they had seen
+us at one time during the morning, and had then lost
+sight of us among the clouds. This solicitude on their
+part was no doubt prompted by the fact that they were
+to be held by the mutessarif of Bayazid as personally responsible
+for our safe return, and perhaps, too, by the
+hope that they might thus retrieve the good graces they
+had lost the day before, and thereby increase the amount
+of the forthcoming baksheesh. Nothing, now, was too
+heavy for the donkeys, and even the zaptiehs themselves
+condescended to relieve us of our alpenstocks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night we sat again around the Kurdish camp-fire,
+surrounded by the same group of curious faces. It was
+interesting and even amusing to watch the bewildered
+astonishment that overspread their countenances as we
+related our experiences along the slope, and then upon
+the very top, of Ak-Dagh. They listened throughout with
+profound attention, then looked at one another in silence,
+and gravely shook their heads. They could not believe
+it. It was impossible. Old Ararat stood above us grim
+and terrible beneath the twinkling stars. To them it <anchor id="corr082"/><corr sic="was.">was,</corr>
+as it always will be, the same mysterious, untrodden height—the
+palace of the jinn.
+</p>
+
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="83"/><anchor id="Pg083"/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf" level1="III. Through Persia to Samarkand"/>
+<head>III</head>
+
+<head type="sub">THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND</head>
+
+<p>
+<q>It is all bosh,</q> was the all but universal opinion of
+Bayazid in regard to our alleged ascent of Ararat.
+None but the Persian consul and the mutessarif himself
+deigned to profess a belief in it, and the gift of several
+letters to Persian officials, and a sumptuous dinner on
+the eve of our departure, went far toward proving their
+sincerity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the morning of July 8, in company with a body-guard
+of zaptiehs, which the mutessarif forced upon us,
+we wheeled down from the ruined embattlements of Bayazid.
+The assembled rabble raised a lusty cheer at parting.
+An hour later we had surmounted the Kazlee Gool,
+and the <q>land of Iran</q> was before us. At our feet lay
+the Turco-Persian battle-plains of Chaldiran, spreading
+like a desert expanse to the parched barren hills beyond,
+and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the
+village oases. And this, then, was the land where, as the
+poets say, <q>the nightingale sings, and the rose-tree blossoms,</q>
+and where <q>a flower is crushed at every step!</q>
+More truth, we thought, in the Scotch traveler’s description,
+which divides Persia into two portions—<q>One desert
+with salt, and the other desert without salt.</q> In time we
+came to McGregor’s opinion as expressed in his
+descrip<pb n="84"/><anchor id="Pg084"/>tion of Khorassan. <q>We should fancy,</q> said he, <q>a small
+green circle round every village indicated on the map, and
+shade all the rest in brown.</q> The mighty hosts whose
+onward sweep from the Indus westward was checked only
+by the Grecian phalanx upon the field of Marathon must
+have come from the scattered ruins around, which reminded
+us that <q>Iran was; she is no more.</q> Those
+myriad ranks of Yenghiz Khan and Tamerlane brought
+death and desolation from Turan to Iran, which so often
+met to act and react upon one another that both are now
+only landmarks in the sea of oblivion.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI. [p. 84]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i098.jpg"><head rend="small">HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.</head><figDesc>HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Our honorary escort accompanied us several miles over
+the border to the Persian village of Killissakend, and there
+committed us to the hospitality of the district khan, with
+whom we managed to converse in the Turkish language,
+which, strange to say, we found available in all the
+coun<pb n="85"/><anchor id="Pg085"/>tries that lay in our transcontinental pathway as far as
+the great wall of China. Toward evening we rode in the
+garden of the harem of the khan, and at daybreak the
+next morning were again in the saddle. By a very early
+start we hoped to escape the burden of excessive hospitality;
+in other words, to get rid of an escort that was
+an expensive nuisance. At the next village we were confronted
+by what appeared to be a shouting, gesticulating
+maniac. On dismounting, we learned that a harbinger
+had been sent by the khan, the evening before, to have a
+guard ready to join us as we passed through. In fact,
+two armed <hi rend="italic">ferashes</hi> were galloping toward us, armed, as
+we afterward learned, with American rifles, and the usual
+<hi rend="italic">kamma</hi>, or huge dagger, swinging from a belt of cartridges.
+These fellows, like the zaptiehs, were fond of
+ostentation. They frequently led us a roundabout way
+to show us off to their relatives or friends in a neighboring
+village. Nature at last came to our deliverance. As
+we stood on a prominent ridge taking a last look at Mount
+Ararat, now more than fifty miles away, a storm came
+upon us, showering hailstones as large as walnuts. The
+ferashes with frantic steeds dashed ahead to seek a place
+of shelter, and we saw them no more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Five days in Persia brought us to the shores of Lake
+Ooroomeeyah, the saltest body of water in the world.
+Early the next morning we were wading the chilly waters
+of the Hadji Chai, and a few hours later found us in the
+English consulate at Tabreez, where we were received by
+the Persian secretary. The English government, it seemed,
+had become embroiled in a local love-affair just at a time
+when Colonel Stewart was off on <q>diplomatic duty</q> on
+the Russian Transcaspian border. An exceptionally bright
+Armenian beauty, a graduate of the American missionary
+schools at this place, had been abducted, it was claimed,
+<pb n="86"/><anchor id="Pg086"/>by a young Kurdish cavalier, and carried away to his
+mountain home. Her father, who happened to be a naturalized
+English subject, had applied for the assistance of
+his adopted country in obtaining her release. Negotiations
+were at once set on foot between London and Teheran,
+which finally led to a formal demand upon the Kurds by
+the Shah himself. Upon their repeated refusal, seven
+thousand Persian troops, it was said, were ordered to
+Soak Boulak, under the command of the vice-consul, Mr.
+Patton. The matter at length assumed such an importance
+as to give rise, in the House of Commons, to the
+question, <q>Who is Katty Greenfield?</q> This, in time,
+was answered by that lady herself, who declared under
+oath that she had become a Mohammedan, and was in
+love with the man with whom she had eloped. More
+<pb n="87"/><anchor id="Pg087"/>than this, it was learned that she had not a drop of English
+blood in her veins, her father being an Austrian, and
+her mother a native Armenian. Whereupon the Persian
+troopers, with their much disgusted leader, beat an inglorious
+retreat, leaving <q>Katty Greenfield</q> mistress of
+the situation, and of a Kurdish heart.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="LEAVING KHOI. [p. 86]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: LEAVING KHOI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i100.jpg"><head rend="small">LEAVING KHOI.</head><figDesc>LEAVING KHOI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+In Tabreez there is one object sure to attract attention.
+This is the <q>Ark,</q> or ancient fortified castle of the Persian
+rulers. High on one of the sides, which a recent
+earthquake has rent from top to bottom, there is a little
+porch whence these Persian <q>Bluebeards,</q> or rather Redbeards,
+were wont to hurl unruly members of the harem.
+Under the shadow of these gloomy walls was enacted a
+tragedy of this century. Babism is by no means the only
+heresy that has sprung from the speculative genius of
+Persia; but it is the one that has most deeply moved the
+society of the present age, and the one which still obtains,
+though in secret and without a leader. Its founder, Seyd
+Mohammed Ali, better known as Bab, or <q>Gate,</q> promulgated
+the doctrine of anarchy to the extent of <q>sparing
+the rod and spoiling the child,</q> and still worse, perhaps,
+of refusing to the ladies no finery that might be at all
+becoming to their person. While not a communist, as
+he has sometimes been wrongly classed, he exhorted the
+wealthy to regard themselves as only trustees of the poor.
+With no thought at first of acquiring civil power, he and
+his rapidly increasing following were driven to revolt by
+the persecuting mollas, and the sanguinary struggle of
+1848 followed. Bab himself was captured, and carried
+to this <q>most fanatical city of Persia,</q> the burial-place
+of the sons of Ali. On this very spot a company was
+ordered to despatch him with a volley; but when the
+smoke cleared away, Bab was not to be seen. None of
+the bullets had gone to the mark, and the bird had
+flown<pb n="89"/><anchor id="Pg089"/>—but not to the safest refuge. Had he finally escaped,
+the miracle thus performed would have made Babism invincible.
+But he was recaptured and despatched, and his
+body thrown to the canine scavengers.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i102a.jpg"><head rend="small">YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.</head><figDesc>YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<index index="ill" level1="LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i102b.jpg"><head rend="small">LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.</head><figDesc>LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+<hi rend="italic">Tabreez</hi> (fever-dispelling) was a misnomer in our case.
+Our sojourn here was prolonged for more than a month
+by a slight attack of typhoid fever, which this time seized
+Sachtleben, and again the kind nursing of the missionary
+ladies hastened recovery. Our mail, in the mean time,
+having been ordered to Teheran, we were granted the
+privilege of intercepting it. For this purpose we were
+permitted to overhaul the various piles of letters strewn
+over the dirty floor of the distributing-office. Both the
+Turkish and Persian mail is carried in saddle-bags on the
+backs of reinless horses driven at a rapid gallop before
+the mounted mail-carrier or herdsman. Owing to the
+carelessness of the postal officials, legations and consulates
+employ special couriers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The proximity of Tabreez to the Russian border makes
+it politically, as well as commercially, one of the most
+important cities in Persia. For this reason it is the place
+of residence of the Emir-e-Nizam (leader of the army), or
+prime minister, as well as the Vali-Ahd, or Prince Imperial.
+This prince is the Russian candidate, as opposed
+to the English candidate, for the prospective vacancy on
+the throne. Both of these dignitaries invited us to visit
+them, and showed much interest in our <q>wonderful wind
+horses,</q> of the speed of which exaggerated reports had
+circulated through the country. We were also favored
+with a special letter for the journey to the capital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On this stage we started August 15, stopping the first
+night at Turkmanchai, the little village where was signed
+the famous treaty of 1828 by virtue of which the Caspian
+Sea became a Russian lake. The next morning we were
+<pb n="90"/><anchor id="Pg090"/>on the road soon after daybreak, and on approaching the
+next village overtook a curious cavalcade, just concluding
+a long night’s journey. This consisted of a Persian
+palanquin, with its long pole-shafts saddled upon the
+back of a mule at each end; with servants on foot, and a
+body-guard of mounted soldiers. The occupant of this
+peculiar conveyance remained concealed throughout the
+stampede which our sudden appearance occasioned among
+his hearse-bearing mules, for as such they will appear in
+the sequel. In our first article we mentioned an interview
+in London with Malcolm Khan, the representative of the
+Shah at the court of St. James. Since then, it seemed, he
+had fallen into disfavor. During the late visit of the Shah
+to England certain members of his retinue were so young,
+both in appearance and conduct, as to be a source of mortification
+to the Europeanized minister. This reached the
+ears of the Shah some time after his return home; and a
+summons was sent for the accused to repair to Teheran.
+Malcolm Khan, however, was too well versed in Oriental
+craft to fall into such a trap, and announced his purpose
+to devote his future leisure to airing his knowledge of
+Persian politics in the London press. The Persian Minister
+of Foreign Affairs, Musht-a-Shar-el-Dowlet, then residing
+at Tabreez, who was accused of carrying on a seditious
+correspondence with Malcolm Khan, was differently
+situated, unfortunately. It was during our sojourn in
+that city that his palatial household was raided by a party
+of soldiers, and he was carried to prison as a common
+felon. Being unable to pay the high price of pardon that
+was demanded, he was forced away, a few days before
+our departure, on that dreaded journey to the capital,
+which few, if any, ever complete. For on the way they
+are usually met by a messenger, who proffers them a cup
+of coffee, a sword, and a rope, from which they are to
+<pb n="91"/><anchor id="Pg091"/>choose the method of their doom. This, then, was the
+occupant of the mysterious palanquin, which now was
+opened as we drew up before the village caravansary.
+Out stepped a man, tall and portly, with beard and hair
+of venerable gray. His keen eye, clear-cut features, and
+dignified bearing, bespoke for him respect even in his
+downfall, while his stooped shoulders and haggard countenance
+betrayed the weight of sorrow and sleepless nights
+with which he was going to his tomb.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH. [p. 91]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT
+THE CALL OF THE SHAH.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="gross" url="images/i105.png"><head rend="small">THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT
+THE CALL OF THE SHAH.</head><figDesc>THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+At Miana, that town made infamous by its venomous
+insect, is located one of the storage-stations of the Indo-European
+Telegraph Company. Its straight lines of iron
+poles, which we followed very closely from Tabreez to
+Teheran, form only a link in that great wire and cable
+chain which connects Melbourne with London. We spent
+the following night in the German operator’s room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The weakness of the Persian for mendacity is proverbial.
+One instance of this national weakness was attended
+with considerable inconvenience to us. By some mischance
+we had run by the village where we intended to
+stop for the night, which was situated some distance off
+the road. Meeting a Persian lad, we inquired the
+dis<pb n="92"/><anchor id="Pg092"/>tance. He was ready at once with a cheerful falsehood.
+<q>One farsak</q> (four miles), he replied, although he must
+have known at the time that the village was already behind
+us. On we pedaled at an increased rate, in order
+to precede, if possible, the approaching darkness; for although
+traditionally the land of a double dawn, Persia has
+only one twilight, and that closely merged into sunset and
+darkness. One, two farsaks were placed behind us, and
+still there was no sign of a human habitation. At length
+darkness fell; we were obliged to dismount to feel our
+way. By the gradually rising ground, and the rocks, we
+knew we were off the road. Dropping our wheels, we
+groped round on hands and knees, to find, if possible,
+some trace of water. With a burning thirst, a chilling
+atmosphere, and swarms of mosquitos biting through our
+clothing, we could not sleep. A slight drizzle began to
+descend. During our gloomy vigil we were glad to hear
+the sounds of a caravan, toward which we groped our
+way, discerning, at length, a long line of camels marching
+to the music of their lantern-bearing leader. When
+our nickel-plated bars and white helmets flashed in the
+lantern-light, there was a shriek, and the lantern fell to
+the ground. The rear-guard rushed to the front with
+drawn weapons; but even they started back at the sound
+of our voices, as we attempted in broken Turkish to reassure
+them. Explanations were made, and the camels soon
+quieted. Thereupon we were surrounded with lanterns
+and firebrands, while the remainder of the caravan party
+was called to the front. Finally we moved on, walking
+side by side with the lantern-bearing leader, who ran
+ahead now and then to make sure of the road. The
+night was the blackest we had ever seen. Suddenly one
+of the camels disappeared in a ditch, and rolled over with
+a groan. Fortunately, no bones were broken, and the load
+<pb n="93"/><anchor id="Pg093"/>was replaced. But we were off the road, and a search
+was begun with lights to find the beaten path. Footsore
+and hungry, with an almost intolerable thirst, we trudged
+along till morning, to the ding-dong, ding-dong of the
+deep-toned camel-bells. Finally we reached a sluggish
+river, but did not dare to satisfy our thirst, except by
+washing out our mouths, and by taking occasional swallows,
+with long intervals of rest, in one of which we fell
+asleep from sheer exhaustion. When we awoke the midday
+sun was shining, and a party of Persian travelers was
+bending over us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the high lands of Azerbeidjan, where, strange to
+say, nearly all Persian pestilences arise, we dropped suddenly
+into the Kasveen plain, a portion of that triangular,
+dried-up basin of the Persian Mediterranean, now for the
+most part a sandy, saline desert. The argillaceous dust
+accumulated on the Kasveen plain by the weathering of
+the surrounding uplands resembles in appearance the
+<q>yellow earth</q> of the Hoang Ho district in China, but
+remains sterile for the lack of water. Even the little
+moisture that obtains beneath the surface is sapped by
+the <hi rend="italic">kanots</hi>, or underground canals, which bring to the
+fevered lips of the desert oases the fresh, cool springs of
+the Elburz. These are dug with unerring instinct, and
+preserved with jealous care by means of shafts or slanting
+wells dug at regular intervals across the plain. Into
+these we would occasionally descend to relieve our reflection-burned—or,
+as a Persian would say, <q>snow-burned</q>—faces,
+while the thermometer above stood at 120° in the
+shade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Over the level ninety-mile stretch between Kasveen and
+the capital a so-called carriage-road has recently been constructed
+close to the base of the mountain. A sudden
+turn round a mountain-spur, and before us was presented
+<pb n="94"/><anchor id="Pg094"/>to view Mount Demavend and Teheran. Soon the paved
+streets, sidewalks, lamp-posts, street-railways, and even
+steam-tramway, of the half modern capital were as much
+of a surprise to us as our <q>wind horses</q> were to the curious
+crowds that escorted us to the French Hotel.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON. [p. 94]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i108.jpg"><head rend="small">A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.</head><figDesc>A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+From Persia it was our plan to enter Russian central
+Asia, and thence to proceed to China or Siberia. To enter
+the Transcaspian territory, the border-province of the
+Russian possessions, the sanction of its governor, General
+Kuropatkine, would be quite sufficient; but for the rest
+of the journey through Turkestan the Russian minister
+in Teheran said we would have to await a general permission
+from St. Petersburg. Six weeks were spent with
+our English and American acquaintances, and still no
+answer was received. Winter was coming on, and
+some<pb n="95"/><anchor id="Pg095"/>thing had to be done at once. If we were to be debarred
+from a northern route, we would have to attempt a passage
+into India either through Afghanistan, which we were
+assured by all was quite impossible, or across the deserts
+of southern Persia and Baluchistan. For this latter we
+had already obtained a possible route from the noted
+traveler, Colonel Stewart, whom we met on his way back
+to his consular post at Tabreez. But just at this juncture
+the Russian minister advised another plan. In order to
+save time, he said, we might proceed to Meshed at once,
+and if our permission was not telegraphed to us at that
+point, we could then turn south to Baluchistan as a last
+resort. This, our friends unanimously declared, was a
+Muscovite trick to evade an absolute refusal. The Russians,
+they assured us, would never permit a foreign inspection
+of their doings on the Afghan border; and
+furthermore, we would never be able to cross the uninhabited
+deserts of Baluchistan. Against all protest, we
+waved <q>farewell</q> to the foreign and native throng which
+had assembled to see us off, and on October 5 wheeled out
+of the fortified square on the <q>Pilgrim Road to Meshed.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before us now lay six hundred miles of barren hills,
+swampy <hi rend="italic">kevirs</hi>, brier-covered wastes, and salty deserts,
+with here and there some kanot-fed oases. To the south
+lay the lifeless desert of Luth, the <q>Persian Sahara,</q> the
+humidity of which is the lowest yet recorded on the face
+of the globe, and compared with which <q>the Gobi of China
+and the Kizil-Kum of central Asia are fertile regions.</q> It
+is our extended and rather unique experience on the former
+of these two that prompts us to refrain from further description
+of desert travel here, where the hardships were
+in a measure ameliorated by frequent stations, and by
+the use of cucumbers and pomegranates, both of which
+we carried with us on the long desert stretches. Melons,
+<pb n="97"/><anchor id="Pg097"/>too, the finest we have ever seen in any land, frequently
+obviated the necessity of drinking the strongly brackish
+water.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED. [p. 96]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i110.jpg"><head rend="small">LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.</head><figDesc>LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Yet this experience was sufficient to impress us with the
+fact that the national poets, Hafiz and Sadi, like Thomas
+Moore, have sought in fancy what the land of Iran denied
+them. Those <q>spicy groves, echoing with the nightingale’s
+song,</q> those <q>rosy bowers and purling brooks,</q> on
+the whole exist, so far as our experience goes, only in the
+poet’s dream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leaving on the right the sand-swept ruins of Veramin,
+that capital of Persia before Teheran was even thought
+of, we traversed the pass of Sir-Dara, identified by some
+as the famous <q>Caspian Gate,</q> and early in the evening
+entered the village of Aradan. The usual crowd hemmed
+us in on all sides, yelling, <q>Min, min!</q> (<q>Ride, ride!</q>),
+which took the place of the Turkish refrain of <q>Bin, bin!</q>
+As we rode toward the caravansary they shouted, <q>Faster,
+faster!</q> and when we began to distance them, they caught
+at the rear wheels, and sent a shower of stones after us,
+denting our helmets, and bruising our coatless backs.
+This was too much; we dismounted and exhibited the
+ability to defend ourselves, whereupon they tumbled over
+one another in their haste to get away. But they were
+at our wheels again before we reached the caravansary.
+Here they surged through the narrow gangway, and
+knocked over the fruit-stands of the bazaars.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were shown to a room, or windowless cell, in the
+honeycomb structure that surrounded an open quadrangular
+court, at the time filled with a caravan of pilgrims,
+carrying triangular white and black flags, with the Persian
+coat of arms, the same we have seen over many doorways
+in Persia as warnings of the danger of trespassing
+upon the religious services held within. The cadaverous
+<pb n="98"/><anchor id="Pg098"/>stench revealed the presence of half-dried human bones
+being carried by relatives and friends for interment in the
+sacred <q>City of the Silent.</q> Thus dead bodies, in loosely
+nailed boxes, are always traveling from one end of Persia
+to the other. Among the pilgrims were blue and green
+turbaned Saids, direct descendants of the Prophet, as well
+as white-turbaned mollas. All were sitting about on the
+<hi rend="italic">sakoo</hi>, or raised platform, just finishing the evening meal.
+But presently one of the mollas ascended the mound in
+the middle of the stable-yard, and in the manner of the
+muezzin called to prayer. All kneeled, and bowed their
+heads toward Mecca. Then the horses were saddled, the
+long, narrow boxes attached upright to the pack-mules,
+and the <hi rend="italic">kajacas</hi>, or double boxes, adjusted on the backs
+of the horses of the ladies. Into these the veiled creatures
+entered, and drew the curtains, while the men leaped into
+the saddle at a signal, and, with the tri-cornered flag at
+their head, the cavalcade moved out on its long night pilgrimage.
+We now learned that the village contained a
+<hi rend="italic">chappar khan</hi>, one of those places of rest which have
+    re<pb n="99"/><anchor id="Pg099"/>cently been provided for the use of foreigners and others,
+who travel <hi rend="italic">chappar</hi>, or by relays of post-horses. These
+structures are usually distinguished by a single room built
+on the roof, and projecting some distance over the eaves.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD. [p. 98]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i112.jpg"><head rend="small">IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.</head><figDesc>IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+To this we repaired at once. Its keeper evinced unusual
+pride in the cleanliness of his apartments, for we were
+asked to take off our shoes before entering. But while
+our boastful host was kicking up the mats to convince us
+of the truth of his assertions, he suddenly retired behind
+the scenes to rid himself of some of the pests.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY. [p. 99]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i113.jpg"><head rend="small">PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.</head><figDesc>PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Throughout our Asiatic tour eggs were our chief means
+of subsistence, but <hi rend="italic">pillao</hi>, or boiled rice flavored with
+grease, we found more particularly used in Persia, like
+<hi rend="italic">yaourt</hi> in Turkey. This was prepared with chicken whenever
+it was possible to purchase a fowl, and then we would
+usually make the discovery that a Persian fowl was either
+wingless, legless, or otherwise defective after being
+pre<pb n="100"/><anchor id="Pg100"/>pared by a Persian <hi rend="italic">fuzul</hi>, or foreigner’s servant, who, it is
+said, <q>shrinks from no baseness in order to eat.</q> Though
+minus these particular appendages, it would invariably
+have a head; for the fanatical Shiah frequently snatched
+a chicken out of our hands to prevent us from wringing
+or chopping its head off. Even after our meal was served,
+we would keep a sharp lookout upon the unblushing pilferers
+around us, who had called to pay their respects,
+and to fill the room with clouds of smoke from their chibouks
+and gurgling kalians. For a fanatical Shiah will
+sometimes stick his dirty fingers into the dishes of an
+<q>unbeliever,</q> even though he may subsequently throw
+away the contaminated vessel. And this extreme fanaticism
+is to be found in a country noted for its extensive
+latitude in the profession of religious beliefs.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS. [p. 100]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i114.jpg"><head rend="small">A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.</head><figDesc>A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="101"/><anchor id="Pg101"/>
+<p>
+A present from the village khan was announced. In
+stepped two men bearing a huge tray filled with melons,
+apricots, sugar, rock-candy, nuts, pistachios, etc., all of
+which we must, of course, turn over to the khan-keeper
+and his servants, and pay double their value to the bearers,
+as a present. This polite method of extortion was
+followed the next morning by one of a bolder and more
+peremptory nature. Notwithstanding the feast of the
+night before at our expense, and in addition to furnishing
+us with bedclothes which we really ought to have been
+paid to sleep in, our oily host now insisted upon three or
+four prices for his lodgings. We refused to pay him
+more than a certain sum, and started to vacate the premises.
+Thereupon he and his grown son caught hold of our
+bicycles. Remonstrances proving of no avail, and being
+unable to force our passage through the narrow doorway
+with the bicycles in our hands, we dropped them, and
+grappled with our antagonists. A noisy scuffle, and then
+a heavy fall ensued, but luckily we were both on the upper
+side. This unusual disturbance now brought out the inmates
+of the adjoining <hi rend="italic">anderoon</hi>. In a moment there was
+a din of feminine screams, and a flutter of garments, and
+then—a crashing of our pith helmets beneath the blows
+of pokers and andirons. The villagers, thus aroused, came
+at last to our rescue, and at once proceeded to patch up a
+compromise. This, in view of the Amazonian reinforcements,
+who were standing by in readiness for a second
+onset, we were more than pleased to accept. From this
+inglorious combat we came off without serious injury;
+but with those gentle poker taps were knocked out forever
+all the sweet delusions of the <q>Light of the Harem.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The great antiquity of this Teheran-Meshed road, which
+is undoubtedly a section of that former commercial highway
+between two of the most ancient capitals in
+history<pb n="102"/><anchor id="Pg102"/>—Nineveh and Balk, is very graphically shown by the
+caravan ruts at Lasgird. These have been worn in many
+places to a depth of four feet in the solid rock. It was
+not far beyond this point that we began to feel the force
+of that famous <q>Damghan wind,</q> so called from the city
+of that name. Of course this wind was against us. In
+fact, throughout our Asiatic tour easterly winds prevailed;
+and should we ever attempt another transcontinental spin
+we would have a care to travel in the opposite direction.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD. [p. 102]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i116.jpg"><head rend="small">CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.</head><figDesc>CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Our peculiar mode of travel subjected us to great extremes
+in our mode of living. Sometimes, indeed, it was
+a change almost from the sublime to the ridiculous, and
+vice versa—from a stable or sheepfold, with a diet of figs
+and bread, and an irrigating-ditch for a lavatory, to a
+palace itself, an Oriental palace, with all the delicacies of
+<pb n="103"/><anchor id="Pg103"/>the East, and a host of servants to attend to our slightest
+wish. So it was at Bostam, the residence of one of Persia’s
+most influential <hi rend="italic">hakims</hi>, or governors, literally, <q>pillars of
+state,</q> who was also a cousin to the Shah himself. This
+potentate we visited in company with an English engineer
+whom we met in transit at Sharoud. It was on the evening
+before, when at supper with this gentleman in his
+tent, that a special messenger arrived from the governor,
+requesting us, as the invitation ran, <q>to take our brightness
+into his presence.</q> As we entered, the governor rose
+from his seat on the floor, a courtesy never shown us by
+a Turkish official. Even the politest of them would, just
+at this particular moment, be conveniently engrossed in
+the examination of some book or paper. His courtesy
+was further extended by locking up our <q>horses,</q> and
+making us his <q>prisoners</q> until the following morning.
+At the dinner which Mr. Evans and we were invited to
+eat with his excellency, benches had to be especially prepared,
+as there was nothing like a chair to be found on
+the premises. The governor himself took his accustomed
+position on the floor, with his own private dishes around
+him. From these he would occasionally fish out with his
+fingers some choice lamb <hi rend="italic">kebabh</hi> or cabbage <hi rend="italic">dolmah</hi>, and
+have it passed over to his guests—an act which is considered
+one of the highest forms of Persian hospitality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a shifting of the scenes of travel, we stood at
+sunset on the summit of the Binalud mountains, overlooking
+the valley of the Kashafrud. Our two weeks’ journey
+was almost ended, for the city of Meshed was now in view,
+ten miles away. Around us were piles of little stones, to
+which each pious pilgrim adds his quota when first he sees
+the <q>Holy Shrine,</q> which we beheld shining like a ball of
+fire in the glow of the setting sun.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED. [p. 104]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i118.jpg"><head rend="small">PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.</head><figDesc>PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+While we were building our pyramid a party of
+return<pb n="104"/><anchor id="Pg104"/>ing pilgrims greeted us with <q>Meshedi at last.</q> <q>Not yet,</q>
+we answered, for we knew that the gates of the Holy City
+closed promptly at twilight. Yet we determined to make
+the attempt. On we sped, but not with the speed of the
+falling night. Dusk overtook us as we reached the plain.
+A moving form was revealed to us on the bank of the
+irrigating-canal which skirted the edge of the road. Backward
+it fell as we dashed by, and then the sound of a
+splash and splutter reached us as we disappeared in the
+darkness. On the morrow we learned that the spirits of
+Hassan and Hussein were seen skimming the earth in their
+flight toward the Holy City. We reached the bridge, and
+crossed the moat, but the gates were closed. We knocked
+and pounded, but a hollow echo was our only response.
+At last the light of a lantern illumined the crevices in the
+weather-beaten doors, and a weird-looking face appeared
+through the midway opening. <q>Who’s there?</q> said a
+voice, whose sepulchral tones might have belonged to the
+sexton of the Holy Tomb. <q>We are <hi rend="italic">Ferenghis</hi>,</q> we said,
+<q>and must get into the city to-night.</q> <q>That is
+impossi<pb n="105"/><anchor id="Pg105"/>ble,</q> he answered, <q>for the gates are locked, and the keys
+have been sent away to the governor’s palace.</q> With this
+the night air grew more chill. But another thought struck
+us at once. We would send a note to General McLean,
+the English consul-general, who was already expecting
+us. This our interlocutor, for a certain <hi rend="italic">inam</hi>, or Persian
+bakshish, at length agreed to deliver. The general, as we
+afterward learned, sent a servant with a special request
+to the governor’s palace. Here, without delay, a squad of
+horsemen was detailed, and ordered with the keys to the
+<q>Herat Gate.</q> The crowds in the streets, attracted by
+this unusual turnout at this unusual hour, followed in
+their wake to the scene of disturbance. There was a click
+of locks, the clanking of chains, and the creaking of rusty
+hinges. The great doors swung open, and a crowd of expectant
+faces received us in the Holy City.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED. [p. 105]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i119.jpg"><head rend="small">RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.</head><figDesc>RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Meshed claims our attention chiefly for its famous dead.
+In its sacred dust lie buried our old hero Haroun al Raschid,
+Firdousi, Persia’s greatest epic poet, and the holy Imaum
+<pb n="106"/><anchor id="Pg106"/>Riza, within whose shrine every criminal may take refuge
+from even the Shah himself until the payment of a blood-tax,
+or a debtor until the giving of a guarantee for debt.
+No infidel can enter there.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED. [p. 106]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i120.jpg"><head rend="small">FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.</head><figDesc>FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Meshed was the pivotal point upon which our wheel of
+fortune was to turn. We were filled with no little anxiety,
+therefore, when, on the day after our arrival, we received
+an invitation to call at the Russian consulate-general.
+With great ceremony we were ushered into a suite of elegantly
+furnished rooms, and received by the consul-general
+and his English wife in full dress. Madame de Vlassow
+was radiant with smiles as she served us tea by the side
+of her steaming silver samovar. She could not wait for
+the circumlocution of diplomacy, but said: <q>It is all right,
+gentlemen. General Kuropatkine has just telegraphed
+permission for you to proceed to Askabad.</q> This precipitate
+remark evidently disconcerted the consul, who could
+only nod his head and say, <q><hi rend="italic">Oui, oui</hi>,</q> in affirmation.
+This news lifted a heavy load from our minds; our desert
+<pb n="107"/><anchor id="Pg107"/>journey of six hundred miles, therefore, had not been made
+in vain, and the prospect brightened for a trip through
+the heart of Asia.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED. [p. 107]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i121.png"><head rend="small">IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.</head><figDesc>IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Between the rival hospitality of the Russian and English
+consulates our health was now in jeopardy from excess
+of kindness. Among other social attentions, we received
+an invitation from Sahib Devan, the governor of
+Khoras<pb n="108"/><anchor id="Pg108"/>san, who next to the Shah is the richest man in Persia.
+Although seventy-six years of age, on the day of our visit
+to his palace he was literally covered with diamonds and
+precious stones. With the photographer to the Shah as
+German interpreter, we spent half an hour in an interesting
+conversation. Among other topics he mentioned the
+receipt, a few days before, of a peculiar telegram from
+the Shah: <q>Cut off the head of any one who attempts opposition
+to the Tobacco Regie</q>; and this was followed a
+few days after by the inquiry, <q>How many heads have
+you taken?</q> A retinue of about three hundred courtiers
+followed the governor as he walked out with feeble steps
+to the parade-ground. Here a company of Persian cavalry
+was detailed to clear the field for the <q>wonderful steel
+horses,</q> which, as was said, had come from the capital in
+two days, a distance of six hundred miles. The governors
+extreme pleasure was afterward expressed in a special
+letter for our journey to the frontier.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY. [p. 108]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i122.jpg"><head rend="small">WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.</head><figDesc>WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="109"/><anchor id="Pg109"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED. [p. 109]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: GIVING A <q>SILENT PILGRIM</q> A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i123.jpg"><head rend="small">GIVING A <q>SILENT PILGRIM</q> A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.</head><figDesc>GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The military road now completed between Askabad and
+Meshed reveals the extreme weakness of Persia’s defense
+against Russian aggression. Elated by her recent successes
+in the matter of a Russian consul at Meshed, Russia
+has very forcibly invited Persia to construct more than
+half of a road which, in connection with the Transcaspian
+railway, makes Khorassan almost an exclusive Russian
+market, and opens Persia’s richest province to Russia’s
+troops and cannon on the prospective march to Herat.
+At this very writing, if the telegraph speaks the truth, the
+Persian border-province of Dereguez is another cession by
+what the Russians are pleased to call their Persian vassal.
+In addition to its increasing commercial traffic, this road
+is patronized by many Shiah devotees from the north,
+among whom are what the natives term the <q>silent pilgrims.</q>
+These are large stones, or boulders, rolled along
+a few feet at a time by the passers-by toward the Holy
+City. We ourselves were employed in this pious work at
+the close of our first day’s journey from Meshed when we
+<pb n="110"/><anchor id="Pg110"/>were suddenly aroused by a bantering voice behind us.
+Looking up, we were hailed by Stagno Navarro, the inspector
+of the Persian telegraph, who was employed with
+his men on a neighboring line. With this gentleman we
+spent the following night in a telegraph station, and
+passed a pleasant evening chatting over the wires with
+friends in Meshed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kuchan, our next stopping-place, lies on the almost imperceptible
+watershed which separates the Herat valley
+from the Caspian Sea. This city, only a few months ago,
+was entirely destroyed by a severe earthquake. Under
+date of January 28, 1894, the American press reported:
+<q>The bodies of ten thousand victims of the awful disaster
+have already been recovered. Fifty thousand cattle were
+destroyed at the same time. The once important and beautiful
+city of twenty thousand people is now only a scene
+of death, desolation, and terror.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this point to Askabad the construction of the
+military highway speaks well for Russia’s engineering
+skill. It crosses the Kopet Dagh mountains over seven
+distinct passes in a distance of eighty miles. This we
+determined to cover, if possible, in one day, inasmuch as
+there was no intermediate stopping-place, and as we were
+not a little delighted by the idea of at last emerging from
+semi-barbarism into semi-civilization. At sunset we were
+scaling the fifth ridge since leaving Kuchan at daybreak,
+and a few minutes later rolled up before the Persian custom-house
+in the valley below. There was no evidence
+of the proximity of a Russian frontier, except the extraordinary
+size of the tea-glasses, from which we slaked our
+intolerable thirst. During the day we had had a surfeit
+of cavernous gorges and commanding pinnacles, but very
+little water. The only copious spring we were able to
+find was filled at the time with the unwashed linen of a
+<pb n="111"/><anchor id="Pg111"/>Persian traveler, who sat by, smiling in derision, as we
+upbraided him for his disregard of the traveling public.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD. [p. 111]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i125.jpg"><head rend="small">AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD.</head><figDesc>AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+It was already dusk when we came in sight of the Russian
+custom-house, a tin-roofed, stone structure, contrasting
+strongly with the Persian mud hovels we had left behind.
+A Russian official hailed us as we shot by, but we
+could not stop on the down-grade, and, besides, darkness
+was too rapidly approaching to brook any delay. Askabad
+was twenty-eight miles away, and although wearied
+by an extremely hard day’s work, we must sleep that night,
+if possible, in a Russian hotel. Our pace increased with
+the growing darkness until at length we were going at
+the rate of twelve miles per hour down a narrow gorge-like
+valley toward the seventh and last ridge that lay between
+us and the desert. At 9:30 <hi rend="small">P.&nbsp;M.</hi> we stood upon its
+summit, and before us stretched the sandy wastes of Kara-Kum,
+enshrouded in gloom. Thousands of feet below us
+the city of Askabad was ablaze with lights, shining like
+<pb n="112"/><anchor id="Pg112"/>beacons on the shore of the desert sea. Strains of music
+from a Russian band stole faintly up through the darkness
+as we dismounted, and contemplated the strange scene,
+until the shriek of a locomotive-whistle startled us from
+our reveries. Across the desert a train of the Transcaspian
+railway was gliding smoothly along toward the city.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. [p. 112]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i126.jpg"><head rend="small">MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.</head><figDesc>MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A hearty welcome back to civilized life was given us
+the next evening by General Kuropatkine himself, the
+Governor-General of Transcaspia. During the course of
+a dinner with him and his friends, he kindly assured us
+that no further recommendation was needed than the fact
+that we were American citizens to entitle us to travel from
+one end of the Russian empire to the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From Askabad to Samarkand there was a break in the
+continuity of our bicycle journey. Our Russian friends
+persuaded us to take advantage of the Transcaspian railway,
+and not to hazard a journey across the dreaded Kara-Kum
+sands. Such a journey, made upon the railroad
+track, where water and food were obtainable at regular
+<pb n="113"/><anchor id="Pg113"/>intervals, would have entailed only a small part of the
+hardships incurred on the deserts in China, yet we were
+more than anxious to reach, before the advent of winter,
+a point whence we could be assured of reaching the Pacific
+during the following season. Through the kindness of
+the railway authorities at Bokhara station our car was
+side-tracked to enable us to visit, ten miles away, that ancient
+city of the East. On November 6 we reached Samarkand,
+the ancient capital of Tamerlane, and the present
+terminus of the Transcaspian railway.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD. [p. 113]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i127.jpg" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.</head><figDesc>CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="114"/><anchor id="Pg114"/>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE. [p. 114]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i128.jpg"><head rend="small">A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE.</head><figDesc>A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="115"/><anchor id="Pg115"/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf" level1="IV. The journey from Samarkand to Kuldja"/>
+<head>IV</head>
+
+<head type="sub">THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA</head>
+
+<p>
+On the morning of November 16 we took a last look
+at the blue domes and minarets of Samarkand, intermingled
+with the ruins of palaces and tombs, and then
+wheeled away toward the banks of the Zerafshan. Our
+four days’ journey of 180 miles along the regular Russian
+post-road was attended with only the usual vicissitudes
+of ordinary travel. Wading in our Russian top-boots
+through the treacherous fords of the <q>Snake</q> defile, we
+passed the pyramidal slate rock known as the <q>Gate of
+Tamerlane,</q> and emerged upon a strip of the Kizil-Kum
+steppe, stretching hence in painful monotony to the bank
+of the Sir Daria river. This we crossed by a rude rope-ferry,
+filled at the time with a passing caravan, and then
+began at once to ascend the valley of the Tchirtchick toward
+Tashkend. The blackened cotton which the natives
+were gathering from the fields, the lowering snow-line on
+the mountains, the muddy roads, the chilling atmosphere,
+and the falling leaves of the giant poplars—all warned
+us of the approach of winter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had hoped at least to reach Vernoye, a provincial
+capital near the converging point of the Turkestan, Siberian,
+and Chinese boundaries, whence we could continue,
+on the opening of the following spring, either through
+<pb n="116"/><anchor id="Pg116"/>Siberia or across the Chinese empire. But in this we
+were doomed to disappointment. The delay on the part
+of the Russian authorities in granting us permission to
+enter Transcaspia had postponed at least a month our
+arrival in Tashkend, and now, owing to the early advent
+of the rainy season, the roads leading north were almost
+impassable even for the native carts. This fact, together
+with the reports of heavy snowfalls beyond the Alexandrovski
+mountains, on the road to Vernoye, lent a rather
+cogent influence to the persuasions of our friends to spend
+the winter among them.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND. [p. 116]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i130.jpg"><head rend="small">A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.</head><figDesc>A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Then, too, such a plan, we thought, might not be unproductive
+of future advantages. Thus far we had been
+journeying through Russian territory without a passport.
+We had no authorization except the telegram to <q>come
+on,</q> received from General Kuropatkine at Askabad, and
+<pb n="117"/><anchor id="Pg117"/>the verbal permission of Count Rosterzsoff at Samarkand
+to proceed to Tashkend. Furthermore, the passport
+for which we had just applied to Baron Wrevsky, the Governor-General
+of Turkestan, would be available only as
+far as the border of Siberia, where we should have to
+apply to the various governors-general along our course
+to the Pacific, in case we should find the route across the
+Chinese empire impracticable. A general permission to
+travel from Tashkend to the Pacific coast, through southern
+Siberia, could be obtained from St. Petersburg only,
+and that only through the chief executive of the province
+through which we were passing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Permission to enter Turkestan is by no means easily
+obtained, as is well understood by the student of Russian
+policy in central Asia. We were not a little surprised,
+therefore, when our request to spend the winter in its
+capital was graciously granted by Baron Wrevsky, as well
+as the privilege for one of us to return in the mean time
+to London. This we had determined on, in order to secure
+some much-needed bicycle supplies, and to complete
+other arrangements for the success of our enterprise. By
+lot the return trip fell to Sachtleben. Proceeding by the
+Transcaspian and Transcaucasus railroads, the Caspian
+and Black seas, to Constantinople, and thence by the <q>overland
+express</q> to Belgrade, Vienna, Frankfort, and Calais,
+he was able to reach London in sixteen days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tashkend, though nearly in the same latitude as New
+York, is so protected by the Alexandrovski mountains
+from the Siberian blizzards and the scorching winds of
+the Kara-Kum desert as to have an even more moderate
+climate. A tributary of the Tchirtchick river forms the
+line of demarcation between the native and the European
+portions of the city, although the population of the latter
+is by no means devoid of a native element. Both together
+<pb n="118"/><anchor id="Pg118"/>cover an area as extensive as Paris, though the population
+is only 120,000, of which 100,000 are congregated in the
+native, or Sart, quarter. There is a floating element of
+Kashgarians, Bokhariots, Persians, and Afghans, and a
+resident majority of Kirghiz, Tatars, Jews, Hindus, gypsies,
+and Sarts, the latter being a generic title for the urban,
+as distinguished from the nomad, people.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN. [p. 118]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i132.jpg"><head rend="small">OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.</head><figDesc>OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Our winter quarters were obtained at the home of a
+typical Russian family, in company with a young reserve
+officer. He, having finished his university career and time
+of military service, was engaged in Tashkend in the interest
+of his father, a wholesale merchant in Moscow. With
+him we were able to converse either in French or German,
+both of which languages he could speak more purely than
+his native Russian. Our good-natured, corpulent host had
+<pb n="119"/><anchor id="Pg119"/>emigrated, in the pioneer days, from the steppes of southern
+Russia, and had grown wealthy through the <q>unearned
+increment.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Russian samovar is the characteristic feature of the
+Russian household. Besides a big bowl of cabbage soup
+at every meal, our Russian host would start in with a half-tumbler
+of vodka, dispose of a bottle of beer in the intervals,
+and then top off with two or three glasses of tea.
+The mistress of the household, being limited in her beverages
+to tea and soup, would usually make up in quantity
+what was lacking in variety. In fact, one day she informed
+us that she had not imbibed a drop of water for
+over six years. For this, however, there is a very plausible
+excuse. With the water at Tashkend, as with that
+from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, a dangerous worm called
+<hi rend="italic">reshta</hi> is absorbed into the system. Nowhere have we
+drunk better tea than around the steaming samovar of
+our Tashkend host. No peasant is too poor, either in
+money or in sentiment, to buy and feel the cheering influence
+of tea. Even the Cossack, in his forays into the wilds
+of central Asia, is sustained by it. Unlike the Chinese,
+the Russians consider sugar a necessary concomitant of
+tea-drinking. There are three methods of sweetening tea:
+to put the sugar in the glass; to place a lump of sugar in
+the mouth, and suck the tea through it; to hang a lump
+in the midst of a tea-drinking circle, to be swung around
+for each in turn to touch with his tongue, and then to
+take a swallow of tea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The meaning of the name Tashkend is <q>city of stone,</q>
+but a majority of the houses are one-story mud structures,
+built low, so as to prevent any disastrous effects from
+earthquakes. The roofs are so flat and poorly constructed
+that during the rainy season a dry ceiling is rather the
+exception than the rule. Every building is covered with
+<pb n="120"/><anchor id="Pg120"/>whitewash or white paint, and fronts directly on the street.
+There are plenty of back and side yards, but none in front.
+This is not so bad on the broad streets of a Russian town.
+In Tashkend they are exceptionally wide, with ditches on
+each side through which the water from the Tchirtchick
+ripples along beneath the double, and even quadruple,
+rows of poplars, acacias, and willows. These trees grow
+here with remarkable luxuriance, from a mere twig stuck
+into the ground. Although twenty years of Russian irrigation
+has given Nature a chance to rear thousands of
+trees on former barren wastes, yet wood is still comparatively
+scarce and dear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The administration buildings of the city are for the
+most part exceedingly plain and unpretentious. In striking
+contrast is the new Russian cathedral, the recently
+erected school, and a large retail store built by a resident
+Greek, all of which are fine specimens of Russian architecture.
+Among its institutions are an observatory, a
+museum containing an embryo collection of Turkestan
+products and antiquities, and a medical dispensary for the
+natives, where vaccination is performed by graduates of
+medicine in the Tashkend school. The rather extensive
+library was originally collected for the chancellery of the
+governor-general, and contains the best collection of works
+on central Asia that is to be found in the world, including
+in its scope not only books and pamphlets, but even magazines
+and newspaper articles. For amusements, the city
+has a theater, a small imitation of the opera-house at
+Paris; and the Military Club, which, with its billiards and
+gambling, and weekly reunions, balls, and concerts, though
+a regular feature of a Russian garrison town, is especially
+pretentious in Tashkend. In size, architecture, and appointments,
+the club-house has no equal, we were told, outside
+the capital and Moscow.
+</p>
+<pb n="121"/><anchor id="Pg121"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND. [p. 121]"/>  
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i135.jpg" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.</head><figDesc>PALACE OF THE CZAR'S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Tashkend has long been known as a refuge for damaged
+reputations and shattered fortunes, or <q>the official purgatory
+following upon the emperor’s displeasure.</q> One of
+the finest houses of the city is occupied by the Grand
+Duke Nicholai Constantinovitch Romanoff, son of the late
+general admiral of the Russian navy, and first cousin to
+the Czar, who seems to be cheerfully resigned to his life
+in exile. Most of his time is occupied with the business
+of his silk-factory on the outskirts of Tashkend, and at
+his farm near Hodjent, which a certain firm in Chicago,
+at the time of our sojourn, was stocking with irrigating
+machinery. All of his bills are paid with checks drawn
+on his St. Petersburg trustees. His private life is rather
+unconventional and even democratic. Visitors to his
+household are particularly impressed with the beauty of
+<pb n="122"/><anchor id="Pg122"/>his wife and the size of his liquor glasses. The example
+of the grand duke illustrates the sentiment in favor of
+industrial pursuits which is growing among the military
+classes, and even among the nobility, of Russia. The government
+itself, thanks to the severe lesson of the Crimean
+war, has learned that a great nation must stand upon a
+foundation of something more than aristocracy and nobility.
+To this influence is largely due the present growing
+prosperity of Tashkend, which, in military importance, is
+rapidly giving way to Askabad, <q>the key to Herat.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That spirit of equality and fraternity which characterizes
+the government of a Russian <hi rend="italic">mir</hi>, or village, has been carried
+even into central Asia. We have frequently seen
+Russian peasants and natives occupying adjoining apartments
+in the same household, while in the process of trade
+all classes seem to fraternize in an easy and even cordial
+manner. The same is true of the children, who play together
+indiscriminately in the street. Many a one of
+these heterogeneous groups we have watched <q>playing
+marbles</q> with the ankle-bones of sheep, and listened, with
+some amusement, to their half Russian, half native jargon.
+Schools are now being established to educate the native
+children in the Russian language and methods, and native
+apprentices are being taken in by Russian merchants for
+the same purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Tashkend, as in every European city of the Orient,
+drunkenness, and gambling, and social laxity have followed
+upon the introduction of Western morals and culture.
+Jealousy and intrigue among the officers and functionaries
+are also not strange, perhaps, at so great a distance
+from headquarters, where the only avenue to distinction
+seems to lie through the public service. At the various
+dinner-parties and sociables given throughout the winter,
+the topic of war always met with general welcome. On
+<pb n="123"/><anchor id="Pg123"/>one occasion a report was circulated that Abdurrahman
+Khan, the Ameer of Afghanistan, was lying at the point
+of death. Great preparations, it was said, were being made
+for an expedition over the Pamir, to establish on the throne
+the Russian candidate, Is-shah Khan from Samarkand,
+before Ayub Khan, the rival British protégé, could be
+brought from India. The young officers at once began
+to discuss their chances for promotion, and the number
+of decorations to be forthcoming from St. Petersburg.
+The social gatherings at Tashkend were more convivial
+than sociable. Acquaintances can eat and drink together
+with the greatest of good cheer, but there is very little
+sympathy in conversation. It was difficult for them to
+understand why we had come so far to see a country which
+to many of them was a place of exile.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.' [p. 123]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE
+<q>FOREIGN DEVILS.</q>]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure url="images/i137.jpg" rend="hoch"><head rend="small">A
+    SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE <q>FOREIGN DEVILS.</q></head><figDesc>A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.'</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="124"/><anchor id="Pg124"/>
+<p>
+An early spring did not mean an early departure from
+winter quarters. Impassable roads kept us anxious prisoners
+for a month and a half after the necessary papers
+had been secured. These included, in addition to the local
+passports, a carte-blanche permission to travel from Tashkend
+to Vladivostock through Turkestan and Siberia, a
+document obtained from St. Petersburg through the United
+States minister, the Hon. Charles Emory Smith. Of this
+route to the Pacific we were therefore certain, and yet,
+despite the universal opinion that a bicycle journey across
+the Celestial empire was impracticable, we had determined
+to continue on to the border line, and there to seek better
+information. <q>Don’t go into China</q> were the last words
+of our many kind friends as we wheeled out of Tashkend
+on the seventh of May.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Chimkend our course turned abruptly from what
+was once the main route between Russia’s European and
+Asiatic capitals, and along which De Lesseps, in his letter
+to the Czar, proposed a line of railroad to connect Orenburg
+with Samarkand, a distance about equal to that between
+St. Petersburg and Odessa, 1483 miles. This is also
+the keystone in that wall of forts which Russia gradually
+raised around her unruly nomads of the steppes, and where,
+according to Gortchakoff’s circular of 1864, <q>both interest
+and reason</q> required her to stop; and yet at that very
+time General Tchernaieff was advancing his forces upon
+the present capital, Tashkend. Here, too, we began that
+journey of 1500 miles along the Celestial mountain range
+which terminated only when we scaled its summit beyond
+Barkul to descend again into the burning sands of the
+Desert of Gobi. Here runs the great historical highway
+between China and the West.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From Auli-eta eastward we had before us about 200
+miles of a vast steppe region. Near the mountains is a
+<pb n="126"/><anchor id="Pg126"/>wilderness of lakes, swamps, and streams, which run dry in
+summer. This is the country of the <q>Thousand Springs</q>
+mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Huen T’sang, and where
+was established the kingdom of Black China, supposed
+by many to have been one of the kingdoms of <q>Prester
+John.</q> But far away to our left were the white sands of
+the Ak-Kum, over which the cloudless atmosphere quivers
+incessantly, like the blasts of a furnace. Of all these deserts,
+occupying probably one half of the whole Turkestan
+steppe, none is more terrible than that of the <q>Golodnaya
+Steppe,</q> or Steppe of Hunger, to the north of the <q>White
+Sands</q> now before us. Even in the cool of evening, it is
+said that the soles of the wayfarer’s feet become scorched,
+and the dog accompanying him finds no repose till he has
+burrowed below the burning surface. The monotonous
+appearance of the steppe itself is only intensified in winter,
+when the snow smooths over the broken surface, and even
+necessitates the placing of mud posts at regular intervals
+to mark the roadway for the Kirghiz post-drivers. But
+in the spring and autumn its arid surface is clothed, as if
+by enchantment, with verdure and prairie flowers. Both
+flowers and birds are gorgeously colored. One variety,
+about half the size of the jackdaw which infests the houses
+of Tashkend and Samarkand, has a bright blue body and
+red wings; another, resembling our field-lark in size and
+habits, combines a pink breast with black head and wings.
+But already this springtide splendor was beginning to disappear
+beneath the glare of approaching summer. The
+long wagon-trains of lumber, and the occasional traveler’s
+tarantass rumbling along to the discord of its <hi rend="italic">duga</hi> bells,
+were enveloped in a cloud of suffocating dust.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL. [p. 125]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i139.jpg" rend="quer"><head rend="small">VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.</head><figDesc>VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Now and then we would overtake a party of Russian
+peasants migrating from the famine-stricken districts of
+European Russia to the pioneer colonies along this
+Tur<pb n="127"/><anchor id="Pg127"/>kestan highway. The peculiarity of these villages is their
+extreme length, all the houses facing on the one wide
+street. Most of them are merely mud huts, others make
+pretensions to doors and windows, and a coat of whitewash.
+Near-by usually stands the old battered telega
+which served as a home during many months of travel
+over the Orenburg highway. It speaks well for the colonizing
+capacity of the Russians that they can be induced to
+come so many hundreds of miles from their native land,
+to settle in such a primitive way among the half-wild
+tribes of the steppes. As yet they do very little farming,
+but live, like the Kirghiz, by raising horses, cows, sheep,
+and goats, and, in addition, the Russian hog, the last resembling
+very much the wild swine of the jungles. Instead
+of the former military colonies of plundering Cossacks,
+who really become more assimilated to the Kirghiz
+than these to their conquerors, the <hi rend="italic">mir</hi>, or communal system,
+is now penetrating these fertile districts, and systematically
+replacing the Mongolian culture. But the ignorance
+of this lower class of Russians is almost as noticeable
+as that of the natives themselves. As soon as we
+entered a village, the blacksmith left his anvil, the carpenter
+his bench, the storekeeper his counter, and the milkmaid
+her task. After our parade of the principal street, the
+crowd would gather round us at the station-house. All
+sorts of queries and ejaculations would pass among them.
+One would ask: <q>Are these gentlemen baptized? Are
+they really Christians?</q> On account of their extreme
+ignorance these Russian colonists are by no means able
+to cope with their German colleagues, who are given the
+poorest land, and yet make a better living.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The steppe is a good place for learning patience. With
+the absence of landmarks, you seem never to be getting
+anywhere. It presents the appearance of a boundless
+<pb n="128"/><anchor id="Pg128"/>level expanse, the very undulations of which are so uniform
+as to conceal the intervening troughs. Into these,
+horsemen, and sometimes whole caravans, mysteriously
+disappear. In this way we were often enabled to surprise
+a herd of gazelles grazing by the roadside. They would
+stand for a moment with necks extended, and then scamper
+away like a shot, springing on their pipe-stem limbs
+three or four feet into the air. Our average rate was
+about seven miles an hour, although the roads were sometimes
+so soft with dust or sand as to necessitate the laying
+of straw for a foundation. There was scarcely an
+hour in the day when we were not accompanied by from
+one to twenty Kirghiz horsemen, galloping behind us with
+cries of <q>Yakshee!</q> (<q>Good!</q>) They were especially
+curious to see how we crossed the roadside streams.
+Standing on the bank, they would watch intently every
+move as we stripped and waded through with bicycles and
+clothing on our shoulders. Then they would challenge us
+to a race, and, if the road permitted, we would endeavor
+to reveal some of the possibilities of the <q>devil’s carts.</q>
+On an occasion like this occurred one of our few mishaps.
+The road was lined by the occupants of a neighboring
+tent village, who had run out to see the race. One of the
+Kirghiz turned suddenly back in the opposite direction
+from which he had started. The wheel struck him at a
+rate of fifteen miles per hour, lifting him off his feet, and
+hurling over the handle-bars the rider, who fell upon his
+left arm, and twisted it out of place. With the assistance
+of the bystanders it was pulled back into the socket, and
+bandaged up till we reached the nearest Russian village.
+Here the only physician was an old blind woman of the
+faith-cure persuasion. Her massage treatment to replace
+the muscles was really effective, and was accompanied by
+prayers and by signs of the cross, a common method of
+<pb n="130"/><anchor id="Pg130"/>treatment among the lower class of Russians. In one instance
+a cure was supposed to be effected by writing a
+prayer on a piece of buttered bread to be eaten by the
+patient.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE. [p. 129]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure url="images/i143.jpg" rend="quer"><head rend="small">ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.</head><figDesc>ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Being users but not patrons of the Russian post-roads,
+we were not legally entitled to the conveniences of the
+post-stations. Tipping alone, as we found on our journey
+from Samarkand, was not always sufficient to preclude a
+request during the night to vacate the best quarters for
+the post-traveler, especially if he happened to wear the
+regulation brass button. To secure us against this inconvenience,
+and to gain some special attention, a letter was
+obtained from the overseer of the Turkestan post and
+telegraph district. This proved advantageous on many
+occasions, and once, at Auli-eta, was even necessary. We
+were surveyed with suspicious glances as soon as we entered
+the station-house, and when we asked for water to
+lave our hands and face, we were directed to the irrigating
+ditch in the street. Our request for a better room
+was answered by the question, if the one we had was not
+good enough, and how long we intended to occupy that.
+Evidently our English conversation had gained for us the
+covert reputation of being English spies, and this was
+verified in the minds of our hosts when we began to ask
+questions about the city prisons we had passed on our
+way. To every interrogation they replied, <q>I don’t know.</q>
+But presto, change, on the presentation of documents!
+Apologies were now profuse, and besides tea, bread, and
+eggs, the usual rations of a Russian post-station, we were
+exceptionally favored with chicken soup and <hi rend="italic">verainyik</hi>, the
+latter consisting of cheese wrapped and boiled in dough,
+and then served in butter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been the custom for travelers in Russia to decry
+the Russian post-station, but the fact is that an
+appre<pb n="131"/><anchor id="Pg131"/>ciation of this rather primitive form of accommodation
+depends entirely upon whether you approach it from a
+European hotel or from a Persian khan. Some are clean,
+while others are dirty. Nevertheless, it was always a welcome
+sight to see a small white building looming up in
+the dim horizon at the close of a long day’s ride, and, on
+near approach, to observe the black and white striped post
+in front, and idle tarantasses around it. At the door
+would be found the usual crowd of Kirghiz post-drivers.
+After the presentation of documents to the <hi rend="italic">starosta</hi>, who
+would hesitate at first about quartering our horses in the
+travelers’ room, we would proceed at once to place our
+dust-covered heads beneath the spindle of the washing-tank.
+Although by this dripping-pan arrangement we
+would usually succeed in getting as much water down our
+backs as on our faces, yet we were consoled by the thought
+that too much was better than not enough, as had been
+the case in Turkey and Persia. Then we would settle
+down before the steaming samovar to meditate in solitude
+and quiet, while the rays of the declining sun shone on
+the gilded eikon in the corner of the room, and on the
+chromo-covered walls. When darkness fell, and the simmering
+music of the samovar had gradually died away;
+when the flitting swallows in the room had ceased their
+chirp, and settled down upon the rafters overhead, we
+ourselves would turn in under our fur-lined coats upon
+the leather-covered benches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In consequence of the first of a series of accidents to
+our wheels, we were for several days the guests of the
+director of the botanical gardens at Pishpek. As a branch
+of the Crown botanical gardens at St. Petersburg, some
+valuable experiments were being made here with foreign
+seeds and plants. Peaches, we were told, do not thrive,
+but apples, pears, cherries, and the various kinds of
+ber<pb n="132"/><anchor id="Pg132"/>ries, grow as well as they do at home. Rye, however,
+takes three years to reach the height of one year in America.
+Through the Russians, these people have obtained
+high-flown ideas of America and Americans. We saw
+many chromos of American celebrities in the various station-houses,
+and the most numerous was that of Thomas
+A. Edison. His phonograph, we were told, had already
+made its appearance in Pishpek, but the natives did not
+seem to realize what it was. <q>Why,</q> they said, <q>we have
+often heard better music than that.</q> Dr. Tanner was not
+without his share of fame in this far-away country. During
+his fast in America, a similar, though not voluntary,
+feat was being performed here. A Kirghiz messenger
+who had been despatched into the mountains during the
+winter was lost in the snow, and remained for
+twenty-<pb n="133"/><anchor id="Pg133"/>eight days without food. He was found at last, crazed
+by hunger. When asked what he would have to eat, he
+replied, <q>Everything.</q> They foolishly gave him <q>everything,</q>
+and in two days he was dead. For a long time
+he was called the <q>Doctor Tanner of Turkestan.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER. [p. 132]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i146.jpg"><head rend="small">UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.</head><figDesc>UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A divergence of seventy-five miles from the regular post-route
+was made in order to visit Lake Issik Kul, which is
+probably the largest lake for its elevation in the world,
+being about ten times larger than Lake Geneva, and at a
+height of 5300 feet. Its slightly brackish water, which
+never freezes, teems with several varieties of fish, many
+of which we helped to unhook from a Russian fisherman’s
+line, and then helped to eat in his primitive hut near the
+shore. A Russian Cossack, who had just come over the
+snow-capped Ala Tau, <q>of the Shade,</q> from Fort Narin,
+was also present, and from the frequent glances cast at
+the fisherman’s daughter we soon discovered the object of
+his visit. The ascent to this lake, through the famous
+Buam Defile, or Happy Pass, afforded some of the grandest
+scenery on our route through Asia. Its seething, foaming,
+irresistible torrent needs only a large volume to make
+it the equal of the rapids at Niagara.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our return to the post-road was made by an unbeaten
+track over the Ala Tau mountains. From the Chu valley,
+dotted here and there with Kirghiz tent villages and their
+grazing flocks and herds, we pushed our wheels up the
+broken path, which wound like a mythical stairway far
+up into the low-hanging clouds. We trudged up one of
+the steepest ascents we have ever made with a wheel. The
+scenery was grand, but lonely. The wild tulips, pinks,
+and verbenas dotting the green slopes furnished the only
+pleasant diversion from our arduous labor. Just as we
+turned the highest summit, the clouds shifted for a moment,
+and revealed before us two Kirghiz horsemen. They
+<pb n="134"/><anchor id="Pg134"/>started back in astonishment, and gazed at us as though
+we were demons of the air, until we disappeared again
+down the opposite and more gradual slope. Late in the
+afternoon we emerged upon the plain, but no post-road or
+station-house was in sight, as we expected; nothing but
+a few Kirghiz kibitkas among the straggling rocks, like
+the tents of the Egyptian Arabs among the fallen stones
+of the pyramids.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER. [p. 134]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i148.jpg"><head rend="small">KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.</head><figDesc>KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Toward these we now directed our course, and, in view
+of a rapidly approaching storm, asked to purchase a night’s
+lodging. This was only too willingly granted in anticipation
+of the coming <hi rend="italic">tomasha</hi>, or exhibition. The milkmaids
+as they went out to the rows of sheep and goats tied to
+the lines of woolen rope, and the horsemen with reinless
+horses to drive in the ranging herds, spread the news from
+tent to tent. By the time darkness fell the kibitka was
+<pb n="135"/><anchor id="Pg135"/>filled to overflowing. We were given the seat of honor
+opposite the doorway, bolstered up with blankets and pillows.
+By the light of the fire curling its smoke upward
+through the central opening in the roof, it was interesting
+to note the faces of our hosts. We had never met a people
+of a more peaceful temperament, and, on the other
+hand, none more easily frightened. A dread of the evil
+eye is one of their characteristics. We had not been settled
+long before the <hi rend="italic">ishan</hi>, or itinerant dervish, was called
+in to drive away the evil spirits, which the <q>devil’s carts</q>
+might possibly have brought. Immediately on entering,
+he began to shrug his shoulders, and to shiver as though
+passing into a state of trance. Our dervish acquaintance
+was a man of more than average intelligence. He had
+traveled in India, and had even heard some one speak of
+America. This fact alone was sufficient to warrant him
+in posing as instructor for the rest of the assembly. While
+we were drinking tea, a habit they have recently adopted
+from the Russians, he held forth at great length to his
+audience about the <hi rend="italic">Amerikón</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The rain now began to descend in torrents. The felt
+covering was drawn over the central opening, and propped
+up at one end with a pole to emit the clouds of smoke
+from the smoldering fire. This was shifted with the veering
+wind. Although a mere circular rib framework covered
+with white or brown felt, according as the occupant
+is rich or poor, the Kirghiz kibitka, or more properly <hi rend="italic">yurt</hi>,
+is not as a house builded upon the sand, even in the fiercest
+storm. Its stanchness and comfort are surprising
+when we consider the rapidity with which it may be taken
+down and transported. In half an hour a whole village
+may vanish, emigrating northward in summer, and southward
+in winter. Many a Kirghiz cavalcade was overtaken
+on the road, with long tent-ribs and felts tied upon the
+<pb n="136"/><anchor id="Pg136"/>backs of two-humped camels, for the Bactrian dromedary
+has not been able to endure the severities of these Northern
+climates. The men would always be mounted on the
+camels’ or horses’ backs, while the women would be perched
+on the oxen and bullocks, trained for the saddle and as
+beasts of burden. The men never walk; if there is any
+leading to be done it falls to the women. The constant
+use of the saddle has made many of the men bandy-legged,
+which, in connection with their usual obesity,—with them
+a mark of dignity,—gives them a comical appearance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After their curiosity regarding us had been partly satisfied,
+it was suggested that a sheep should be slaughtered
+in our honor. Neither meat nor bread is ever eaten by
+any but the rich Kirghiz. Their universal kumiss, corresponding
+to the Turkish yaourt, or coagulated milk, and
+other forms of lacteal dishes, sometimes mixed with meal,
+form the chief diet of the poor. The wife of our host, a
+buxom woman, who, as we had seen, could leap upon a
+horse’s back as readily as a man, now entered the doorway,
+carrying a full-grown sheep by its woolly coat. This
+she twirled over on its back, and held down with her knee
+while the butcher artist drew a dagger from his belt, and
+held it aloft until the assembly stroked their scant beards,
+and uttered the solemn bismillah. Tired out by the day’s
+ride, we fell asleep before the arrangements for the feast
+had been completed. When awakened near midnight, we
+found that the savory odor from the huge caldron on the
+fire had only increased the attraction and the crowd. The
+choicest bits were now selected for the guests. These
+consisted of pieces of liver, served with lumps of fat from
+the tail of their peculiarly fat-tailed sheep. As an act of
+the highest hospitality, our host dipped these into some
+liquid grease, and then, reaching over, placed them in our
+mouths with his fingers. It required considerable effort
+<pb n="137"/><anchor id="Pg137"/>on this occasion to subject our feelings of nausea to a
+sense of Kirghiz politeness. In keeping with their characteristic
+generosity, every one in the kibitka must partake
+in some measure of the feast, although the women,
+who had done all the work, must be content with remnants
+and bones already picked over by the host. But this disposition
+to share everything was not without its other
+aspect; we also were expected to share everything with
+them. We were asked to bestow any little trinket or nick-nack
+exposed to view. Any extra nut on the machine, a
+handkerchief, a packet of tea, or a lump of sugar, excited
+their cupidity at once. The latter was considered a bonbon
+by the women and younger portion of the spectators.
+The attractive daughter of our host, <q>Kumiss John,</q>
+amused herself by stealing lumps of sugar from our pockets.
+When the feast was ended, the beards were again
+stroked, the name of Allah solemnly uttered by way of
+thanks for the bounty of heaven, and then each gave
+utterance to his appreciation of the meal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before retiring for the night, the dervish led the
+prayers, just as he had done at sunset. The praying-mats
+were spread, and all heads bowed toward Mecca. The
+only preparation for retiring was the spreading of blankets
+from the pile in one of the kibitkas. The Kirghiz are
+not in the habit of removing many garments for this purpose,
+and under the circumstances we found this custom
+a rather convenient one. Six of us turned in on the floor
+together, forming a semicircle, with our feet toward the
+fire. <q>Kumiss John,</q> who was evidently the pet of the
+household, had a rudely constructed cot at the far end of
+the kibitka.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vernoye, the old Almati, with its broad streets, low wood
+and brick houses, and Russian sign-boards, presented a
+Siberian aspect. The ruins of its many disastrous
+earth<pb n="139"/><anchor id="Pg139"/>quakes lying low on every hand told us at once the cause
+of its deserted thoroughfares. The terrible shocks of the
+year before our visit killed several hundred people, and a
+whole mountain in the vicinity sank. The only hope of
+its persistent residents is a branch from the Transsiberian
+or Transcaspian railroad, or the reannexation by Russia
+of the fertile province of Ili, to make it an indispensable
+depot. Despite these periodical calamities, Vernoye has
+had, and is now constructing, under the genius of the
+French architect, Paul L. Gourdet, some of the finest edifices
+to be found in central Asia. The orphan asylum, a
+magnificent three-story structure, is now being built on
+experimental lines, to test its strength against earthquake
+shocks.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS. [p. 138]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i152.jpg"><head rend="small">FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS.</head><figDesc>FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+One of the chief incidents of our pleasant sojourn was
+afforded by Governor Ivanoff. We were invited to head
+the procession of the Cossacks on their annual departure
+for their summer encampment in the mountains. After
+the usual religious ceremony, they filed out from the city
+parade-ground. Being unavoidably detained for a few
+moments, we did not come up until some time after the
+column had started. As we dashed by to the front with
+the American and Russian flags fluttering side by side
+from the handle-bars, cheer after cheer arose from the
+ranks, and even the governor and his party doffed their
+caps in acknowledgment. At the camp we were favored
+with a special exhibition of horsemanship. By a single
+twist of the rein the steeds would fall to the ground, and
+their riders crouch down behind them as a bulwark in
+battle. Then dashing forward at full speed, they would
+spring to the ground, and leap back again into the saddle,
+or, hanging by their legs, would reach over and pick up
+a handkerchief, cap, or a soldier supposed to be wounded.
+All these movements we photographed with our camera.
+<pb n="140"/><anchor id="Pg140"/>Of the endurance of these Cossacks and their Kirghiz
+horses we had a practical test. Overtaking a Cossack
+courier in the early part of a day’s journey, he became so
+interested in the velocipede, as the Russians call the bicycle,
+that he determined to see as much of it as possible.
+He stayed with us the whole day, over a distance of fifty-five
+miles. His chief compensation was in witnessing the
+surprise of the natives to whom he would shout across the
+fields to come and see the <hi rend="italic">tomasha</hi>, adding in explanation
+that we were the American gentlemen who had ridden
+all the way from America. Our speed was not slow, and
+frequently the poor fellow would have to resort to the
+whip, or shout, <q>Slowly, gentlemen, my horse is tired;
+the town is not far away, it is not necessary to hurry so.</q>
+The fact is that in all our experience we found no horse
+of even the famed Kirghiz or Turkoman breed that could
+travel with the same ease and rapidity as ourselves even
+over the most ordinary road.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At Vernoye we began to glean practical information
+about China, but all except our genial host, M. Gourdet,
+counseled us against our proposed journey. He alone, as
+a traveler of experience, advised a divergence from the
+<anchor id="corr140"/><corr sic="Siberan">Siberian</corr> route at Altin Imell, in order to visit the Chinese
+city of Kuldja, where, as he said, with the assistance of
+the resident Russian consul we could test the validity of
+the Chinese passport received, as before mentioned, from
+the Chinese minister at London.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days later we were rolling up the valley of the
+Ili, having crossed that river by the well-constructed Russian
+bridge at Fort Iliysk, the head of navigation for the
+boats from Lake Balkash. New faces here met our curious
+gaze. As an ethnological transition between the inhabitants
+of central Asia and the Chinese, we were now
+among two distinctly agricultural races—the Dungans
+<pb n="142"/><anchor id="Pg142"/>and Taranchis. As the invited guests of these people on
+several occasions, we were struck with their extreme cleanliness,
+economy, and industry; but their deep-set eyes
+seem to express reckless cruelty.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="STROLLING MUSICIANS. [p. 141]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: STROLLING MUSICIANS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i155.jpg"><head rend="small">STROLLING MUSICIANS.</head><figDesc>STROLLING MUSICIANS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The Mohammedan mosques of this people are like the
+Chinese pagodas in outward appearance, while they seem
+to be Chinese in half-Kirghiz garments. Their women,
+too, do not veil themselves, although they are much more
+shy than their rugged sisters of the steppes. Tenacious
+of their word, these people were also scrupulous about
+returning favors. Our exhibitions were usually rewarded
+by a spread of sweets and yellow Dungan tea. Of this
+we would partake beneath the shade of their well-trained
+grape-arbors, while listening to the music, or rather discord,
+of a peculiar stringed instrument played by the boys.
+Its bow of two parts was so interlaced with the strings of
+the instrument as to play upon two at every draw. Another
+musician usually accompanied by beating little sticks
+on a saucer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These are the people who were introduced by the Manchus
+to replace the Kalmucks in the Kuldja district, and
+who in 1869 so terribly avenged upon their masters the
+blood they previously caused to flow. The fertile province
+of Kuldja, with a population of 2,500,000, was reduced by
+their massacres to one vast necropolis. On all sides are
+canals that have become swamps, abandoned fields, wasted
+forests, and towns and villages in ruins, in some of which
+the ground is still strewn with the bleached bones of the
+murdered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we ascended the Ili valley piles of stones marked in
+succession the sites of the towns of Turgen, Jarkend, Akkend,
+and Khorgos, names which the Russians are already
+reviving in their pioneer settlements. The largest of these,
+Jarkend, is the coming frontier town, to take the place of
+<pb n="144"/><anchor id="Pg144"/>evacuated Kuldja. About twenty-two miles east of this
+point the large white Russian fort of Khorgos stands
+bristling on the bank of the river of that name, which, by
+the treaty of 1881, is now the boundary-line of the Celestial
+empire. On a ledge of rocks overlooking the ford a
+Russian sentinel was walking his beat in the solitude of
+a dreary outpost. He stopped to watch us as we plunged
+into the flood, with our Russian telega for a ferry-boat.
+<q>All’s well,</q> we heard him cry, as, bumping over the
+rocky bottom, we passed from Russia into China. <q>Ah,
+yes,</q> we thought; <q><q>All’s well that ends well,</q> but this is
+only the beginning.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA. [p. 143]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i157.jpg"><head rend="small">THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.</head><figDesc>THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A few minutes later we dashed through the arched
+driveway of the Chinese custom-house, and were several
+yards away before the lounging officials realized what it
+was that flitted across their vision. <q>Stop! Come back!</q>
+they shouted in broken Russian. Amid a confusion of
+chattering voices, rustling gowns, clattering shoes, swinging
+pigtails, and clouds of opium and tobacco smoke, we
+were brought into the presence of the head official. Putting
+on his huge spectacles, he read aloud the visé written
+upon our American passports by the Chinese minister in
+London. His wonderment was increased when he further
+read that such a journey was being made on the <q>foot-moved
+carriages,</q> which were being curiously fingered by
+the attendants. Our garments were minutely scrutinized,
+especially the buttons, while our caps and dark-colored
+spectacles were taken from our heads, and passed round
+for each to try on in turn, amid much laughter.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA. [p. 145]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="gross" url="images/i159.jpg"><head rend="small">THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.</head><figDesc>THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Owing to the predominant influence of Russia in these
+northwestern confines, our Russian papers would have been
+quite sufficient to cross the border into Kuldja. It was
+only beyond this point that our Chinese passport would
+be found necessary, and possibly invalid. After the usual
+<pb n="145"/><anchor id="Pg145"/>visés had been stamped and written over, we were off on
+what proved to be our six months’ experience in the
+<q>Middle Kingdom or Central Empire,</q> as the natives call
+it, for to Chinamen there is a fifth point to the compass—the
+center, which is China. Not far on the road we heard
+the clatter of hoofs behind us. A Kalmuck was dashing
+toward us with a portentous look on his features. We
+dismounted in apprehension. He stopped short some
+twenty feet away, leaped to the ground, and, crawling up
+<pb n="146"/><anchor id="Pg146"/>on hands and knees, began to <hi rend="italic">chin-chin</hi> or knock his head
+on the ground before us. This he continued for some
+moments, and then without a word gazed at us in wild
+astonishment. Our perplexity over this performance was
+increased when, at a neighboring village, a bewildered
+Chinaman sprang out from the speechless crowd, and
+threw himself in the road before us. By a dexterous turn
+we missed his head, and passed over his extended queue.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN. [p. 146]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i160.jpg"><head rend="small">TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN.</head><figDesc>TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Kuldja, with its Russian consul and Cossack station,
+still maintains a Russian telegraph and postal service.
+The mail is carried from the border in a train of three or
+four telegas, which rattle along over the primitive roads
+in a cloud of dust, with armed Cossacks galloping before
+and after, and a Russian flag carried by the herald in
+front. Even in the Kuldja post-office a heavily armed
+<pb n="147"/><anchor id="Pg147"/>picket stands guard over the money-chest. This postal
+caravan we now overtook encamped by a small stream,
+during the glaring heat of the afternoon. We found that
+we had been expected several days before, and that quarters
+had been prepared for us in the postal station at the
+town of Suidun. Here we spent the night, and continued
+on to Kuldja the following morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Although built by the Chinese, who call it Nin-yuan,
+Kuldja, with its houses of beaten earth, strongly resembles
+the towns of Russian Turkestan. Since the evacuation
+by the Russians the Chinese have built around the city
+the usual quadrangular wall, thirty feet in height and
+twenty feet in width, with parapets still in the course of
+construction. But the rows of poplars, the whitewash,
+and the telegas were still left to remind us of the temporary
+Russian occupation. For several days we were objects
+of excited interest to the mixed population. The doors
+and windows of our Russian quarters were besieged by
+crowds. In defense of our host, we gave a public exhibition,
+and with the consent of the <hi rend="italic">Tootai</hi> made the circuit
+on the top of the city walls. Fully 3000 people lined the
+streets and housetops to witness the race to which we had
+been challenged by four Dungan horsemen, riding below
+on the encircling roadway. The distance around was two
+miles. The horsemen started with a rush, and at the end
+of the first mile were ahead. At the third turning we
+overtook them, and came to the finish two hundred yards
+ahead, amid great excitement. Even the commander of
+the Kuldja forces was brushed aside by the chasing rabble.
+</p>
+<pb n="148"/><anchor id="Pg148"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA. [p. 148]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i162.jpg"><head rend="small">A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.</head><figDesc>A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<pb n="149"/><anchor id="Pg149"/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf" level1="V. Over the Gobi Desert and throug the Western Gate of the Great Wall"/>
+<head>V</head>
+
+<head type="sub">OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL</head>
+
+<p>
+Russian influence, which even now predominates at
+Kuldja, was forcibly indicated, the day after our arrival,
+during our investigations as to the validity of our
+Chinese passports for the journey to Peking. The Russian
+consul, whose favor we had secured in advance through
+letters from Governor Ivanoff at Vernoye, had pronounced
+them not only good, but by far the best that had been
+presented by any traveler entering China at this point.
+After endeavoring to dissuade us from what he called a
+foolhardy undertaking, even with the most valuable papers,
+he sent us, with his interpreter, to the Kuldja Tootai for
+the proper visé.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That dignitary, although deeply interested, was almost
+amused at the boldness of our enterprise. He said that
+no passport would insure success by the method we proposed
+to pursue; that, before he could allow us to make
+the venture, we must wait for an order from Peking.
+This, he said, would subject us to considerable delay and
+expense, even if the telegraph and post were utilized
+through Siberia and Kiakhta. This was discouraging indeed.
+But when we discovered, a few minutes later, that
+his highness had to call in the learned secretary to trace
+our proposed route for him on the map of China, and
+<pb n="150"/><anchor id="Pg150"/>even to locate the capital, Peking, we began to question
+his knowledge of Chinese diplomacy. The matter was
+again referred to the consul, who reported back the following
+day that his previous assurances were reliable,
+that the Tootai would make the necessary visés, and send
+away at once, by the regular relay post across the empire,
+an open letter that could be read by the officials along the
+route, and be delivered long before our arrival at Peking.
+Such easy success we had not anticipated. The difficulty,
+as well as necessity, of obtaining the proper credentials
+for traveling in China was impressed upon us by the arrest
+the previous day of three Afghan visitors, and by the fact
+that a German traveler had been refused, just a few weeks
+before, permission even to cross the Mozart pass into
+Kashgar. So much, we thought, for Russian friendship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon this assurance of at least official consent to hazard
+the journey to Peking, a telegram was sent to the chief
+of police at Tomsk, to whose care we had directed our
+letters, photographic material, and bicycle supplies to be
+sent from London in the expectation of being forced to
+take the Siberian route. These last could not have been
+dispensed with much longer, as our cushion-tires, ball-bearings,
+and axles were badly worn, while the rim of one
+of the rear wheels was broken in eight places for the lack
+of spokes. These supplies, however, did not reach us till
+six weeks after the date of our telegram, to which a prepaid
+reply was received, after a week’s delay, asking in
+advance for the extra postage. This, with that prepaid
+from London, amounted to just fifty dollars. The warm
+weather, after the extreme cold of a Siberian winter, had
+caused the tires to stretch so much beyond their intended
+size that, on their arrival, they were almost unfit for use.
+Some of our photographic material also had been spoiled
+through the useless inspection of postal officials.
+</p>
+<pb n="151"/><anchor id="Pg151"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY. [p. 151]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i165.jpg"><head rend="small">THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY.</head><figDesc>THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="152"/><anchor id="Pg152"/>
+<p>
+The delay thus caused was well utilized in familiarizing
+ourselves as much as possible with the language and characteristics
+of the Chinese, for, as we were without guides,
+interpreters, or servants, and in some places lacked even
+official assistance, no travelers, perhaps, were ever more
+dependent upon the people than ourselves. The Chinese
+language, the most primitive in the world, is, for this very
+reason perhaps, the hardest to learn. Its poverty of words
+reduces its grammar almost to a question of syntax and
+intonation. Many a time our expressions, by a wrong inflection,
+would convey a meaning different from the one
+intended. Even when told the difference, our ears could
+not detect it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our work of preparation was principally a process of
+elimination. We now had to prepare for a forced march
+in case of necessity. Handle-bars and seat-posts were
+shortened to save weight, and even the leather baggage-carriers,
+fitting in the frames of the machines, which we
+ourselves had patented before leaving England, were replaced
+by a couple of sleeping-bags made for us out of
+woolen shawls and Chinese oiled-canvas. The cutting off
+of buttons and extra parts of our clothing, as well as the
+shaving of our heads and faces, was also included by our
+friends in the list of curtailments. For the same reason
+one of our cameras, which we always carried on our backs,
+and refilled at night under the bedclothes, we sold to a
+Chinese photographer at Suidun, to make room for an
+extra provision-bag. The surplus film, with our extra
+baggage, was shipped by post, via Siberia and Kiakhta,
+to meet us on our arrival in Peking.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE. [p. 153]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i167.jpg"><head rend="small">VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.</head><figDesc>VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+And now the money problem was the most perplexing
+of all. <q>This alone,</q> said the Russian consul, <q>if nothing
+else, will defeat your plans.</q> Those Western bankers who
+advertise to furnish <q>letters of credit to any part of the
+<pb n="154"/><anchor id="Pg154"/>world</q> are, to say the least, rather sweeping in their assertions.
+At any rate, our own London letter was of no
+use beyond the Bosporus, except with the Persian imperial
+banks run by an English syndicate. At the American
+Bible House at Constantinople we were allowed, as a personal
+favor, to buy drafts on the various missionaries along
+the route through Asiatic Turkey. But in central Asia
+we found that the Russian bankers and merchants would
+not handle English paper, and we were therefore compelled
+to send our letter of credit by mail to Moscow. Thither
+we had recently sent it on leaving Tashkend, with instructions
+to remit in currency to Irkutsk, Siberia. We now
+had to telegraph to that point to re-forward over the
+Kiakhta post-route to Peking. With the cash on hand,
+and the proceeds of the camera, sold for more than half
+its weight in silver, four and one third pounds, we thought
+we had sufficient money to carry us, or, rather, as much
+as we could carry, to that point; for the weight of the
+Chinese money necessary for a journey of over three thousand
+miles was, as the Russian consul thought, one of the
+greatest of our almost insurmountable obstacles. In the
+interior of China there is no coin except the <hi rend="italic">chen</hi>, or <hi rend="italic">sapeks</hi>,
+an alloy of copper and tin, in the form of a disk, having
+a hole in the center by which the coins may be strung together.
+The very recently coined <hi rend="italic">liang</hi>, or <hi rend="italic">tael</hi>, the Mexican
+piaster specially minted for the Chinese market, and
+the other foreign coins, have not yet penetrated from the
+coast. For six hundred miles over the border, however,
+we found both the Russian money and language serviceable
+among the Tatar merchants, while the <hi rend="italic">tenga</hi>, or Kashgar
+silver-piece, was preferred by the natives even beyond
+the Gobi, being much handier than the larger or smaller
+bits of silver broken from the <hi rend="italic">yamba</hi> bricks. All, however,
+would have to be weighed in the <hi rend="italic">tinza</hi>, or small
+    Chi<pb n="157"/><anchor id="Pg157"/>nese scales we carried with us, and on which were marked
+the <hi rend="italic">fün</hi>, <hi rend="italic">tchan</hi>, and <hi rend="italic">liang</hi> of the monetary scale. But the
+value of these terms is reckoned in <hi rend="italic">chen</hi>, and changes with
+almost every district. This necessity for vigilance, together
+with the frequency of bad silver and loaded <hi rend="italic">yambas</hi>, and
+the propensity of the Chinese to <q>knock down</q> on even
+the smallest purchase, tends to convert a traveler in China
+into a veritable Shylock. There being no banks or exchanges
+in the interior, we were obliged to purchase at
+Kuldja all the silver we would need for the entire journey
+of over three thousand miles. <q>How much would it
+take?</q> was the question that our past experience in Asiatic
+travel now aided us to answer. That our calculations
+were close is proved by the fact that we reached Peking
+with silver in our pockets to the value of half a dollar.
+Our money now constituted the principal part of our luggage,
+which, with camera and film, weighed just twenty-five
+pounds apiece. Most of the silver was chopped up
+into small bits, and placed in the hollow tubing of the
+machines to conceal it from Chinese inquisitiveness, if not
+something worse. We are glad to say, however, that no
+attempt at robbery was ever discovered, although efforts
+at extortion were frequent, and sometimes, as will appear,
+of a serious nature.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT. [p. 155]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE <q>CASH</q>
+TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i169.jpg"><head rend="small">OUR 
+    RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE <q>CASH</q> TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA
+    RESTAURANT.</head><figDesc>OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The blowing of the long horns and boom of the mortar
+cannon at the fort awoke us at daylight on the morning
+of July 13. Farewells had been said the night before.
+Only our good-hearted Russian host was up to put an extra
+morsel in our provision-bag, for, as he said, we could
+get no food until we reached the Kirghiz aouls on the
+high plateau of the Talki pass, by which we were to cut
+across over unbeaten paths to the regular so-called imperial
+highway, running from Suidun. From the Catholic
+missionaries at Kuldja we had obtained very accurate
+in<pb n="159"/><anchor id="Pg159"/>formation about this route as far as the Gobi desert. The
+expression Tian Shan Pe-lu, or northern Tian Shan route,
+in opposition to the Tian Shan Nan-lu, or southern Tian
+Shan route, shows that the Chinese had fully appreciated
+the importance of this historic highway, which continues
+the road running from the extreme western gate of the
+Great Wall obliquely across Mongolian Kan-su, through
+Hami and Barkul, to Urumtsi. From here the two natural
+highways lead, one to the head-waters of the Black
+Irtish, the other to the passes leading into the Ili valley,
+and other routes of the Arolo-Caspian depression. The
+latter route, which is now commanded at intervals by Chinese
+forts and military settlements, was recently relinquished
+by Russia only when she had obtained a more
+permanent footing on the former in the trading-posts of
+Chuguchak and Kobdo, for she very early recognized the
+importance of this most natural entry to the only feasible
+route across the Chinese empire. In a glowing sunset, at
+the end of a hot day’s climb, we looked for the last time
+over the Ili valley, and at dusk, an hour later, rolled into
+one of the Kirghiz aouls that are here scattered among
+the rich pasturage of the plateau.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA. [p. 158]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i172.jpg"><head rend="small">A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.</head><figDesc>A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Even here we found that our reputation had extended
+from Kuldja. The chief advanced with <hi rend="italic">amans</hi> of welcome,
+and the heavy-matted curtains in the kibitka doorway
+were raised, as we passed, in token of honor. When the
+refreshing kumiss was served around the evening camp-fire,
+the dangers of the journey through China were discussed
+among our hosts with frequent looks of misgiving.
+Thus, from first to last, every judgment was against us,
+and every prediction was of failure, if not of something
+worse; and now, as we stole out from the tent by the light
+of the rising moon, even the specter-like mountain-peaks
+around us, like symbols of coming events, were casting
+<pb n="160"/><anchor id="Pg160"/>their shadows before. There was something so illusive in
+the scene as to make it very impressive. In the morning,
+early, a score of horsemen were ready to escort us on the
+road. At parting they all dismounted and uttered a prayer
+to Allah for our safety; and then as we rode away, drew
+their fingers across their throats in silence, and waved a
+solemn good-by. Such was the almost superstitious fear
+of these western nomads for the land which once sent
+forth a Yengiz Khan along this very highway.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT. [p. 160]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i174.jpg"><head rend="small">PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.</head><figDesc>PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Down the narrow valley of the Kuitun, which flows into
+<pb n="161"/><anchor id="Pg161"/>the Ebi-nor, startling the mountain deer from the brink
+of the tree-arched rivulet, we reached a spot which once
+was the haunt of a band of those border-robbers about
+whom we had heard so much from our apprehensive
+friends. At the base of a volcano-shaped mountain lay
+the ruins of their former dens, from which only a year
+ago they were wont to sally forth on the passing caravans.
+When they were exterminated by the government, the
+head of their chief, with its dangling queue, was mounted
+on a pole near-by, and preserved in a cage from birds of
+prey, as a warning to all others who might aspire to the
+same notoriety. In this lonely spot we were forced to
+spend the night, as here occurred, through the carelessness
+of the Kuldja Russian blacksmith, a very serious break in
+one of our gear wheels. It was too late in the day to
+walk back the sixteen miles to the Kirghiz encampment,
+and there obtain horses for the remaining fifty-eight miles
+<pb n="162"/><anchor id="Pg162"/>to Kuldja, for nowhere else, we concluded, could such a
+break be mended. Our sleeping-bags were now put to a
+severe test between the damp ground and the heavy mountain
+dew. The penetrating cold, and the occasional panther-like
+cry of some prowling animal, kept us awake the
+greater part of the night, awaiting with revolvers in hand
+some expected attack.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY. [p. 161]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i175.jpg"><head rend="small">THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.</head><figDesc>THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Five days later we had repassed this spot and were toiling
+over the sand and saline-covered depression of the
+great <q>Han-Hai,</q> or Dried-up Sea. The mountain freshets,
+dissolving the salt from their sandy channels, carry it
+down in solution and deposit it with evaporation in massive
+layers, forming a comparatively hard roadway in the
+midst of the shifting sand-dunes. Over these latter our
+progress was extremely slow. One stretch of fifteen miles,
+which it took us six hours to cover, was as formidable as
+any part of the Turkoman desert along the Transcaspian
+railway. At an altitude of only six hundred feet above
+the sea, according to our aneroid barometer, and beneath
+the rays of a July sun against which even our felt caps
+were not much protection, we were half-dragging, half-pushing,
+our wheels through a foot of sand, and slapping
+at the mosquitos swarming upon our necks and faces.
+These pests, which throughout this low country are the
+largest and most numerous we have ever met, are bred in
+the intermediate swamps, which exist only through the
+negligence of the neighboring villagers. At night smoldering
+fires, which half suffocate the human inmates, are
+built before the doors and windows to keep out the intruding
+insects. All travelers wear gloves, and a huge hood
+covering the head and face up to the eyes, and in their
+hands carry a horse-tail switch to lash back and forth
+over their shoulders. Being without such protection we
+suffered both day and night.
+</p>
+<pb n="163"/><anchor id="Pg163"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA. [p. 163]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i177.jpg"><head rend="small">A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA.</head><figDesc>A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="164"/><anchor id="Pg164"/>
+<p>
+The mountain freshets all along the road to Urumtsi
+were more frequent and dangerous than any we had yet
+encountered. Toward evening the melting snows, and
+the condensing currents from the plain heated during the
+day, fill and overflow the channels that in the morning
+are almost dry. One stream, with its ten branches, swept
+the stones and boulders over a shifting channel one mile
+in width. It was when wading through such streams as
+this, where every effort was required to balance ourselves
+and our luggage, that the mosquitos would make up for
+lost time with impunity. The river, before reaching Manas,
+was so swift and deep as to necessitate the use of regular
+government carts. A team of three horses, on making
+a misstep, were shifted away from the ford into deep
+water and carried far down the stream. A caravan of
+Chinese traveling-vans, loaded with goods from India, were
+crossing at the time, on their way to the outlying provinces
+and the Russian border. General Bauman at Vernoye
+had informed us that in this way English goods were
+swung clear around the circle and brought into Russia
+through the unguarded back door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With constant wading and tramping, our Russian shoes
+and stockings, one of which was almost torn off by the
+sly grab of a Chinese spaniel, were no longer fit for use.
+In their place we were now obliged to purchase the short,
+white cloth Chinese socks and string sandals, which for
+mere cycling purposes and wading streams proved an excellent
+substitute, being light and soft on the feet and
+very quickly dried. The calves of our legs, however, being
+left bare, we were obliged, for state occasions at least, to
+retain and utilize the upper portion of our old stockings.
+It was owing to this scantiness of wardrobe that we were
+obliged when taking a bath by the roadside streams to
+make a quick wash of our linen, and put it on wet to
+<pb n="166"/><anchor id="Pg166"/>dry, or allow it to flutter from the handle-bars as we rode
+along. It was astonishing even to ourselves how little a
+man required when once beyond the pale of Western conventionalities.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE. [p. 165]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i179.jpg"><head rend="small">SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.</head><figDesc>SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+From Manas to Urumtsi we began to strike more tillage
+and fertility. Maize, wheat, and rice were growing,
+but rather low and thin. The last is by no means the
+staple food of China, as is commonly supposed, except in
+the southern portion. In the northern, and especially the
+outlying, provinces it is considered more a luxury for the
+wealthy. Millet and coarse flour, from which the <hi rend="italic">mien</hi> or
+dough-strings are made, is the foundation, at least, for
+more than half the subsistence of the common classes.
+Nor is there much truth, we think, in the assertion that
+Chinamen eat rats, although we sometimes regretted that
+they did not. After a month or more without meat a dish
+of rats would have been relished, had we been able to get
+it. On the other hand we have learned that there is a
+society of Chinamen who are vegetarians from choice, and
+still another that will eat the meat of no animal, such as
+the ass, horse, dog, etc., which can serve man in a better
+way.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING. [p. 167]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i181.jpg"><head rend="small">THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING.</head><figDesc>THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Urumtsi, or Hun-miao (red temple) of the Chinese, still
+retains its ancient prestige in being the seat of government
+for the viceroyalty of Sin-tsiang, which includes all
+that portion of western China lying without the limit of
+Mongolia and Tibet. Thanks to its happy position, it has
+always rapidly recovered after every fresh disaster. It
+now does considerable trade with Russia through the town
+of Chuguchak, and with China through the great gap which
+here occurs in the Tian Shan range. It lies in a picturesque
+amphitheater behind the solitary <q>Holy Mount,</q>
+which towers above a well-constructed bridge across its
+swiftly flowing river. This city was one of our principal
+<pb n="168"/><anchor id="Pg168"/>landmarks across the empire; a long stage of the journey
+was here completed.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS. [p. 168]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i182.jpg"><head rend="small">RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.</head><figDesc>RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+On entering a Chinese city we always made it a rule to
+run rapidly through until we came to an inn, and then lock
+up our wheels before the crowd could collect. Urumtsi,
+however, was too large and intricate for such a manœuver.
+We were obliged to dismount in the principal thoroughfare.
+The excited throng pressed in upon us. Among
+them was a Chinaman who could talk a little Russian, and
+who undertook to direct us to a comfortable inn at the
+far end of the city. This street parade gathered to the
+inn yard an overwhelming mob, and announced to the
+whole community that <q>the foreign horses</q> had come.
+It had been posted, we were told, a month before, that
+<q>two people of the new world</q> were coming through on
+<q>strange iron horses,</q> and every one was requested not
+to molest them. By this, public curiosity was raised to
+the highest pitch. When we returned from supper at a
+<pb n="169"/><anchor id="Pg169"/>neighboring restaurant, we were treated to a novel scene.
+The doors and windows of our apartments had been
+blocked with boxes, bales of cotton, and huge cart-wheels
+to keep out the irrepressible throng. Our host was agitated
+to tears; he came out wringing his hands, and urging
+upon us that any attempt on our part to enter would
+cause a rush that would break his house down. We listened
+to his entreaties on the condition that we should be
+allowed to mount to the roof with a ladder, to get away
+from the annoying curiosity of the crowd. There we sat
+through the evening twilight, while the crowd below, somewhat
+balked, but not discouraged, stood taking in every
+move. Nightfall and a drizzling rain came at last to our
+relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next morning a squad of soldiers was despatched
+to raise the siege, and at the same time presents began to
+arrive from the various officials, from the Tsongtu, or viceroy,
+down to the superintendent of the local prisons. The
+matter of how much to accept of a Chinese present, and
+how much to pay for it, in the way of a tip to the bearer,
+is one of the finest points of that finest of fine arts, Chinese
+etiquette; and yet in the midst of such an abundance
+and variety we were hopelessly at sea. Fruits and teas
+were brought, together with meats and chickens, and even
+a live sheep. Our Chinese visiting-cards—with the Chinese
+the great insignia of rank—were now returned for
+those sent with the presents, and the hour appointed for
+the exhibition of our bicycles as requested.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI. [p. 170]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i184.jpg"><head rend="small">MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.</head><figDesc>MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Long before the time, the streets and housetops leading
+from the inn to the viceroy’s palace at the far end of the
+city began to fill with people, and soldiers were detailed
+at our request to make an opening for us to ride through
+abreast. This, however, did not prevent the crowd from
+pushing us against each other, or sticking sticks in the
+<pb n="170"/><anchor id="Pg170"/>wheels, or throwing their hats and shoes in front of us, as
+we rode by. When in sight of the viceroy’s palace, they
+closed in on us entirely. It was the worst jam we had
+ever been in. By no possibility could we mount our machines,
+although the mob was growing more and more
+impatient. They kept shouting for us to ride, but would
+give us no room. Those on the outside pushed the inner
+ones against us. With the greatest difficulty could we
+preserve our equilibrium, and prevent the wheels from
+being crushed, as we surged along toward the palace gate;
+while all the time our Russian interpreter, Mafoo, on horseback
+in front, continued to shout and gesticulate in the
+wildest manner above their heads. Twenty soldiers had
+been stationed at the palace gate to keep back the mob
+with cudgels. When we reached them, they pulled us
+and our wheels quickly through into the inclosure, and
+then tried to stem the tide by belaboring the heads and
+<pb n="171"/><anchor id="Pg171"/>shoulders in reach, including those of our unfortunate
+interpreter, Mafoo. But it was no use. Everything was
+swept away before this surging wave of humanity. The
+viceroy himself, who now came out to receive us, was
+powerless. All he could do was to request them to make
+room around the palace courtyard for the coming exhibition.
+Thousands of thumbs were uplifted that afternoon,
+in praise of the wonderful <hi rend="italic">twee-tah-cheh</hi>, or two-wheeled
+carts, as they witnessed our modest attempt at trick riding
+and special manœuvering. After refreshments in the
+palace, to which we were invited by the viceroy, we were
+counseled to leave by a rear door, and return by a roundabout
+way to the inn, leaving the mob to wait till dark
+for our exit from the front.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A BANK IN URUMTSI. [p. 171]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A BANK IN URUMTSI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i185.jpg"><head rend="small">A BANK IN URUMTSI.</head><figDesc>A BANK IN URUMTSI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The restaurant or tea-house in China takes the place of
+the Western club-room. All the current news and gossip
+<pb n="172"/><anchor id="Pg172"/>is here circulated and discussed over their eating or gambling.
+One of their games of chance, which we have frequently
+noticed, seems to consist in throwing their fingers
+at one another, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+It is really a matching of numbers, for which the Chinamen
+make signs on their fingers, up to the numeral ten.
+Our entry into a crowded <hi rend="italic">dungan</hi>, or native Mohammedan
+restaurant, the next morning, was the signal for exciting
+accounts of the events of the previous day. We were
+immediately invited to take tea with this one, a morning
+dish of <hi rend="italic">tung-posas</hi>, or nut and sugar dumplings, with another,
+while a third came over with his can of <hi rend="italic">sojeu</hi>, or
+Chinese gin, with an invitation <q>to join him.</q> The Chinese
+of all nations seem to live in order to eat, and from
+this race of epicures has developed a nation of excellent
+cooks. Our fare in China, outside the Gobi district, was
+far better than in Turkey or Persia, and, for this reason,
+we were better able to endure the increased hardships.
+A plate of sliced meat stewed with vegetables, and served
+with a piquant sauce, sliced radishes and onions with
+vinegar, two loaves of Chinese <hi rend="italic">mo-mo</hi>, or steamed bread,
+and a pot of tea, would usually cost us about three and
+one quarter cents apiece. Everything in China is sliced
+so that it can be eaten with the chop-sticks. These we at
+length learned to manipulate with sufficient dexterity to
+pick up a dove’s egg—the highest attainment in the chop-stick
+art. The Chinese have rather a sour than a sweet
+tooth. Sugar is rarely used in anything, and never in
+tea. The steeped tea-flowers, which the higher classes
+use, are really more tasty without it. In many of the
+smaller towns, our visits to the restaurant would sometimes
+result in considerable damage to its keepers, for
+the crowd would swarm in after us, knocking over the
+table, stools, and crockery as they went, and collect in a
+<pb n="173"/><anchor id="Pg173"/>circle around us to watch the <q>foreigners</q> eat, and to
+add their opium and tobacco smoke to the suffocating
+atmosphere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A visit to the local mint in Urumtsi revealed to us the
+primitive method of making the <hi rend="italic">chen</hi>, or money-disks
+before mentioned. Each is molded instead of cut and
+stamped as in the West. By its superintendent we were
+invited to a special breakfast on the morning of our
+departure.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 173]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i187.jpg"><head rend="small">A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.</head><figDesc>A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The Chinese are the only people in the Orient, and, so
+far as we know, in the European and Asiatic continents,
+who resemble the Americans in their love for a good, substantial
+morning meal. This was much better adapted
+to our purpose than the Russian custom, which compelled
+us to do the greater part of our day’s work on merely
+bread and weak tea.
+</p>
+<pb n="174"/><anchor id="Pg174"/>
+<index index="ill" level1="STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. [p. 174]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i188.jpg"><head rend="small">STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.</head><figDesc>STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<pb n="175"/><anchor id="Pg175"/>
+<p>
+From Urumtsi we had decided to take the northern
+route to Hami, via Gutchen and Barkul, in order to avoid
+as much as possible the sands of the Tarim basin on the
+southern slope of the Tian Shan mountains. Two guards
+were commissioned by the viceroy to take us in charge,
+and hand us over to the next relay station. Papers were
+given them to be signed by the succeeding authorities on
+our safe arrival. This plan had been adopted by every
+chief mandarin along the route, in order, not only to follow
+out the request of the London minister as written
+on the passport, but principally to do us honor in return
+for the favor of a bicycle exhibition; but many times
+we would leave our discomfited guards to return with unsigned
+papers. Had we been traveling in the ordinary
+way, not only these favors might not have been shown us,
+but our project entirely defeated by local obstructions, as
+was the case with many who attempted the same journey
+by caravan. To the good-will of the mandarins, as well
+as the people, an indispensable concomitant of a journey
+through China, our bicycles were after all our best passports.
+They everywhere overcame the antipathy for the
+foreigner, and made us cordially welcome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The costumes of our soldiers were strikingly picturesque.
+Over the front and back of the scarlet waistcoats
+were worked in black silk letters their military credentials.
+Over their full baggy trousers were drawn their riding
+overalls, which cover only the front and sides of the legs,
+the back being cut out just above the cloth top of their
+Chinese boots. Instead of a cap, they wear a piece of
+printed cloth wrapped tightly around the head, like the
+American washerwomen. Their well-cushioned saddles
+did not save them from the constant jolting to which our
+high speed subjected them. At every stopping-place they
+would hold forth at length to the curious crowd about
+<pb n="176"/><anchor id="Pg176"/>their roadside experiences. It was amusing to hear their
+graphic descriptions of the mysterious <q>ding,</q> by which
+they referred to the ring of the cyclometer at every mile.
+But the phrase <hi rend="italic">quai-ti-henn</hi> (very fast), which concluded
+almost every sentence, showed what feature impressed
+them most. Then, too, they disliked very much to travel
+in the heat of the day, for all summer traveling in China
+is done at night. They would wake us up many hours
+before daylight to make a start, despite our previous request
+to be left alone. Our week’s run to Barkul was
+made, with a good natural road and favoring conditions,
+at the rate of fifty-three miles per day, eight miles more
+than our general average across the empire. From Kuldja
+to the Great Wall, where our cyclometer broke, we took
+accurate measurements of the distances. In this way, we
+soon discovered that the length of a Chinese <hi rend="italic">li</hi> was even
+<pb n="177"/><anchor id="Pg177"/>more changeable than the value of the <hi rend="italic">tael</hi>. According to
+time and place, from 185 to 250 were variously reckoned
+to a degree, while even a difference in direction would
+very often make a considerable difference in the distance.
+It is needless to say that, at this rate, the guards did not
+stay with us. Official courtesy was now confined to despatches
+sent in advance. Through this exceptionally wild
+district were encountered several herds of antelope and
+wild asses, which the natives were hunting with their
+long, heavy, fork-resting rifles. Through the exceptional
+tameness of the jack-rabbits along the road, we were sometimes
+enabled to procure with a revolver the luxury of a
+meat supper.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL. [p. 176]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i190.jpg"><head rend="small">A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.</head><figDesc>A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+At Barkul (Tatar) the first evidence of English influence
+began to appear in the place of the fading Russian,
+although the traces of Russian manufacture were by no
+means wanting far beyond the Great Wall. English pulverized
+sugar now began to take the place of Russian
+lump. India rubber, instead of the Russianized French
+<hi rend="italic">elastique</hi>, was the native name for our rubber tires. English
+letters, too, could be recognized on the second-hand
+paper and bagging appropriated to the natives’ use, and
+even the gilded buttons worn by the soldiers bore the
+stamp of <q>treble gilt.</q> From here the road to Hami
+turns abruptly south, and by a pass of over nine thousand
+feet crosses the declining spurs of the Tian Shan mountains,
+which stand like a barrier between the two great
+historic highways, deflecting the westward waves of migration,
+some to Kashgaria and others to Zungaria. On the
+southern slope of the pass we met with many large caravans
+of donkeys, dragging down pine-logs to serve as
+poles in the proposed extension of the telegraph-line from
+Su-Chou to Urumtsi. In June of this year the following
+item appeared in the newspapers:
+</p>
+
+<pb n="178"/><anchor id="Pg178"/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Within a few months Peking will be united by wire
+with St. Petersburg; and, in consequence, with the telegraph
+system of the entire civilized world. According
+to the latest issue of the Turkestan <q>Gazette,</q> the telegraph-line
+from Peking has been brought as far west as
+the city of Kashgar. The European end of the line is at
+Osh, and a small stretch of about 140 miles now alone
+breaks the direct telegraph communication from the Atlantic
+to the Pacific.</q>
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI. [p. 178]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i192.jpg"><head rend="small">CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.</head><figDesc>CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<milestone unit="tb"/>
+  <index index="ill" level1="SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 179]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i193.jpg"><head rend="small">SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.</head><figDesc>SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Hami is one of those cities which may be regarded as
+indispensable. At the edge of the Great Gobi and the
+converging point of the Nan-lu and Pe-lu—that is, the
+southern and northern routes to the western world—this
+oasis is a necessary resting-place. During our stop of
+two days, to make necessary repairs and recuperate our
+strength for the hardships of the desert, the usual calls
+were exchanged with the leading officials. In the matter
+<pb n="179"/><anchor id="Pg179"/>of social politeness the Chinese, especially the <q>literati,</q>
+have reason to look down upon the barbarians of the
+West. Politeness has been likened generally to an air-cushion.
+There is nothing in it, but it eases the jolts
+wonderfully. As a mere ritual of technicalities it has perhaps
+reached its highest point in China. The multitude
+of honorific titles, so bewildering and even maddening to
+the Occidental, are here used simply to keep in view the
+fixed relations of graduated superiority. When wishing
+to be exceptionally courteous to <q>the foreigners,</q> the more
+experienced mandarins would lay their doubled fists in the
+palms of our hands, instead of raising them in front of
+their foreheads, with the usual salutation <hi rend="italic">Homa</hi>. In shaking
+hands with a Chinaman we thus very often had our
+hands full. After the exchange of visiting-cards, as an
+indication that their visits would be welcome, they would
+come on foot, in carts, or palanquins, according to their
+rank, and always attended by a larger or smaller retinue.
+<pb n="180"/><anchor id="Pg180"/>Our return visits would always be made by request, on
+the wheels, either alone or with our interpreter, if we could
+find one, for our Chinese was as yet painfully defective.
+Russian had served us in good stead, though not always
+directly. In a conversation with the Tootai of Schicho,
+for instance, our Russian had to be translated into Turki
+and thence interpreted in Chinese. The more intelligent
+of these conversations were about our own and other
+countries of the world, especially England and Russia,
+who, it was rumored, had gone to war on the Afghanistan
+border. But the most of them generally consisted of a
+series of trivial interrogations beginning usually with:
+<pb n="181"/><anchor id="Pg181"/><q>How old are you?</q> Owing to our beards, which were
+now full grown, and which had gained for us the frequent
+title of <hi rend="italic">yeh renn</hi>, or wild men, the guesses were far above
+the mark. One was even as high as sixty years, for the
+reason, as was stated, that no Chinaman could raise such
+a beard before that age. We were frequently surprised
+at their persistence in calling us brothers when there was
+no apparent reason for it, and were finally told that we
+must be <q>because we were both named <hi rend="italic">Mister</hi> on our passports.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A LESSON IN CHINESE. [p. 180]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A LESSON IN CHINESE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="gross" url="images/i194.jpg"><head rend="small">A LESSON IN CHINESE.</head><figDesc>A LESSON IN CHINESE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 182]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i196.jpg"><head rend="small">A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.</head><figDesc>A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+It was already dusk on the evening of August 10 when
+we drew up to the hamlet of Shang-loo-shwee at the end
+of the Hami oasis. The Great Gobi, in its awful loneliness,
+stretched out before us, like a vast ocean of endless
+space. The growing darkness threw its mantle on the
+scene, and left imagination to picture for us the nightmare
+of our boyhood days. We seemed, as it were, to be
+standing at the end of the world, looking out into the
+realm of nowhere. Foreboding thoughts disturbed our
+repose, as we contemplated the four hundred miles of this
+barren stretch to the Great Wall of China. With an early
+morning start, however, we struck out at once over the
+eighty-five miles of the Takla Makan sands. This was the
+worst we could have, for beyond the caravan station of
+Kooshee we would strike the projecting limits of Mongolian
+Kan-su. This narrow tract, now lying to our left
+between Hami and the Nan Shan mountains, is characterized
+by considerable diversity in its surface, soil, and
+climate. Traversed by several copious streams from the
+Nan Shan mountains, and the moisture-laden currents
+from the Bay of Bengal and the Brahmaputra valley, its
+<q>desert</q> stretches are not the dismal solitudes of the Tarim
+basin or the <q>Black</q> and <q>Red</q> sands of central
+Asia. Water is found almost everywhere near the
+sur<pb n="182"/><anchor id="Pg182"/>face, and springs bubble up in the hollows, often encircled
+by exterior oases. Everywhere the ground is traversable
+by horses and carts. This comparatively fertile tract,
+cutting the Gobi into two great sections, has been, ever
+since its conquest two thousand years ago, of vast importance
+to China, being the only feasible avenue of communication
+with the western provinces, and the more important
+link in the only great highway across the empire.
+A regular line of caravan stations is maintained by the
+constant traffic both in winter and summer. But we were
+now on a bit of the genuine Gobi—that is, <q>Sandy Desert</q>—of
+the Mongolian, or <q>Shamo</q> of the Chinese.
+Everywhere was the same interminable picture of vast
+undulating plains of shifting reddish sands, interspersed
+with quartz pebbles, agates, and carnelians, and relieved
+here and there by patches of wiry shrubs, used as fuel at
+the desert stations, or lines of hillocks succeeding each
+other like waves on the surface of the shoreless deep. The
+wind, even more than the natural barrenness of the soil,
+prevents the growth of any vegetation except low, pliant
+<pb n="183"/><anchor id="Pg183"/>herbage. Withered plants are uprooted and scattered by
+the gale like patches of foam on the stormy sea. These
+terrible winds, which of course were against us, with the
+frequently heavy cart-tracks, would make it quite impossible
+to ride. The monotony of many weary hours of
+plodding was relieved only by the bones of some abandoned
+beast of burden, or the occasional train of Chinese
+carts, or rather two-wheeled vans, loaded with merchandise,
+and drawn by five to six horses or mules. For miles
+away they would see us coming, and crane their necks in
+wondering gaze as we approached. The mulish leaders,
+with distended ears, would view our strange-looking vehicles
+with suspicion, and then lurch far out in their twenty-foot
+traces, pulling the heavily loaded vehicles from the
+deep-rutted track. But the drivers were too busy with
+their eyes to notice any little divergence of this kind.
+Dumb with astonishment they continued to watch us till
+we disappeared again toward the opposite horizon. Farther
+on we would meet a party of Chinese emigrants or
+<pb n="184"/><anchor id="Pg184"/>exiles, on their way to the fertile regions that skirt the
+northern and southern slopes of the Tian Shan mountains.
+By these people even the distant valley of the Ili is being
+largely populated. Being on foot, with their extraordinary
+loads balanced on flexible shoulder-poles, these poor
+fellows could make only one station, or from twelve to
+twenty miles a day. In the presence of their patience and
+endurance, we were ashamed to think of such a thing as
+hardship.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 183]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: IN THE GOBI DESERT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="gross" url="images/i197.png"><head rend="small">IN THE GOBI DESERT.</head><figDesc>IN THE GOBI DESERT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The station-houses on the desert were nothing more
+than a collection of mud huts near a surface well of
+strongly brackish water. Here, most of the caravans
+would put up during the day, and travel at night. There
+was no such thing as a restaurant; each one by turn must
+do his own cooking in the inn kitchen, open to all. We,
+of course, were expected to carry our own provisions and
+do our own culinary work like any other respectable travelers.
+This we had frequently done before where restaurants
+were not to be found. Many a time we would enter
+an inn with our arms filled with provisions, purchased at
+the neighboring bazaars, take possession of the oven and
+cooking utensils, and proceed to get up an American meal,
+while all the time a hundred eyes or more would be staring
+at us in blank amazement. But here on the desert
+we could buy nothing but very coarse flour. When asked
+if they had an egg or a piece of vegetable, they would
+shout <q><hi rend="italic">Ma-you</hi></q> (<q>There is none</q>) in a tone of rebuke, as
+much as to say: <q>My conscience! man, what do you expect
+on the Gobi?</q> We would have to be content with
+our own tea made in the iron pot, fitting in the top of the
+mud oven, and a kind of sweetened bread made up with
+our supply of sugar brought from Hami. This we nicknamed
+our <q>Gobi cake,</q> although it did taste rather
+strongly of brackish water and the garlic of previous
+con<pb n="185"/><anchor id="Pg185"/>tents of the one common cooking-pot. We would usually
+take a large supply for road use on the following day, or,
+as sometimes proved, for the midnight meal of the half-starved
+inn-dog. The interim between the evening meal
+and bedtime was always employed in writing notes by the
+feeble, flickering light of a primitive taper-lamp, which
+was the best we had throughout the Chinese journey.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN. [p. 185]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i199.jpg"><head rend="small">STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.</head><figDesc>STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A description of traveling in China would by no means
+be complete without some mention of the vermin which
+infest, not only inns and houses, but the persons of nearly
+all the lower classes. Lice and fleas seem to be the <hi rend="italic">sine
+qua non</hi> of Chinese life, and in fact the itching with some
+seems to furnish the only occasion for exercise. We have
+seen even shopkeepers before their doors on a sunny afternoon,
+amusing themselves by picking these insidious
+crea<pb n="186"/><anchor id="Pg186"/>tures from their inner garments. They are one of the
+necessary evils it seems, and no secret is made of it. The
+sleeping <hi rend="italic">kangs</hi> of the Chinese inns, which are made of
+beaten earth and heated in winter like an oven, harbor
+these pests the year round, not to mention the filthy coverlets
+and greasy pillows that were sometimes offered us.
+Had we not had our own sleeping-bags, and used the
+camera, provision-bag, and coats for pillows, our life would
+have been intolerable. As it was there was but little rest
+for the weary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The longest station on the desert was thirty-one miles.
+This was the only time that we suffered at all with thirst.
+In addition to the high mean elevation of the Gobi, about
+four thousand feet, we had cloudy weather for a considerable
+portion of the journey, and, in the Kan-su district,
+even a heavy thunder-shower. These occasional summer
+rains form, here and there, temporary meres and lakes,
+which are soon evaporated, leaving nothing behind except
+a saline efflorescence. Elsewhere the ground is furrowed
+by sudden torrents tearing down the slopes of the occasional
+hills or mountains. These dried up river-beds furnished
+the only continuously hard surfaces we found on
+the Gobi; although even here we were sometimes brought
+up with a round turn in a chuck hole, with the sand flying
+above our heads.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our aneroid barometer registered approximately six
+thousand five hundred feet, when we reached at dusk the
+summit of the highest range of hills we encountered on
+the desert journey. But instead of the station-hut we expected
+to find, we were confronted by an old Mongolian
+monastery. These institutions, we had found, were generally
+situated as this one, at the top of some difficult
+mountain-pass or at the mouth of some cavernous gorge,
+where the pious intercessors might, to the best advantage,
+<pb n="187"/><anchor id="Pg187"/>strive to appease the wrathful forces of nature. In this
+line of duty the lama was no doubt engaged when we
+walked into his feebly-lighted room, but, like all Orientals,
+he would let nothing interfere with the performance of
+his religious duties. With his gaze centered upon one
+spot, his fingers flew over the string of beads in his lap,
+and his tongue over the stereotyped prayers, with a rapidity
+that made our head swim. We stood unnoticed till
+the end, when we were at once invited to a cup of tea, and
+directed to our destination, five <hi rend="italic">li</hi> beyond. Toward this
+we plodded through the growing darkness and rapidly
+cooling atmosphere; for in its extremes of temperature
+the Gobi is at once both Siberian and Indian, and that,
+too, within the short period of a few hours. Some of the
+mornings of what proved to be very hot days were cold
+enough to make our extremities fairly tingle.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI. [p. 187]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i201.jpg"><head rend="small">A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.</head><figDesc>A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A constant diet of bread and tea, together with the
+<pb n="188"/><anchor id="Pg188"/>hard physical exercise and mental anxiety, caused our
+strength at length to fail.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI. [p. 188]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i202.jpg"><head rend="small">A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.</head><figDesc>A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The constant drinking of brackish water made one of
+us so ill that he could retain no food. A high fever set
+in on the evening of August 15, and as we pulled into
+the station of Bay-doon-sah, he was forced to go to bed
+at once. The other, with the aid of our small medicine
+supply, endeavored to ward off the ominous symptoms.
+In his anxiety, however, to do all that was possible he
+made a serious blunder. Instead of antipyrin he administered
+the poison, sulphate of zinc, which we carried to
+relieve our eyes when inflamed by the alkali dust. This
+was swallowed before the truth was discovered. It was
+an anxious moment for us both when we picked up the
+paper from the floor and read the inscription. We could
+do nothing but look at each other in silence. Happily it
+was an overdose, and the vomiting which immediately
+<pb n="189"/><anchor id="Pg189"/>followed relieved both the patient and the anxious doctor.
+What to do we did not know. The patient now suggested
+that his companion should go on without him, and, if
+possible, send back medical aid or proper food; but not
+to remain and get worse himself. He, on the other hand,
+refused to leave without the other. Then too, the outlying
+town of Ngan-si-chou, the first where proper food and
+water could be obtained, was only one day’s journey away.
+Another effort was decided upon. But when morning
+came, a violent hurricane from the southeast swept the
+sand in our faces, and fairly blew the sick man over on
+his wheel. Famishing with thirst, tired beyond expression,
+and burning with fever as well as the withering heat,
+we reached at last the bank of the Su-la-ho. Eagerly we
+plunged into its sluggish waters, and waded through under
+the walls of Ngan-si-chou.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 189]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i203.jpg"><head rend="small">A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.</head><figDesc>A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Ngan-si-chou was almost completely destroyed during
+the late Dungan rebellion. Little is now to be seen except
+heaps of rubbish, ruined temples, and the scattered
+fragments of idols. The neglected gardens no longer
+<pb n="190"/><anchor id="Pg190"/>check the advancing sands, which in some places were
+drifting over the ramparts. Through its abandoned gateway
+we almost staggered with weakness, and directed our
+course to the miserable bazaar. The only meat we could
+find was pork, that shibboleth between Mohammedanism
+and Confucianism. The Dungan restaurant-keeper would
+not cook it, and only after much persuasion consented to
+have it prepared outside and brought back to be eaten
+beneath his roof. With better water and more substantial
+food we began, from this time on, to recuperate. But before
+us still a strong head wind was sweeping over the
+many desert stretches that lay between the oases along
+the Su-la-ho, and with the constant walking our sandals
+and socks were almost worn away. For this reason we
+were delayed one evening in reaching the town of Dyou-min-shan.
+In the lonely stillness of its twilight a horseman
+was approaching across the barren plain, bearing a
+huge Chinese lantern in his hand, and singing aloud, as
+is a Chinaman’s custom, to drive off the evil spirits of the
+night. He started back, as we suddenly appeared, and
+then dismounted, hurriedly, to throw his lantern’s glare
+upon us. <q>Are you the two Americans?</q> he asked in an
+agitated manner. His question was surprising. Out in
+this desert country we were not aware that our identity
+was known, or our visit expected. He then explained that
+he had been instructed by the magistrate of Dyou-min-shan
+to go out and look for us, and escort us into the
+town. He also mentioned in this connection the name of
+Ling Darin—a name that we had heard spoken of almost
+with veneration ever since leaving Urumtsi. Who this
+personage was we were unable to find out beyond that he
+was an influential mandarin in the city of Su-chou, now
+only a day’s journey away.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL. [p. 191]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i205.jpg"><head rend="small">WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.</head><figDesc>WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which
+<pb n="191"/><anchor id="Pg191"/>our Asiatic journey was begun and ended, we now struck,
+at its extreme western limit, the Great Wall of China.
+The Kiayu-kuan, or <q>Jade Gate,</q> by which it is here intersected,
+was originally so called from the fact that it
+led into the Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders
+brought back the precious mineral. This, with the Shanghai-kuan
+near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan, on the Nankow
+pass, are the principal gateways in this <q>wall of ten
+thousand <hi rend="italic">li</hi>,</q> which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected
+the empire from the Mongolian nomads for a period
+of fourteen hundred years. In its present condition the
+Great Wall belongs to various epochs. With the sudden
+and violent transitions of temperature in the severe Mongolian
+climate, it may be doubted whether any portion of
+Shi Hoangti’s original work still survives. Nearly all the
+<pb n="192"/><anchor id="Pg192"/>eastern section, from Ordos to the Yellow Sea, was rebuilt
+in the fifth century, and the double rampart along the
+northwest frontier of the plains of Peking was twice restored
+in the fifteenth and sixteenth. North of Peking,
+where this prodigious structure has a mean height of
+about twenty-six feet, and width of twenty feet, it is still
+in a state of perfect repair, whereas in many western districts
+along the Gobi frontier, as here before us, it is little
+more than an earthen rampart about fifteen feet in height,
+while for considerable distances, as along the road from
+Su-chou to Kan-chou, it has entirely disappeared for miles
+at a stretch. Both the gate and the wall at this point had
+been recently repaired. We could now see it rising and
+falling in picturesque undulations as far as the Tibetan
+ranges. There it stops altogether, after a westward course
+of over fifteen hundred miles. In view of what was before
+us, we could not but smile as we thought of that
+French abbé who undertook, in an elaborate volume, to
+prove that the <q>Great Wall of China</q> was nothing more
+than a myth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were now past another long anticipated land-mark,
+and before us, far down in the plain, lay the city of Su-chou,
+which, as the terminal point of the Chinese telegraph-line,
+would bring us again into electric touch with the
+civilized world. But between us and our goal lay the
+Edzina river, now swollen by a recent freshet. We began
+to wade cautiously through with luggage and wheels
+balanced on our shoulders. But just at that moment we
+perceived, approaching from the distance, what we took
+to be a mounted Chinese mandarin, and his servant leading
+behind him two richly caparisoned and riderless horses.
+At sight of us they spurred ahead, and reached the opposite
+bank just as we passed the middle of the stream. The
+leader now rose in his stirrups, waved his hat in the air
+<pb n="193"/><anchor id="Pg193"/>and shouted, in clear though broken English, <q>Well, gentlemen,
+you have arrived at last!</q> To hear our mother
+tongue so unexpectedly spoken in this out-of-the-way part
+of the world, was startling. This strange individual, although
+clad in the regular mandarin garb, was light-complexioned,
+and had an auburn instead of a black queue
+dangling from his shaven head. He grasped us warmly
+by the hand as we came dripping out of the water, while
+all the time his benevolent countenance fairly beamed
+with joy. <q>I am glad to see you, gentlemen,</q> he said.
+<q>I was afraid you would be taken sick on the road ever
+since I heard you had started across China. I just got
+the news five minutes ago that you were at Kiayu-kuan,
+and immediately came out with these two horses to bring
+you across the river, which I feared would be too deep
+<pb n="194"/><anchor id="Pg194"/>and swift for you. Mount your ponies, and we will ride
+into the city together.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU. [p. 193]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i207.jpg"><head rend="small">RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.</head><figDesc>RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+It was some time before the idea flashed across our
+minds that this might indeed be the mysterious Ling Darin
+about whom we had heard so much. <q>Yes,</q> said he,
+<q>that is what I am called here, but my real name is Splingard.</q>
+He then went on to tell us that he was a Belgian
+by birth; that he had traveled extensively through China,
+as the companion of Baron Richthofen, and had thus become
+so thoroughly acquainted with the country and its
+people that on his return to the coast he had been offered
+by the Chinese government the position of custom mandarin
+at Su-chou, a position just then established for the
+levying of duty on the Russian goods passing in through
+the northwest provinces; that he had adopted the Chinese
+dress and mode of living, and had even married, many
+years ago, a Chinese girl educated at the Catholic schools
+in Tientsin. We were so absorbed in this romantic history
+that we scarcely noticed the crowds that lined the
+streets leading to the Ling Darin’s palace, until the boom
+of a cannon recalled us to our situation. From the smile
+on the jolly face beside us, we knew at once whom we
+could hold responsible for this reception. The palace
+gates were now thrown open by a host of servants, and in
+our rags and tatters we rolled at once from the hardships
+of the inhospitable desert into the lap of luxury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A surplus is not always so easily disposed of as a deficit—at
+least we were inclined to think so in the case of our
+Su-chou diet. The Ling Darin’s table, which, for the exceptional
+occasion, was set in the foreign fashion with
+knives and forks, fairly teemed with abundance and variety.
+There was even butter, made from the milk of the
+Tibetan yak, and condensed milk for our coffee, the first
+we had tasted since leaving Turkey, more than a year
+be<pb n="195"/><anchor id="Pg195"/>fore. The Ling Darin informed us that a can of this
+milk, which he once presented to Chinese friends, had been
+mistaken for a face cosmetic, and was so used by the ladies
+of the family. The lack of butter has led many of the
+missionaries in China to substitute lard, while the Chinese
+fry their fat cakes in various oils. The Ling Darin’s wife
+we found an excellent and even artistic cook, while his
+buxom twin daughters could read and write their own
+language—a rare accomplishment for a Chinese woman.
+Being unaccustomed to foreign manners, they would never
+eat at the same table with us, but would come in during
+the evening with their mother, to join the family circle
+and read aloud to us some of their father’s official despatches.
+This they would do with remarkable fluency
+and intelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As guests of our highly respected and even venerated
+host, we were visited by nearly all the magistrates of the
+city. The Ling Darin was never before compelled to answer
+so many questions. In self-defense he was at last
+forced to get up a stereotyped speech to deliver on each
+social occasion. The people, too, besieged the palace gates,
+and clamored for an exhibition. Although our own clothes
+had been sent away to be boiled, we could not plead this
+as an excuse. The flowing Chinese garments which had
+been provided from the private wardrobe of the Ling Darin
+fluttered wildly in the breeze, as we rode out through
+the city at the appointed hour. Our Chinese shoes, also,
+were constantly slipping off, and as we raised the foot to
+readjust them, a shout went up from the crowd for what
+they thought was some fancy touch in the way of riding.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN. [p. 196]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i210.jpg"><head rend="small">A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.</head><figDesc>A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+From the barrenness of the Gobi to the rank vegetation
+of the Edzina valley, where the grass and grain were actually
+falling over from excessive weight, was a most relieving
+change. Water was everywhere. Even the roadway
+<pb n="196"/><anchor id="Pg196"/>served in many places as a temporary irrigating-canal.
+On the journey to Kan-chou we were sometimes compelled
+to ride on the narrow mud-wall fences that separated the
+flooded fields of wheat, millet, and sorghum, the prevailing
+cereals north of the Hoang-ho river. Fields of rice
+and the opium poppy were sometimes met with, but of the
+silk-worm and tea-plant, which furnish the great staples
+of the Chinese export trade, we saw absolutely nothing on
+our route through the northern provinces. Apart from
+the <q>Yellow Lands</q> of the Hoang-ho, which need no
+manure, the arable regions of China seem to have maintained
+their fecundity for over four thousand years, entirely
+through the thoughtful care of the peasantry in restoring
+to the soil, under another form, all that the crops
+have taken from it. The plowing of the Chinese is very
+poor. They scarcely do more than scratch the surface
+<pb n="197"/><anchor id="Pg197"/>of the ground with their bent-stick plows, wooden-tooth
+drills, and wicker-work harrows; and instead of straight
+lines, so dear to the eye of a Western farmer, the ridges
+and furrows are as crooked as serpents. The real secret
+of their success seems to lie in the care they take to replenish
+the soil. All the sewage of the towns is carried
+out every morning at daybreak by special coolies, to be
+preserved for manure; while the dried herbs, straw, roots,
+and other vegetable refuse, are economized with the greatest
+care for fuel. The Chinese peasant offsets the rudeness
+of his implements with manual skill. He weeds the
+ground so carefully that there is scarcely a leaf above the
+ground that does not appertain to the crop. All kinds of
+pumps and hydraulic wheels are worked, either by the
+hand, animals, or the wind. The system of tillage, therefore,
+resembles market-gardening rather than the broad
+method of cultivation common in Europe and America.
+The land is too valuable to be devoted to pasture, and the
+forests nearly everywhere have been sacrificed to tillage
+to such an extent that the material for the enormously
+thick native coffins has now to be imported from abroad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Streams and irrigating-ditches were so frequent that
+we were continually saturated with water or covered with
+mud. Our bare arms and legs were so tanned and coated
+that we were once asked by a group of squalid villagers
+if <q>foreigners</q> ever bathed like themselves. On dashing
+down into a village, we would produce consternation or
+fright, especially among the women and children, but after
+the first onset, giggling would generally follow, for our
+appearance, especially from the rear, seemed to strike them
+as extremely ridiculous. The wheel itself presented various
+aspects to their ignorant fancies. It was called the
+<q>flying machine</q> and <q>foot-going carriage,</q> while some
+even took it for the <q>fire-wheel cart,</q> or locomotive, about
+<pb n="198"/><anchor id="Pg198"/>which they had heard only the vaguest rumors. Their
+ignorance of its source of motive power often prompted
+them to name it the <q>self-moving cart,</q> just as the natives
+of Shanghai are wont to call the electric-light <q>the self-coming
+moon.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In one out-of-the-way village of northwestern China, we
+were evidently taken for some species of centaurs; the
+people came up to examine us while on the wheel to see
+whether or no rider and wheel were one. We became so
+harassed with importunities to ride that we were compelled
+at last to seek relief in subterfuge, for an absolute
+refusal, we found, was of no avail. We would promise
+to ride for a certain sum of money, thinking thus to
+throw the burden of refusal on themselves. But, nothing
+daunted, they would pass round the hat. On several occasions,
+when told that eggs could not be bought in the
+community, an offer of an exhibition would bring them
+out by the dozen. In the same way we received presents
+of tea, and by this means our cash expenses were considerably
+curtailed. The interest in the <q>foreign horses</q>
+was sometimes so great as to stop business and even amusements.
+A rather notable incident of this kind occurred
+on one of the Chinese holidays. The flag-decked streets,
+as we rode through, were filled with the neighboring peasantry,
+attracted by some traveling theatrical troupe engaged
+for the occasion. In fact, a performance was just
+then in progress at the open-air theater close at hand.
+Before we were aware of it we had rolled into its crowded
+auditorium. The women were sitting on improvised
+benches, fanning and gossiping, while the men stood about
+in listless groups. But suddenly their attention was
+aroused by the counter attraction, and a general rush followed,
+to the great detriment of the temporary peddlers’ stands
+erected for the occasion. Although entirely
+de<pb n="199"/><anchor id="Pg199"/>serted, and no doubt consumed with curiosity, the actors
+could not lose what the Chinese call <q>face.</q> They still
+continued their hideous noises, pantomimes, and dialogues
+to the empty seats.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW. [p. 199]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i213.jpg"><head rend="small">A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW.</head><figDesc>A CHINAMAN'S WHEELBARROW.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The last fifty miles into Liang-chou, a city founded by
+a Catholic Chinaman over two hundred years ago, we
+were compelled to make on foot, owing to an accident
+that caused us serious trouble all through the remainder
+of our Chinese journey. In a rapid descent by a narrow
+pathway, the pedal of one of the machines struck upon a
+protuberance, concealed by a tuft of grass, snapping off
+the axle, and scattering the ball-bearings over the ground.
+For some miles we pushed along on the bare axle inverted
+in the pedal-crank. But the wrenching the machine thus
+received soon began to tell. With a sudden jolt on a
+steep descent, it collapsed entirely, and precipitated the
+<pb n="200"/><anchor id="Pg200"/>rider over the handle-bars. The lower part of the frame
+had broken short off, where it was previously cracked,
+and had bent the top bar almost double in the fall. In
+this sad plight, we were rejoiced to find in the <q>City
+under the Shade</q> the Scotch missionary, Mr. Laughton,
+who had founded here the most remote of the China Inland
+Missions. But even with his assistance, and that of
+the best native mechanic, our repairs were ineffective.
+At several points along the route we were delayed on this
+account. At last the front and rear parts of the machine
+became entirely separated. There was no such thing as
+steel to be found in the country, no tools fit to work with,
+and no one who knew the first principles of soldering.
+After endeavoring to convince the native blacksmiths that
+a delicate bicycle would not stand pounding like a Chinese
+cart-wheel, we took the matter into our own hands. An
+iron bar was placed in the hollow tubing to hold it in
+shape, and a band of telegraph wire passed round from
+front to rear, along the upper and lower rods, and then
+twisted so as to bring the two parts as tightly together as
+possible. With a waddling frame, and patched rear-wheel
+describing eccentric revolutions, we must have presented
+a rather comical appearance over the remaining thousand
+miles to the coast.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE. [p. 201]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i215.jpg"><head rend="small">MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.</head><figDesc>MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Across the Yellow Hoang-ho, which is the largest river
+we encountered in Asia, a pontoon bridge leads into the
+city of Lan-chou-foo. Its strategical position at the point
+where the Hoang-ho makes its great bend to the north,
+and where the gateway of the West begins, as well as its
+picturesque location in one of the greatest fruit-bearing
+districts of China, makes it one of the most important
+cities of the empire. On the commanding heights across
+the river, we stopped to photograph the picturesque scene.
+As usual, the crowd swarmed in front of the camera to
+<pb n="201"/><anchor id="Pg201"/>gaze into the mysterious lens. All the missionaries we
+had met cautioned us against taking photographs in
+China, lest we should do violence to the many popular
+superstitions, but the only trouble we ever experienced in
+this respect was in arousing popular curiosity. We soon
+learned that in order to get something besides Chinese
+heads in our pictures it was necessary first to point the
+camera in the opposite direction, and then wheel suddenly
+round to the scene we wished to take. As we crossed the
+river, the bridge of boats so creaked and swayed beneath
+the rushing rabble, that we were glad to stand once more
+upon the terra firma of the city streets, which were here
+paved with granite and marble blocks. As we rode down
+the principal thoroughfare, amid the usual din and uproar,
+a well-dressed Chinaman rushed out from one of the stores
+and grabbed us by the arm. <q>Do you speak English?</q>
+<pb n="202"/><anchor id="Pg202"/>he shouted, with an accent so like an American, that we
+leaped from our wheels at once, and grasped his hand as
+that of a fellow countryman. This, in fact, he proved to
+be in everything but birth. He was one of that party of
+mandarins’ sons which had been sent over to our country
+some years ago, as an experiment by the Chinese government,
+to receive a thorough American training. We cannot
+here give the history of that experiment, as Mr. Woo
+related it—how they were subsequently accused of cutting
+off their queues and becoming denationalized; how,
+in consequence, they were recalled to their native land,
+and degraded rather than elevated, both by the people
+and the government, because they were foreign in their
+sentiments and habits; and how, at last, they gradually
+began to force recognition through the power of merit
+alone. He had now been sent out by the government to
+engineer the extension of the telegraph-line from Su-chou
+to Urumtsi, for it was feared by the government that the
+employment of a foreigner in this capacity would only
+increase the power for evil which the natives already attributed
+to this foreign innovation. The similarity in the
+phrases, <hi rend="italic">telegraph pole</hi> and <hi rend="italic">dry heaven</hi>, had inspired the
+common belief that the line of poles then stretching
+across the country was responsible for the long-existing
+drought. In one night several miles of poles were sawed
+short off, by the secret order of a banded conspiracy.
+After several decapitations, the poles were now being
+restored, and labeled with the words, <q>Put up by order
+of the Emperor.</q>
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 203]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i217.jpg"><head rend="small">TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.</head><figDesc>TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+In company with the English missionary, Mr. Redfern,
+while attempting to get out of the city on the way to his
+mountain home, we were caught in another jam. He
+counseled us to conceal the weapons we were carrying in
+our belts, for fear the sight of them should incite the mob
+<pb n="203"/><anchor id="Pg203"/>to some act of violence. Our own experience, however,
+had taught us that a revolver in China was worth nothing if
+not shown. For persistence, this mob surpassed any we had
+ever seen. They followed us out of the city and over the
+three miles’ stretch to the mission premises, and there announced
+their intention of remaining indefinitely. Again
+Mr. Redfern feared some outbreak, and counseled us to return
+to the city and apply to the viceroy himself for protection.
+This proved a good move. A special exhibition on the
+palace parade-grounds gained for us the valuable favor of
+one who was only fourth in rank to the emperor himself.
+A body-guard of soldiers was furnished, not only during
+our sojourn in the city, but for the journey to Singan-foo,
+on which a good reception was everywhere insured by an
+official despatch sent in advance. In order to secure for
+us future respect, a small flag with the government stamp
+and of yellow color was given us to fly by the side of our
+<pb n="204"/><anchor id="Pg204"/><q>stars and stripes.</q> On this was inscribed the title of
+<q>The Traveling Students,</q> as well as answers to the more
+frequent of the common questions—our nationality, destination,
+and age. The best mechanic in the local cannon-foundry
+was then ordered to make, at government expense,
+whatever repairs were possible on our disabled machines.
+This, however, as it proved, was not much; most of his
+time was spent in taking measurements and patterns for
+another purpose. If his intentions have been carried out,
+Lan-chou-foo is to-day possessed of a <q>foot-moving carriage</q>
+of home production.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our sojourn in this city is especially associated with
+the three names of Woo, Choo, and Moo—names by no
+means uncommon in Chinese nomenclature. We heard of
+a boy named the abstract numeral, <q>sixty-five,</q> because
+his grandfather happened to reach that age on the very
+day of his birth. Mr. Moo was the local telegraph operator,
+with whom we, and our friends Woo and Choo, of
+Shanghai, associated. All operators in the Chinese telegraph
+system are required to read and write English.
+The school established for this purpose at Lan-chou we
+occasionally visited, and assisted the Chinese schoolmaster
+to hear the recitations from Routledge’s spelling-book.
+He, in turn, was a frequent partaker of our <q>foreign
+chows,</q> which our English-speaking friends served with
+knives and forks borrowed from the missionaries. Lily
+and bamboo roots, sharks’ fins and swallows’ nests, and
+many other Chinese delicacies, were now served in abundance,
+and with the ever-accompanying bowl of rice. In
+the matter of eating and drinking, Chinese formality is
+extreme. A round table is the only one that can be used
+in an aristocratic household. The seat of honor is always
+the one next to the wall. Not a mouthful can be taken
+until the host raises his chop-sticks in the air, and gives
+<pb n="205"/><anchor id="Pg205"/>the signal. Silence then prevails; for Confucius says:
+<q>When a man eats he has no time for talk.</q> When a
+cup of tea is served to any one in a social party, he must
+offer it to every one in the room, no matter how many
+there are, before proceeding to drink himself. The real
+basis of Chinese politeness seems to be this: They must
+be polite enough to offer, and you must be polite enough
+to refuse. Our ignorance of this great underlying principle
+during the early part of the Chinese journey led us
+into errors both many and grievous. In order to show a
+desire to be sociable, we accepted almost everything that
+was offered us, to the great chagrin, we fear, of the
+courteous donors.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 205]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i219.jpg"><head rend="small">MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.</head><figDesc>MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+    <pb n="206"/><anchor id="Pg206"/>
+  <index index="ill" level1="LI-HUNG-CHANG. [p. 206]"/>
+  <pgIf output="txt"><then>
+    <p rend="ill">[Illustration: LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+      <lb/>
+      FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.]</p>
+  </then><else>
+      <pgIf output="pdf"><then>
+          <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i220.jpg"><head rend="small">LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+      <lb/>
+      FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.</head><figDesc>LI-HUNG-CHANG.</figDesc></figure></p>
+      </then>
+      <else>
+          <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i220.jpg"><head rend="small">LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+      <lb/>
+      FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.</head><figDesc>LI-HUNG-CHANG.</figDesc></figure></p>
+      </else></pgIf>
+  </else></pgIf>
+</div><div rend="page-break-before: always">
+  
+<pb n="207"/><anchor id="Pg207"/>
+<index index="toc"/><index index="pdf" level1="VI. An interview with the prime minister of China"/>
+<head>VI</head>
+
+<head type="sub">AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA</head>
+
+<p>
+Our departure from Lan-chou was not, we thought,
+regretted by the officials themselves, for we heard
+that apprehension was expressed lest the crowds continuing
+to collect around the telegraph-office should indulge
+in a riot. However, we were loath to leave our genial
+friends for the society of opium-smokers, for we were now
+in that province of China which, next to Sechuen, is most
+addicted to this habit. From dusk till bed-time, the streets
+of the villages were almost deserted for the squalid opium
+dens. Even our soldier attendant, as soon as the wooden
+saddle was taken from his sore-backed government steed,
+would produce his portable lamp, and proceed to melt on
+his needle the wax-like contents of a small, black box.
+When of the proper consistency, the paste was rolled on
+a metal plate to point it for the aperture in the flute-shaped
+pipe. Half the night would be given to this process,
+and a considerable portion of the remaining half
+would be devoted to smoking small pinches of tobacco in
+the peculiar Chinese water-pipe. According to an official
+note, issued early in 1882, by Mr. Hart, Inspector-General
+of Chinese Customs, considerably less than one per cent.
+of the population is addicted to opium-smoking, while
+those who smoke it to excess are few. More to be feared
+<pb n="208"/><anchor id="Pg208"/>is the use of opium as a poison, especially among Chinese
+women. The government raises large sums from the import
+duty on opium, and tacitly connives at its cultivation
+in most of the provinces, where the traders and mandarins
+share between them the profits of this officially prohibited
+drug.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This part of the great historic highway on which we
+were now traveling, between the two bends of the Hoang-ho,
+was found more extensively patronized than heretofore.
+Besides the usual caravans of horses, donkeys, and
+two-wheeled vans, we occasionally met with a party of
+shaven-headed Tibetans traveling either as emissaries, or
+as traders in the famous Tibetan sheep-skins and furs, and
+the strongly-scented bags of the musk-deer. A funeral
+cortège was also a very frequent sight. Chinese custom
+requires that the remains of the dead be brought back
+to their native place, no matter how far they may have
+wandered during life, and as the carriage of a single body
+would often be expensive, they are generally interred in
+temporary cemeteries or mortuary villages, until a sufficient
+number can be got together to form a large convoy.
+Mandarins, however, in death as in life, travel alone and
+with retinue. One coffin we met which rested upon poles
+supported on the shoulders of thirty-two men. Above on
+the coffin was perched the usual white rooster, which is
+supposed to incorporate, during transportation, the spirit
+of the departed. In funeral ceremonies, especially of the
+father, custom also requires the children to give public
+expression to their grief. Besides many other filial observances,
+the eldest son is in duty bound to render the
+journey easy for the departed by scattering fictitious paper-money,
+as spirit toll, at the various roadside temples.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 209]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="quer" url="images/i223.jpg"><head rend="small">OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.</head><figDesc>OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+  <index index="ill" level1="MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 210]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.]</p>
+</then><else>
+  <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i224.jpg"><head rend="small">MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.</head><figDesc>MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+Singan-foo, the capital of the Middle Kingdom, under
+the Tsin dynasty, and a city of the first importance more
+<pb n="210"/><anchor id="Pg210"/>than two thousand years ago, is still one of the largest
+places in the empire, being exceeded in population probably
+by Canton alone. Each of its four walls, facing the
+cardinal points, is over six miles long and is pierced in
+the center by a monumental gate with lofty pavilions. It
+was here, among the ruins of an old Nestorian church,
+built several centuries before, that was found the famous
+tablet now sought at a high price by the British Museum.
+The harassing mobs gathered from its teeming population,
+as well as the lateness of the season, prompted us to make
+our sojourn as short as possible. Only a day sufficed to
+reach Tong-quan, which is the central stronghold of the
+Hoang-ho basin, and one of the best defended points in
+China. Here, between precipitous cliffs, this giant stream
+rushes madly by, as if in protest against its sudden
+deflec<pb n="211"/><anchor id="Pg211"/>tion. Our ferry this time was not the back of a Chinese
+coolie nor a jolting ox-cart, but a spacious flat-boat made
+to accommodate one or two vehicles at a time. This was
+rowed at the stern, like the gondolas of Venice. The mob
+of hundreds that had been dogging our foot-steps and
+making life miserable, during our brief stop for food,
+watched our embarkation. We reached the opposite
+shore, a mile below the starting-point, and began to ascend
+from the river-basin to the highlands by an excavated
+fissure in the famous <q>yellow earth.</q> This gives
+its name, not only to the river it discolors, but, from the
+extensive region comprised, even to the emperor himself,
+who takes the title of <q>Yellow Lord,</q> as equivalent to
+<q>Master of the World.</q> The thickness of this the richest
+soil in China, which according to Baron Richthofen is
+nothing more than so much dust accumulated during the
+course of ages by the winds from the northern deserts, is
+in some places at least two thousand feet. Much ingenuity
+has been displayed in overcoming the difficulties offered
+<pb n="212"/><anchor id="Pg212"/>to free communication by the perpendicular walls of these
+yellow lands. Some of the most frequented roads have
+been excavated to depths of from forty to one hundred
+feet. Being seldom more than eight or ten feet wide, the
+wheeled traffic is conducted by means of sidings, like the
+<q>stations</q> in the Suez Canal. Being undrained or unswept
+by the winds, these walled-up tracks are either dust-beds
+or quagmires, according to the season; for us, the
+autumn rains had converted them into the latter. Although
+on one of the imperial highways which once excited
+the admiration of Marco Polo, we were now treated
+to some of the worst stretches we have ever seen. The
+mountain ascents, especially those stair-like approaches to
+the <q>Heavenly Gates</q> before reaching the Pe-chili plains,
+were steep, gradeless inclines, strewn with huge upturned
+blocks of stone, over which the heavy carts were fairly
+lifted by the sheer force of additional horse-flesh. The
+bridges, too, whose Roman-like masonry attests the high
+<pb n="213"/><anchor id="Pg213"/>degree of Chinese civilization during the middle ages,
+have long since been abandoned to the ravages of time;
+while over the whole country the late Dungan rebellion
+has left its countless ruins.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE. [p. 211]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i225.jpg"><head rend="small">ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.</head><figDesc>ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+  <index index="ill" level1="MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN. [p. 212]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i226.jpg"><head rend="small">MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.</head><figDesc>MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The people of Shan-si province are noted for their special
+thrift, but this quality we observed was sometimes
+exhibited at the expense of the higher virtue of honesty.
+One of the most serious of the many cases of attempted
+extortion occurred at a remote country town, where we
+arrived late one evening, after learning to our dismay that
+one of our remarkably few mistakes in the road had
+brought us just fifty miles out of the way. Unusually
+wearied as we were by the cross-country cuts, we desired
+to retire early. In fact, on this account, we were not so
+observant of Chinese formality as we might have been.
+We did not heed the hinted requests of the visiting officials
+for a moon-light exhibition, nor go to the inn-door
+to bow them respectfully out. We were glad to take them
+at their word when they said, with the usual hypocritical
+smirk, <q>Now, don’t come out any farther.</q> This indiscretion
+on our part caused them, as well as ourselves, to
+suffer in the respect of the assembled rabble. With official
+connivance, the latter were now free, they thought, to
+take unusual liberties. So far, in our dealings with the
+Chinese, we had never objected to anything that was reasonable
+even from the native point of view. We had long
+since learned the force of the Chinese proverb that, <q>in
+order to avoid suspicion you must not live behind closed
+doors</q>; and in consequence had always recognized the
+common prerogative to ransack our private quarters and
+our luggage, so long as nothing was seriously disturbed.
+We never objected, either, to their wetting our paper windows
+with their tongues, so that they might noiselessly
+slit a hole in them with their exceptionally long finger
+<pb n="214"/><anchor id="Pg214"/>nails, although we did wake up some mornings to find the
+panes entirely gone. It was only at the request of the
+innkeeper that we sometimes undertook the job of cleaning
+out the inn-yard; but this, with the prevalent superstition
+about the <q>withering touch of the foreigner,</q> was
+very easily accomplished. Nor had we ever shown the
+slightest resentment at being called <q>foreign devils</q>; for
+this, we learned, was, with the younger generation at least,
+the only title by which foreigners were known. But on
+this particular night, our forbearance being quite exhausted,
+we ejected the intruders bodily. Mid mutterings
+and threats we turned out the lights, and the crowd as
+well as ourselves retired. The next morning the usual
+exorbitant bill was presented by the innkeeper, and, as
+usual, one half or one third was offered and finally accepted,
+with the customary protestations about being
+under-paid. The innkeeper’s grumblings incited the
+crowd which early assembled, and from their whispers
+and glances we could see that trouble of some kind was
+brewing. We now hastened to get the wheels into the
+road. Just then the innkeeper, at the instigation of the
+crowd, rushed out and grabbed the handle-bars, demanding
+at the same time a sum that was even in advance of
+his original price. Extortion was now self-evident, and,
+remonstrance being of no avail, we were obliged to protect
+ourselves with our fists. The crowd began to close
+in upon us, until, with our backs against the adjoining
+wall, we drew our weapons, at which the onward movement
+changed suddenly to a retreat. Then we assumed
+the aggressive, and regained the wheels which had been
+left in the middle of the road. The innkeeper and his
+friend now caught hold of the rear wheels. Only by seizing
+their queues could we drag them away at all, but even
+then before we could mount they would renew their grasp.
+<pb n="215"/><anchor id="Pg215"/>It was only after another direct attack upon them that
+we were able to mount, and dash away.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN. [p. 215]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i229.jpg"><head rend="small">MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.</head><figDesc>MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+A week’s journeying after this unpleasant episode
+brought us among the peanuts, pigs, and pig-tails of the
+famous Pe-chili plains. Vast fields of peanuts were now
+being plowed, ready to be passed through a huge coarse
+sieve to separate the nuts from the sandy loam. Sweet
+potatoes, too, were plentiful. These, as well as rice balls,
+boiled with a peculiar dry date in a triangular corn-leaf
+wrapper, we purchased every morning at daybreak from
+the pots of the early street-venders, and then proceeded
+to the local bake-shops, where the rattling of the rolling-pins
+prophesied of stringy fat cakes cooked in boiling linseed
+oil, and heavy dough biscuits cleaving to the urn-like
+oven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was well that we were now approaching the end of
+<pb n="216"/><anchor id="Pg216"/>our journey, for our wheels and clothing were nearly in
+pieces. Our bare calves were pinched by the frost, for
+on some of the coldest mornings we would find a quarter
+of an inch of ice. Our rest at night was broken for the
+want of sufficient covering. The straw-heated <hi rend="italic">kangs</hi> would
+soon cool off, and leave us half the night with only our
+thin sleeping-bags to ward off rheumatism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But over the beaten paths made by countless wheelbarrows
+we were now fast nearing the end. It was on the
+evening of November 3, that the giant walls of the great
+<q>Residence,</q> as the people call their imperial capital, broke
+suddenly into view through a vista in the surrounding
+foliage. The goal of our three-thousand-one-hundred-and-sixteen-mile
+journey was now before us, and the work of
+the seventy-first riding day almost ended. With the dusk
+of evening we entered the western gate of the <q>Manchu
+City,</q> and began to thread its crowded thoroughfares.
+By the time we reached Legation street or, as the natives
+egotistically call it, <q>The Street of the Foreign Dependencies,</q>
+night had veiled our haggard features and ragged
+garments. In a dimly lighted courtyard we came face to
+face with the English proprietor of the Hotel de Peking.
+At our request for lodging, he said, <q>Pardon me, but may
+I first ask who you are and where you come from?</q> Our
+unprepossessing appearance was no doubt a sufficient
+excuse for this precaution. But just then his features
+changed, and he greeted us effusively. Explanations were
+now superfluous. The <q>North China Herald</q> correspondent
+at Pao-ting-foo had already published our story to the
+coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That evening the son of the United States minister
+visited us, and offered a selection from his own wardrobe
+until a Chinese tailor could renew our clothing. With
+borrowed plumes we were able to accept invitations from
+<pb n="217"/><anchor id="Pg217"/>foreign and Chinese officials. Polite cross-examinations
+were not infrequent, and we fear that entire faith in our
+alleged journey was not general until, by riding through
+the dust and mud of Legation street, we proved that Chinese
+roads were not altogether impracticable for bicycle
+traveling.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 217]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: ON THE PEI-HO.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i231.jpg"><head rend="small">ON THE PEI-HO.</head><figDesc>ON THE PEI-HO.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The autumn rains had so flooded the low-lying country
+between the capital and its seaport, Tientsin, that we were
+obliged to abandon the idea of continuing to the coast on
+the wheels, which by this time were in no condition to
+stand unusual strain. On the other hand the house-boat
+journey of thirty-six hours down the Pei-ho river was a
+rather pleasant diversion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our first evening on the river was made memorable by
+an unusual event. Suddenly the rattling of tin pans, the
+<pb n="218"/><anchor id="Pg218"/>tooting of horns, and the shouting of men, women, and
+children, aroused us to the realization that something extraordinary
+was occurring. Then we noticed that the full
+moon in a cloudless sky had already passed the half-way
+mark in a total eclipse. Our boatmen now joined in the
+general uproar, which reached its height when the moon
+was entirely obscured. In explanation we were told that
+the <q>Great Dragon</q> was endeavoring to swallow up the
+moon, and that the loudest possible noise must be made
+to frighten him away. Shouts hailed the reappearance
+of the moon. Although our boatmen had a smattering
+of pidjin, or business, English, we were unable to get a
+very clear idea of Chinese astronomy. In journeying
+across the empire we found sufficient analogy in the various
+provincial dialects to enable us to acquire a smattering
+of one from another as we proceeded, but we were
+<pb n="219"/><anchor id="Pg219"/>now unable to see any similarity whatever between <q>You
+makee walkee look see,</q> and <q>You go and see,</q> or between
+<q>That belong number one pidjin,</q> and <q>That is a first-class
+business.</q> This jargon has become a distinct dialect
+on the Chinese coast.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 218]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i232.jpg"><head rend="small">A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.</head><figDesc>A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+On our arrival in Tientsin we called upon the United
+States Consul, Colonel Bowman, to whom we had brought
+several letters from friends in Peking. During a supper
+at his hospitable home, he suggested that the viceroy
+might be pleased to receive us, and that if we had no
+objection, he would send a communication to the <hi rend="italic">yamen</hi>,
+or official residence. Colonel Bowman’s secretary, Mr. Tenney,
+who had been some time the instructor of the viceroy’s
+sons, and who was on rather intimate terms with the
+viceroy himself, kindly offered to act as interpreter. A
+favorable answer was received the next morning, and the
+time for our visit fixed for the afternoon of the day following.
+But two hours before the appointed time a message
+was received from the viceroy, stating that he was
+about to receive an unexpected official visit from the <hi rend="italic">phantai</hi>,
+or treasurer, of the Pe-chili province (over which Li-Hung-Chang
+himself is viceroy), and asking for a postponement
+of our visit to the following morning at 11
+o’clock. Even before we had finished reading this unexpected
+message, the booming of cannon along the Pei-ho
+river announced the arrival of the <hi rend="italic">phantai’s</hi> boats before
+the city. The postponement of our engagement at this
+late hour threatened to prove rather awkward, inasmuch
+as we had already purchased our steamship tickets for
+Shanghai, to sail on the <name type="ship">Fei-ching</name> at five o’clock the next
+morning. But through the kindness of the steamship
+company it was arranged that we should take a tug-boat
+at Tong-ku, on the line of the Kai-ping railroad, and overtake
+the steamer outside the Taku bar. This we could
+<pb n="220"/><anchor id="Pg220"/>do by taking the train at Tientsin, even as late as seven
+hours after the departure of the steamer. Steam navigation
+in the Pei-ho river, over the forty or fifty miles’
+stretch from Tientsin to the gulf, is rendered very slow
+by the sharp turns in the narrow stream—the adjoining
+banks being frequently struck and plowed away by the
+bow or stern of the large ocean steamers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we entered the consulate the next morning, we
+found three palanquins and a dozen coolies in waiting to
+convey our party to the viceroy’s residence. Under other
+circumstances we would have patronized our <q>steeds of
+steel,</q> but a visit to the <q>biggest</q> man in China had to
+be conducted in state. We were even in some doubt as
+to the propriety of appearing before his excellency in
+bicycle costume; but we determined to plead our inability
+to carry luggage as an excuse for this breach of etiquette.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU. [p. 220]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i234.jpg"><head rend="small">SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.</head><figDesc>SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The first peculiarity the Chinese notice in a foreigner
+is his dress. It is a requisite with them that the clothes
+<pb n="221"/><anchor id="Pg221"/>must be loose, and so draped as to conceal the contour of
+the body. The short sack-coat and tight trousers of the
+foreigner are looked upon as certainly inelegant, if not
+actually indecent.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER. [p. 221]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i235.jpg"><head rend="small">WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.</head><figDesc>WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+It was not long before we were out of the foreign settlement,
+and wending our way through the narrow, winding
+streets, or lanes, of the densely populated Chinese city.
+The palanquins we met were always occupied by some
+high dignitary or official, who went sweeping by with his
+usual vanguard of servants, and his usual frown of excessive
+dignity. The fact that we, plain <q>foreign devils,</q>
+were using this mode of locomotion, made us the objects
+of considerable curiosity from the loiterers and passers-by,
+and in fact had this not been the case, we should have
+felt rather uncomfortable. The unsympathetic observation
+of mobs, and the hideous Chinese noises, had become
+features of our daily life.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="222"/><anchor id="Pg222"/>
+
+<p>
+The <hi rend="italic">yamen</hi> courtyard, as we entered, was filled with
+empty palanquins and coolie servants waiting for the
+different mandarins who had come on official visits. The
+<hi rend="italic">yamen</hi> itself consisted of low one-story structures, built in
+the usual Chinese style, of wood and adobe brick, in a
+quadrangular form around an inner courtyard. The common
+Chinese paper which serves for window-glass had
+long since vanished from the ravages of time, and the
+finger-punches of vandals. Even here, at the <hi rend="italic">yamen</hi> of
+the prime minister of China, dirt and dilapidation were
+evident on every hand. The anteroom into which we
+were ushered was in keeping with its exterior. The paper
+that covered the low walls and squatty ceiling, as well as
+the calico covering on the divans, was soiled and torn.
+The room itself was filled with mandarins from various
+parts of the country, waiting for an audience with his excellency.
+Each wore the official robe and dish-pan hat,
+with its particular button or insignia of rank. Each had
+a portly, well-fed appearance, with a pompous, dignified
+mien overspreading his features. The servant by whom
+we had sent in our Chinese visiting-cards returned and
+asked us to follow him. Passing through several rooms,
+and then along a narrow, darkened hallway, we emerged
+into an inner courtyard. Here there were several servants
+standing like sentinels in waiting for orders; others
+were hurrying hither and thither with different messages
+intrusted to their care. This was all there was to give to
+the place the air of busy headquarters. On one side of
+the courtyard the doors of the <q>foreign reception</q> room
+opened. Through these we were ushered by the liveried
+servant, who bore a message from the viceroy, asking us
+to wait a few moments until he should finish some important
+business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The foreign reception-room in which we were now
+sit<pb n="223"/><anchor id="Pg223"/>ting was the only one in any official residence in the empire,
+and this single instance of compliance with foreign
+customs was significant as bearing upon the attitude toward
+Western ideas of the man who stands at the head of
+the Chinese government. Everything about us was foreign
+except a Chinese divan in one corner of the room.
+In the middle of the floor stood a circular sofa of the
+latest pattern, with chairs and settees to match, and at
+one end a foreign stove, in which a fire had been recently
+lighted for our coming. Against the wall were placed a
+full-length mirror, several brackets, and some fancy work.
+The most interesting of the ornaments in the room were
+portraits of Li-Hung-Chang himself, Krupp the gun-maker,
+Armstrong the ship-builder, and the immortal <q>Chinese
+Gordon,</q> the only foreigner, it is said, who has ever won
+a spark of admiration from the Chinese people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While we were waiting for the viceroy, his second son,
+the pupil of Mr. Tenney, came in and was introduced in
+the foreign fashion. His English was fluent and correct.
+He was a bright, intelligent lad of nineteen years, then
+about to take his first trial examinations for the Chinese
+degree of scholarship, which, if attained, would make him
+eligible for official position. Although a son of the viceroy
+he will have to rise by his own merit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our conversation with the viceroy’s son extended over
+ten or fifteen minutes. He asked many questions about
+the details of our journey. <q>How,</q> said he, <q>could you
+get along without interpreter, guide, or servant, when
+every foreigner who goes even from here to Peking has
+to have them?</q> He questioned us as to whether or not
+the Chinese had ever called us names. We replied that
+we usually traveled in China under the <hi rend="italic">nom de Chinois</hi>,
+    <hi rend="italic">yang queedza</hi> (the foreign devils), alias <hi rend="italic">yeh renn</hi> (the wild
+men). A blush overspread his cheeks as he said: <q>I must
+<pb n="224"/><anchor id="Pg224"/>apologize for my countrymen; I hope you will excuse
+them, for they know no better.</q> The young man expressed
+deep interest in America and American institutions,
+and said if he could obtain his father’s consent he
+would certainly make a visit to our country. This was
+the only son then at home with the viceroy, his eldest son
+being minister to Japan. The youngest, the viceroy’s favorite,
+was, it was said, the brightest and most promising.
+His death occurred only a few months before our arrival
+in Tientsin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were holding an animated conversation when the
+viceroy himself was announced. We all stood to show
+our respect for the prime minister whom General Grant
+included among the three greatest statesmen of his day.
+The viceroy was preceded by two body-servants. We
+stood before a man who appeared to be over six feet in
+height, although his head and shoulders were considerably
+bent with age. His flowing dress was made of rich colored
+silk, but very plain indeed. Any ornamentation
+would have been a profanation of the natural dignity and
+stateliness of Li-Hung-Chang. With slow pace he walked
+into the room, stopped a moment to look at us, then advanced
+with outstretched hand, while a faint smile played
+about his features and softened the piercing glance of his
+eyes. He shook our hands heartily in the foreign fashion,
+and without any show of ceremony led the way into an
+adjoining room, where a long council-table extended over
+half the length. The viceroy took the arm-chair at the
+head, and motioned us to take the two seats on his left,
+while Mr. Tenney and the viceroy’s son sat on his right.
+For almost a minute not a word was said on either side.
+The viceroy had fixed his gaze intently upon us, and, like
+a good general perhaps, was taking a thorough survey of
+the field before he opened up the cannonade of questions
+<pb n="225"/><anchor id="Pg225"/>that was to follow. We in turn were just as busily engaged
+in taking a mental sketch of his most prominent
+physical characteristics. His face was distinctly oval,
+tapering from a very broad forehead to a sharp pointed
+chin, half-obscured by his thin, gray <q>goatee.</q> The crown
+of his head was shaven in the usual Tsing fashion, leaving
+a tuft of hair for a queue, which in the viceroy’s case
+was short and very thin. His dry, sallow skin showed
+signs of wrinkling; a thick fold lay under each eye, and
+<pb n="226"/><anchor id="Pg226"/>at each end of his upper lip. There were no prominent
+cheek-bones or almond-shaped eyes, which are so distinctively
+seen in most of the Mongolian race. Under the
+scraggy mustache we could distinguish a rather benevolent
+though determined mouth; while his small, keen eyes,
+which were somewhat sunken, gave forth a flash that was
+perhaps but a flickering ember of the fire they once contained.
+The left eye, which was partly closed by a paralytic
+stroke several years ago, gave him a rather artful,
+waggish appearance. The whole physiognomy was that
+of a man of strong intuition, with the ability to force his
+point when necessary, and the shrewd common sense to
+yield when desiring to be politic.
+</p>
+  <index index="ill" level1="FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS. [p. 225]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i239.jpg"><head rend="small">FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS.</head><figDesc>FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+<q>Well, gentlemen,</q> he said at last, through Mr. Tenney
+as interpreter, <q>you don’t look any the worse for your
+long journey.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>We are glad to hear your excellency say so,</q> we replied;
+<q>it is gratifying to know that our appearance
+speaks well for the treatment we have received in China.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We hope our readers will consider the requirements of
+Chinese etiquette as sufficient excuse for our failure to
+say candidly that, if we looked healthy, it was not the
+fault of his countrymen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Of all the countries through which you have passed,
+which do you consider the best?</q> the viceroy then asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In our answer to this question the reader would no
+doubt expect us to follow etiquette, and say that we
+thought China was the best; and, perhaps, the viceroy
+himself had a similar expectation. But between telling
+a positive lie, and not telling the truth, there is perhaps
+sufficient difference to shield us from the charge of gross
+inconsistency. We answered, therefore, that in many respects,
+we considered America the greatest country we had
+seen. We ought of course to have said that no reasonable
+<pb n="227"/><anchor id="Pg227"/>person in the world would ever think of putting any other
+country above the Celestial Empire; our bluntness elicited
+some surprise, for the viceroy said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>If then you thought that America was the best why
+did you come to see other countries?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Because until we had seen other countries,</q> we replied,
+<q>we did not know that America was the best.</q> But this
+answer the viceroy evidently considered a mere subterfuge.
+He was by no means satisfied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>What was your real object in undertaking such a
+peculiar journey?</q> he asked rather impatiently.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>To see and study the world and its peoples,</q> we answered;
+<q>to get a practical training as a finish to a theoretical
+education. The bicycle was adopted only because
+we considered it the most convenient means of accomplishing
+that purpose.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The viceroy, however, could not understand how a man
+should wish to use his own strength when he could travel
+on the physical force of some one else; nor why it was
+that we should adopt a course through central Asia and
+northwestern China when the southern route through
+India would have been far easier and less dangerous. He
+evidently gave it up as a conundrum, and started out on
+another line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do you consider the Shah of Persia a powerful monarch?</q>
+was his next question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Powerful, perhaps, in the Oriental sense,</q> we replied,
+<q>but very weak in comparison with the Western nations.
+Then, too, he seems to be losing the power that he does
+have—he is compelled to play more and more into the
+hands of the Russians.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do you think that Russia will eventually try to take
+possession of Persia?</q> the viceroy interrupted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>That, of course, is problematical,</q> we answered, with the
+<pb n="228"/><anchor id="Pg228"/>embarrassment men of our age might feel at being instigated
+to talk politics with a prime minister. <q>What we
+do know, for certain, is that Russia is now, with her Transcaspian
+railroad, within about forty miles of Meshed, the
+capital of Persia’s richest province of Khorasan; that she
+now has a well-engineered and, for a great portion of the
+way, a macadamized road to that city across the Kopet
+Dagh mountains from Askabad, the capital of Russian
+Transcaspia; and that half that road the Persians were
+rather forcibly invited to construct.</q>
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS. [p. 228]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i242.jpg"><head rend="small">MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING
+    BUSINESS.</head><figDesc>MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+<q>Do you think,</q> again interrupted the viceroy, whose
+interest in the Russians now began to take a more domestic
+turn, <q>that the Russians would like to have the Chinese
+province of Ili?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this question we might very appropriately have said,
+<q>No</q>; for the reason that we thought Russia had it
+al<pb n="229"/><anchor id="Pg229"/>ready. She is only waiting to draw it in, when she feels
+certain that her Siberian flank is better protected. The
+completion of the Transsiberian railroad, by which troops
+can be readily transported to that portion of her dominion,
+may change Russia’s attitude toward the province of
+Ili. We did not, however, say this to his excellency. We
+merely replied that we believed Russia was seldom known
+to hold aloof from anything of value, which she thought
+she could get with impunity. As she was now sending
+cart-load after cart-load of goods over the border, through
+Ili, into northern and western China, without paying a
+cent of customs duty, while on the other hand not even a
+leaf of tea or thread of cotton passed over the Russian
+line from China without the payment of an exorbitant
+tariff; and as she had already established in Kuldja a
+postal, telegraph, and Cossack station, it would seem that
+she does not even now view the province of Ili as wholly
+foreign to the Russian empire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this the viceroy cleared his throat, and dropped his
+eyes in thoughtful mood, as much as to say: <q>Ah, I know
+the Russians; but there is no help for it.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this point we ventured to ask the viceroy if it were
+true, as we had been informed, that Russia had arranged
+a treaty with China, by which she was entitled to establish
+consuls in several of the interior provinces of the Chinese
+empire, but he evaded the question with adroitness, and
+asked:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Didn’t you find the roads very bad in China?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This question was creditable to the viceroy’s knowledge
+of his own country, but to this subject we brought the
+very best Chinese politeness we could muster. We said
+that inasmuch as China had not yet adopted the bicycle,
+her roads, of course, were not adapted to that mode of
+locomotion.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="230"/><anchor id="Pg230"/>
+
+<p>
+The viceroy then asked us to describe the bicycle, and
+inquired if such a vehicle did not create considerable consternation
+among the people.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL. [p. 230]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i244.jpg"><head rend="small">A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.</head><figDesc>A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+We told him that the bicycle from a Chinese point of
+view was capable of various descriptions. On the passports
+given us by the Chinese minister in London the
+bicycle was called <q>a seat-sitting, foot-moving machine.</q>
+The natives in the interior had applied to it various epithets,
+among which were <hi rend="italic">yang ma</hi> (foreign horse), <hi rend="italic">fei-chay</hi>
+(flying-machine), <hi rend="italic">szüdzun chay</hi> (self-moving cart), and
+others. The most graphic description, perhaps, was given
+by a Chinaman whom we overheard relating to his neighbors
+the first appearance of the bicycle in his quiet little village.
+<q>It is a little mule,</q> said he, <q>that you drive by the
+ears, and kick in the sides to make him go.</q> A dignified
+smile overspread the viceroy’s features.
+</p>
+
+<pb n="231"/><anchor id="Pg231"/>
+
+<p>
+<q>Didn’t the people try to steal your money?</q> he next
+inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>No,</q> we replied. <q>From our impoverished appearance,
+they evidently thought we had nothing. Our wardrobe
+being necessarily limited by our mode of travel, we
+were sometimes reduced to the appearance of traveling
+mendicants, and were often the objects of pity or contempt.
+Either this, or our peculiar mode of travel, seemed
+to dispel all thought of highway robbery; we never lost
+even so much as a button on our journey of over three
+thousand miles across the Chinese empire.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Did the governors you met treat you well?</q> he asked;
+and then immediately added: <q>Being scholars, were you
+not subjected to some indignity by being urged to perform
+for every mandarin you met?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>By nearly all the governors,</q> we said, <q>we were treated
+very kindly indeed; but we were not so certain that the
+same favors would have been extended to us had we
+not cheerfully consented to give exhibitions of bicycle
+riding.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was now a lull in the conversation. The viceroy
+shifted his position in his chair, and took another whiff
+from the long, slender Chinese pipe held to his mouth by
+one of his body-servants. One whiff, and the pipe was
+taken away to be emptied and refilled. After a short respite
+he again resumed the conversation, but the questions
+he now asked were of a personal nature. We enumerate
+a few of them, without comment, only for the purpose of
+throwing some additional light on the character of our
+questioner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none">About how much did the trip cost you? Do you expect
+to get back all or more than you spent? Will you
+write a book?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none">Did you find on your route any gold or silver deposits?</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n="232"/><anchor id="Pg232"/>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none">Do you like the Chinese diet; and how much did one
+meal cost you?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>How old are you? [One of the first questions a Chinese
+host usually asks his guest.] Are you married? What
+is the trade or profession of your parents? Are they
+wealthy? Do they own much land?</q> (A Chinaman’s idea
+of wealth is limited somewhat by the amount of land
+owned.)</p>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none">Will you telegraph to your parents from Shanghai
+your safe arrival there?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none">Were you not rash in attempting such a journey?
+Suppose you had been killed out in the interior of Asia,
+no one would ever have heard of you again.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Are you Democrats or Republicans?</q> (The viceroy
+showed considerable knowledge of our government and
+institutions.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q rend="post: none">Will you run for any political office in America? Do
+you ever expect to get into Congress?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Do you have to buy offices in America?</q> was the last
+inquiry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was considerable hesitancy on the part of us both
+to answer this question. Finally we were obliged to
+admit that sometimes such was the case. <q>Ah,</q> said the
+viceroy, <q>that is a very bad thing about American politics.</q>
+But in this censure he was even more severe on
+his own country than America. Referring to ourselves
+in this connection, the viceroy ventured to predict that we
+might become so well-known as the result of our journey
+that we could get into office without paying for it. <q>You
+are both young,</q> he added, <q>and can hope for anything.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the conversation the viceroy frequently smiled,
+and sometimes came so near overstepping the bounds of
+Chinese propriety as to chuckle. At first his reception
+was more formal, but his interest soon led him to dispense
+<pb n="233"/><anchor id="Pg233"/>with all formality, and before the close of the interview
+the questions were rapidly asked and discussed. We have
+had some experience with examining attorneys, and an
+extended acquaintance with the American reporter; but
+we are convinced that for genuine inquisitiveness Li-Hung-Chang
+stands peerless. We made several attempts
+to take leave, but were interrupted each time by a question
+from the viceroy. Mr. Tenney, in fact, became fatigued
+with the task of interpreting, so that many of the
+long answers were translated by the viceroy’s son.
+</p>
+<index index="ill" level1="A CHINESE BRIDE. [p. 233]"/>
+<pgIf output="txt"><then>
+  <p rend="ill">[Illustration: A CHINESE BRIDE.]</p>
+</then><else>
+    <p><figure rend="hoch" url="images/i247.jpg"><head rend="small">A CHINESE BRIDE.</head><figDesc>A CHINESE BRIDE.</figDesc></figure></p>
+</else></pgIf>
+<p>
+The interview was conducted as nearly as possible in
+the foreign fashion. We smoked cigarettes, and a bottle
+of champagne was served. Finally the interview was
+brought to a close by a health from the viceroy to <q>Ta-mā-quo</q>
+(the great American country).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In conclusion we thanked the viceroy for the honor he
+<pb n="234"/><anchor id="Pg234"/>had done us. He replied that we must not thank him at
+all; that he was only doing his duty. <q>Scholars,</q> said
+he, <q>must receive scholars.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The viceroy rose from his chair with difficulty; the servant
+took him by the elbows and half lifted him to his feet.
+He then walked slowly out of the room with us, and across
+the courtyard to the main exit. Here he shook us heartily
+by the hand, and bowed us out in the Chinese manner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Li-Hung-Chang is virtually the emperor of the Celestial
+Empire; the present <q>Son of Heaven</q> (the young emperor)
+has only recently reached his majority. Li-Hung-Chang
+is China’s intellectual height, from whom emanate
+nearly all her progressive ideas. He stands to-day in the
+light of a mediator between foreign progressiveness and
+native prejudice and conservatism. It has been said that
+Li-Hung-Chang is really anti-foreign at heart; that he
+employs the Occidentals only long enough for them to
+teach his own countrymen how to get along without them.
+Whether this be so or not, it is certain that the viceroy
+recognizes the advantages to be derived from foreign
+methods and inventions, and employs them for the advancement
+of his country. Upon him rests the decision
+in nearly all the great questions of the empire. Scarcely
+an edict or document of any kind is issued that does not
+go over his signature or under his direct supervision. To
+busy himself with the smallest details is a distinctive
+characteristic of the man. Systematic methods, combined
+with an extraordinary mind, enable him to accomplish his
+herculean task. In the eastern horizon Li-Hung-Chang
+shines as the brilliant star of morning that tells of the
+coming of a brighter dawn.
+</p>
+    </div>
+        </body>
+        <back>
+            <div>
+            <pgIf output="pdf">
+                <then></then>
+                <else>
+                    <div id="footnotes" rend="page-break-before: right">
+                        <index index="toc"/>
+                        <head>Footnote</head>
+                        <divGen type="footnotes" />
+                    </div>
+                </else>
+            </pgIf>
+            </div>
+            <div rend="page-break-before:right; x-class: boxed">
+                <index index="pdf"/><index index="toc"/>
+                <head>Transcriber’s Note</head>
+              <p>The list of illustrations has been added in the electronic text.</p>
+                <pgIf output="html"><then><p>The illustrations have been placed between paragraphs
+                    in the electronic text. The page they are printed on in the original edition
+                    can be seen in the list of illustrations.</p></then></pgIf>
+                <pgIf output="txt"><then></then><else><p>Pages only containing
+                    images have been left out in the pagination on the margin.</p></else></pgIf>
+                <p>The following typographical errors have been corrected:</p>
+            <list><item><ref target="corr082">page 82</ref>, period changed to comma (after <q>was</q>)</item>
+                <item><ref target="corr140">page 140</ref>, <q>Siberan</q> changed to <q>Siberian</q></item>
+            </list>
+                <p>Inconsistent hyphenation (<hi rend="italic">e. g.</hi> <q>footsteps</q> and <q>foot-steps</q>,
+                    <q>innkeeper</q> and <q>inn-keeper</q>,
+                    <q>moonlight</q> and <q>moon-light</q>,
+                    <q>pigtails</q> and <q>pig-tails</q>,
+                    <q>wickerwork</q> and <q>wicker-work</q>), punctuation or italicizing has not been changed.
+                    The authors use both <q>Yengiz</q> and <q>Yenghiz</q>, <q>bakshish</q> and <q>baksheesh</q>,
+                    <q>pilaff</q> and <q>pillao</q>.</p>
+            </div>
+            <div rend="page-break-before: right">
+                <divGen type="pgfooter" />
+            </div>
+        </back>
+    </text>
+</TEI.2>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Across Asia on a Bicycle by Thomas Gaskell
+Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Across Asia on a Bicycle
+
+Author: Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2010 [Ebook #31111]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+  [Illustration: THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            ACROSS ASIA ON A
+                                 BICYCLE
+
+                  THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
+                     FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+
+                                   BY
+                        THOMAS GASKELL ALLEN, JR.
+                                   AND
+                         WILLIAM LEWIS SACHTLEBEN
+
+
+NEW YORK
+THE CENTURY CO.
+1894
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Copyright, 1894, by
+                             THE CENTURY CO.
+
+                          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+                            THE DEVINNE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+
+                             _THOSE AT HOME_
+
+                           WHOSE THOUGHTS AND
+                            WISHES WERE EVER
+                             WITH US IN OUR
+                                WANDERINGS
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE
+
+
+This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing the most
+interesting part of a bicycle journey around the world,--our ride across
+Asia. We were actuated by no desire to make a "record" in bicycle travel,
+although we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous land
+journey ever made around the world.
+
+The day after we were graduated at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.,
+we left for New York. Thence we sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890.
+Just three years afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York
+on our wheels, having "put a girdle round the earth."
+
+Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After following many of the
+beaten lines of travel in the British Isles we arrived in London, where we
+formed our plans for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most
+dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we were told, were
+western China, the Desert of Gobi, and central China. Never since the days
+of Marco Polo had a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese
+empire from the west to Peking.
+
+Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to Paris, across the
+lowlands of western France to Bordeaux, eastward over the Lesser Alps to
+Marseilles, and along the Riviera into Italy. After visiting every
+important city on the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day
+of 1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras, proceeding
+along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we passed the winter. We went
+to Constantinople by vessel in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April,
+and began the long journey described in the following pages. When we had
+finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom, we sailed from
+Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged to San Francisco, where we arrived
+on Christmas night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles and
+wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to New York.
+
+During all of this journey we never employed the services of guides or
+interpreters. We were compelled, therefore, to learn a little of the
+language of every country through which we passed. Our independence in
+this regard increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but
+certainly contributed much toward the object we sought--a close
+acquaintance with strange peoples.
+
+During our travels we took more than two thousand five hundred
+photographs, selections from which are reproduced in the illustrations of
+this volume.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+   I.   BEYOND THE BOSPORUS                                     1
+  II.   THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT                             43
+ III.   THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND                            83
+  IV.   THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA                  115
+   V.   OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE     149
+        OF THE GREAT WALL
+  VI.   AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA         207
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER. [Frontispiece]
+BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA. [p. 4 and 5]
+THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.' [p. 6]
+HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES. [p. 8]
+AN ANGORA SHEPHERD. [p. 9]
+1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF
+CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 11]
+A CONTRAST. [p. 12]
+A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL. [p. 13]
+MILL IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 15]
+GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR. [p. 16]
+SCENE AT A GREEK INN. [p. 19]
+EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD. [p. 20]
+GRINDING WHEAT. [p. 21]
+A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER. [p. 22]
+TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH. [p. 23]
+THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS. [p. 25]
+HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS. [p. 26]
+ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK. [p. 29]
+A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN. [p. 30]
+EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE. [p. 32]
+PRIMITIVE WEAVING. [p. 33]
+A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 38]
+A VILLAGE SCENE. [p. 40]
+[Rural scene without caption.] [p. 42]
+WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE. [p. 50]
+READY FOR THE START. [p. 53]
+PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING. [p. 56]
+THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT. [p. 59]
+OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION. [p. 65]
+HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD. [p. 67]
+LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW. [p. 69]
+THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET. [p. 72]
+NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM. [p. 74]
+ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT--FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE. [p. 78]
+HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI. [p. 84]
+LEAVING KHOI. [p. 86]
+YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
+LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
+THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT
+THE CALL OF THE SHAH. [p. 91]
+A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON. [p. 94]
+LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED. [p. 96]
+IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD. [p. 98]
+PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY. [p. 99]
+A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS. [p. 100]
+CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD. [p. 102]
+PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED. [p. 104]
+RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED. [p. 105]
+FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED. [p. 106]
+IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED. [p. 107]
+WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY. [p. 108]
+GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED. [p. 109]
+AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD. [p. 111]
+MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. [p. 112]
+CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD. [p. 113]
+A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE. [p. 114]
+A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND. [p. 116]
+OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN. [p. 118]
+PALACE OF THE CZAR'S NEPHEW, TASHKEND. [p. 121]
+A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.' [p.
+123]
+VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL. [p. 125]
+ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE. [p. 129]
+UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER. [p. 132]
+KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER. [p. 134]
+FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS. [p. 138]
+STROLLING MUSICIANS. [p. 141]
+THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA. [p. 143]
+THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA. [p. 145]
+TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN. [p. 146]
+A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA. [p. 148]
+THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY. [p. 151]
+VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE. [p. 153]
+OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO
+PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT. [p. 155]
+A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA. [p. 158]
+PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT. [p. 160]
+THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY. [p. 161]
+A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA. [p. 163]
+SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE. [p. 165]
+THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING. [p. 167]
+RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS. [p. 168]
+MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI. [p. 170]
+A BANK IN URUMTSI. [p. 171]
+A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 173]
+STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. [p. 174]
+A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL. [p. 176]
+CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI. [p. 178]
+SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 179]
+A LESSON IN CHINESE. [p. 180]
+A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 182]
+IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 183]
+STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN. [p. 185]
+A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI. [p. 187]
+A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI. [p. 188]
+A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 189]
+WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL. [p. 191]
+RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU. [p. 193]
+A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN. [p. 196]
+A CHINAMAN'S WHEELBARROW. [p. 199]
+MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE. [p. 201]
+TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 203]
+MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 205]
+LI-HUNG-CHANG. [p. 206]
+OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 209]
+MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 210]
+ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE. [p. 211]
+MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN. [p. 212]
+MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN. [p. 215]
+ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 217]
+A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 218]
+SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU. [p. 220]
+WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER. [p. 221]
+FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS. [p. 225]
+MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS.
+[p. 228]
+A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL. [p. 230]
+A CHINESE BRIDE. [p. 233]
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE
+
+
+                  THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
+                      FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    I
+
+
+                           BEYOND THE BOSPORUS
+
+
+On a morning early in April the little steamer conveying us across from
+Stamboul touched the wharf at Haider Pasha. Amid the rabble of Greeks,
+Armenians, Turks, and Italians we trundled our bicycles across the
+gang-plank, which for us was the threshold of Asia, the beginning of an
+inland journey of seven thousand miles from the Bosporus to the Pacific.
+Through the morning fog which enveloped the shipping in the Golden Horn,
+the "stars and stripes" at a single masthead were waving farewell to two
+American students fresh from college who had nerved themselves for nearly
+two years of separation from the comforts of western civilization.
+
+Our guide to the road to Ismid was the little twelve-year-old son of an
+Armenian doctor, whose guests we had been during our sojourn in Stamboul.
+He trotted for some distance by our side, and then, pressing our hands in
+both of his, he said with childlike sincerity: "I hope God will take care
+of you"; for he was possessed with the thought popular among Armenians, of
+pillages and massacres by marauding brigands.
+
+The idea of a trip around the world had been conceived by us as a
+practical finish to a theoretical education; and the bicycle feature was
+adopted merely as a means to that end. On reaching London we had formed
+the plan of penetrating the heart of the Asiatic continent, instead of
+skirting its more civilized coast-line. For a passport and other
+credentials necessary in journeying through Russia and Central Asia we had
+been advised to make application to the Czar's representative on our
+arrival at Teheran, as we would enter the Russian dominions from Persia;
+and to that end the Russian minister in London had provided us with a
+letter of introduction. In London the secretary of the Chinese legation, a
+Scotchman, had assisted us in mapping out a possible route across the
+Celestial empire, although he endeavored, from the very start, to dissuade
+us from our purpose. Application had then been made to the Chinese
+minister himself for the necessary passport. The reply we received, though
+courteous, smacked strongly of reproof. "Western China," he said, "is
+overrun with lawless bands, and the people themselves are very much averse
+to foreigners. Your extraordinary mode of locomotion would subject you to
+annoyance, if not to positive danger, at the hands of a people who are
+naturally curious and superstitious. However," he added, after some
+reflection, "if your minister makes a request for a passport we will see
+what can be done. The most I can do will be to ask for you the protection
+and assistance of the officials only; for the people themselves I cannot
+answer. If you go into that country you do so at your own risk." Minister
+Lincoln was sitting in his private office when we called the next morning
+at the American legation. He listened to the recital of our plans, got
+down the huge atlas from his bookcase, and went over with us the route we
+proposed to follow. He did not regard the undertaking as feasible, and
+apprehended that, if he should give his official assistance, he would, in
+a measure, be responsible for the result if it should prove unhappy. When
+assured of the consent of our parents, and of our determination to make
+the attempt at all hazards, he picked up his pen and began a letter to the
+Chinese minister, remarking as he finished reading it to us, "I would much
+rather not have written it." The documents received from the Chinese
+minister in response to Mr. Lincoln's letter proved to be indispensable
+when, a year and a half later, we left the last outpost of western
+civilization and plunged into the Gobi desert. When we had paid a final
+visit to the Persian minister in London, who had asked to see our bicycles
+and their baggage equipments, he signified his intention of writing in our
+behalf to friends in Teheran; and to that capital, after cycling through
+Europe, we were now actually _en route_.
+
+Since the opening of the Trans-Bosporus Railway, the wagon-road to Ismid,
+and even the Angora military highway beyond, have fallen rapidly into
+disrepair. In April they were almost impassable for the wheel, so that for
+the greater part of the way we were obliged to take to the track. Like the
+railway skirting the Italian Riviera, and the Patras-Athens line along the
+Saronic Gulf, this Trans-Bosporus road for a great distance scarps and
+tunnels the cliffs along the Gulf of Ismid, and sometimes runs so close to
+the water's edge that the puffing of the _kara vapor_ or "land steamer,"
+as the Turks call it, is drowned by the roaring breakers. The country
+between Scutari and Ismid surpasses in agricultural advantages any part of
+Asiatic Turkey through which we passed. Its fertile soil, and the
+luxuriant vegetation it supports, are, as we afterward learned, in
+striking contrast with the sterile plateaus and mountains of the interior,
+many parts of which are as desolate as the deserts of Arabia. In area,
+Asia Minor equals France, but the water-supply of its rivers is only one
+third.
+
+  [Illustration: BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS
+  ASIA.]
+
+One of the principal agents in the work of transforming Asia Minor is the
+railroad, to which the natives have taken with unusual readiness. The
+locomotive is already competing with the hundred and sixty thousand camels
+employed in the peninsula caravan-trade. At Geiveh, the last station on
+the Trans-Bosporus Railway, where we left the track to follow the Angora
+highway, the "ships of the desert" are beginning to transfer their cargoes
+to the "land steamer," instead of continuing on as in former days to the
+Bosporus.
+
+  [Illustration: THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE "DEVIL'S CARRIAGE."]
+
+The Trans-Bosporus line, in the year of our visit, was being built and
+operated by a German company, under the direct patronage of the Sultan. We
+ventured to ask some natives if they thought the Sultan had sufficient
+funds to consummate so gigantic a scheme, and they replied, with the
+deepest reverence: "God has given the Padishah much property and power,
+and certainly he must give him enough money to utilize it."
+
+A week's cycling from the Bosporus brought us beyond the Allah Dagh
+mountains, among the barren, variegated hills that skirt the Angora
+plateau. We had already passed through Ismid, the ancient Nicomedia and
+capital of Diocletian; and had left behind us the heavily timbered valley
+of the Sakaria, upon whose banks the "Freebooter of the Bithynian hills"
+settled with his four hundred tents and laid the foundation of the Ottoman
+empire. Since leaving Geiveh we had been attended by a mounted guard, or
+_zaptieh_, who was sometimes forced upon us by the authorities in their
+anxiety to carry out the wishes expressed in the letters of the Grand
+Vizir. On emerging from the door of an inn we frequently found this
+unexpected guard waiting with a Winchester rifle swung over his shoulder,
+and a fleet steed standing by his side. Immediately on our appearance he
+would swing into the saddle and charge through the assembled rabble. Away
+we would go at a rapid pace down the streets of the town or village, to
+the utter amazement of the natives and the great satisfaction of our
+vainglorious zaptieh. As long as his horse was fresh, or until we were out
+of sight of the village, he would urge us on with cries of "Gellcha-buk"
+("Come on, ride fast"). When a bad piece of road or a steep ascent forced
+us to dismount he would bring his horse to a walk, roll a cigarette, and
+draw invidious comparisons between our steeds. His tone, however, changed
+when we reached a decline or long stretch of reasonably good road. Then he
+would cut across country to head us off, or shout after us at the top of
+his voice, "Yavash-yavash" ("Slowly, slowly"). On the whole we found them
+good-natured and companionable fellows, notwithstanding their interest in
+_baksheesh_ which we were compelled at last, in self-defense, to fix at
+one piaster an hour. We frequently shared with them our frugal, and even
+scanty meals; and in turn they assisted us in our purchases and
+arrangements for lodgings, for their word, we found, was with the common
+people an almost unwritten law. Then, too, they were of great assistance
+in crossing streams where the depth would have necessitated the stripping
+of garments; although their fiery little steeds sometimes objected to
+having an extra rider astride their haunches, and a bicycle across their
+shoulders. They seized every opportunity to impress us with the necessity
+of being accompanied by a government representative. In some lonely
+portion of the road, or in the suggestive stillness of an evening
+twilight, our Turkish Don Quixote would sometimes cast mysterious glances
+around him, take his Winchester from his shoulder, and throwing it across
+the pommel of his saddle, charge ahead to meet the imaginary enemy. But we
+were more harmful than harmed, for, despite our most vigilant care, the
+bicycles were sometimes the occasion of a stampede or runaway among the
+caravans and teams along the highway, and we frequently assisted in
+replacing the loads thus upset. On such occasions our pretentious cavalier
+would remain on his horse, smoking his cigarette and smiling disdainfully.
+
+  [Illustration: HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR
+  BICYCLES.]
+
+It was in the company of one of these military champions that we emerged
+on the morning of April 12 upon the plateau of Angora. On the spring
+pasture were feeding several flocks of the famous Angora goats, and the
+_karamanli_ or fat-tailed sheep, tended by the Yurak shepherds and their
+half-wild and monstrous collies, whose half-savage nature fits them to
+cope with the jackals which infest the country. The shepherds did not
+check their sudden onslaught upon us until we were pressed to very close
+quarters, and had drawn our revolvers in self-defense. These Yuraks are
+the nomadic portion of the Turkish peasantry. They live in caves or rudely
+constructed huts, shifting their habitation at will, or upon the
+exhaustion of the pasturage. Their costume is most primitive both in style
+and material; the trousers and caps being made of sheepskin and the tunic
+of plaited wheat-straw. In contradistinction to the Yuraks the settled
+inhabitants of the country are called Turks. That term, however, which
+means rustic or clown, is never used by the Turks themselves except in
+derision or disdain; they always speak of themselves as "Osmanli."
+
+  [Illustration: AN ANGORA SHEPHERD.]
+
+The great length of the Angora fleece, which sometimes reaches eight
+inches, is due solely to the peculiar climate of the locality. The same
+goats taken elsewhere have not thriven. Even the Angora dogs and cats are
+remarkable for the extraordinary length of their fleecy covering. On
+nearing Angora itself, we raced at high speed over the undulating plateau.
+Our zaptieh on his jaded horse faded away in the dim distance, and we saw
+him no more. This was our last guard for many weeks to come, as we decided
+to dispense with an escort that really retarded us. But on reaching
+Erzerum, the Vali refused us permission to enter the district of Alashgerd
+without a guard, so we were forced to take one.
+
+  [Illustration: 1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2,
+  PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+We were now on historic ground. To our right, on the Owas, a tributary of
+the Sakaria, was the little village of Istanas, where stood the ancient
+seat of Midas, the Phrygian king, and where Alexander the Great cut with
+his sword the Gordian knot to prove his right to the rulership of the
+world. On the plain, over which we were now skimming, the great Tatar,
+Timur, fought the memorable battle with Bajazet I., which resulted in the
+capture of the Ottoman conqueror. Since the time that the title of Asia
+applied to the small coast-province of Lydia, this country has been the
+theater for the grandest events in human history.
+
+  [Illustration: A CONTRAST.]
+
+The old mud-houses of modern Angora, as we rolled into the city,
+contrasted strongly with the cyclopean walls of its ancient fortress.
+After two days in Angora we diverged from the direct route to Sivas
+through Yuezgat, so as to visit the city of Kaisarieh. Through the efforts
+of the progressive Vali at Angora, a macadamized road was in the course of
+construction to this point, a part of which--to the town of Kirshehr--was
+already completed. Although surrounded by unusual fertility and luxuriance
+for an interior town, the low mud-houses and treeless streets give
+Kirshehr that same thirsty and painfully uniform appearance which
+characterizes every village or city in Asiatic Turkey. The mud buildings
+of Babylon, and not the marble edifices of Nineveh, have served as models
+for the Turkish architect. We have seen the Turks, when making the
+mud-straw bricks used in house-building, scratch dirt for the purpose from
+between the marble slabs and boulders that lay in profusion over the
+ground. A few of the government buildings and some of the larger private
+residences are improved by a coat of whitewash, and now and then the warm
+spring showers bring out on the mud roofs a relieving verdure, that
+frequently serves as pasture for the family goat. Everything is low and
+contracted, especially the doorways. When a foreigner bumps his head, and
+demands the reason for such stupid architecture, he is met with that
+decisive answer, "Adet"--custom, the most powerful of all influences in
+Turkey and the East.
+
+  [Illustration: A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL.]
+
+Our entry into Kirshehr was typical of our reception everywhere. When we
+were seen approaching, several horsemen came out to get a first look at
+our strange horses. They challenged us to a race, and set a spanking pace
+down into the streets of the town. Before we reached the _khan_, or inn,
+we were obliged to dismount. "Bin! bin!" ("Ride! ride!") went up in a
+shout. "Nimkin deyil" ("It is impossible"), we explained, in such a jam;
+and the crowd opened up three or four feet ahead of us. "Bin bocale"
+("Ride, so that we can see"), they shouted again; and some of them rushed
+up to hold our steeds for us to mount. With the greatest difficulty we
+impressed upon our persistent assistants that they could not help us. By
+the time we reached the khan the crowd had become almost a mob, pushing
+and tumbling over one another, and yelling to every one in sight that "the
+devil's carts have come." The inn-keeper came out, and we had to assure
+him that the mob was actuated only by curiosity. As soon as the bicycles
+were over the threshold, the doors were bolted and braced. The crowds
+swarmed to the windows. While the khanji prepared coffee we sat down to
+watch the amusing by-play and repartee going on around us. Those who by
+virtue of their friendship with the khanji were admitted to the room with
+us began a tirade against the boyish curiosity of their less fortunate
+brethren on the outside. Their own curiosity assumed tangible shape. Our
+clothing, and even our hair and faces, were critically examined. When we
+attempted to jot down the day's events in our note-books they crowded
+closer than ever. Our fountain-pen was an additional puzzle to them. It
+was passed around, and explained and commented on at length.
+
+Our camera was a "mysterious" black box. Some said it was a telescope,
+about which they had only a vague idea; others, that it was a box
+containing our money. But our map of Asiatic Turkey was to them the most
+curious thing of all. They spread it on the floor, and hovered over it,
+while we pointed to the towns and cities. How could we tell where the
+places were until we had been there? How did we even know their names? It
+was wonderful--wonderful! We traced for them our own journey, where we had
+been and where we were going, and then endeavored to show them how, by
+starting from our homes and continuing always in an easterly direction, we
+could at last reach our starting-point from the west. The more intelligent
+of them grasped the idea. "Around the world," they repeated again and
+again, with a mystified expression.
+
+Relief came at last, in the person of a messenger from Osman Beg, the
+inspector-general of agriculture of the Angora vilayet, bearing an
+invitation to supper. He stated that he had already heard of our
+undertaking through the Constantinople press, and desired to make our
+acquaintance. His note, which was written in French, showed him to be a
+man of European education; and on shaking hands with him a half-hour
+later, we found him to be a man of European origin--an Albanian Greek, and
+a cousin of the Vali at Angora. He said a report had gone out that two
+devils were passing through the country. The dinner was one of those
+incongruous Turkish mixtures of sweet and sour, which was by no means
+relieved by the harrowing Turkish music which our host ground out from an
+antiquated hand-organ.
+
+  [Illustration: MILL IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+Although it was late when we returned to the khan, we found everybody
+still up. The room in which we were to sleep (there was only one room) was
+filled with a crowd of loiterers, and tobacco smoke. Some were playing
+games similar to our chess and backgammon, while others were looking on,
+and smoking the gurgling narghile, or water-pipe. The bicycles had been
+put away under lock and key, and the crowd gradually dispersed. We lay
+down in our clothes, and tried to lose consciousness; but the Turkish
+supper, the tobacco smoke, and the noise of the quarreling gamesters, put
+sleep out of the question. At midnight the sudden boom of a cannon
+reminded us that we were in the midst of the Turkish Ramadan. The sound of
+tramping feet, the beating of a bass drum, and the whining tones of a
+Turkish bagpipe, came over the midnight air. Nearer it came, and louder
+grew the sound, till it reached the inn door, where it remained for some
+time. The fast of Ramadan commemorates the revelation of the Koran to the
+prophet Mohammed. It lasts through the four phases of the moon. From
+daylight, or, as the Koran reads, "from the time you can distinguish a
+white thread from a black one," no good Mussulman will eat, drink, or
+smoke. At midnight the mosques are illuminated, and bands of music go
+about the streets all night, making a tremendous uproar. One cannon is
+fired at dusk, to announce the time to break the fast by eating supper,
+another at midnight to arouse the people for the preparation of breakfast,
+and still another at daylight as a signal for resuming the fast. This, of
+course, is very hard on the poor man who has to work during the day. As a
+precaution against oversleeping, a watchman goes about just before
+daybreak, and makes a rousing clatter at the gate of every Mussulman's
+house to warn him that if he wants anything to eat he must get it
+instanter. Our roommates evidently intended to make an "all night" of it,
+for they forthwith commenced the preparation of their morning meal. How it
+was despatched we do not know, for we fell asleep, and were only awakened
+by the muezzin on a neighboring minaret, calling to morning prayer.
+
+  [Illustration: GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR.]
+
+Our morning ablutions were usually made _a la_ Turk: by having water
+poured upon the hands from a spouted vessel. Cleanliness is, with the
+Turk, perhaps, more than ourselves, the next thing to godliness. But his
+ideas are based upon a very different theory. Although he uses no soap for
+washing either his person or his clothes, yet he considers himself much
+cleaner than the giaour, for the reason that he uses running water
+exclusively, never allowing the same particles to touch him the second
+time. A Turk believes that all water is purified after running six feet.
+As a test of his faith we have often seen him lading up drinking-water
+from a stream where the women were washing clothes just a few yards above.
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE AT A GREEK INN.]
+
+As all cooking and eating had stopped at the sound of the morning cannon,
+we found great difficulty in gathering together even a cold breakfast of
+_ekmek_, _yaourt_, and raisins. Ekmek is a cooked bran-flour paste, which
+has the thinness, consistency, and almost the taste of blotting-paper.
+This is the Turkish peasant's staff of life. He carries it with him
+everywhere; so did we. As it was made in huge circular sheets, we would
+often punch a hole in the middle, and slip it up over our arms. This we
+found the handiest and most serviceable mode of transportation, being
+handy to eat without removing our hands from the handle-bars, and also
+answering the purpose of sails in case of a favoring wind. Yaourt, another
+almost universal food, is milk curdled with rennet. This, as well as all
+foods that are not liquid, they scoop up with a roll of ekmek, a part of
+the scoop being taken with every mouthful. Raisins here, as well as in
+many other parts of the country, are very cheap. We paid two piasters
+(about nine cents) for an _oche_ (two and a half pounds), but we soon made
+the discovery that a Turkish oche contained a great many "stones"--which of
+course was purely accidental. Eggs, also, we found exceedingly cheap. On
+one occasion, twenty-five were set before us, in response to our call for
+eggs to the value of one piaster--four and a half cents. In Asiatic Turkey
+we had some extraordinary dishes served to us, including daintily prepared
+leeches. But the worst mixture, perhaps, was the "Bairam soup," which
+contains over a dozen ingredients, including peas, prunes, walnuts,
+cherries, dates, white and black beans, apricots, cracked wheat, raisins,
+etc.--all mixed in cold water. Bairam is the period of feasting after the
+Ramadan fast.
+
+  [Illustration: EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD.]
+
+On preparing to leave Kirshehr after our frugal breakfast we found that
+Turkish curiosity had extended even to the contents of our baggage, which
+fitted in the frames of the machines. There was nothing missing, however:
+and we did not lose so much as a button during our sojourn among them.
+Thieving is not one of their faults, but they take much latitude in
+helping themselves. Many a time an inn-keeper would "help us out" by
+disposing of one third of a chicken that we had paid him a high price to
+prepare.
+
+When we were ready to start the chief of police cleared a riding space
+through the streets, which for an hour had been filled with people. As we
+passed among them they shouted "Oorooglar olsun" ("May good fortune attend
+you"). "Inshallah" ("If it please God"), we replied, and waved our helmets
+in acknowledgment.
+
+  [Illustration: GRINDING WHEAT.]
+
+  [Illustration: A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER.]
+
+At the village of Topakle, on the following night, our reception was not
+so innocent and good-natured. It was already dusk when we reached the
+outskirts of the village, where we were at once spied by a young man who
+was driving in the lowing herd. The alarm was given, and the people
+swarmed like so many rats from a corn-bin. We could see from their costume
+and features that they were not pure-blooded Turks. We asked if we could
+get food and lodging, to which they replied, "Evet, evet" ("Yes, yes"),
+but when we asked them where, they simply pointed ahead, and shouted,
+"Bin, bin!" We did not "bin" this time, because it was too dark, and the
+streets were bad. We walked, or rather were pushed along by the impatient
+rabble, and almost deafened by their shouts of "Bin, bin!" At the end of
+the village we repeated our question of where. Again they pointed ahead,
+and shouted, "Bin!" Finally an old man led us to what seemed to be a
+private residence, where we had to drag our bicycles up a dark narrow
+stairway to the second story. The crowd soon filled the room to
+suffocation, and were not disposed to heed our request to be left alone.
+One stalwart youth showed such a spirit of opposition that we were obliged
+to eject him upon a crowded stairway, causing the mob to go down like a
+row of tenpins. Then the owner of the house came in, and in an agitated
+manner declared he could not allow us to remain in his house overnight.
+Our reappearance caused a jeering shout to go up from the crowd; but no
+violence was attempted beyond the catching hold of the rear wheel when our
+backs were turned, and the throwing of clods of earth. They followed us,
+_en masse_, to the edge of the village, and there stopped short, to watch
+us till we disappeared in the darkness. The nights at this high altitude
+were chilly. We had no blankets, and not enough clothing to warrant a camp
+among the rocks. There was not a twig on the whole plateau with which to
+build a fire. We were alone, however, and that was rest in itself. After
+walking an hour, perhaps, we saw a light gleaming from a group of mudhuts
+a short distance off the road. From the numerous flocks around it, we took
+it to be a shepherds' village. Everything was quiet except the restless
+sheep, whose silky fleece glistened in the light of the rising moon.
+Supper was not yet over, for we caught a whiff of its savory odor. Leaving
+our wheels outside, we entered the first door we came to, and, following
+along a narrow passageway, emerged into a room where four rather
+rough-looking shepherds were ladling the soup from a huge bowl in their
+midst. Before they were aware of our presence, we uttered the usual
+salutation "Sabala khayr olsun." This startled some little boys who were
+playing in the corner, who yelled, and ran into the haremluek, or women's
+apartment. This brought to the door the female occupants, who also uttered
+a shriek, and sunk back as if in a swoon. It was evident that the visits
+of giaours to this place had been few and far between. The shepherds
+returned our salutation with some hesitation, while their ladles dropped
+into the soup, and their gaze became fixed on our huge helmets, our
+dogskin top-coats, and abbreviated nether garments. The women by this time
+had sufficiently recovered from their nervous shock to give scope to their
+usual curiosity through the cracks in the partition. Confidence now being
+inspired by our own composure, we were invited to sit down and participate
+in the evening meal. Although it was only a gruel of sour milk and rice,
+we managed to make a meal off it. Meantime the wheels had been discovered
+by some passing neighbor. The news was spread throughout the village, and
+soon an excited throng came in with our bicycles borne upon the shoulders
+of two powerful Turks. Again we were besieged with entreaties to ride,
+and, hoping that this would gain for us a comfortable night's rest, we
+yielded, and, amid peals of laughter from a crowd of Turkish peasants,
+gave an exhibition in the moonlight. Our only reward, when we returned to
+our quarters, was two greasy pillows and a filthy carpet for a coverlet.
+But the much needed rest we did not secure, for the suspicions aroused by
+the first glance at our bed-cover proved to be well grounded.
+
+  [Illustration: TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.]
+
+About noon on April 20, our road turned abruptly into the broad caravan
+trail that runs between Smyrna and Kaisarieh, about ten miles west of the
+latter city. A long caravan of camels was moving majestically up the road,
+headed by a little donkey, which the _devedejee_ (camel-driver) was riding
+with his feet dangling almost to the ground. That proverbially stubborn
+creature moved not a muscle until we came alongside, when all at once he
+gave one of his characteristic side lurches, and precipitated the rider to
+the ground. The first camel, with a protesting grunt, began to sidle off,
+and the broadside movement continued down the line till the whole caravan
+stood at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the road. The camel of
+Asia Minor does not share that antipathy for the equine species which is
+so general among their Asiatic cousins; but steel horses were more than
+even they could endure.
+
+  [Illustration: THE "FLIRTING TOWER" IN SIVAS.]
+
+A sudden turn in the road now brought us in sight of old Arjish Dagh,
+which towers 13,000 feet above the city of Kaisarieh, and whose head and
+shoulders were covered with snow. Native tradition tells us that against
+this lofty summit the ark of Noah struck in the rising flood; and for this
+reason Noah cursed it, and prayed that it might ever be covered with snow.
+It was in connection with this very mountain that we first conceived the
+idea of making the ascent of Ararat. Here and there, on some of the most
+prominent peaks, we could distinguish little mounds of earth, the ruined
+watch-towers of the prehistoric Hittites.
+
+  [Illustration: HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.]
+
+Kaisarieh (ancient Caesarea) is filled with the ruins and the monuments of
+the fourteenth-century Seljuks. Arrowheads and other relics are every day
+unearthed there, to serve as toys for the street urchins. Since the
+development of steam-communication around the coast, it is no longer the
+caravan center that it used to be; but even now its _charshi_, or inclosed
+bazaars, are among the finest in Turkey, being far superior in appearance
+to those of Constantinople. These _charshi_ are nothing more than narrow
+streets, inclosed by brick arches, and lined on either side with booths.
+It was through one of these that our only route to the khan lay--and yet we
+felt that in such contracted quarters, and in such an excited mob as had
+gathered around us, disaster was sure to follow. Our only salvation was to
+keep ahead of the jam, and get through as soon as possible. We started on
+the spurt; and the race began. The unsuspecting merchants and their
+customers were suddenly distracted from their thoughts of gain as we
+whirled by; the crowd close behind sweeping everything before it. The
+falling of barrels and boxes, the rattling of tin cans, the crashing of
+crockery, the howling of the vagrant dogs that were trampled under foot,
+only added to the general tumult.
+
+Through the courtesy of Mr. Peet of the American Bible House at
+Constantinople, we were provided with letters of introduction to the
+missionaries at Kaisarieh, as well as elsewhere along our route through
+Asiatic Turkey, and upon them we also had drafts to the amount of our
+deposit made at the Bible House before starting. Besides, we owed much to
+the hospitality and kindness of these people. The most striking feature of
+the missionary work at Kaisarieh is the education of the Armenian women,
+whose social position seems to be even more degraded than that of their
+Turkish sisters. With the native Armenians, as with the Turks, fleshiness
+adds much to the price of a wife. The wife of a missionary is to them an
+object both of wonderment and contempt. As she walks along the street,
+they will whisper to one another: "There goes a woman who knows all her
+husband's business; and who can manage just as well as himself." This will
+generally be followed in an undertone by the expression, "Madana satana,"
+which means, in common parlance, "a female devil." At first it was a
+struggle to overcome this ignorant prejudice, and to get girls to come to
+the school free of charge; now it is hard to find room for them even when
+they are asked to pay for their tuition.
+
+The costume of the Armenian woman is generally of some bright-colored
+cloth, prettily trimmed. Her coiffure, always elaborate, sometimes
+includes a string of gold coins, encircling the head, or strung down the
+plait. A silver belt incloses the waist, and a necklace of coins calls
+attention to her pretty neck. When washing clothes by the stream, they
+frequently show a gold ring encircling an ankle.
+
+In the simplicity of their costumes, as well as in the fact that they do
+not expose the face, the Turkish women stand in strong contrast to the
+Armenian. Baggy trousers _a la_ Bloomer, a loose robe skirt opening at the
+sides, and a voluminous shawl-like girdle around the waist and body,
+constitute the main features of the Turkish indoor costume. On the street
+a shroud-like robe called yashmak, usually white, but sometimes crimson,
+purple, or black, covers them from head to foot. When we would meet a bevy
+of these creatures on the road in the dusk of evening, their white,
+fluttering garments would give them the appearance of winged celestials.
+The Turkish women are generally timorous of men, and especially so of
+foreigners. Those of the rural districts, however, are not so shy as their
+city cousins. We frequently met them at work in groups about the villages
+or in the open fields, and would sometimes ask for a drink of water. If
+they were a party of maidens, as was often the case, they would draw back
+and hide behind one another. We would offer one of them a ride on our
+"very nice horses." This would cause a general giggle among her
+companions, and a drawing of the yashmak closer about the neck and face.
+
+  [Illustration: ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK.]
+
+The road scenes in the interior provinces are but little varied. One of
+the most characteristic features of the Anatolian landscape are the
+storks, which come in flocks of thousands from their winter quarters in
+Egypt and build summer nests, unmolested, on the village housetops. These,
+like the crows, magpies, and swallows, prove valuable allies to the
+husbandmen in their war against the locust. A still more serviceable
+friend in this direction is the _smarmar_, a pink thrush with black wings.
+Besides the various caravan trains of camels, donkeys, horses, and mules,
+the road is frequently dotted with ox-carts, run on solid wooden wheels
+without tires, and drawn by that peculiar bovine species, the buffalo.
+With their distended necks, elevated snouts, and hog-like bristles, these
+animals present an ugly appearance, especially when wallowing in mud
+puddles.
+
+Now and then in the villages we passed by a primitive flour-mill moved by
+a small stream playing upon a horizontal wheel beneath the floor; or, more
+primitive still, by a blindfolded donkey plodding ceaselessly around in
+his circular path. In the streets we frequently encountered boys and old
+men gathering manure for their winter fuel; and now and then a cripple or
+invalid would accost us as "Hakim" ("Doctor"), for the medical work of the
+missionaries has given these simple-minded folk the impression that all
+foreigners are physicians. Coming up and extending a hand for us to feel
+the pulse they would ask us to do something for the disease, which we
+could see was rapidly carrying them to the grave.
+
+  [Illustration: A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN.]
+
+Our first view of Sivas was obtained from the top of Mount Yildiz, on
+which still stands the ruined castle of Mithridates, the Pontine monarch,
+whom Lucullus many times defeated, but never conquered. From this point we
+made a very rapid descent, crossed the Kizil Irmak for the third time by
+an old ruined bridge, and half an hour later saw the "stars and stripes"
+flying above the U. S. consulate. In the society of our representative,
+Mr. Henry M. Jewett, we were destined to spend several weeks; for a day or
+two after our arrival, one of us was taken with a slight attack of typhoid
+fever, supposed to have been contracted by drinking from the roadside
+streams. No better place could have been chosen for such a mishap; for
+recovery was speedy in such comfortable quarters, under the care of the
+missionary ladies.
+
+The comparative size and prosperity of Sivas, in the midst of rather
+barren surroundings, are explained by the fact that it lies at the
+converging point of the chief caravan routes between the Euxine,
+Euphrates, and Mediterranean. Besides being the capital of Rumili, the
+former Seljuk province of Cappadocia, it is the place of residence for a
+French and American consular representative, and an agent of the Russian
+government for the collection of the war indemnity, stipulated in the
+treaty of '78. The dignity of office is here upheld with something of the
+pomp and splendor of the East, even by the representative of democratic
+America. In our tours with Mr. Jewett we were escorted at the head by a
+Circassian _cavass_ (Turkish police), clothed in a long black coat, with a
+huge dagger dangling from a belt of cartridges. Another native cavass,
+with a broadsword dragging at his side, usually brought up the rear. At
+night he was the one to carry the huge lantern, which, according to the
+number of candles, is the insignia of rank. "I must give the Turks what
+they want," said the consul, with a twinkle in his eye--"form and red tape.
+I would not be a consul in their eyes, if I didn't." To illustrate the
+formality of Turkish etiquette he told this story: "A Turk was once
+engaged in saving furniture from his burning home, when he noticed that a
+bystander was rolling a cigarette. He immediately stopped in his hurry,
+struck a match, and offered a light."
+
+  [Illustration: EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE.]
+
+The most flagrant example of Turkish formality that came to our notice was
+the following address on an official document to the Sultan:
+
+
+    "The Arbiter; the Absolute; the Soul and Body of the Universe; the
+    Father of all the sovereigns of the earth; His Excellency, the
+    Eagle Monarch; the Cause of the never-changing order of things;
+    the Source of all honor; the Son of the Sultan of Sultans, under
+    whose feet we are dust, whose awful shadow protects us; Abdul
+    Hamid II., Son of Abdul Medjid, whose residence is in Paradise;
+    our glorious Lord, to whose sacred body be given health, and
+    strength, and endless days; whom Allah keeps in his palace, and on
+    his throne with joy and glory, forever. Amen."
+
+
+  [Illustration: PRIMITIVE WEAVING.]
+
+This is not the flattery of a cringing subordinate, for the same spirit is
+revealed in an address by the Sultan himself to his Grand Vizir:
+
+
+    "Most honored Vizir; Maintainer of the good order of the World;
+    Director of public affairs with wisdom and judgment; Accomplisher
+    of the important transactions of mankind with intelligence and
+    good sense; Consolidator of the edifice of Empire and of Glory;
+    endowed by the Most High with abundant gifts; and 'Monshir,' at
+    this time, of my Gate of Felicity; my Vizir Mehmed Pasha, may God
+    be pleased to preserve him long in exalted dignity."
+
+
+Though the Turks cannot be called lazy, yet they like to take their time.
+Patience, they say, belongs to God; hurry, to the devil. Nowhere is this
+so well illustrated as in the manner of shopping in Turkey. This was
+brought particularly to our notice when we visited the Sivas bazaars to
+examine some inlaid silverware, for which the place is celebrated. The
+customer stands in the street inspecting the articles on exhibition; the
+merchant sits on his heels on the booth floor. If the customer is of some
+position in life, he climbs up and sits down on a level with the merchant.
+If he is a foreigner, the merchant is quite deferential. A merchant is not
+a merchant at all, but a host entertaining a guest. Coffee is served; then
+a cigarette rolled up and handed to the "guest," while the various social
+and other local topics are freely discussed. After coffee and smoking the
+question of purchase is gradually approached; not abruptly, as that would
+involve a loss of dignity; but circumspectly, as if the buying of anything
+were a mere afterthought. Maybe, after half an hour, the customer has
+indicated what he wants, and after discussing the quality of the goods,
+the customer asks the price in an off-hand way, as though he were not
+particularly interested. The merchant replies, "Oh, whatever your highness
+pleases," or, "I shall be proud if your highness will do me the honor to
+accept it as a gift." This means nothing whatever, and is merely the
+introduction to the haggling which is sure to follow. The seller, with
+silken manners and brazen countenance, will always name a price four times
+as large as it should be. Then the real business begins. The buyer offers
+one half or one fourth of what he finally expects to pay; and a war of
+words, in a blustering tone, leads up to the close of this every-day
+farce.
+
+The superstition of the Turks is nowhere so apparent as in their fear of
+the "evil eye." Jugs placed around the edge of the roof, or an old shoe
+filled with garlic and blue beets (blue glass balls or rings) are a sure
+guard against this illusion. Whenever a pretty child is playing upon the
+street the passers-by will say: "Oh, what an ugly child!" for fear of
+inciting the evil spirit against its beauty. The peasant classes in Turkey
+are of course the most superstitious because they are the most ignorant.
+They have no education whatever, and can neither read nor write. Stamboul
+is the only great city of which they know. Paris is a term signifying the
+whole outside world. An American missionary was once asked: "In what part
+of Paris is America?" Yet it can be said that they are generally honest,
+and always patient. They earn from about six to eight cents a day. This
+will furnish them with ekmek and pilaff, and that is all they expect. They
+eat meat only on feast-days, and then only mutton. The tax-gatherer is
+their only grievance; they look upon him as a necessary evil. They have no
+idea of being ground down under the oppressor's iron heel. Yet they are
+happy because they are contented, and have no envy. The poorer, the more
+ignorant, a Turk is, the better he seems to be. As he gets money and
+power, and becomes "contaminated" by western civilization, he
+deteriorates. A resident of twenty years' experience said: "In the lowest
+classes I have sometimes found truth, honesty, and gratitude; in the
+middle classes, seldom; in the highest, never." The corruptibility of the
+Turkish official is almost proverbial; but such is to be expected in the
+land where "the public treasury" is regarded as a "sea," and "who does not
+drink of it, as a pig." Peculation and malversation are fully expected in
+the public official. They are necessary evils--_adet_ (custom) has made
+them so. Offices are sold to the highest bidder. The Turkish official is
+one of the politest and most agreeable of men. He is profuse in his
+compliments, but he has no conscience as to bribes, and little regard for
+virtue as its own reward. We are glad to be able to record a brilliant,
+though perhaps theoretical, exception to this general rule. At
+Koch-Hissar, on our way from Sivas to Kara Hissar, a delay was caused by a
+rather serious break in one of our bicycles. In the interval we were the
+invited guests of a district kadi, a venerable-looking and genial old
+gentleman whose acquaintance we had made in an official visit on the
+previous day, as he was then the acting _caimacam_ (mayor). His house was
+situated in a neighboring valley in the shadow of a towering bluff. We
+were ushered into the _selamluek_, or guest apartment, in company with an
+Armenian friend who had been educated as a doctor in America, and who had
+consented to act as interpreter for the occasion.
+
+The kadi entered with a smile on his countenance, and made the usual
+picturesque form of salutation by describing the figure 3 with his right
+hand from the floor to his forehead. Perhaps it was because he wanted to
+be polite that he said he had enjoyed our company on the previous day, and
+had determined, if possible, to have a more extended conversation. With
+the usual coffee and cigarettes, the kadi became informal and chatty. He
+was evidently a firm believer in predestination, as he remarked that God
+had foreordained our trip to that country, even the food we were to eat,
+and the invention of the extraordinary "cart" on which we were to ride.
+The idea of such a journey, in such a peculiar way, was not to be
+accredited to the ingenuity of man. There was a purpose in it all. When we
+ventured to thank him for his hospitality toward two strangers, and even
+foreigners, he said that this world occupied so small a space in God's
+dominion, that we could well afford to be brothers, one to another, in
+spite of our individual beliefs and opinions. "We may have different
+religious beliefs," said he, "but we all belong to the same great father
+of humanity; just as children of different complexions, dispositions, and
+intellects may belong to one common parent. We should exercise reason
+always, and have charity for other people's opinions."
+
+From charity the conversation naturally turned to justice. We were much
+interested in his opinion on this subject, as that of a Turkish judge, and
+rather high official. "Justice," said he, "should be administered to the
+humblest person; though a king should be the offending party, all alike
+must yield to the sacred law of justice. We must account to God for our
+acts, and not to men."
+
+The regular route from Sivas to Erzerum passes through Erzinjan. From
+this, however, we diverged at Zara, in order to visit the city of Kara
+Hissar, and the neighboring Lidjissy mines, which had been pioneered by
+the Genoese explorers, and were now being worked by a party of Englishmen.
+This divergence on to unbeaten paths was made at a very inopportune
+season; for the rainy spell set in, which lasted, with scarcely any
+intermission, for over a fortnight. At the base of Kosse Dagh, which
+stands upon the watershed between the two largest rivers of Asia Minor,
+the Kizil Irmak and Yeshil Irmak, our road was blocked by a mountain
+freshet, which at its height washed everything before it. We spent a day
+and night on its bank, in a primitive flour-mill, which was so far removed
+from domestic life that we had to send three miles up in the mountains to
+get something to eat. The Yeshil Irmak, which we crossed just before
+reaching Kara Hissar, was above our shoulders as we waded through, holding
+our bicycles and baggage over our heads; while the swift current rolled
+the small boulders against us, and almost knocked us off our feet. There
+were no bridges in this part of the country. With horses and wagons the
+rivers were usually fordable; and what more would you want? With the Turk,
+as with all Asiatics, it is not a question of what is better, but what
+will do. Long before we reached a stream, the inhabitants of a certain
+town or village would gather round, and with troubled countenances say,
+"Christian gentlemen--there is no bridge," pointing to the river beyond,
+and graphically describing that it was over our horses' heads. That would
+settle it, they thought; it never occurred to them that a "Christian
+gentleman" could take off his clothes and wade. Sometimes, as we walked
+along in the mud, the wheels of our bicycles would become so clogged that
+we could not even push them before us. In such a case we would take the
+nearest shelter, whatever it might be. The night before reaching Kara
+Hissar, we entered an abandoned stable, from which everything had fled
+except the fleas. Another night was spent in the pine-forests just on the
+border between Asia Minor and Armenia, which were said to be the haunts of
+the border robbers. Our surroundings could not be relieved by a fire for
+fear of attracting their attention.
+
+  [Illustration: A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR.]
+
+When at last we reached the Trebizond-Erzerum highway at Baiboot, the
+contrast was so great that the scaling of Kop Dagh, on its comparatively
+smooth surface, was a mere breakfast spell. From here we looked down for
+the first time into the valley of the historic Euphrates, and a few hours
+later we were skimming over its bottom lands toward the embattled heights
+of Erzerum.
+
+As we neared the city, some Turkish peasants in the fields caught sight of
+us, and shouted to their companions: "Russians! Russians! There they are!
+Two of them!" This was not the first time we had been taken for the
+subjects of the Czar; the whole country seemed to be in dread of them.
+Erzerum is the capital of that district which Russia will no doubt demand,
+if the stipulated war indemnity is not paid.
+
+The entrance into the city was made to twist and turn among the ramparts,
+so as to avoid a rush in case of an attack. But this was no proof against
+a surprise in the case of the noiseless wheel. In we dashed with a roaring
+wind, past the affrighted guards, and were fifty yards away before they
+could collect their scattered senses. Then suddenly it dawned upon them
+that we were human beings, and foreigners besides--perhaps even the dreaded
+Russian spies. They took after us at full speed, but it was too late.
+Before they reached us we were in the house of the commandant pasha, the
+military governor, to whom we had a letter of introduction from our consul
+at Sivas. That gentleman we found extremely good-natured; he laughed
+heartily at our escapade with the guards. Nothing would do but we must
+visit the Vali, the civil governor, who was also a pasha of considerable
+reputation and influence.
+
+  [Illustration: A VILLAGE SCENE.]
+
+We had intended, but not so soon, to pay an official visit to the Vali to
+present our letter from the Grand Vizir, and to ask his permission to
+proceed to Bayazid, whence we had planned to attempt the ascent of Mount
+Ararat, an experience which will be described in the next chapter. A few
+days before, we heard, a similar application had been made by an English
+traveler from Bagdad, but owing to certain suspicions the permission was
+refused. It was with no little concern, therefore, that we approached the
+Vali's private office in company with his French interpreter.
+Circumstances augured ill at the very start. The Vali was evidently in a
+bad humor, for we overheard him storming in a high key at some one in the
+room with him. As we passed under the heavy matted curtains the two
+attendants who were holding them up cast a rather horrified glance at our
+dusty shoes and unconventional costume. The Vali was sitting in a large
+arm-chair in front of a very small desk, placed at the far end of a
+vacant-looking room. After the usual salaams, he motioned to a seat on the
+divan, and proceeded at once to examine our credentials while we sipped at
+our coffee, and whiffed the small cigarettes which were immediately
+served. This furnished the Vali an opportunity to regain his usual
+composure. He was evidently an autocrat of the severest type; if we
+pleased him, it would be all right; if we did not, it would be all wrong.
+We showed him everything we had, from our Chinese passport to the little
+photographic camera, and related some of the most amusing incidents of our
+journey through his country. From the numerous questions he asked we felt
+certain of his genuine interest, and were more than pleased to see an
+occasional broad smile on his countenance. "Well," said he, as we rose to
+take leave, "your passports will be ready any time after to-morrow; in the
+mean time I shall be pleased to have your horses quartered and fed at
+government expense." This was a big joke for a Turk, and assured us of his
+good-will.
+
+A bicycle exhibition which the Vali had requested was given the morning of
+our departure for Bayazid, on a level stretch of road just outside the
+city. Several missionaries and members of the consulates had gone out in
+carriages, and formed a little group by themselves. We rode up with the
+"stars and stripes" and "star and crescent" fluttering side by side from
+the handle-bars. It was always our custom, especially on diplomatic
+occasions, to have a little flag of the country associated with that of
+our own. This little arrangement evoked a smile from the Vali, who, when
+the exhibition was finished, stepped forward and said, "I am satisfied, I
+am pleased." His richly caparisoned white charger was now brought up.
+Leaping into the saddle, he waved us good-by, and moved away with his
+suite toward the city. We ourselves remained for a few moments to bid
+good-by to our hospitable friends, and then, once more, continued our
+journey toward the east.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    II
+
+
+                        THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT
+
+
+According to tradition, Mount Ararat is the scene of two of the most
+important events in the history of the human race. In the sacred land of
+Eden, which Armenian legend places at its base, the first of human life
+was born; and on its solitary peak the last of human life was saved from
+an all-destroying flood. The remarkable geographical position of this
+mountain seems to justify the Armenian view that it is the center of the
+world. It is on the longest line drawn through the Old World from the Cape
+of Good Hope to Bering Strait; it is also on the line of the great deserts
+and inland seas stretching from Gibraltar to Lake Baikal in Siberia--a line
+of continuous depressions; it is equidistant from the Black and Caspian
+Seas and the Mesopotamian plain, which three depressions are now watered
+by three distinct river-systems emanating from Ararat's immediate
+vicinity. No other region has seen or heard so much of the story of
+mankind. In its grim presence empires have come and gone; cities have
+risen and fallen; human life has soared up on the wings of hope, and
+dashed against the rocks of despair.
+
+To the eye Ararat presents a gently inclined slope of sand and ashes
+rising into a belt of green, another zone of black volcanic rocks streaked
+with snow-beds, and then a glittering crest of silver. From the burning
+desert at its base to the icy pinnacle above, it rises through a vertical
+distance of 13,000 feet. There are but few peaks in the world that rise so
+high (17,250 feet above sea-level) from so low a plain (2000 feet on the
+Russian, and 4000 feet on the Turkish, side), and which, therefore,
+present so grand a spectacle. Unlike many of the world's mountains, it
+stands alone. Little Ararat (12,840 feet above sea-level), and the other
+still smaller heights that dot the plain, only serve as a standard by
+which to measure Ararat's immensity and grandeur.
+
+Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of three great
+empires. On its conical peak converge the dominions of the Czar, the
+Sultan, and the Shah. The Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat
+along the high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through the
+peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the northwest, then
+turns sharply to the west. On the Sardarbulakh pass, between Great and
+Little Ararat, is stationed a handful of Russian Cossacks to remind
+lawless tribes of the guardianship of the "White Sultan."
+
+The two Ararats together form an elliptical mass, about twenty-five miles
+in length, running northwest and southeast, and about half that in width.
+Out of this massive base rise the two Ararat peaks, their bases being
+contiguous up to 8800 feet and their tops about seven miles apart. Little
+Ararat is an almost perfect truncated cone, while Great Ararat is more of
+a broad-shouldered dome supported by strong, rough-ribbed buttresses. The
+isolated position of Ararat, its structure of igneous rocks, the presence
+of small craters and immense volcanic fissures on its slopes, and the
+scoriae and ashes on the surrounding plain, establish beyond a doubt its
+volcanic origin. But according to the upheaval theory of the eminent
+geologist, Hermann Abich, who was among the few to make the ascent of the
+mountain, there never was a great central crater in either Great or Little
+Ararat. Certain it is that no craters or signs of craters now exist on the
+summit of either mountain. But Mr. James Bryce, who made the last ascent,
+in 1876, seems to think that there is no sufficient reason why craters
+could not have previously existed, and been filled up by their own
+irruptions. There is no record of any irruption in historical times. The
+only thing approaching it was the earthquake which shook the mountain in
+1840, accompanied by subterranean rumblings, and destructive blasts of
+wind. The Tatar village of Arghuri and a Kurdish encampment on the
+northeast slope were entirely destroyed by the precipitated rocks. Not a
+man was left to tell the story. Mr. Bryce and others have spoken of the
+astonishing height of the snow-line on Mount Ararat, which is placed at
+14,000 feet; while in the Alps it is only about 9000 feet, and in the
+Caucasus on an average 11,000 feet, although they lie in a very little
+higher latitude. They assign, as a reason for this, the exceptionally dry
+region in which Ararat is situated. Mr. Bryce ascended the mountain on
+September 12, when the snow-line was at its very highest, the first large
+snow-bed he encountered being at 12,000 feet. Our own ascent being made as
+early as July 4,--in fact, the earliest ever recorded,--we found some snow
+as low as 8000 feet, and large beds at 10,500 feet. The top of Little
+Ararat was still at that time streaked with snow, but not covered. With so
+many extensive snow-beds, one would naturally expect to find copious
+brooks and streams flowing down the mountain into the plain; but owing to
+the porous and dry nature of the soil, the water is entirely lost before
+reaching the base of the mountain. Even as early as July we saw no stream
+below 6000 feet, and even above this height the mountain freshets
+frequently flowed far beneath the surface under the loosely packed rocks,
+bidding defiance to our efforts to reach them. Notwithstanding the
+scarcity of snow-freshets, there is a middle zone on Mount Ararat,
+extending from about 5000 feet to 9000 feet elevation, which is covered
+with good pasturage, kept green by heavy dews and frequent showers. The
+hot air begins to rise from the desert plain as the morning sun peeps over
+the horizon, and continues through the day; this warm current, striking
+against the snow-covered summit, is condensed into clouds and moisture. In
+consequence, the top of Ararat is usually--during the summer months, at
+least--obscured by clouds from some time after dawn until sunset. On the
+last day of our ascent, however, we were particularly fortunate in having
+a clear summit until 1:15 in the afternoon.
+
+Among the crags of the upper slope are found only a few specimens of the
+wild goat and sheep, and, lower down, the fox, wolf, and lynx. The bird
+and insect life is very scanty, but lizards and scorpions, especially on
+the lowest slopes, are abundant. The rich pasturage of Ararat's middle
+zone attracts pastoral Kurdish tribes. These nomadic shepherds, a few
+Tatars at New Arghuri, and a camp of Russian Cossacks at the well of
+Sardarbulakh, are the only human beings to disturb the quiet solitude of
+this grandest of nature's sanctuaries.
+
+The first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat was in 1829, by Dr. Frederick
+Parrot, a Russo-German professor in the University of Dorpat. He reached
+the summit with a party of three Armenians and two Russian soldiers, after
+two unsuccessful attempts. His ascent, however, was doubted, not only by
+the people in the neighborhood, but by many men of science and position in
+the Russian empire, notwithstanding his clear account, which has been
+confirmed by subsequent observers, and in spite of the testimony of the
+two Russian soldiers who had gone with him.(1) Two of the Armenians who
+reached the summit with him declared that they had gone to a great height,
+but at the point where they had left off had seen much higher tops rising
+around them. This, thereupon, became the opinion of the whole country.
+After Antonomoff, in 1834, Herr Abich, the geologist, made his valuable
+ascent in 1845. He reached the eastern summit, which is only a few feet
+lower than the western, and only a few minutes' walk from it, but was
+obliged to return at once on account of the threatening weather. When he
+produced his companions as witnesses before the authorities at Erivan,
+they turned against him, and solemnly swore that at the point which they
+had reached a higher peak stood between them and the western horizon. This
+strengthened the Armenian belief in the inaccessibility of Ararat, which
+was not dissipated when the Russian military engineer, General Chodzko,
+and an English party made the ascent in 1856. Nor were their prejudiced
+minds convinced by the ascent of Mr. Bryce twenty years later, in 1876.
+Two days after his ascent, that gentleman paid a visit to the Armenian
+monastery at Echmiadzin, and was presented to the archimandrite as the
+Englishman who had just ascended to the top of "Masis." "No," said the
+ecclesiastical dignitary; "that cannot be. No one has ever been there. It
+is impossible." Mr. Bryce himself says: "I am persuaded that there is not
+a person living within sight of Ararat, unless it be some exceptionally
+educated Russian official at Erivan, who believes that any human foot,
+since Father Noah's, has trodden that sacred summit. So much stronger is
+faith than sight; or rather so much stronger is prejudice than evidence."
+
+We had expected, on our arrival in Bayazid, to find in waiting for us a
+Mr. Richardson, an American missionary from Erzerum. Two years later, on
+our arrival home, we received a letter explaining that on his way from Van
+he had been captured by Kurdish brigands, and held a prisoner until
+released through the intervention of the British consul at Erzerum. It was
+some such fate as this that was predicted for us, should we ever attempt
+the ascent of Mount Ararat through the lawless Kurdish tribes upon its
+slopes. Our first duty, therefore, was to see the mutessarif of Bayazid,
+to whom we bore a letter from the Grand Vizir of Turkey, in order to
+ascertain what protection and assistance he would be willing to give us.
+We found with him a Circassian who belonged to the Russian camp at
+Sardarbulakh, on the Ararat pass, and who had accompanied General Chodzko
+on his ascent of the mountain in 1856. Both he and the mutessarif thought
+an ascent so early in the year was impossible; that we ought not to think
+of such a thing until two months later. It was now six weeks earlier than
+the time of General Chodzko's ascent (August 11 to 18), then the earliest
+on record. They both strongly recommended the northwestern slope as being
+more gradual. This is the one that Parrot ascended in 1829, and where
+Abich was repulsed on his third attempt. Though entirely inexperienced in
+mountain-climbing, we ourselves thought that the southeast slope, the one
+taken by General Chodzko, the English party, and Mr. Bryce, was far more
+feasible for a small party. One thing, however, the mutessarif was
+determined upon: we must not approach the mountain without an escort of
+Turkish zaptiehs, as an emblem of government protection. Besides, he would
+send for the chief of the Ararat Kurds, and endeavor to arrange with him
+for our safety and guidance up the mountain. As we emerged into the
+streets an Armenian professor gravely shook his head. "Ah," said he, "you
+will never do it." Then dropping his voice, he told us that those other
+ascents were all fictitious; that the summit of "Masis" had never yet been
+reached except by Noah; and that we were about to attempt what was an
+utter impossibility.
+
+In Bayazid we could not procure even proper wood for alpenstocks. Willow
+branches, two inches thick, very dry and brittle, were the best we could
+obtain. Light as this wood is, the alpenstocks weighed at least seven
+pounds apiece when the iron hooks and points were riveted on at the ends
+by the native blacksmith, for whom we cut paper patterns, of the exact
+size, for everything we wanted. We next had large nails driven into the
+souls of our shoes by a local shoemaker, who made them for us by hand out
+of an old English file, and who wanted to pull them all out again because
+we would not pay him the exorbitant price he demanded. In buying
+provisions for the expedition, we spent three hours among the half
+dilapidated bazaars of the town, which have never been repaired since the
+disastrous Russian bombardment. The most difficult task, perhaps, in our
+work of preparation was to strike a bargain with an Armenian muleteer to
+carry our food and baggage up the mountain on his two little donkeys.
+
+  [Illustration: WHERE THE "ZAPTIEHS" WERE NOT A NUISANCE.]
+
+Evening came, and no word from either the mutessarif or the Kurdish chief.
+Although we were extremely anxious to set off on the expedition before bad
+weather set in, we must not be in a hurry, for the military governor of
+Karakillissa was now the guest of the mutessarif, and it would be an
+interference with his social duties to try to see him until after his
+guest had departed. On the morrow we were sitting in our small dingy room
+after dinner, when a cavalcade hastened up to our inn, and a few minutes
+later we were surprised to hear ourselves addressed in our native tongue.
+Before us stood a dark-complexioned young man, and at his side a small
+wiry old gentleman, who proved to be a native Austrian Tyrolese, who
+followed the profession of an artist in Paris. He was now making his way
+to Erivan, in Russia, on a sight-seeing tour from Trebizond. His companion
+was a Greek from Salonica, who had lived for several years in London,
+whence he had departed not many weeks before, for Teheran, Persia. These
+two travelers had met in Constantinople, and the young Greek, who could
+speak English, Greek, and Turkish, had been acting as interpreter for the
+artist. They had heard of the "devil's carts" when in Van, and had made
+straight for our quarters on their arrival in Bayazid. At this point they
+were to separate. When we learned that the old gentleman (Ignaz Raffl by
+name) was a member of an Alpine club and an experienced mountain-climber,
+we urged him to join in the ascent. Though his shoulders were bent by the
+cares and troubles of sixty-three years, we finally induced him to
+accompany our party. Kantsa, the Greek, reluctantly agreed to do likewise,
+and proved to be an excellent interpreter, but a poor climber.
+
+The following morning we paid the mutessarif a second visit, with Kantsa
+as interpreter. Inasmuch as the Kurdish chief had not arrived, the
+mutessarif said he would make us bearers of a letter to him. Two zaptiehs
+were to accompany us in the morning, while others were to go ahead and
+announce our approach.
+
+At ten minutes of eleven, on the morning of the second of July, our small
+cavalcade, with the two exasperating donkeys at the head laden with mats,
+bags of provisions, extra clothing, alpenstocks, spiked shoes, and coils
+of stout rope, filed down the streets of Bayazid, followed by a curious
+rabble. As Bayazid lies hidden behind a projecting spur of the mountains
+we could obtain no view of the peak itself until we had tramped some
+distance out on the plain. Its huge giant mass broke upon us all at once.
+We stopped and looked--and looked again. No mountain-peak we have seen,
+though several have been higher, has ever inspired the feeling which
+filled us when we looked for the first time upon towering Ararat. We had
+not proceeded far before we descried a party of Kurdish horsemen
+approaching from the mountain. Our zaptiehs advanced rather cautiously to
+meet them, with rifles thrown across the pommels of their saddles. After a
+rather mysterious parley, our zaptiehs signaled that all was well. On
+coming up, they reported that these horsemen belonged to the party that
+was friendly to the Turkish government. The Kurds, they said, were at this
+time divided among themselves, a portion of them having adopted
+conciliatory measures with the government, and the rest holding aloof. But
+we rather considered their little performance as a scheme to extort a
+little more baksheesh for their necessary presence.
+
+  [Illustration: READY FOR THE START.]
+
+The plain we were now on was drained by a tributary of the Aras River, a
+small stream reached after two hours' steady tramping. From the bordering
+hillocks we emerged in a short time upon another vast plateau, which
+stretched far away in a gentle rise to the base of the mountain itself.
+Near by we discovered a lone willow-tree, the only one in the whole sweep
+of our vision, under the gracious foliage of which sat a band of Kurds,
+retired from the heat of the afternoon sun, their horses feeding on some
+swamp grass near at hand. Attracted by this sign of water, we drew near,
+and found a copious spring. A few words from the zaptiehs, who had
+advanced among them, seemed to put the Kurds at their ease, though they
+did not by any means appease their curiosity. They invited us to partake
+of their frugal lunch of ekmek and goat's-milk cheese. Our clothes and
+baggage were discussed piece by piece, with loud expressions of merriment,
+until one of us arose, and, stealing behind the group, snapped the camera.
+"What was that?" said a burly member of the group, as he looked round with
+scowling face at his companions. "Yes; what was that?" they echoed, and
+then made a rush for the manipulator of the black box, which they
+evidently took for some instrument of the black art. The photographer
+stood serenely innocent, and winked at the zaptieh to give the proper
+explanation. He was equal to the occasion. "That," said he, "is an
+instrument for taking time by the sun." At this the box went the round,
+each one gazing intently into the lens, then scratching his head, and
+casting a bewildered look at his nearest neighbor. We noticed that every
+one about us was armed with knife, revolver, and Martini rifle, a belt of
+cartridges surrounding his waist. It occurred to us that Turkey was
+adopting a rather poor method of clipping the wings of these mountain
+birds, by selling them the very best equipments for war. Legally, none but
+government guards are permitted to carry arms, and yet both guns and
+ammunition are sold in the bazaars of almost every city of the Turkish
+dominions. The existence of these people, in their wild, semi-independent
+state, shows not so much the power of the Kurds as the weakness of the
+Turkish government, which desires to use a people of so fierce a
+reputation for the suppression of its other subjects. After half an hour's
+rest, we prepared to decamp, and so did our Kurdish companions. They were
+soon in their saddles, and galloping away in front of us, with their arms
+clanking, and glittering in the afternoon sunlight.
+
+At the spring we had turned off the trail that led over the Sardarbulakh
+pass into Russia, and were now following a horse-path which winds up to
+the Kurdish encampments on the southern slope of the mountain. The plain
+was strewn with sand and rocks, with here and there a bunch of tough, wiry
+grass about a foot and a half high, which, though early in the year, was
+partly dry. It would have been hot work except for the rain of the day
+before and a strong southeast wind. As it was, our feet were blistered and
+bruised, the thin leather sandals worn at the outset offering very poor
+protection. The atmosphere being dry, though not excessively hot, we soon
+began to suffer from thirst. Although we searched diligently for water, we
+did not find it till after two hours more of constant marching, when at a
+height of about 6000 feet, fifty yards from the path, we discerned a
+picturesque cascade of sparkling, cold mountain water. Even the old
+gentleman, Raffl, joined heartily in the gaiety induced by this clear,
+cold water from Ararat's melting snows.
+
+  [Illustration: PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING.]
+
+Our ascent for two and a half hours longer was through a luxuriant
+vegetation of flowers, grasses, and weeds, which grew more and more scanty
+as we advanced. Prominent among the specimens were the wild pink, poppy,
+and rose. One small fragrant herb, that was the most abundant of all, we
+were told was used by the Kurds for making tea. All these filled the
+evening air with perfume as we trudged along, passing now and then a
+Kurdish lad, with his flock of sheep and goats feeding on the
+mountain-grass, which was here much more luxuriant than below. Looking
+backward, we saw that we were higher than the precipitous cliffs which
+overtower the town of Bayazid, and which are perhaps from 1500 to 2000
+feet above the lowest part of the plain. The view over the plateau was now
+grand. Though we were all fatigued by the day's work, the cool,
+moisture-laden air of evening revived our flagging spirits. We forged
+ahead with nimble step, joking, and singing a variety of national airs.
+The French "Marseillaise," in which the old gentleman heartily joined,
+echoed and reechoed among the rocks, and caused the shepherd lads and
+their flocks to crane their heads in wonderment. Even the Armenian
+muleteer so far overcame his fear of the Kurdish robbers as to indulge in
+one of his accustomed funeral dirges; but it stopped short, never to go
+again, when we came in sight of the Kurdish encampment. The poor fellow
+instinctively grabbed his donkeys about their necks, as though they were
+about to plunge over a precipice. The zaptiehs dashed ahead with the
+mutessarif's letter to the Kurdish chief. We followed slowly on foot,
+while the Armenian and his two pets kept at a respectful distance in the
+rear.
+
+The disk of the sun had already touched the western horizon when we came
+to the black tents of the Kurdish encampment, which at this time of the
+day presented a rather busy scene. The women seemed to be doing all the
+work, while their lords sat round on their haunches. Some of the women
+were engaged in milking the sheep and goats in an inclosure. Others were
+busy making butter in a churn which was nothing more than a skin vessel
+three feet long, of the shape of a Brazil-nut, suspended from a rude
+tripod; this they swung to and fro to the tune of a weird Kurdish song.
+Behind one of the tents, on a primitive weaving-machine, some of them were
+making tent-roofing and matting. Others still were walking about with a
+ball of wool in one hand and a distaff in the other, spinning yarn. The
+flocks stood round about, bleating and lowing, or chewing their cud in
+quiet contentment. All seemed very domestic and peaceful except the
+Kurdish dogs, which set upon us with loud, fierce growls and gnashing
+teeth.
+
+Not so was it with the Kurdish chief, who by this time had finished
+reading the mutessarif's message, and who now advanced from his tent with
+salaams of welcome. As he stood before us in the glowing sunset, he was a
+rather tall, but well-proportioned man, with black eyes and dark mustache,
+contrasting well with his brown-tanned complexion. Upon his face was the
+stamp of a rather wild and retiring character, although treachery and
+deceit were by no means wanting. He wore a headgear that was something
+between a hat and a turban, and over his baggy Turkish trousers hung a
+long Persian coat of bright-colored, large-figured cloth, bound at the
+waist by a belt of cartridges. Across the shoulders was slung a
+breech-loading Martini rifle, and from his neck dangled a heavy gold
+chain, which was probably the spoil of some predatory expedition. A quiet
+dignity sat on Ismail Deverish's stalwart form.
+
+  [Illustration: THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT.]
+
+It was with no little pleasure that we accepted his invitation to a cup of
+tea. After our walk of nineteen miles, in which we had ascended from 3000
+to 7000 feet, we were in fit condition to appreciate a rest. That Kurdish
+tent, as far as we were concerned, was a veritable palace, although we
+were almost blinded by the smoke from the green pine-branches on the
+smoldering fire. We said that the chief invited us to a cup of tea: so he
+did--but we provided the tea; and that, too, not only for our own party,
+but for half a dozen of the chief's personal friends. There being only two
+glasses in the camp, we of course had to wait until our Kurdish
+acquaintances had quenched their burning thirst. In thoughtful mood we
+gazed around through the evening twilight. Far away on the western slope
+we could see some Kurdish women plodding along under heavy burdens of
+pine-branches like those that were now fumigating our eyes and nostrils.
+Across the hills the Kurdish shepherds were driving home their herds and
+flocks to the tinkling of bells. All this, to us, was deeply impressive.
+Such peaceful scenes, we thought, could never be the haunt of warlike
+robbers. The flocks at last came home; the shouts of the shepherds ceased;
+darkness fell; and all was quiet.
+
+One by one the lights in the tents broke out, like the stars above. As the
+darkness deepened, they shone more and more brightly across the
+amphitheater of the encampment. The tent in which we were now sitting was
+oblong in shape, covered with a mixture of goats' and sheep's wool,
+carded, spun, and woven by the Kurdish women. This tenting was all of a
+dark brown or black color. The various strips were badly joined together,
+allowing the snow and rain, during the stormy night that followed, to
+penetrate plentifully. A wickerwork fencing, about three feet high, made
+from the reeds gathered in the swamps of the Aras River, was stretched
+around the bottom of the tent to keep out the cattle as well as to afford
+some little protection from the elements. This same material, of the same
+width or height, was used to partition off the apartments of the women.
+Far from being veiled and shut up in harems, like their Turkish and
+Persian sisters, the Kurdish women come and go among the men, and talk and
+laugh as they please. The thinness and lowness of the partition walls did
+not disturb their astonishing equanimity. In their relations with the men
+the women are extremely free. During the evening we frequently found
+ourselves surrounded by a concourse of these mountain beauties, who would
+sit and stare at us with their black eyes, call attention to our personal
+oddities, and laugh among themselves. Now and then their jokes at our
+expense would produce hilarious laughter among the men. The dress of these
+women consisted of baggy trousers, better described in this country as
+"divided skirts," a bright-colored overskirt and tunic, and a little round
+cloth cap encircled with a band of red and black. Through the right lobe
+of the nose was hung a peculiar button-shaped ornament studded with
+precious stones. This picturesque costume well set off their rich olive
+complexions, and black eyes beneath dark-brown lashes.
+
+There were no signs of an approaching evening meal until we opened our
+provision-bag, and handed over certain articles of raw food to be cooked
+for us. No sooner were the viands intrusted to the care of our hosts, than
+two sets of pots and kettles made their appearance in the other
+compartments. In half an hour our host and friends proceeded to indulge
+their voracious appetites. When our own meal was brought to us some time
+after, we noticed that the fourteen eggs we had doled out had been reduced
+to six; and the other materials suffered a similar reduction, the whole
+thing being so patent as to make their attempt at innocence absurdly
+ludicrous. We thought, however, if Kurdish highway robbery took no worse
+form than this, we could well afford to be content. Supper over, we
+squatted round a slow-burning fire, on the thick felt mats which served as
+carpets, drank tea, and smoked the usual cigarettes. By the light of the
+glowing embers we could watch the faces about us, and catch their
+horrified glances when reference was made to our intended ascent of
+Ak-Dagh, the mysterious abode of the jinn. Before turning in for the
+night, we reconnoitered our situation. The lights in all the tents, save
+our own, were now extinguished. Not a sound was heard, except the heavy
+breathing of some of the slumbering animals about us, or the bark of a dog
+at some distant encampment. The huge dome of Ararat, though six to eight
+miles farther up the slope, seemed to be towering over us like some giant
+monster of another world. We could not see the summit, so far was it above
+the enveloping clouds. We returned to the tent to find that the zaptiehs
+had been given the best places and best covers to sleep in, and that we
+were expected to accommodate ourselves near the door, wrapped up in an old
+Kurdish carpet. Policy was evidently a better developed trait of Kurdish
+character than hospitality.
+
+Although we arose at four, seven o'clock saw us still at the encampment.
+Two hours vanished before our gentlemen zaptiehs condescended to rise from
+their peaceful slumbers; then a great deal of time was unnecessarily
+consumed in eating their special breakfast. We ourselves had to be content
+with ekmek and yaourt (blotting-paper bread and curdled milk). This over,
+they concluded not to go on without sandals to take the place of their
+heavy military boots, as at this point their horses would have to be
+discarded. After we had employed a Kurd to make these for them, they
+declared they were afraid to proceed without the company of ten Kurds
+armed to the teeth. We knew that this was only a scheme on the part of the
+Kurds, with whom the zaptiehs were in league, to extort money from us. We
+still kept cool, and only casually insinuated that we did not have enough
+money to pay for so large a party. This announcement worked like a charm.
+The interest the Kurds had up to this time taken in our venture died away
+at once. Even the three Kurds who, as requested in the message of the
+mutessarif, were to accompany us up the mountain to the snow-line, refused
+absolutely to go. The mention of the mutessarif's name awakened only a
+sneer. We had also relied upon the Kurds for blankets, as we had been
+advised to do by our friends in Bayazid. Those we had already hired they
+now snatched from the donkeys standing before the tent. All this time our
+tall, gaunt, meek-looking muleteer had stood silent. Now his turn had
+come. How far was he to go with his donkeys?--he didn't think it possible
+for him to go much beyond this point. Patience now ceased to be a virtue.
+We cut off discussion at once; told the muleteer he would either go on, or
+lose what he had already earned; and informed the zaptiehs that whatever
+they did would be reported to the mutessarif on our return. Under this
+rather forcible persuasion, they stood not on the order of their going,
+but sullenly followed our little procession out of camp before the
+crestfallen Kurds.
+
+In the absence of guides we were thrown upon our own resources. Far from
+being an assistance, our zaptiehs proved a nuisance. They would carry
+nothing, not even the food they were to eat, and were absolutely ignorant
+of the country we were to traverse. From our observations on the previous
+days, we had decided to strike out on a northeast course, over the gentle
+slope, until we struck the rocky ridges on the southeast buttress of the
+dome. On its projecting rocks, which extended nearer to the summit than
+those of any other part of the mountain, we could avoid the slippery,
+precipitous snow-beds that stretched far down the mountain at this time of
+the year.
+
+Immediately after leaving the encampment, the ascent became steeper and
+more difficult; the small volcanic stones of yesterday now increased to
+huge obstructing boulders, among which the donkeys with difficulty made
+their way. They frequently tipped their loads, or got wedged in between
+two unyielding walls. In the midst of our efforts to extricate them, we
+often wondered how Noah ever managed with the animals from the ark. Had
+these donkeys not been of a philosophical turn of mind, they might have
+offered forcible objections to the way we extricated them from their
+straightened circumstances. A remonstrance on our part for carelessness in
+driving brought from the muleteer a burst of Turkish profanity that made
+the rocks of Ararat resound with indignant echoes. The spirit of
+insubordination seemed to be increasing in direct ratio with the height of
+our ascent.
+
+We came now to a comparatively smooth, green slope, which led up to the
+highest Kurdish encampment met on the line of our ascent, about 7500 feet.
+When in sight of the black tents, the subject of Kurdish guides was again
+broached by the zaptiehs, and immediately they sat down to discuss the
+question. We ourselves were through with discussion, and fully determined
+to have nothing to do with a people who could do absolutely nothing for
+us. We stopped at the tents, and asked for milk. "Yes," they said; "we
+have some": but after waiting for ten minutes, we learned that the milk
+was still in the goats' possession, several hundred yards away among the
+rocks. It dawned upon us that this was only another trick of the zaptiehs
+to get a rest.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.]
+
+We pushed on the next 500 feet of the ascent without much trouble or
+controversy, the silence broken only by the muleteer, who took the _raki_
+bottle off the donkey's pack, and asked if he could take a drink. As we
+had only a limited supply, to be used to dilute the snow-water, we were
+obliged to refuse him.
+
+At 8000 feet we struck our first snowdrift, into which the donkeys sank up
+to their bodies. It required our united efforts to lift them out, and half
+carry them across. Then on we climbed till ten o'clock, to a point about
+9000 feet, where we stopped for lunch in a quiet mountain glen, by the
+side of a rippling mountain rill. This snow-water we drank with raki. The
+view in the mean time had been growing more and more extensive. The plain
+before us had lost nearly all its detail and color, and was merged into
+one vast whole. Though less picturesque, it was incomparably grander. Now
+we could see how, in ages past, the lava had burst out of the lateral
+fissures in the mountain, and flowed in huge streams for miles down the
+slope, and out on the plain below. These beds of lava were gradually
+broken up by the action of the elements, and now presented the appearance
+of ridges of broken volcanic rocks of the most varied and fantastic
+shapes.
+
+It was here that the muleteer showed evident signs of weakening, which
+later on developed into a total collapse. We had come to a broad
+snow-field where the donkeys stuck fast and rolled over helpless in the
+snow. Even after we had unstrapped their baggage and carried it over on
+our shoulders, they could make no headway. The muleteer gave up in
+despair, and refused even to help us carry our loads to the top of an
+adjoining hill, whither the zaptiehs had proceeded to wait for us. In
+consequence, Raffl and we were compelled to carry two donkey-loads of
+baggage for half a mile over the snow-beds and boulders, followed by the
+sulking muleteer, who had deserted his donkeys, rather than be left alone
+himself. On reaching the zaptiehs, we sat down to hold a council on the
+situation; but the clouds, which, during the day, had occasionally
+obscured the top of the mountain, now began to thicken, and it was not
+long before a shower compelled us to beat a hasty retreat to a neighboring
+ledge of rocks. The clouds that were rolling between us and the mountain
+summit seemed but a token of the storm of circumstances. One thing was
+certain, the muleteer could go no farther up the mountain, and yet he was
+mortally afraid to return alone to the Kurdish robbers. He sat down, and
+began to cry like a child. This predicament of their accomplice furnished
+the zaptiehs with a plausible excuse. They now absolutely refused to go
+any farther without him. Our interpreter, the Greek, again joined the
+majority; he was not going to risk the ascent without the Turkish guards,
+and besides, he had now come to the conclusion that we had not sufficient
+blankets to spend a night at so high an altitude. Disappointed, but not
+discouraged, we gazed at the silent old gentleman at our side. In his
+determined countenance we read his answer. Long shall we remember Ignaz
+Raffl as one of the pluckiest, most persevering of old men.
+
+  [Illustration: HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD.]
+
+There was now only one plan that could be pursued. Selecting from our
+supplies one small blanket, a felt mat, two long, stout ropes, enough food
+to last us two days, a bottle of cold tea, and a can of Turkish raki, we
+packed them into two bundles to strap on our backs. We then instructed the
+rest of the party to return to the Kurdish encampment and await our
+return. The sky was again clear at 2:30 P. M., when we bade good-by to our
+worthless comrades and resumed the ascent. We were now at a height of nine
+thousand feet, and it was our plan to camp at a point far enough up the
+mountain to enable us to complete the ascent on the following day, and
+return to the Kurdish encampment by nightfall. Beyond us was a region of
+snow and barren rocks, among which we still saw a small purple flower and
+bunches of lichens, which grew more rare as we advanced. Our course
+continued in a northeast direction, toward the main southeast ridge of the
+mountain. Sometimes we were floundering with our heavy loads in the deep
+snow-beds, or scrambling on hands and knees over the huge boulders of the
+rocky seams. Two hours and a half of climbing brought us to the crest of
+the main southeast ridge, about one thousand feet below the base of the
+precipitous dome. At this point our course changed from northeast to
+northwest, and continued so during the rest of the ascent. Little Ararat
+was now in full view. We could even distinguish upon its northwest side a
+deep-cut gorge, which was not visible before. Upon its smooth and perfect
+slopes remained only the tatters of its last winter's garments. We could
+also look far out over the Sardarbulakh ridge, which connects the two
+Ararats, and on which the Cossacks are encamped. It was to them that the
+mutessarif had desired us to go, but we had subsequently determined to
+make the ascent directly from the Turkish side.
+
+  [Illustration: LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW.]
+
+Following up this southeast ridge we came at 5:45 P. M. to a point about
+eleven thousand feet. Here the thermometer registered 39 deg. Fahrenheit, and
+was constantly falling. If we should continue on, the cold during the
+night, especially with our scanty clothing, would become intolerable; and
+then, too, we could scarcely find a spot level enough to sleep on. We
+therefore determined to stop here for the night, and to continue the
+ascent at dawn. Some high, rugged crags on the ridge above us attracted
+our attention as affording a comparatively protected lodging. Among these
+we spread our carpet, and piled stones in the intervening spaces to form a
+complete inclosure. Thus busily engaged, we failed for a time to realize
+the grandeur of the situation. Over the vast and misty panorama that
+spread out before us, the lingering rays of the setting sun shed a tinge
+of gold, which was communicated to the snowy beds around us. Behind the
+peak of Little Ararat a brilliant rainbow stretched in one grand archway
+above the weeping clouds. But this was only one turn of nature's
+kaleidoscope. The arch soon faded away, and the shadows lengthened and
+deepened across the plain, and mingled, till all was lost to view behind
+the falling curtains of the night. The Kurdish tents far down the slope,
+and the white curling smoke from their evening camp-fires, we could see no
+more; only the occasional bark of a dog was borne upward through the
+impenetrable darkness.
+
+Colder and colder grew the atmosphere. From 39 deg. the thermometer gradually
+fell to 36 deg., to 33 deg., and during the night dropped below freezing-point.
+The snow, which fell from the clouds just over our heads, covered our
+frugal supper-table, on which were placed a few hard-boiled eggs, some
+tough Turkish bread, cheese, and a bottle of tea mixed with raki. Ice-tea
+was no doubt a luxury at this time of the year, but not on Mount Ararat,
+at the height of eleven thousand feet, with the temperature at
+freezing-point. M. Raffl was as cheerful as could be expected under the
+circumstances. He expressed his delight at our progress thus far; and now
+that we were free from our "gentlemen" attendants, he considered our
+chances for success much brighter. We turned in together under our single
+blanket, with the old gentleman between us. He had put on every article of
+clothing, including gloves, hat, hood, cloak, and heavy shoes. For pillows
+we used the provision-bags and camera. The bottle of cold tea we buttoned
+up in our coats to prevent it from freezing. On both sides, and above us,
+lay the pure white snow; below us a huge abyss, into which the rocky ridge
+descended like a darkened stairway to the lower regions. The awful
+stillness was unbroken, save by the whistling of the wind among the rocks.
+Dark masses of clouds seemed to bear down upon us every now and then,
+opening up their trapdoors, and letting down a heavy fall of snow. The
+heat of our bodies melted the ice beneath us, and our clothes became
+saturated with ice-water. Although we were surrounded by snow and ice, we
+were suffering with a burning thirst. Since separating from our companions
+we had found no water whatever, while the single bottle of cold tea we had
+must be preserved for the morrow. Sleep, under such circumstances, and in
+our cramped position, was utterly impossible. At one o'clock the morning
+star peeped above the eastern horizon. This we watched hour after hour, as
+it rose in unrivaled beauty toward the zenith, until at last it began to
+fade away in the first gray streaks of the morning.
+
+  [Illustration: THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND
+  FEET.]
+
+By the light of a flickering candle we ate a hurried breakfast, fastened
+on our spiked shoes, and strapped to our backs a few indispensable
+articles, leaving the rest of our baggage at the camp until our return.
+Just at daybreak, 3:55 A. M., on the 4th of July, we started off on what
+proved to be the hardest day's work we had ever accomplished. We struck
+out at once across the broad snow-field to the second rock rib on the
+right, which seemed to lead up to the only line of rocks above. The
+surface of these large snow-beds had frozen during the night, so that we
+had to cut steps with our ice-picks to keep from slipping down their
+glassy surface. Up this ridge we slowly climbed for three weary hours,
+leaping from boulder to boulder, or dragging ourselves up their
+precipitous sides. The old gentleman halted frequently to rest, and showed
+evident signs of weariness. "It is hard; we must take it slowly," he would
+say (in German) whenever our impatience would get the better of our
+prudence. At seven o'clock we reached a point about 13,500 feet, beyond
+which there seemed to be nothing but the snow-covered slope, with only a
+few projecting rocks along the edge of a tremendous gorge which now broke
+upon our astonished gaze. Toward this we directed our course, and, an hour
+later, stood upon its very verge. Our venerable companion now looked up at
+the precipitous slope above us, where only some stray, projecting rocks
+were left to guide us through the wilderness of snow. "Boys," said he,
+despondently, "I cannot reach the top; I have not rested during the night,
+and I am now falling asleep on my feet; besides, I am very much fatigued."
+This came almost like a sob from a breaking heart. Although the old
+gentleman was opposed to the ascent in the first instance, his old Alpine
+spirit arose within him with all its former vigor when once he had started
+up the mountain slope; and now, when almost in sight of the very goal, his
+strength began to fail him. After much persuasion and encouragement, he
+finally said that if he could get half an hour's rest and sleep, he
+thought he would be able to continue. We then wrapped him up in his
+greatcoat, and dug out a comfortable bed in the snow, while one of us sat
+down, with back against him, to keep him from rolling down the
+mountain-side.
+
+  [Illustration: NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM.]
+
+We were now on the chasm's brink, looking down into its unfathomable
+depths. This gigantic rent, hundreds of feet in width and thousands in
+depth, indicates that northwest-southeast line along which the volcanic
+forces of Ararat have acted most powerfully. This fissure is perhaps the
+greatest with which the mountain is seamed, and out of which has
+undoubtedly been discharged a great portion of its lava. Starting from the
+base of the dome, it seemed to pierce the shifting clouds to a point about
+500 feet from the summit. This line is continued out into the plain in a
+series of small volcanoes the craters of which appear to be as perfect as
+though they had been in activity only yesterday. The solid red and yellow
+rocks which lined the sides of the great chasm projected above the
+opposite brink in jagged and appalling cliffs. The whole was incased in a
+mass of huge fantastic icicles, which, glittering in the sunlight, gave it
+the appearance of a natural crystal palace. No more fitting place than
+this could the fancy of the Kurds depict for the home of the terrible
+jinn; no better symbol of nature for the awful jaws of death.
+
+Our companion now awoke considerably refreshed, and the ascent was
+continued close to the chasm's brink. Here were the only rocks to be seen
+in the vast snow-bed around us. Cautiously we proceed, with cat-like
+tread, following directly in one another's footsteps, and holding on to
+our alpenstocks like grim death. A loosened rock would start at first
+slowly, gain momentum, and fairly fly. Striking against some projecting
+ledge, it would bound a hundred feet or more into the air, and then drop
+out of sight among the clouds below. Every few moments we would stop to
+rest; our knees were like lead, and the high altitude made breathing
+difficult. Now the trail of rocks led us within two feet of the chasm's
+edge; we approached it cautiously, probing well for a rock foundation, and
+gazing with dizzy heads into the abyss.
+
+The slope became steeper and steeper, until it abutted in an almost
+precipitous cliff coated with snow and glistening ice. There was no escape
+from it, for all around the snow-beds were too steep and slippery to
+venture an ascent upon them. Cutting steps with our ice-picks, and
+half-crawling, half-dragging ourselves, with the alpenstocks hooked into
+the rocks above, we scaled its height, and advanced to the next abutment.
+Now a cloud, as warm as exhausted steam, enveloped us in the midst of this
+ice and snow. When it cleared away, the sun was reflected with intenser
+brightness. Our faces were already smarting with blisters, and our dark
+glasses afforded but little protection to our aching eyes.
+
+At 11 A. M. we sat down on the snow to eat our last morsel of food. The
+cold chicken and bread tasted like sawdust, for we had no saliva with
+which to masticate them. Our single bottle of tea had given out, and we
+suffered with thirst for several hours. Again the word to start was given.
+We rose at once, but our stiffened legs quivered beneath us, and we leaned
+on our alpenstocks for support. Still we plodded on for two more weary
+hours, cutting our steps in the icy cliffs, or sinking to our thighs in
+the treacherous snow-beds. We could see that we were nearing the top of
+the great chasm, for the clouds, now entirely cleared away, left our view
+unobstructed. We could even descry the black Kurdish tents upon the
+northeast slope, and, far below, the Aras River, like a streak of silver,
+threading its way into the purple distance. The atmosphere about us grew
+colder, and we buttoned up our now too scanty garments. We must be nearing
+the top, we thought, and yet we were not certain, for a huge, precipitous
+cliff, just in front of us, cut off the view.
+
+"Slowly, slowly," feebly shouted the old gentleman, as we began the attack
+on its precipitous sides, now stopping to brush away the treacherous snow,
+or to cut some steps in the solid ice. We pushed and pulled one another
+almost to the top, and then, with one more desperate effort, we stood upon
+a vast and gradually sloping snow-bed. Down we plunged above our knees
+through the yielding surface, and staggered and fell with failing
+strength; then rose once more and plodded on, until at last we sank
+exhausted upon the top of Ararat.
+
+For a moment only we lay gasping for breath; then a full realization of
+our situation dawned upon us, and fanned the few faint sparks of
+enthusiasm that remained in our exhausted bodies. We unfurled upon an
+alpenstock the small silk American flag that we had brought from home, and
+for the first time the "stars and stripes" was given to the breeze on the
+Mountain of the Ark. Four shots fired from our revolvers in commemoration
+of Independence Day broke the stillness of the gorges. Far above the
+clouds, which were rolling below us over three of the most absolute
+monarchies in the world, was celebrated in our simple way a great event of
+republicanism.
+
+Mount Ararat, it will be observed from the accompanying sketch, has two
+tops, a few hundred yards apart, sloping, on the eastern and western
+extremities, into rather prominent abutments, and separated by a snow
+valley, or depression, from 50 to 100 feet in depth. The eastern top, on
+which we were standing, was quite extensive, and 30 to 40 feet lower than
+its western neighbor. Both tops are hummocks on the huge dome of Ararat,
+like the humps on the back of a camel, on neither one of which is there a
+vestige of anything but snow.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT--FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY
+  SALUTE.]
+
+There remained just as little trace of the crosses left by Parrot and
+Chodzko, as of the ark itself. We remembered the pictures we had seen in
+our nursery-books, which represented this mountain-top covered with green
+grass, and Noah stepping out of the ark, in the bright, warm sunshine,
+before the receding waves; and now we looked around and saw this very spot
+covered with perpetual snow. Nor did we see any evidence whatever of a
+former existing crater, except perhaps the snow-filled depression we have
+just mentioned. There was nothing about this perpetual snow-field, and the
+freezing atmosphere that was chilling us to the bone, to remind us that we
+were on the top of an extinct volcano that once trembled with the
+convulsions of subterranean heat.
+
+The view from this towering height was immeasurably extensive, and almost
+too grand. All detail was lost--all color, all outline; even the
+surrounding mountains seemed to be but excrescent ridges of the plain.
+Then, too, we could catch only occasional glimpses, as the clouds shifted
+to and fro. At one time they opened up beneath us, and revealed the Aras
+valley with its glittering ribbon of silver at an abysmal depth below. Now
+and then we could descry the black volcanic peaks of Ali Ghez forty miles
+away to the northwest, and on the southwest the low mountains that
+obscured the town of Bayazid. Of the Caucasus, the mountains about Erzerum
+on the west, and Lake Van on the south, and even of the Caspian Sea, all
+of which are said to be in Ararat's horizon, we could see absolutely
+nothing.
+
+Had it been a clear day we could have seen not only the rival peaks of the
+Caucasus, which for so many years formed the northern wall of the
+civilized world, but, far to the south, we might have descried the
+mountains of Quardu land, where Chaldean legend has placed the landing of
+the ark. We might have gazed, in philosophic mood, over the whole of the
+Aras valley, which for 3000 years or more has been the scene of so much
+misery and conflict. As monuments of two extreme events in this historic
+period, two spots might have attracted our attention--one right below us,
+the ruins of Artaxata, which, according to tradition, was built, as the
+story goes, after the plans of the roving conqueror Hannibal, and stormed
+by the Roman legions, A. D. 58; and farther away to the north, the modern
+fortress of Kars, which so recently reverberated with the thunders of the
+Turkish war.
+
+We were suddenly aroused by the rumbling of thunder below us. A storm was
+rolling rapidly up the southeast slope of the mountain. The atmosphere
+seemed to be boiling over the heated plain below. Higher and higher came
+the clouds, rolling and seething among the grim crags along the chasm; and
+soon we were caught in its embrace. The thermometer dropped at once below
+freezing-point, and the dense mists, driven against us by the hurricane,
+formed icicles on our blistered faces, and froze the ink in our
+fountain-pens. Our summer clothing was wholly inadequate for such an
+unexpected experience; we were chilled to the bone. To have remained where
+we were would have been jeopardizing our health, if not our lives.
+Although we could scarcely see far enough ahead to follow back on the
+track by which we had ascended, yet we were obliged to attempt it at once,
+for the storm around us was increasing every moment; we could even feel
+the charges of electricity whenever we touched the iron points of our
+alpenstocks.
+
+Carefully peering through the clouds, we managed to follow the trail we
+had made along the gradually sloping summit, to the head of the great
+chasm, which now appeared more terrible than ever. We here saw that it
+would be extremely perilous, if not actually impossible, to attempt a
+descent on the rocks along its treacherous edge in such a hurricane. The
+only alternative was to take the precipitous snow-covered slope. Planting
+our ice-hooks deep in the snow behind us, we started. At first the strong
+head wind, which on the top almost took us off our feet, somewhat checked
+our downward career, but it was not long before we attained a velocity
+that made our hair stand on end. It was a thrilling experience; we seemed
+to be sailing through the air itself, for the clouds obscured the slope
+even twenty feet below. Finally we emerged beneath them into the glare of
+the afternoon sunlight; but on we dashed for 6000 feet, leaning heavily on
+the trailing-stocks, which threw up an icy spray in our wake. We never
+once stopped until we reached the bottom of the dome, at our last night's
+camp among the rocks.
+
+In less than an hour we had dashed down, through a distance which it had
+taken us nine and a half hours to ascend. The camp was reached at 4 P. M.,
+just twelve hours from the time we left it. Gathering up the remaining
+baggage, we hurried away to continue the descent. We must make desperate
+efforts to reach the Kurdish encampment by nightfall; for during the last
+twenty-seven hours we had had nothing to drink but half a pint of tea, and
+our thirst by this time became almost intolerable.
+
+The large snow-bed down which we had been sliding now began to show signs
+of treachery. The snow, at this low altitude, had melted out from below,
+to supply the subterranean streams, leaving only a thin crust at the
+surface. It was not long before one of our party fell into one of these
+pitfalls up to his shoulders, and floundered about for some time before he
+could extricate himself from his unexpected snow-bath.
+
+Over the rocks and boulders the descent was much slower and more tedious.
+For two hours we were thus busily engaged, when all at once a shout rang
+out in the clear evening air. Looking up we saw, sure enough, our two
+zaptiehs and muleteer on the very spot where we had left them the evening
+before. Even the two donkeys were on hand to give us a welcoming bray.
+They had come up from the encampment early in the morning, and had been
+scanning the mountain all day long to get some clue to our whereabouts.
+They reported that they had seen us at one time during the morning, and
+had then lost sight of us among the clouds. This solicitude on their part
+was no doubt prompted by the fact that they were to be held by the
+mutessarif of Bayazid as personally responsible for our safe return, and
+perhaps, too, by the hope that they might thus retrieve the good graces
+they had lost the day before, and thereby increase the amount of the
+forthcoming baksheesh. Nothing, now, was too heavy for the donkeys, and
+even the zaptiehs themselves condescended to relieve us of our
+alpenstocks.
+
+That night we sat again around the Kurdish camp-fire, surrounded by the
+same group of curious faces. It was interesting and even amusing to watch
+the bewildered astonishment that overspread their countenances as we
+related our experiences along the slope, and then upon the very top, of
+Ak-Dagh. They listened throughout with profound attention, then looked at
+one another in silence, and gravely shook their heads. They could not
+believe it. It was impossible. Old Ararat stood above us grim and terrible
+beneath the twinkling stars. To them it was, as it always will be, the
+same mysterious, untrodden height--the palace of the jinn.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   III
+
+
+                       THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND
+
+
+"It is all bosh," was the all but universal opinion of Bayazid in regard
+to our alleged ascent of Ararat. None but the Persian consul and the
+mutessarif himself deigned to profess a belief in it, and the gift of
+several letters to Persian officials, and a sumptuous dinner on the eve of
+our departure, went far toward proving their sincerity.
+
+On the morning of July 8, in company with a body-guard of zaptiehs, which
+the mutessarif forced upon us, we wheeled down from the ruined
+embattlements of Bayazid. The assembled rabble raised a lusty cheer at
+parting. An hour later we had surmounted the Kazlee Gool, and the "land of
+Iran" was before us. At our feet lay the Turco-Persian battle-plains of
+Chaldiran, spreading like a desert expanse to the parched barren hills
+beyond, and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the village
+oases. And this, then, was the land where, as the poets say, "the
+nightingale sings, and the rose-tree blossoms," and where "a flower is
+crushed at every step!" More truth, we thought, in the Scotch traveler's
+description, which divides Persia into two portions--"One desert with salt,
+and the other desert without salt." In time we came to McGregor's opinion
+as expressed in his description of Khorassan. "We should fancy," said he,
+"a small green circle round every village indicated on the map, and shade
+all the rest in brown." The mighty hosts whose onward sweep from the Indus
+westward was checked only by the Grecian phalanx upon the field of
+Marathon must have come from the scattered ruins around, which reminded us
+that "Iran was; she is no more." Those myriad ranks of Yenghiz Khan and
+Tamerlane brought death and desolation from Turan to Iran, which so often
+met to act and react upon one another that both are now only landmarks in
+the sea of oblivion.
+
+  [Illustration: HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI.]
+
+Our honorary escort accompanied us several miles over the border to the
+Persian village of Killissakend, and there committed us to the hospitality
+of the district khan, with whom we managed to converse in the Turkish
+language, which, strange to say, we found available in all the countries
+that lay in our transcontinental pathway as far as the great wall of
+China. Toward evening we rode in the garden of the harem of the khan, and
+at daybreak the next morning were again in the saddle. By a very early
+start we hoped to escape the burden of excessive hospitality; in other
+words, to get rid of an escort that was an expensive nuisance. At the next
+village we were confronted by what appeared to be a shouting,
+gesticulating maniac. On dismounting, we learned that a harbinger had been
+sent by the khan, the evening before, to have a guard ready to join us as
+we passed through. In fact, two armed _ferashes_ were galloping toward us,
+armed, as we afterward learned, with American rifles, and the usual
+_kamma_, or huge dagger, swinging from a belt of cartridges. These
+fellows, like the zaptiehs, were fond of ostentation. They frequently led
+us a roundabout way to show us off to their relatives or friends in a
+neighboring village. Nature at last came to our deliverance. As we stood
+on a prominent ridge taking a last look at Mount Ararat, now more than
+fifty miles away, a storm came upon us, showering hailstones as large as
+walnuts. The ferashes with frantic steeds dashed ahead to seek a place of
+shelter, and we saw them no more.
+
+Five days in Persia brought us to the shores of Lake Ooroomeeyah, the
+saltest body of water in the world. Early the next morning we were wading
+the chilly waters of the Hadji Chai, and a few hours later found us in the
+English consulate at Tabreez, where we were received by the Persian
+secretary. The English government, it seemed, had become embroiled in a
+local love-affair just at a time when Colonel Stewart was off on
+"diplomatic duty" on the Russian Transcaspian border. An exceptionally
+bright Armenian beauty, a graduate of the American missionary schools at
+this place, had been abducted, it was claimed, by a young Kurdish
+cavalier, and carried away to his mountain home. Her father, who happened
+to be a naturalized English subject, had applied for the assistance of his
+adopted country in obtaining her release. Negotiations were at once set on
+foot between London and Teheran, which finally led to a formal demand upon
+the Kurds by the Shah himself. Upon their repeated refusal, seven thousand
+Persian troops, it was said, were ordered to Soak Boulak, under the
+command of the vice-consul, Mr. Patton. The matter at length assumed such
+an importance as to give rise, in the House of Commons, to the question,
+"Who is Katty Greenfield?" This, in time, was answered by that lady
+herself, who declared under oath that she had become a Mohammedan, and was
+in love with the man with whom she had eloped. More than this, it was
+learned that she had not a drop of English blood in her veins, her father
+being an Austrian, and her mother a native Armenian. Whereupon the Persian
+troopers, with their much disgusted leader, beat an inglorious retreat,
+leaving "Katty Greenfield" mistress of the situation, and of a Kurdish
+heart.
+
+  [Illustration: LEAVING KHOI.]
+
+In Tabreez there is one object sure to attract attention. This is the
+"Ark," or ancient fortified castle of the Persian rulers. High on one of
+the sides, which a recent earthquake has rent from top to bottom, there is
+a little porch whence these Persian "Bluebeards," or rather Redbeards,
+were wont to hurl unruly members of the harem. Under the shadow of these
+gloomy walls was enacted a tragedy of this century. Babism is by no means
+the only heresy that has sprung from the speculative genius of Persia; but
+it is the one that has most deeply moved the society of the present age,
+and the one which still obtains, though in secret and without a leader.
+Its founder, Seyd Mohammed Ali, better known as Bab, or "Gate,"
+promulgated the doctrine of anarchy to the extent of "sparing the rod and
+spoiling the child," and still worse, perhaps, of refusing to the ladies
+no finery that might be at all becoming to their person. While not a
+communist, as he has sometimes been wrongly classed, he exhorted the
+wealthy to regard themselves as only trustees of the poor. With no thought
+at first of acquiring civil power, he and his rapidly increasing following
+were driven to revolt by the persecuting mollas, and the sanguinary
+struggle of 1848 followed. Bab himself was captured, and carried to this
+"most fanatical city of Persia," the burial-place of the sons of Ali. On
+this very spot a company was ordered to despatch him with a volley; but
+when the smoke cleared away, Bab was not to be seen. None of the bullets
+had gone to the mark, and the bird had flown--but not to the safest refuge.
+Had he finally escaped, the miracle thus performed would have made Babism
+invincible. But he was recaptured and despatched, and his body thrown to
+the canine scavengers.
+
+  [Illustration: YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ.]
+
+  [Illustration: LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ.]
+
+_Tabreez_ (fever-dispelling) was a misnomer in our case. Our sojourn here
+was prolonged for more than a month by a slight attack of typhoid fever,
+which this time seized Sachtleben, and again the kind nursing of the
+missionary ladies hastened recovery. Our mail, in the mean time, having
+been ordered to Teheran, we were granted the privilege of intercepting it.
+For this purpose we were permitted to overhaul the various piles of
+letters strewn over the dirty floor of the distributing-office. Both the
+Turkish and Persian mail is carried in saddle-bags on the backs of
+reinless horses driven at a rapid gallop before the mounted mail-carrier
+or herdsman. Owing to the carelessness of the postal officials, legations
+and consulates employ special couriers.
+
+The proximity of Tabreez to the Russian border makes it politically, as
+well as commercially, one of the most important cities in Persia. For this
+reason it is the place of residence of the Emir-e-Nizam (leader of the
+army), or prime minister, as well as the Vali-Ahd, or Prince Imperial.
+This prince is the Russian candidate, as opposed to the English candidate,
+for the prospective vacancy on the throne. Both of these dignitaries
+invited us to visit them, and showed much interest in our "wonderful wind
+horses," of the speed of which exaggerated reports had circulated through
+the country. We were also favored with a special letter for the journey to
+the capital.
+
+On this stage we started August 15, stopping the first night at
+Turkmanchai, the little village where was signed the famous treaty of 1828
+by virtue of which the Caspian Sea became a Russian lake. The next morning
+we were on the road soon after daybreak, and on approaching the next
+village overtook a curious cavalcade, just concluding a long night's
+journey. This consisted of a Persian palanquin, with its long pole-shafts
+saddled upon the back of a mule at each end; with servants on foot, and a
+body-guard of mounted soldiers. The occupant of this peculiar conveyance
+remained concealed throughout the stampede which our sudden appearance
+occasioned among his hearse-bearing mules, for as such they will appear in
+the sequel. In our first article we mentioned an interview in London with
+Malcolm Khan, the representative of the Shah at the court of St. James.
+Since then, it seemed, he had fallen into disfavor. During the late visit
+of the Shah to England certain members of his retinue were so young, both
+in appearance and conduct, as to be a source of mortification to the
+Europeanized minister. This reached the ears of the Shah some time after
+his return home; and a summons was sent for the accused to repair to
+Teheran. Malcolm Khan, however, was too well versed in Oriental craft to
+fall into such a trap, and announced his purpose to devote his future
+leisure to airing his knowledge of Persian politics in the London press.
+The Persian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Musht-a-Shar-el-Dowlet, then
+residing at Tabreez, who was accused of carrying on a seditious
+correspondence with Malcolm Khan, was differently situated, unfortunately.
+It was during our sojourn in that city that his palatial household was
+raided by a party of soldiers, and he was carried to prison as a common
+felon. Being unable to pay the high price of pardon that was demanded, he
+was forced away, a few days before our departure, on that dreaded journey
+to the capital, which few, if any, ever complete. For on the way they are
+usually met by a messenger, who proffers them a cup of coffee, a sword,
+and a rope, from which they are to choose the method of their doom. This,
+then, was the occupant of the mysterious palanquin, which now was opened
+as we drew up before the village caravansary. Out stepped a man, tall and
+portly, with beard and hair of venerable gray. His keen eye, clear-cut
+features, and dignified bearing, bespoke for him respect even in his
+downfall, while his stooped shoulders and haggard countenance betrayed the
+weight of sorrow and sleepless nights with which he was going to his tomb.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN
+  DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH.]
+
+At Miana, that town made infamous by its venomous insect, is located one
+of the storage-stations of the Indo-European Telegraph Company. Its
+straight lines of iron poles, which we followed very closely from Tabreez
+to Teheran, form only a link in that great wire and cable chain which
+connects Melbourne with London. We spent the following night in the German
+operator's room.
+
+The weakness of the Persian for mendacity is proverbial. One instance of
+this national weakness was attended with considerable inconvenience to us.
+By some mischance we had run by the village where we intended to stop for
+the night, which was situated some distance off the road. Meeting a
+Persian lad, we inquired the distance. He was ready at once with a
+cheerful falsehood. "One farsak" (four miles), he replied, although he
+must have known at the time that the village was already behind us. On we
+pedaled at an increased rate, in order to precede, if possible, the
+approaching darkness; for although traditionally the land of a double
+dawn, Persia has only one twilight, and that closely merged into sunset
+and darkness. One, two farsaks were placed behind us, and still there was
+no sign of a human habitation. At length darkness fell; we were obliged to
+dismount to feel our way. By the gradually rising ground, and the rocks,
+we knew we were off the road. Dropping our wheels, we groped round on
+hands and knees, to find, if possible, some trace of water. With a burning
+thirst, a chilling atmosphere, and swarms of mosquitos biting through our
+clothing, we could not sleep. A slight drizzle began to descend. During
+our gloomy vigil we were glad to hear the sounds of a caravan, toward
+which we groped our way, discerning, at length, a long line of camels
+marching to the music of their lantern-bearing leader. When our
+nickel-plated bars and white helmets flashed in the lantern-light, there
+was a shriek, and the lantern fell to the ground. The rear-guard rushed to
+the front with drawn weapons; but even they started back at the sound of
+our voices, as we attempted in broken Turkish to reassure them.
+Explanations were made, and the camels soon quieted. Thereupon we were
+surrounded with lanterns and firebrands, while the remainder of the
+caravan party was called to the front. Finally we moved on, walking side
+by side with the lantern-bearing leader, who ran ahead now and then to
+make sure of the road. The night was the blackest we had ever seen.
+Suddenly one of the camels disappeared in a ditch, and rolled over with a
+groan. Fortunately, no bones were broken, and the load was replaced. But
+we were off the road, and a search was begun with lights to find the
+beaten path. Footsore and hungry, with an almost intolerable thirst, we
+trudged along till morning, to the ding-dong, ding-dong of the deep-toned
+camel-bells. Finally we reached a sluggish river, but did not dare to
+satisfy our thirst, except by washing out our mouths, and by taking
+occasional swallows, with long intervals of rest, in one of which we fell
+asleep from sheer exhaustion. When we awoke the midday sun was shining,
+and a party of Persian travelers was bending over us.
+
+From the high lands of Azerbeidjan, where, strange to say, nearly all
+Persian pestilences arise, we dropped suddenly into the Kasveen plain, a
+portion of that triangular, dried-up basin of the Persian Mediterranean,
+now for the most part a sandy, saline desert. The argillaceous dust
+accumulated on the Kasveen plain by the weathering of the surrounding
+uplands resembles in appearance the "yellow earth" of the Hoang Ho
+district in China, but remains sterile for the lack of water. Even the
+little moisture that obtains beneath the surface is sapped by the
+_kanots_, or underground canals, which bring to the fevered lips of the
+desert oases the fresh, cool springs of the Elburz. These are dug with
+unerring instinct, and preserved with jealous care by means of shafts or
+slanting wells dug at regular intervals across the plain. Into these we
+would occasionally descend to relieve our reflection-burned--or, as a
+Persian would say, "snow-burned"--faces, while the thermometer above stood
+at 120 deg. in the shade.
+
+Over the level ninety-mile stretch between Kasveen and the capital a
+so-called carriage-road has recently been constructed close to the base of
+the mountain. A sudden turn round a mountain-spur, and before us was
+presented to view Mount Demavend and Teheran. Soon the paved streets,
+sidewalks, lamp-posts, street-railways, and even steam-tramway, of the
+half modern capital were as much of a surprise to us as our "wind horses"
+were to the curious crowds that escorted us to the French Hotel.
+
+  [Illustration: A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON.]
+
+From Persia it was our plan to enter Russian central Asia, and thence to
+proceed to China or Siberia. To enter the Transcaspian territory, the
+border-province of the Russian possessions, the sanction of its governor,
+General Kuropatkine, would be quite sufficient; but for the rest of the
+journey through Turkestan the Russian minister in Teheran said we would
+have to await a general permission from St. Petersburg. Six weeks were
+spent with our English and American acquaintances, and still no answer was
+received. Winter was coming on, and something had to be done at once. If
+we were to be debarred from a northern route, we would have to attempt a
+passage into India either through Afghanistan, which we were assured by
+all was quite impossible, or across the deserts of southern Persia and
+Baluchistan. For this latter we had already obtained a possible route from
+the noted traveler, Colonel Stewart, whom we met on his way back to his
+consular post at Tabreez. But just at this juncture the Russian minister
+advised another plan. In order to save time, he said, we might proceed to
+Meshed at once, and if our permission was not telegraphed to us at that
+point, we could then turn south to Baluchistan as a last resort. This, our
+friends unanimously declared, was a Muscovite trick to evade an absolute
+refusal. The Russians, they assured us, would never permit a foreign
+inspection of their doings on the Afghan border; and furthermore, we would
+never be able to cross the uninhabited deserts of Baluchistan. Against all
+protest, we waved "farewell" to the foreign and native throng which had
+assembled to see us off, and on October 5 wheeled out of the fortified
+square on the "Pilgrim Road to Meshed."
+
+Before us now lay six hundred miles of barren hills, swampy _kevirs_,
+brier-covered wastes, and salty deserts, with here and there some
+kanot-fed oases. To the south lay the lifeless desert of Luth, the
+"Persian Sahara," the humidity of which is the lowest yet recorded on the
+face of the globe, and compared with which "the Gobi of China and the
+Kizil-Kum of central Asia are fertile regions." It is our extended and
+rather unique experience on the former of these two that prompts us to
+refrain from further description of desert travel here, where the
+hardships were in a measure ameliorated by frequent stations, and by the
+use of cucumbers and pomegranates, both of which we carried with us on the
+long desert stretches. Melons, too, the finest we have ever seen in any
+land, frequently obviated the necessity of drinking the strongly brackish
+water.
+
+  [Illustration: LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED.]
+
+Yet this experience was sufficient to impress us with the fact that the
+national poets, Hafiz and Sadi, like Thomas Moore, have sought in fancy
+what the land of Iran denied them. Those "spicy groves, echoing with the
+nightingale's song," those "rosy bowers and purling brooks," on the whole
+exist, so far as our experience goes, only in the poet's dream.
+
+Leaving on the right the sand-swept ruins of Veramin, that capital of
+Persia before Teheran was even thought of, we traversed the pass of
+Sir-Dara, identified by some as the famous "Caspian Gate," and early in
+the evening entered the village of Aradan. The usual crowd hemmed us in on
+all sides, yelling, "Min, min!" ("Ride, ride!"), which took the place of
+the Turkish refrain of "Bin, bin!" As we rode toward the caravansary they
+shouted, "Faster, faster!" and when we began to distance them, they caught
+at the rear wheels, and sent a shower of stones after us, denting our
+helmets, and bruising our coatless backs. This was too much; we dismounted
+and exhibited the ability to defend ourselves, whereupon they tumbled over
+one another in their haste to get away. But they were at our wheels again
+before we reached the caravansary. Here they surged through the narrow
+gangway, and knocked over the fruit-stands of the bazaars.
+
+We were shown to a room, or windowless cell, in the honeycomb structure
+that surrounded an open quadrangular court, at the time filled with a
+caravan of pilgrims, carrying triangular white and black flags, with the
+Persian coat of arms, the same we have seen over many doorways in Persia
+as warnings of the danger of trespassing upon the religious services held
+within. The cadaverous stench revealed the presence of half-dried human
+bones being carried by relatives and friends for interment in the sacred
+"City of the Silent." Thus dead bodies, in loosely nailed boxes, are
+always traveling from one end of Persia to the other. Among the pilgrims
+were blue and green turbaned Saids, direct descendants of the Prophet, as
+well as white-turbaned mollas. All were sitting about on the _sakoo_, or
+raised platform, just finishing the evening meal. But presently one of the
+mollas ascended the mound in the middle of the stable-yard, and in the
+manner of the muezzin called to prayer. All kneeled, and bowed their heads
+toward Mecca. Then the horses were saddled, the long, narrow boxes
+attached upright to the pack-mules, and the _kajacas_, or double boxes,
+adjusted on the backs of the horses of the ladies. Into these the veiled
+creatures entered, and drew the curtains, while the men leaped into the
+saddle at a signal, and, with the tri-cornered flag at their head, the
+cavalcade moved out on its long night pilgrimage. We now learned that the
+village contained a _chappar khan_, one of those places of rest which have
+recently been provided for the use of foreigners and others, who travel
+_chappar_, or by relays of post-horses. These structures are usually
+distinguished by a single room built on the roof, and projecting some
+distance over the eaves.
+
+  [Illustration: IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD.]
+
+To this we repaired at once. Its keeper evinced unusual pride in the
+cleanliness of his apartments, for we were asked to take off our shoes
+before entering. But while our boastful host was kicking up the mats to
+convince us of the truth of his assertions, he suddenly retired behind the
+scenes to rid himself of some of the pests.
+
+  [Illustration: PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY.]
+
+Throughout our Asiatic tour eggs were our chief means of subsistence, but
+_pillao_, or boiled rice flavored with grease, we found more particularly
+used in Persia, like _yaourt_ in Turkey. This was prepared with chicken
+whenever it was possible to purchase a fowl, and then we would usually
+make the discovery that a Persian fowl was either wingless, legless, or
+otherwise defective after being prepared by a Persian _fuzul_, or
+foreigner's servant, who, it is said, "shrinks from no baseness in order
+to eat." Though minus these particular appendages, it would invariably
+have a head; for the fanatical Shiah frequently snatched a chicken out of
+our hands to prevent us from wringing or chopping its head off. Even after
+our meal was served, we would keep a sharp lookout upon the unblushing
+pilferers around us, who had called to pay their respects, and to fill the
+room with clouds of smoke from their chibouks and gurgling kalians. For a
+fanatical Shiah will sometimes stick his dirty fingers into the dishes of
+an "unbeliever," even though he may subsequently throw away the
+contaminated vessel. And this extreme fanaticism is to be found in a
+country noted for its extensive latitude in the profession of religious
+beliefs.
+
+  [Illustration: A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS.]
+
+A present from the village khan was announced. In stepped two men bearing
+a huge tray filled with melons, apricots, sugar, rock-candy, nuts,
+pistachios, etc., all of which we must, of course, turn over to the
+khan-keeper and his servants, and pay double their value to the bearers,
+as a present. This polite method of extortion was followed the next
+morning by one of a bolder and more peremptory nature. Notwithstanding the
+feast of the night before at our expense, and in addition to furnishing us
+with bedclothes which we really ought to have been paid to sleep in, our
+oily host now insisted upon three or four prices for his lodgings. We
+refused to pay him more than a certain sum, and started to vacate the
+premises. Thereupon he and his grown son caught hold of our bicycles.
+Remonstrances proving of no avail, and being unable to force our passage
+through the narrow doorway with the bicycles in our hands, we dropped
+them, and grappled with our antagonists. A noisy scuffle, and then a heavy
+fall ensued, but luckily we were both on the upper side. This unusual
+disturbance now brought out the inmates of the adjoining _anderoon_. In a
+moment there was a din of feminine screams, and a flutter of garments, and
+then--a crashing of our pith helmets beneath the blows of pokers and
+andirons. The villagers, thus aroused, came at last to our rescue, and at
+once proceeded to patch up a compromise. This, in view of the Amazonian
+reinforcements, who were standing by in readiness for a second onset, we
+were more than pleased to accept. From this inglorious combat we came off
+without serious injury; but with those gentle poker taps were knocked out
+forever all the sweet delusions of the "Light of the Harem."
+
+The great antiquity of this Teheran-Meshed road, which is undoubtedly a
+section of that former commercial highway between two of the most ancient
+capitals in history--Nineveh and Balk, is very graphically shown by the
+caravan ruts at Lasgird. These have been worn in many places to a depth of
+four feet in the solid rock. It was not far beyond this point that we
+began to feel the force of that famous "Damghan wind," so called from the
+city of that name. Of course this wind was against us. In fact, throughout
+our Asiatic tour easterly winds prevailed; and should we ever attempt
+another transcontinental spin we would have a care to travel in the
+opposite direction.
+
+  [Illustration: CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD.]
+
+Our peculiar mode of travel subjected us to great extremes in our mode of
+living. Sometimes, indeed, it was a change almost from the sublime to the
+ridiculous, and vice versa--from a stable or sheepfold, with a diet of figs
+and bread, and an irrigating-ditch for a lavatory, to a palace itself, an
+Oriental palace, with all the delicacies of the East, and a host of
+servants to attend to our slightest wish. So it was at Bostam, the
+residence of one of Persia's most influential _hakims_, or governors,
+literally, "pillars of state," who was also a cousin to the Shah himself.
+This potentate we visited in company with an English engineer whom we met
+in transit at Sharoud. It was on the evening before, when at supper with
+this gentleman in his tent, that a special messenger arrived from the
+governor, requesting us, as the invitation ran, "to take our brightness
+into his presence." As we entered, the governor rose from his seat on the
+floor, a courtesy never shown us by a Turkish official. Even the politest
+of them would, just at this particular moment, be conveniently engrossed
+in the examination of some book or paper. His courtesy was further
+extended by locking up our "horses," and making us his "prisoners" until
+the following morning. At the dinner which Mr. Evans and we were invited
+to eat with his excellency, benches had to be especially prepared, as
+there was nothing like a chair to be found on the premises. The governor
+himself took his accustomed position on the floor, with his own private
+dishes around him. From these he would occasionally fish out with his
+fingers some choice lamb _kebabh_ or cabbage _dolmah_, and have it passed
+over to his guests--an act which is considered one of the highest forms of
+Persian hospitality.
+
+With a shifting of the scenes of travel, we stood at sunset on the summit
+of the Binalud mountains, overlooking the valley of the Kashafrud. Our two
+weeks' journey was almost ended, for the city of Meshed was now in view,
+ten miles away. Around us were piles of little stones, to which each pious
+pilgrim adds his quota when first he sees the "Holy Shrine," which we
+beheld shining like a ball of fire in the glow of the setting sun.
+
+  [Illustration: PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED.]
+
+While we were building our pyramid a party of returning pilgrims greeted
+us with "Meshedi at last." "Not yet," we answered, for we knew that the
+gates of the Holy City closed promptly at twilight. Yet we determined to
+make the attempt. On we sped, but not with the speed of the falling night.
+Dusk overtook us as we reached the plain. A moving form was revealed to us
+on the bank of the irrigating-canal which skirted the edge of the road.
+Backward it fell as we dashed by, and then the sound of a splash and
+splutter reached us as we disappeared in the darkness. On the morrow we
+learned that the spirits of Hassan and Hussein were seen skimming the
+earth in their flight toward the Holy City. We reached the bridge, and
+crossed the moat, but the gates were closed. We knocked and pounded, but a
+hollow echo was our only response. At last the light of a lantern
+illumined the crevices in the weather-beaten doors, and a weird-looking
+face appeared through the midway opening. "Who's there?" said a voice,
+whose sepulchral tones might have belonged to the sexton of the Holy Tomb.
+"We are _Ferenghis_," we said, "and must get into the city to-night."
+"That is impossible," he answered, "for the gates are locked, and the keys
+have been sent away to the governor's palace." With this the night air
+grew more chill. But another thought struck us at once. We would send a
+note to General McLean, the English consul-general, who was already
+expecting us. This our interlocutor, for a certain _inam_, or Persian
+bakshish, at length agreed to deliver. The general, as we afterward
+learned, sent a servant with a special request to the governor's palace.
+Here, without delay, a squad of horsemen was detailed, and ordered with
+the keys to the "Herat Gate." The crowds in the streets, attracted by this
+unusual turnout at this unusual hour, followed in their wake to the scene
+of disturbance. There was a click of locks, the clanking of chains, and
+the creaking of rusty hinges. The great doors swung open, and a crowd of
+expectant faces received us in the Holy City.
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED.]
+
+Meshed claims our attention chiefly for its famous dead. In its sacred
+dust lie buried our old hero Haroun al Raschid, Firdousi, Persia's
+greatest epic poet, and the holy Imaum Riza, within whose shrine every
+criminal may take refuge from even the Shah himself until the payment of a
+blood-tax, or a debtor until the giving of a guarantee for debt. No
+infidel can enter there.
+
+  [Illustration: FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED.]
+
+Meshed was the pivotal point upon which our wheel of fortune was to turn.
+We were filled with no little anxiety, therefore, when, on the day after
+our arrival, we received an invitation to call at the Russian
+consulate-general. With great ceremony we were ushered into a suite of
+elegantly furnished rooms, and received by the consul-general and his
+English wife in full dress. Madame de Vlassow was radiant with smiles as
+she served us tea by the side of her steaming silver samovar. She could
+not wait for the circumlocution of diplomacy, but said: "It is all right,
+gentlemen. General Kuropatkine has just telegraphed permission for you to
+proceed to Askabad." This precipitate remark evidently disconcerted the
+consul, who could only nod his head and say, "_Oui, oui_," in affirmation.
+This news lifted a heavy load from our minds; our desert journey of six
+hundred miles, therefore, had not been made in vain, and the prospect
+brightened for a trip through the heart of Asia.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED.]
+
+Between the rival hospitality of the Russian and English consulates our
+health was now in jeopardy from excess of kindness. Among other social
+attentions, we received an invitation from Sahib Devan, the governor of
+Khorassan, who next to the Shah is the richest man in Persia. Although
+seventy-six years of age, on the day of our visit to his palace he was
+literally covered with diamonds and precious stones. With the photographer
+to the Shah as German interpreter, we spent half an hour in an interesting
+conversation. Among other topics he mentioned the receipt, a few days
+before, of a peculiar telegram from the Shah: "Cut off the head of any one
+who attempts opposition to the Tobacco Regie"; and this was followed a few
+days after by the inquiry, "How many heads have you taken?" A retinue of
+about three hundred courtiers followed the governor as he walked out with
+feeble steps to the parade-ground. Here a company of Persian cavalry was
+detailed to clear the field for the "wonderful steel horses," which, as
+was said, had come from the capital in two days, a distance of six hundred
+miles. The governors extreme pleasure was afterward expressed in a special
+letter for our journey to the frontier.
+
+  [Illustration: WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY.]
+
+  [Illustration: GIVING A "SILENT PILGRIM" A ROLL TOWARD MESHED.]
+
+The military road now completed between Askabad and Meshed reveals the
+extreme weakness of Persia's defense against Russian aggression. Elated by
+her recent successes in the matter of a Russian consul at Meshed, Russia
+has very forcibly invited Persia to construct more than half of a road
+which, in connection with the Transcaspian railway, makes Khorassan almost
+an exclusive Russian market, and opens Persia's richest province to
+Russia's troops and cannon on the prospective march to Herat. At this very
+writing, if the telegraph speaks the truth, the Persian border-province of
+Dereguez is another cession by what the Russians are pleased to call their
+Persian vassal. In addition to its increasing commercial traffic, this
+road is patronized by many Shiah devotees from the north, among whom are
+what the natives term the "silent pilgrims." These are large stones, or
+boulders, rolled along a few feet at a time by the passers-by toward the
+Holy City. We ourselves were employed in this pious work at the close of
+our first day's journey from Meshed when we were suddenly aroused by a
+bantering voice behind us. Looking up, we were hailed by Stagno Navarro,
+the inspector of the Persian telegraph, who was employed with his men on a
+neighboring line. With this gentleman we spent the following night in a
+telegraph station, and passed a pleasant evening chatting over the wires
+with friends in Meshed.
+
+Kuchan, our next stopping-place, lies on the almost imperceptible
+watershed which separates the Herat valley from the Caspian Sea. This
+city, only a few months ago, was entirely destroyed by a severe
+earthquake. Under date of January 28, 1894, the American press reported:
+"The bodies of ten thousand victims of the awful disaster have already
+been recovered. Fifty thousand cattle were destroyed at the same time. The
+once important and beautiful city of twenty thousand people is now only a
+scene of death, desolation, and terror."
+
+From this point to Askabad the construction of the military highway speaks
+well for Russia's engineering skill. It crosses the Kopet Dagh mountains
+over seven distinct passes in a distance of eighty miles. This we
+determined to cover, if possible, in one day, inasmuch as there was no
+intermediate stopping-place, and as we were not a little delighted by the
+idea of at last emerging from semi-barbarism into semi-civilization. At
+sunset we were scaling the fifth ridge since leaving Kuchan at daybreak,
+and a few minutes later rolled up before the Persian custom-house in the
+valley below. There was no evidence of the proximity of a Russian
+frontier, except the extraordinary size of the tea-glasses, from which we
+slaked our intolerable thirst. During the day we had had a surfeit of
+cavernous gorges and commanding pinnacles, but very little water. The only
+copious spring we were able to find was filled at the time with the
+unwashed linen of a Persian traveler, who sat by, smiling in derision, as
+we upbraided him for his disregard of the traveling public.
+
+  [Illustration: AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR
+  ASKABAD.]
+
+It was already dusk when we came in sight of the Russian custom-house, a
+tin-roofed, stone structure, contrasting strongly with the Persian mud
+hovels we had left behind. A Russian official hailed us as we shot by, but
+we could not stop on the down-grade, and, besides, darkness was too
+rapidly approaching to brook any delay. Askabad was twenty-eight miles
+away, and although wearied by an extremely hard day's work, we must sleep
+that night, if possible, in a Russian hotel. Our pace increased with the
+growing darkness until at length we were going at the rate of twelve miles
+per hour down a narrow gorge-like valley toward the seventh and last ridge
+that lay between us and the desert. At 9:30 P. M. we stood upon its
+summit, and before us stretched the sandy wastes of Kara-Kum, enshrouded
+in gloom. Thousands of feet below us the city of Askabad was ablaze with
+lights, shining like beacons on the shore of the desert sea. Strains of
+music from a Russian band stole faintly up through the darkness as we
+dismounted, and contemplated the strange scene, until the shriek of a
+locomotive-whistle startled us from our reveries. Across the desert a
+train of the Transcaspian railway was gliding smoothly along toward the
+city.
+
+  [Illustration: MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND.]
+
+A hearty welcome back to civilized life was given us the next evening by
+General Kuropatkine himself, the Governor-General of Transcaspia. During
+the course of a dinner with him and his friends, he kindly assured us that
+no further recommendation was needed than the fact that we were American
+citizens to entitle us to travel from one end of the Russian empire to the
+other.
+
+From Askabad to Samarkand there was a break in the continuity of our
+bicycle journey. Our Russian friends persuaded us to take advantage of the
+Transcaspian railway, and not to hazard a journey across the dreaded
+Kara-Kum sands. Such a journey, made upon the railroad track, where water
+and food were obtainable at regular intervals, would have entailed only a
+small part of the hardships incurred on the deserts in China, yet we were
+more than anxious to reach, before the advent of winter, a point whence we
+could be assured of reaching the Pacific during the following season.
+Through the kindness of the railway authorities at Bokhara station our car
+was side-tracked to enable us to visit, ten miles away, that ancient city
+of the East. On November 6 we reached Samarkand, the ancient capital of
+Tamerlane, and the present terminus of the Transcaspian railway.
+
+  [Illustration: CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD.]
+
+  [Illustration: A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A
+  COLLEGE.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    IV
+
+
+                   THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA
+
+
+On the morning of November 16 we took a last look at the blue domes and
+minarets of Samarkand, intermingled with the ruins of palaces and tombs,
+and then wheeled away toward the banks of the Zerafshan. Our four days'
+journey of 180 miles along the regular Russian post-road was attended with
+only the usual vicissitudes of ordinary travel. Wading in our Russian
+top-boots through the treacherous fords of the "Snake" defile, we passed
+the pyramidal slate rock known as the "Gate of Tamerlane," and emerged
+upon a strip of the Kizil-Kum steppe, stretching hence in painful monotony
+to the bank of the Sir Daria river. This we crossed by a rude rope-ferry,
+filled at the time with a passing caravan, and then began at once to
+ascend the valley of the Tchirtchick toward Tashkend. The blackened cotton
+which the natives were gathering from the fields, the lowering snow-line
+on the mountains, the muddy roads, the chilling atmosphere, and the
+falling leaves of the giant poplars--all warned us of the approach of
+winter.
+
+We had hoped at least to reach Vernoye, a provincial capital near the
+converging point of the Turkestan, Siberian, and Chinese boundaries,
+whence we could continue, on the opening of the following spring, either
+through Siberia or across the Chinese empire. But in this we were doomed
+to disappointment. The delay on the part of the Russian authorities in
+granting us permission to enter Transcaspia had postponed at least a month
+our arrival in Tashkend, and now, owing to the early advent of the rainy
+season, the roads leading north were almost impassable even for the native
+carts. This fact, together with the reports of heavy snowfalls beyond the
+Alexandrovski mountains, on the road to Vernoye, lent a rather cogent
+influence to the persuasions of our friends to spend the winter among
+them.
+
+  [Illustration: A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.]
+
+Then, too, such a plan, we thought, might not be unproductive of future
+advantages. Thus far we had been journeying through Russian territory
+without a passport. We had no authorization except the telegram to "come
+on," received from General Kuropatkine at Askabad, and the verbal
+permission of Count Rosterzsoff at Samarkand to proceed to Tashkend.
+Furthermore, the passport for which we had just applied to Baron Wrevsky,
+the Governor-General of Turkestan, would be available only as far as the
+border of Siberia, where we should have to apply to the various
+governors-general along our course to the Pacific, in case we should find
+the route across the Chinese empire impracticable. A general permission to
+travel from Tashkend to the Pacific coast, through southern Siberia, could
+be obtained from St. Petersburg only, and that only through the chief
+executive of the province through which we were passing.
+
+Permission to enter Turkestan is by no means easily obtained, as is well
+understood by the student of Russian policy in central Asia. We were not a
+little surprised, therefore, when our request to spend the winter in its
+capital was graciously granted by Baron Wrevsky, as well as the privilege
+for one of us to return in the mean time to London. This we had determined
+on, in order to secure some much-needed bicycle supplies, and to complete
+other arrangements for the success of our enterprise. By lot the return
+trip fell to Sachtleben. Proceeding by the Transcaspian and Transcaucasus
+railroads, the Caspian and Black seas, to Constantinople, and thence by
+the "overland express" to Belgrade, Vienna, Frankfort, and Calais, he was
+able to reach London in sixteen days.
+
+Tashkend, though nearly in the same latitude as New York, is so protected
+by the Alexandrovski mountains from the Siberian blizzards and the
+scorching winds of the Kara-Kum desert as to have an even more moderate
+climate. A tributary of the Tchirtchick river forms the line of
+demarcation between the native and the European portions of the city,
+although the population of the latter is by no means devoid of a native
+element. Both together cover an area as extensive as Paris, though the
+population is only 120,000, of which 100,000 are congregated in the
+native, or Sart, quarter. There is a floating element of Kashgarians,
+Bokhariots, Persians, and Afghans, and a resident majority of Kirghiz,
+Tatars, Jews, Hindus, gypsies, and Sarts, the latter being a generic title
+for the urban, as distinguished from the nomad, people.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN.]
+
+Our winter quarters were obtained at the home of a typical Russian family,
+in company with a young reserve officer. He, having finished his
+university career and time of military service, was engaged in Tashkend in
+the interest of his father, a wholesale merchant in Moscow. With him we
+were able to converse either in French or German, both of which languages
+he could speak more purely than his native Russian. Our good-natured,
+corpulent host had emigrated, in the pioneer days, from the steppes of
+southern Russia, and had grown wealthy through the "unearned increment."
+
+The Russian samovar is the characteristic feature of the Russian
+household. Besides a big bowl of cabbage soup at every meal, our Russian
+host would start in with a half-tumbler of vodka, dispose of a bottle of
+beer in the intervals, and then top off with two or three glasses of tea.
+The mistress of the household, being limited in her beverages to tea and
+soup, would usually make up in quantity what was lacking in variety. In
+fact, one day she informed us that she had not imbibed a drop of water for
+over six years. For this, however, there is a very plausible excuse. With
+the water at Tashkend, as with that from the Zerafshan at Bokhara, a
+dangerous worm called _reshta_ is absorbed into the system. Nowhere have
+we drunk better tea than around the steaming samovar of our Tashkend host.
+No peasant is too poor, either in money or in sentiment, to buy and feel
+the cheering influence of tea. Even the Cossack, in his forays into the
+wilds of central Asia, is sustained by it. Unlike the Chinese, the
+Russians consider sugar a necessary concomitant of tea-drinking. There are
+three methods of sweetening tea: to put the sugar in the glass; to place a
+lump of sugar in the mouth, and suck the tea through it; to hang a lump in
+the midst of a tea-drinking circle, to be swung around for each in turn to
+touch with his tongue, and then to take a swallow of tea.
+
+The meaning of the name Tashkend is "city of stone," but a majority of the
+houses are one-story mud structures, built low, so as to prevent any
+disastrous effects from earthquakes. The roofs are so flat and poorly
+constructed that during the rainy season a dry ceiling is rather the
+exception than the rule. Every building is covered with whitewash or white
+paint, and fronts directly on the street. There are plenty of back and
+side yards, but none in front. This is not so bad on the broad streets of
+a Russian town. In Tashkend they are exceptionally wide, with ditches on
+each side through which the water from the Tchirtchick ripples along
+beneath the double, and even quadruple, rows of poplars, acacias, and
+willows. These trees grow here with remarkable luxuriance, from a mere
+twig stuck into the ground. Although twenty years of Russian irrigation
+has given Nature a chance to rear thousands of trees on former barren
+wastes, yet wood is still comparatively scarce and dear.
+
+The administration buildings of the city are for the most part exceedingly
+plain and unpretentious. In striking contrast is the new Russian
+cathedral, the recently erected school, and a large retail store built by
+a resident Greek, all of which are fine specimens of Russian architecture.
+Among its institutions are an observatory, a museum containing an embryo
+collection of Turkestan products and antiquities, and a medical dispensary
+for the natives, where vaccination is performed by graduates of medicine
+in the Tashkend school. The rather extensive library was originally
+collected for the chancellery of the governor-general, and contains the
+best collection of works on central Asia that is to be found in the world,
+including in its scope not only books and pamphlets, but even magazines
+and newspaper articles. For amusements, the city has a theater, a small
+imitation of the opera-house at Paris; and the Military Club, which, with
+its billiards and gambling, and weekly reunions, balls, and concerts,
+though a regular feature of a Russian garrison town, is especially
+pretentious in Tashkend. In size, architecture, and appointments, the
+club-house has no equal, we were told, outside the capital and Moscow.
+
+  [Illustration: PALACE OF THE CZAR'S NEPHEW, TASHKEND.]
+
+Tashkend has long been known as a refuge for damaged reputations and
+shattered fortunes, or "the official purgatory following upon the
+emperor's displeasure." One of the finest houses of the city is occupied
+by the Grand Duke Nicholai Constantinovitch Romanoff, son of the late
+general admiral of the Russian navy, and first cousin to the Czar, who
+seems to be cheerfully resigned to his life in exile. Most of his time is
+occupied with the business of his silk-factory on the outskirts of
+Tashkend, and at his farm near Hodjent, which a certain firm in Chicago,
+at the time of our sojourn, was stocking with irrigating machinery. All of
+his bills are paid with checks drawn on his St. Petersburg trustees. His
+private life is rather unconventional and even democratic. Visitors to his
+household are particularly impressed with the beauty of his wife and the
+size of his liquor glasses. The example of the grand duke illustrates the
+sentiment in favor of industrial pursuits which is growing among the
+military classes, and even among the nobility, of Russia. The government
+itself, thanks to the severe lesson of the Crimean war, has learned that a
+great nation must stand upon a foundation of something more than
+aristocracy and nobility. To this influence is largely due the present
+growing prosperity of Tashkend, which, in military importance, is rapidly
+giving way to Askabad, "the key to Herat."
+
+That spirit of equality and fraternity which characterizes the government
+of a Russian _mir_, or village, has been carried even into central Asia.
+We have frequently seen Russian peasants and natives occupying adjoining
+apartments in the same household, while in the process of trade all
+classes seem to fraternize in an easy and even cordial manner. The same is
+true of the children, who play together indiscriminately in the street.
+Many a one of these heterogeneous groups we have watched "playing marbles"
+with the ankle-bones of sheep, and listened, with some amusement, to their
+half Russian, half native jargon. Schools are now being established to
+educate the native children in the Russian language and methods, and
+native apprentices are being taken in by Russian merchants for the same
+purpose.
+
+In Tashkend, as in every European city of the Orient, drunkenness, and
+gambling, and social laxity have followed upon the introduction of Western
+morals and culture. Jealousy and intrigue among the officers and
+functionaries are also not strange, perhaps, at so great a distance from
+headquarters, where the only avenue to distinction seems to lie through
+the public service. At the various dinner-parties and sociables given
+throughout the winter, the topic of war always met with general welcome.
+On one occasion a report was circulated that Abdurrahman Khan, the Ameer
+of Afghanistan, was lying at the point of death. Great preparations, it
+was said, were being made for an expedition over the Pamir, to establish
+on the throne the Russian candidate, Is-shah Khan from Samarkand, before
+Ayub Khan, the rival British protege, could be brought from India. The
+young officers at once began to discuss their chances for promotion, and
+the number of decorations to be forthcoming from St. Petersburg. The
+social gatherings at Tashkend were more convivial than sociable.
+Acquaintances can eat and drink together with the greatest of good cheer,
+but there is very little sympathy in conversation. It was difficult for
+them to understand why we had come so far to see a country which to many
+of them was a place of exile.
+
+  [Illustration: A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE
+  "FOREIGN DEVILS."]
+
+An early spring did not mean an early departure from winter quarters.
+Impassable roads kept us anxious prisoners for a month and a half after
+the necessary papers had been secured. These included, in addition to the
+local passports, a carte-blanche permission to travel from Tashkend to
+Vladivostock through Turkestan and Siberia, a document obtained from St.
+Petersburg through the United States minister, the Hon. Charles Emory
+Smith. Of this route to the Pacific we were therefore certain, and yet,
+despite the universal opinion that a bicycle journey across the Celestial
+empire was impracticable, we had determined to continue on to the border
+line, and there to seek better information. "Don't go into China" were the
+last words of our many kind friends as we wheeled out of Tashkend on the
+seventh of May.
+
+At Chimkend our course turned abruptly from what was once the main route
+between Russia's European and Asiatic capitals, and along which De
+Lesseps, in his letter to the Czar, proposed a line of railroad to connect
+Orenburg with Samarkand, a distance about equal to that between St.
+Petersburg and Odessa, 1483 miles. This is also the keystone in that wall
+of forts which Russia gradually raised around her unruly nomads of the
+steppes, and where, according to Gortchakoff's circular of 1864, "both
+interest and reason" required her to stop; and yet at that very time
+General Tchernaieff was advancing his forces upon the present capital,
+Tashkend. Here, too, we began that journey of 1500 miles along the
+Celestial mountain range which terminated only when we scaled its summit
+beyond Barkul to descend again into the burning sands of the Desert of
+Gobi. Here runs the great historical highway between China and the West.
+
+From Auli-eta eastward we had before us about 200 miles of a vast steppe
+region. Near the mountains is a wilderness of lakes, swamps, and streams,
+which run dry in summer. This is the country of the "Thousand Springs"
+mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Huen T'sang, and where was established
+the kingdom of Black China, supposed by many to have been one of the
+kingdoms of "Prester John." But far away to our left were the white sands
+of the Ak-Kum, over which the cloudless atmosphere quivers incessantly,
+like the blasts of a furnace. Of all these deserts, occupying probably one
+half of the whole Turkestan steppe, none is more terrible than that of the
+"Golodnaya Steppe," or Steppe of Hunger, to the north of the "White Sands"
+now before us. Even in the cool of evening, it is said that the soles of
+the wayfarer's feet become scorched, and the dog accompanying him finds no
+repose till he has burrowed below the burning surface. The monotonous
+appearance of the steppe itself is only intensified in winter, when the
+snow smooths over the broken surface, and even necessitates the placing of
+mud posts at regular intervals to mark the roadway for the Kirghiz
+post-drivers. But in the spring and autumn its arid surface is clothed, as
+if by enchantment, with verdure and prairie flowers. Both flowers and
+birds are gorgeously colored. One variety, about half the size of the
+jackdaw which infests the houses of Tashkend and Samarkand, has a bright
+blue body and red wings; another, resembling our field-lark in size and
+habits, combines a pink breast with black head and wings. But already this
+springtide splendor was beginning to disappear beneath the glare of
+approaching summer. The long wagon-trains of lumber, and the occasional
+traveler's tarantass rumbling along to the discord of its _duga_ bells,
+were enveloped in a cloud of suffocating dust.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL.]
+
+Now and then we would overtake a party of Russian peasants migrating from
+the famine-stricken districts of European Russia to the pioneer colonies
+along this Turkestan highway. The peculiarity of these villages is their
+extreme length, all the houses facing on the one wide street. Most of them
+are merely mud huts, others make pretensions to doors and windows, and a
+coat of whitewash. Near-by usually stands the old battered telega which
+served as a home during many months of travel over the Orenburg highway.
+It speaks well for the colonizing capacity of the Russians that they can
+be induced to come so many hundreds of miles from their native land, to
+settle in such a primitive way among the half-wild tribes of the steppes.
+As yet they do very little farming, but live, like the Kirghiz, by raising
+horses, cows, sheep, and goats, and, in addition, the Russian hog, the
+last resembling very much the wild swine of the jungles. Instead of the
+former military colonies of plundering Cossacks, who really become more
+assimilated to the Kirghiz than these to their conquerors, the _mir_, or
+communal system, is now penetrating these fertile districts, and
+systematically replacing the Mongolian culture. But the ignorance of this
+lower class of Russians is almost as noticeable as that of the natives
+themselves. As soon as we entered a village, the blacksmith left his
+anvil, the carpenter his bench, the storekeeper his counter, and the
+milkmaid her task. After our parade of the principal street, the crowd
+would gather round us at the station-house. All sorts of queries and
+ejaculations would pass among them. One would ask: "Are these gentlemen
+baptized? Are they really Christians?" On account of their extreme
+ignorance these Russian colonists are by no means able to cope with their
+German colleagues, who are given the poorest land, and yet make a better
+living.
+
+The steppe is a good place for learning patience. With the absence of
+landmarks, you seem never to be getting anywhere. It presents the
+appearance of a boundless level expanse, the very undulations of which are
+so uniform as to conceal the intervening troughs. Into these, horsemen,
+and sometimes whole caravans, mysteriously disappear. In this way we were
+often enabled to surprise a herd of gazelles grazing by the roadside. They
+would stand for a moment with necks extended, and then scamper away like a
+shot, springing on their pipe-stem limbs three or four feet into the air.
+Our average rate was about seven miles an hour, although the roads were
+sometimes so soft with dust or sand as to necessitate the laying of straw
+for a foundation. There was scarcely an hour in the day when we were not
+accompanied by from one to twenty Kirghiz horsemen, galloping behind us
+with cries of "Yakshee!" ("Good!") They were especially curious to see how
+we crossed the roadside streams. Standing on the bank, they would watch
+intently every move as we stripped and waded through with bicycles and
+clothing on our shoulders. Then they would challenge us to a race, and, if
+the road permitted, we would endeavor to reveal some of the possibilities
+of the "devil's carts." On an occasion like this occurred one of our few
+mishaps. The road was lined by the occupants of a neighboring tent
+village, who had run out to see the race. One of the Kirghiz turned
+suddenly back in the opposite direction from which he had started. The
+wheel struck him at a rate of fifteen miles per hour, lifting him off his
+feet, and hurling over the handle-bars the rider, who fell upon his left
+arm, and twisted it out of place. With the assistance of the bystanders it
+was pulled back into the socket, and bandaged up till we reached the
+nearest Russian village. Here the only physician was an old blind woman of
+the faith-cure persuasion. Her massage treatment to replace the muscles
+was really effective, and was accompanied by prayers and by signs of the
+cross, a common method of treatment among the lower class of Russians. In
+one instance a cure was supposed to be effected by writing a prayer on a
+piece of buttered bread to be eaten by the patient.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE.]
+
+Being users but not patrons of the Russian post-roads, we were not legally
+entitled to the conveniences of the post-stations. Tipping alone, as we
+found on our journey from Samarkand, was not always sufficient to preclude
+a request during the night to vacate the best quarters for the
+post-traveler, especially if he happened to wear the regulation brass
+button. To secure us against this inconvenience, and to gain some special
+attention, a letter was obtained from the overseer of the Turkestan post
+and telegraph district. This proved advantageous on many occasions, and
+once, at Auli-eta, was even necessary. We were surveyed with suspicious
+glances as soon as we entered the station-house, and when we asked for
+water to lave our hands and face, we were directed to the irrigating ditch
+in the street. Our request for a better room was answered by the question,
+if the one we had was not good enough, and how long we intended to occupy
+that. Evidently our English conversation had gained for us the covert
+reputation of being English spies, and this was verified in the minds of
+our hosts when we began to ask questions about the city prisons we had
+passed on our way. To every interrogation they replied, "I don't know."
+But presto, change, on the presentation of documents! Apologies were now
+profuse, and besides tea, bread, and eggs, the usual rations of a Russian
+post-station, we were exceptionally favored with chicken soup and
+_verainyik_, the latter consisting of cheese wrapped and boiled in dough,
+and then served in butter.
+
+It has been the custom for travelers in Russia to decry the Russian
+post-station, but the fact is that an appreciation of this rather
+primitive form of accommodation depends entirely upon whether you approach
+it from a European hotel or from a Persian khan. Some are clean, while
+others are dirty. Nevertheless, it was always a welcome sight to see a
+small white building looming up in the dim horizon at the close of a long
+day's ride, and, on near approach, to observe the black and white striped
+post in front, and idle tarantasses around it. At the door would be found
+the usual crowd of Kirghiz post-drivers. After the presentation of
+documents to the _starosta_, who would hesitate at first about quartering
+our horses in the travelers' room, we would proceed at once to place our
+dust-covered heads beneath the spindle of the washing-tank. Although by
+this dripping-pan arrangement we would usually succeed in getting as much
+water down our backs as on our faces, yet we were consoled by the thought
+that too much was better than not enough, as had been the case in Turkey
+and Persia. Then we would settle down before the steaming samovar to
+meditate in solitude and quiet, while the rays of the declining sun shone
+on the gilded eikon in the corner of the room, and on the chromo-covered
+walls. When darkness fell, and the simmering music of the samovar had
+gradually died away; when the flitting swallows in the room had ceased
+their chirp, and settled down upon the rafters overhead, we ourselves
+would turn in under our fur-lined coats upon the leather-covered benches.
+
+In consequence of the first of a series of accidents to our wheels, we
+were for several days the guests of the director of the botanical gardens
+at Pishpek. As a branch of the Crown botanical gardens at St. Petersburg,
+some valuable experiments were being made here with foreign seeds and
+plants. Peaches, we were told, do not thrive, but apples, pears, cherries,
+and the various kinds of berries, grow as well as they do at home. Rye,
+however, takes three years to reach the height of one year in America.
+Through the Russians, these people have obtained high-flown ideas of
+America and Americans. We saw many chromos of American celebrities in the
+various station-houses, and the most numerous was that of Thomas A.
+Edison. His phonograph, we were told, had already made its appearance in
+Pishpek, but the natives did not seem to realize what it was. "Why," they
+said, "we have often heard better music than that." Dr. Tanner was not
+without his share of fame in this far-away country. During his fast in
+America, a similar, though not voluntary, feat was being performed here. A
+Kirghiz messenger who had been despatched into the mountains during the
+winter was lost in the snow, and remained for twenty-eight days without
+food. He was found at last, crazed by hunger. When asked what he would
+have to eat, he replied, "Everything." They foolishly gave him
+"everything," and in two days he was dead. For a long time he was called
+the "Doctor Tanner of Turkestan."
+
+  [Illustration: UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.]
+
+A divergence of seventy-five miles from the regular post-route was made in
+order to visit Lake Issik Kul, which is probably the largest lake for its
+elevation in the world, being about ten times larger than Lake Geneva, and
+at a height of 5300 feet. Its slightly brackish water, which never
+freezes, teems with several varieties of fish, many of which we helped to
+unhook from a Russian fisherman's line, and then helped to eat in his
+primitive hut near the shore. A Russian Cossack, who had just come over
+the snow-capped Ala Tau, "of the Shade," from Fort Narin, was also
+present, and from the frequent glances cast at the fisherman's daughter we
+soon discovered the object of his visit. The ascent to this lake, through
+the famous Buam Defile, or Happy Pass, afforded some of the grandest
+scenery on our route through Asia. Its seething, foaming, irresistible
+torrent needs only a large volume to make it the equal of the rapids at
+Niagara.
+
+Our return to the post-road was made by an unbeaten track over the Ala Tau
+mountains. From the Chu valley, dotted here and there with Kirghiz tent
+villages and their grazing flocks and herds, we pushed our wheels up the
+broken path, which wound like a mythical stairway far up into the
+low-hanging clouds. We trudged up one of the steepest ascents we have ever
+made with a wheel. The scenery was grand, but lonely. The wild tulips,
+pinks, and verbenas dotting the green slopes furnished the only pleasant
+diversion from our arduous labor. Just as we turned the highest summit,
+the clouds shifted for a moment, and revealed before us two Kirghiz
+horsemen. They started back in astonishment, and gazed at us as though we
+were demons of the air, until we disappeared again down the opposite and
+more gradual slope. Late in the afternoon we emerged upon the plain, but
+no post-road or station-house was in sight, as we expected; nothing but a
+few Kirghiz kibitkas among the straggling rocks, like the tents of the
+Egyptian Arabs among the fallen stones of the pyramids.
+
+  [Illustration: KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER.]
+
+Toward these we now directed our course, and, in view of a rapidly
+approaching storm, asked to purchase a night's lodging. This was only too
+willingly granted in anticipation of the coming _tomasha_, or exhibition.
+The milkmaids as they went out to the rows of sheep and goats tied to the
+lines of woolen rope, and the horsemen with reinless horses to drive in
+the ranging herds, spread the news from tent to tent. By the time darkness
+fell the kibitka was filled to overflowing. We were given the seat of
+honor opposite the doorway, bolstered up with blankets and pillows. By the
+light of the fire curling its smoke upward through the central opening in
+the roof, it was interesting to note the faces of our hosts. We had never
+met a people of a more peaceful temperament, and, on the other hand, none
+more easily frightened. A dread of the evil eye is one of their
+characteristics. We had not been settled long before the _ishan_, or
+itinerant dervish, was called in to drive away the evil spirits, which the
+"devil's carts" might possibly have brought. Immediately on entering, he
+began to shrug his shoulders, and to shiver as though passing into a state
+of trance. Our dervish acquaintance was a man of more than average
+intelligence. He had traveled in India, and had even heard some one speak
+of America. This fact alone was sufficient to warrant him in posing as
+instructor for the rest of the assembly. While we were drinking tea, a
+habit they have recently adopted from the Russians, he held forth at great
+length to his audience about the _Amerikon_.
+
+The rain now began to descend in torrents. The felt covering was drawn
+over the central opening, and propped up at one end with a pole to emit
+the clouds of smoke from the smoldering fire. This was shifted with the
+veering wind. Although a mere circular rib framework covered with white or
+brown felt, according as the occupant is rich or poor, the Kirghiz
+kibitka, or more properly _yurt_, is not as a house builded upon the sand,
+even in the fiercest storm. Its stanchness and comfort are surprising when
+we consider the rapidity with which it may be taken down and transported.
+In half an hour a whole village may vanish, emigrating northward in
+summer, and southward in winter. Many a Kirghiz cavalcade was overtaken on
+the road, with long tent-ribs and felts tied upon the backs of two-humped
+camels, for the Bactrian dromedary has not been able to endure the
+severities of these Northern climates. The men would always be mounted on
+the camels' or horses' backs, while the women would be perched on the oxen
+and bullocks, trained for the saddle and as beasts of burden. The men
+never walk; if there is any leading to be done it falls to the women. The
+constant use of the saddle has made many of the men bandy-legged, which,
+in connection with their usual obesity,--with them a mark of dignity,--gives
+them a comical appearance.
+
+After their curiosity regarding us had been partly satisfied, it was
+suggested that a sheep should be slaughtered in our honor. Neither meat
+nor bread is ever eaten by any but the rich Kirghiz. Their universal
+kumiss, corresponding to the Turkish yaourt, or coagulated milk, and other
+forms of lacteal dishes, sometimes mixed with meal, form the chief diet of
+the poor. The wife of our host, a buxom woman, who, as we had seen, could
+leap upon a horse's back as readily as a man, now entered the doorway,
+carrying a full-grown sheep by its woolly coat. This she twirled over on
+its back, and held down with her knee while the butcher artist drew a
+dagger from his belt, and held it aloft until the assembly stroked their
+scant beards, and uttered the solemn bismillah. Tired out by the day's
+ride, we fell asleep before the arrangements for the feast had been
+completed. When awakened near midnight, we found that the savory odor from
+the huge caldron on the fire had only increased the attraction and the
+crowd. The choicest bits were now selected for the guests. These consisted
+of pieces of liver, served with lumps of fat from the tail of their
+peculiarly fat-tailed sheep. As an act of the highest hospitality, our
+host dipped these into some liquid grease, and then, reaching over, placed
+them in our mouths with his fingers. It required considerable effort on
+this occasion to subject our feelings of nausea to a sense of Kirghiz
+politeness. In keeping with their characteristic generosity, every one in
+the kibitka must partake in some measure of the feast, although the women,
+who had done all the work, must be content with remnants and bones already
+picked over by the host. But this disposition to share everything was not
+without its other aspect; we also were expected to share everything with
+them. We were asked to bestow any little trinket or nick-nack exposed to
+view. Any extra nut on the machine, a handkerchief, a packet of tea, or a
+lump of sugar, excited their cupidity at once. The latter was considered a
+bonbon by the women and younger portion of the spectators. The attractive
+daughter of our host, "Kumiss John," amused herself by stealing lumps of
+sugar from our pockets. When the feast was ended, the beards were again
+stroked, the name of Allah solemnly uttered by way of thanks for the
+bounty of heaven, and then each gave utterance to his appreciation of the
+meal.
+
+Before retiring for the night, the dervish led the prayers, just as he had
+done at sunset. The praying-mats were spread, and all heads bowed toward
+Mecca. The only preparation for retiring was the spreading of blankets
+from the pile in one of the kibitkas. The Kirghiz are not in the habit of
+removing many garments for this purpose, and under the circumstances we
+found this custom a rather convenient one. Six of us turned in on the
+floor together, forming a semicircle, with our feet toward the fire.
+"Kumiss John," who was evidently the pet of the household, had a rudely
+constructed cot at the far end of the kibitka.
+
+Vernoye, the old Almati, with its broad streets, low wood and brick
+houses, and Russian sign-boards, presented a Siberian aspect. The ruins of
+its many disastrous earthquakes lying low on every hand told us at once
+the cause of its deserted thoroughfares. The terrible shocks of the year
+before our visit killed several hundred people, and a whole mountain in
+the vicinity sank. The only hope of its persistent residents is a branch
+from the Transsiberian or Transcaspian railroad, or the reannexation by
+Russia of the fertile province of Ili, to make it an indispensable depot.
+Despite these periodical calamities, Vernoye has had, and is now
+constructing, under the genius of the French architect, Paul L. Gourdet,
+some of the finest edifices to be found in central Asia. The orphan
+asylum, a magnificent three-story structure, is now being built on
+experimental lines, to test its strength against earthquake shocks.
+
+  [Illustration: FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE
+  COSSACKS.]
+
+One of the chief incidents of our pleasant sojourn was afforded by
+Governor Ivanoff. We were invited to head the procession of the Cossacks
+on their annual departure for their summer encampment in the mountains.
+After the usual religious ceremony, they filed out from the city
+parade-ground. Being unavoidably detained for a few moments, we did not
+come up until some time after the column had started. As we dashed by to
+the front with the American and Russian flags fluttering side by side from
+the handle-bars, cheer after cheer arose from the ranks, and even the
+governor and his party doffed their caps in acknowledgment. At the camp we
+were favored with a special exhibition of horsemanship. By a single twist
+of the rein the steeds would fall to the ground, and their riders crouch
+down behind them as a bulwark in battle. Then dashing forward at full
+speed, they would spring to the ground, and leap back again into the
+saddle, or, hanging by their legs, would reach over and pick up a
+handkerchief, cap, or a soldier supposed to be wounded. All these
+movements we photographed with our camera. Of the endurance of these
+Cossacks and their Kirghiz horses we had a practical test. Overtaking a
+Cossack courier in the early part of a day's journey, he became so
+interested in the velocipede, as the Russians call the bicycle, that he
+determined to see as much of it as possible. He stayed with us the whole
+day, over a distance of fifty-five miles. His chief compensation was in
+witnessing the surprise of the natives to whom he would shout across the
+fields to come and see the _tomasha_, adding in explanation that we were
+the American gentlemen who had ridden all the way from America. Our speed
+was not slow, and frequently the poor fellow would have to resort to the
+whip, or shout, "Slowly, gentlemen, my horse is tired; the town is not far
+away, it is not necessary to hurry so." The fact is that in all our
+experience we found no horse of even the famed Kirghiz or Turkoman breed
+that could travel with the same ease and rapidity as ourselves even over
+the most ordinary road.
+
+At Vernoye we began to glean practical information about China, but all
+except our genial host, M. Gourdet, counseled us against our proposed
+journey. He alone, as a traveler of experience, advised a divergence from
+the Siberian route at Altin Imell, in order to visit the Chinese city of
+Kuldja, where, as he said, with the assistance of the resident Russian
+consul we could test the validity of the Chinese passport received, as
+before mentioned, from the Chinese minister at London.
+
+A few days later we were rolling up the valley of the Ili, having crossed
+that river by the well-constructed Russian bridge at Fort Iliysk, the head
+of navigation for the boats from Lake Balkash. New faces here met our
+curious gaze. As an ethnological transition between the inhabitants of
+central Asia and the Chinese, we were now among two distinctly
+agricultural races--the Dungans and Taranchis. As the invited guests of
+these people on several occasions, we were struck with their extreme
+cleanliness, economy, and industry; but their deep-set eyes seem to
+express reckless cruelty.
+
+  [Illustration: STROLLING MUSICIANS.]
+
+The Mohammedan mosques of this people are like the Chinese pagodas in
+outward appearance, while they seem to be Chinese in half-Kirghiz
+garments. Their women, too, do not veil themselves, although they are much
+more shy than their rugged sisters of the steppes. Tenacious of their
+word, these people were also scrupulous about returning favors. Our
+exhibitions were usually rewarded by a spread of sweets and yellow Dungan
+tea. Of this we would partake beneath the shade of their well-trained
+grape-arbors, while listening to the music, or rather discord, of a
+peculiar stringed instrument played by the boys. Its bow of two parts was
+so interlaced with the strings of the instrument as to play upon two at
+every draw. Another musician usually accompanied by beating little sticks
+on a saucer.
+
+These are the people who were introduced by the Manchus to replace the
+Kalmucks in the Kuldja district, and who in 1869 so terribly avenged upon
+their masters the blood they previously caused to flow. The fertile
+province of Kuldja, with a population of 2,500,000, was reduced by their
+massacres to one vast necropolis. On all sides are canals that have become
+swamps, abandoned fields, wasted forests, and towns and villages in ruins,
+in some of which the ground is still strewn with the bleached bones of the
+murdered.
+
+As we ascended the Ili valley piles of stones marked in succession the
+sites of the towns of Turgen, Jarkend, Akkend, and Khorgos, names which
+the Russians are already reviving in their pioneer settlements. The
+largest of these, Jarkend, is the coming frontier town, to take the place
+of evacuated Kuldja. About twenty-two miles east of this point the large
+white Russian fort of Khorgos stands bristling on the bank of the river of
+that name, which, by the treaty of 1881, is now the boundary-line of the
+Celestial empire. On a ledge of rocks overlooking the ford a Russian
+sentinel was walking his beat in the solitude of a dreary outpost. He
+stopped to watch us as we plunged into the flood, with our Russian telega
+for a ferry-boat. "All's well," we heard him cry, as, bumping over the
+rocky bottom, we passed from Russia into China. "Ah, yes," we thought;
+" 'All's well that ends well,' but this is only the beginning."
+
+  [Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA.]
+
+A few minutes later we dashed through the arched driveway of the Chinese
+custom-house, and were several yards away before the lounging officials
+realized what it was that flitted across their vision. "Stop! Come back!"
+they shouted in broken Russian. Amid a confusion of chattering voices,
+rustling gowns, clattering shoes, swinging pigtails, and clouds of opium
+and tobacco smoke, we were brought into the presence of the head official.
+Putting on his huge spectacles, he read aloud the vise written upon our
+American passports by the Chinese minister in London. His wonderment was
+increased when he further read that such a journey was being made on the
+"foot-moved carriages," which were being curiously fingered by the
+attendants. Our garments were minutely scrutinized, especially the
+buttons, while our caps and dark-colored spectacles were taken from our
+heads, and passed round for each to try on in turn, amid much laughter.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA.]
+
+Owing to the predominant influence of Russia in these northwestern
+confines, our Russian papers would have been quite sufficient to cross the
+border into Kuldja. It was only beyond this point that our Chinese
+passport would be found necessary, and possibly invalid. After the usual
+vises had been stamped and written over, we were off on what proved to be
+our six months' experience in the "Middle Kingdom or Central Empire," as
+the natives call it, for to Chinamen there is a fifth point to the
+compass--the center, which is China. Not far on the road we heard the
+clatter of hoofs behind us. A Kalmuck was dashing toward us with a
+portentous look on his features. We dismounted in apprehension. He stopped
+short some twenty feet away, leaped to the ground, and, crawling up on
+hands and knees, began to _chin-chin_ or knock his head on the ground
+before us. This he continued for some moments, and then without a word
+gazed at us in wild astonishment. Our perplexity over this performance was
+increased when, at a neighboring village, a bewildered Chinaman sprang out
+from the speechless crowd, and threw himself in the road before us. By a
+dexterous turn we missed his head, and passed over his extended queue.
+
+  [Illustration: TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA
+  INN.]
+
+Kuldja, with its Russian consul and Cossack station, still maintains a
+Russian telegraph and postal service. The mail is carried from the border
+in a train of three or four telegas, which rattle along over the primitive
+roads in a cloud of dust, with armed Cossacks galloping before and after,
+and a Russian flag carried by the herald in front. Even in the Kuldja
+post-office a heavily armed picket stands guard over the money-chest. This
+postal caravan we now overtook encamped by a small stream, during the
+glaring heat of the afternoon. We found that we had been expected several
+days before, and that quarters had been prepared for us in the postal
+station at the town of Suidun. Here we spent the night, and continued on
+to Kuldja the following morning.
+
+Although built by the Chinese, who call it Nin-yuan, Kuldja, with its
+houses of beaten earth, strongly resembles the towns of Russian Turkestan.
+Since the evacuation by the Russians the Chinese have built around the
+city the usual quadrangular wall, thirty feet in height and twenty feet in
+width, with parapets still in the course of construction. But the rows of
+poplars, the whitewash, and the telegas were still left to remind us of
+the temporary Russian occupation. For several days we were objects of
+excited interest to the mixed population. The doors and windows of our
+Russian quarters were besieged by crowds. In defense of our host, we gave
+a public exhibition, and with the consent of the _Tootai_ made the circuit
+on the top of the city walls. Fully 3000 people lined the streets and
+housetops to witness the race to which we had been challenged by four
+Dungan horsemen, riding below on the encircling roadway. The distance
+around was two miles. The horsemen started with a rush, and at the end of
+the first mile were ahead. At the third turning we overtook them, and came
+to the finish two hundred yards ahead, amid great excitement. Even the
+commander of the Kuldja forces was brushed aside by the chasing rabble.
+
+  [Illustration: A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    V
+
+
+   OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL
+
+
+Russian influence, which even now predominates at Kuldja, was forcibly
+indicated, the day after our arrival, during our investigations as to the
+validity of our Chinese passports for the journey to Peking. The Russian
+consul, whose favor we had secured in advance through letters from
+Governor Ivanoff at Vernoye, had pronounced them not only good, but by far
+the best that had been presented by any traveler entering China at this
+point. After endeavoring to dissuade us from what he called a foolhardy
+undertaking, even with the most valuable papers, he sent us, with his
+interpreter, to the Kuldja Tootai for the proper vise.
+
+That dignitary, although deeply interested, was almost amused at the
+boldness of our enterprise. He said that no passport would insure success
+by the method we proposed to pursue; that, before he could allow us to
+make the venture, we must wait for an order from Peking. This, he said,
+would subject us to considerable delay and expense, even if the telegraph
+and post were utilized through Siberia and Kiakhta. This was discouraging
+indeed. But when we discovered, a few minutes later, that his highness had
+to call in the learned secretary to trace our proposed route for him on
+the map of China, and even to locate the capital, Peking, we began to
+question his knowledge of Chinese diplomacy. The matter was again referred
+to the consul, who reported back the following day that his previous
+assurances were reliable, that the Tootai would make the necessary vises,
+and send away at once, by the regular relay post across the empire, an
+open letter that could be read by the officials along the route, and be
+delivered long before our arrival at Peking. Such easy success we had not
+anticipated. The difficulty, as well as necessity, of obtaining the proper
+credentials for traveling in China was impressed upon us by the arrest the
+previous day of three Afghan visitors, and by the fact that a German
+traveler had been refused, just a few weeks before, permission even to
+cross the Mozart pass into Kashgar. So much, we thought, for Russian
+friendship.
+
+Upon this assurance of at least official consent to hazard the journey to
+Peking, a telegram was sent to the chief of police at Tomsk, to whose care
+we had directed our letters, photographic material, and bicycle supplies
+to be sent from London in the expectation of being forced to take the
+Siberian route. These last could not have been dispensed with much longer,
+as our cushion-tires, ball-bearings, and axles were badly worn, while the
+rim of one of the rear wheels was broken in eight places for the lack of
+spokes. These supplies, however, did not reach us till six weeks after the
+date of our telegram, to which a prepaid reply was received, after a
+week's delay, asking in advance for the extra postage. This, with that
+prepaid from London, amounted to just fifty dollars. The warm weather,
+after the extreme cold of a Siberian winter, had caused the tires to
+stretch so much beyond their intended size that, on their arrival, they
+were almost unfit for use. Some of our photographic material also had been
+spoiled through the useless inspection of postal officials.
+
+  [Illustration: THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS
+  FAMILY.]
+
+The delay thus caused was well utilized in familiarizing ourselves as much
+as possible with the language and characteristics of the Chinese, for, as
+we were without guides, interpreters, or servants, and in some places
+lacked even official assistance, no travelers, perhaps, were ever more
+dependent upon the people than ourselves. The Chinese language, the most
+primitive in the world, is, for this very reason perhaps, the hardest to
+learn. Its poverty of words reduces its grammar almost to a question of
+syntax and intonation. Many a time our expressions, by a wrong inflection,
+would convey a meaning different from the one intended. Even when told the
+difference, our ears could not detect it.
+
+Our work of preparation was principally a process of elimination. We now
+had to prepare for a forced march in case of necessity. Handle-bars and
+seat-posts were shortened to save weight, and even the leather
+baggage-carriers, fitting in the frames of the machines, which we
+ourselves had patented before leaving England, were replaced by a couple
+of sleeping-bags made for us out of woolen shawls and Chinese
+oiled-canvas. The cutting off of buttons and extra parts of our clothing,
+as well as the shaving of our heads and faces, was also included by our
+friends in the list of curtailments. For the same reason one of our
+cameras, which we always carried on our backs, and refilled at night under
+the bedclothes, we sold to a Chinese photographer at Suidun, to make room
+for an extra provision-bag. The surplus film, with our extra baggage, was
+shipped by post, via Siberia and Kiakhta, to meet us on our arrival in
+Peking.
+
+  [Illustration: VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE.]
+
+And now the money problem was the most perplexing of all. "This alone,"
+said the Russian consul, "if nothing else, will defeat your plans." Those
+Western bankers who advertise to furnish "letters of credit to any part of
+the world" are, to say the least, rather sweeping in their assertions. At
+any rate, our own London letter was of no use beyond the Bosporus, except
+with the Persian imperial banks run by an English syndicate. At the
+American Bible House at Constantinople we were allowed, as a personal
+favor, to buy drafts on the various missionaries along the route through
+Asiatic Turkey. But in central Asia we found that the Russian bankers and
+merchants would not handle English paper, and we were therefore compelled
+to send our letter of credit by mail to Moscow. Thither we had recently
+sent it on leaving Tashkend, with instructions to remit in currency to
+Irkutsk, Siberia. We now had to telegraph to that point to re-forward over
+the Kiakhta post-route to Peking. With the cash on hand, and the proceeds
+of the camera, sold for more than half its weight in silver, four and one
+third pounds, we thought we had sufficient money to carry us, or, rather,
+as much as we could carry, to that point; for the weight of the Chinese
+money necessary for a journey of over three thousand miles was, as the
+Russian consul thought, one of the greatest of our almost insurmountable
+obstacles. In the interior of China there is no coin except the _chen_, or
+_sapeks_, an alloy of copper and tin, in the form of a disk, having a hole
+in the center by which the coins may be strung together. The very recently
+coined _liang_, or _tael_, the Mexican piaster specially minted for the
+Chinese market, and the other foreign coins, have not yet penetrated from
+the coast. For six hundred miles over the border, however, we found both
+the Russian money and language serviceable among the Tatar merchants,
+while the _tenga_, or Kashgar silver-piece, was preferred by the natives
+even beyond the Gobi, being much handier than the larger or smaller bits
+of silver broken from the _yamba_ bricks. All, however, would have to be
+weighed in the _tinza_, or small Chinese scales we carried with us, and on
+which were marked the _fuen_, _tchan_, and _liang_ of the monetary scale.
+But the value of these terms is reckoned in _chen_, and changes with
+almost every district. This necessity for vigilance, together with the
+frequency of bad silver and loaded _yambas_, and the propensity of the
+Chinese to "knock down" on even the smallest purchase, tends to convert a
+traveler in China into a veritable Shylock. There being no banks or
+exchanges in the interior, we were obliged to purchase at Kuldja all the
+silver we would need for the entire journey of over three thousand miles.
+"How much would it take?" was the question that our past experience in
+Asiatic travel now aided us to answer. That our calculations were close is
+proved by the fact that we reached Peking with silver in our pockets to
+the value of half a dollar. Our money now constituted the principal part
+of our luggage, which, with camera and film, weighed just twenty-five
+pounds apiece. Most of the silver was chopped up into small bits, and
+placed in the hollow tubing of the machines to conceal it from Chinese
+inquisitiveness, if not something worse. We are glad to say, however, that
+no attempt at robbery was ever discovered, although efforts at extortion
+were frequent, and sometimes, as will appear, of a serious nature.
+
+  [Illustration: OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH
+  ENOUGH CHINESE "CASH" TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT.]
+
+The blowing of the long horns and boom of the mortar cannon at the fort
+awoke us at daylight on the morning of July 13. Farewells had been said
+the night before. Only our good-hearted Russian host was up to put an
+extra morsel in our provision-bag, for, as he said, we could get no food
+until we reached the Kirghiz aouls on the high plateau of the Talki pass,
+by which we were to cut across over unbeaten paths to the regular
+so-called imperial highway, running from Suidun. From the Catholic
+missionaries at Kuldja we had obtained very accurate information about
+this route as far as the Gobi desert. The expression Tian Shan Pe-lu, or
+northern Tian Shan route, in opposition to the Tian Shan Nan-lu, or
+southern Tian Shan route, shows that the Chinese had fully appreciated the
+importance of this historic highway, which continues the road running from
+the extreme western gate of the Great Wall obliquely across Mongolian
+Kan-su, through Hami and Barkul, to Urumtsi. From here the two natural
+highways lead, one to the head-waters of the Black Irtish, the other to
+the passes leading into the Ili valley, and other routes of the
+Arolo-Caspian depression. The latter route, which is now commanded at
+intervals by Chinese forts and military settlements, was recently
+relinquished by Russia only when she had obtained a more permanent footing
+on the former in the trading-posts of Chuguchak and Kobdo, for she very
+early recognized the importance of this most natural entry to the only
+feasible route across the Chinese empire. In a glowing sunset, at the end
+of a hot day's climb, we looked for the last time over the Ili valley, and
+at dusk, an hour later, rolled into one of the Kirghiz aouls that are here
+scattered among the rich pasturage of the plateau.
+
+  [Illustration: A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA.]
+
+Even here we found that our reputation had extended from Kuldja. The chief
+advanced with _amans_ of welcome, and the heavy-matted curtains in the
+kibitka doorway were raised, as we passed, in token of honor. When the
+refreshing kumiss was served around the evening camp-fire, the dangers of
+the journey through China were discussed among our hosts with frequent
+looks of misgiving. Thus, from first to last, every judgment was against
+us, and every prediction was of failure, if not of something worse; and
+now, as we stole out from the tent by the light of the rising moon, even
+the specter-like mountain-peaks around us, like symbols of coming events,
+were casting their shadows before. There was something so illusive in the
+scene as to make it very impressive. In the morning, early, a score of
+horsemen were ready to escort us on the road. At parting they all
+dismounted and uttered a prayer to Allah for our safety; and then as we
+rode away, drew their fingers across their throats in silence, and waved a
+solemn good-by. Such was the almost superstitious fear of these western
+nomads for the land which once sent forth a Yengiz Khan along this very
+highway.
+
+  [Illustration: PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT.]
+
+Down the narrow valley of the Kuitun, which flows into the Ebi-nor,
+startling the mountain deer from the brink of the tree-arched rivulet, we
+reached a spot which once was the haunt of a band of those border-robbers
+about whom we had heard so much from our apprehensive friends. At the base
+of a volcano-shaped mountain lay the ruins of their former dens, from
+which only a year ago they were wont to sally forth on the passing
+caravans. When they were exterminated by the government, the head of their
+chief, with its dangling queue, was mounted on a pole near-by, and
+preserved in a cage from birds of prey, as a warning to all others who
+might aspire to the same notoriety. In this lonely spot we were forced to
+spend the night, as here occurred, through the carelessness of the Kuldja
+Russian blacksmith, a very serious break in one of our gear wheels. It was
+too late in the day to walk back the sixteen miles to the Kirghiz
+encampment, and there obtain horses for the remaining fifty-eight miles to
+Kuldja, for nowhere else, we concluded, could such a break be mended. Our
+sleeping-bags were now put to a severe test between the damp ground and
+the heavy mountain dew. The penetrating cold, and the occasional
+panther-like cry of some prowling animal, kept us awake the greater part
+of the night, awaiting with revolvers in hand some expected attack.
+
+  [Illustration: THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY.]
+
+Five days later we had repassed this spot and were toiling over the sand
+and saline-covered depression of the great "Han-Hai," or Dried-up Sea. The
+mountain freshets, dissolving the salt from their sandy channels, carry it
+down in solution and deposit it with evaporation in massive layers,
+forming a comparatively hard roadway in the midst of the shifting
+sand-dunes. Over these latter our progress was extremely slow. One stretch
+of fifteen miles, which it took us six hours to cover, was as formidable
+as any part of the Turkoman desert along the Transcaspian railway. At an
+altitude of only six hundred feet above the sea, according to our aneroid
+barometer, and beneath the rays of a July sun against which even our felt
+caps were not much protection, we were half-dragging, half-pushing, our
+wheels through a foot of sand, and slapping at the mosquitos swarming upon
+our necks and faces. These pests, which throughout this low country are
+the largest and most numerous we have ever met, are bred in the
+intermediate swamps, which exist only through the negligence of the
+neighboring villagers. At night smoldering fires, which half suffocate the
+human inmates, are built before the doors and windows to keep out the
+intruding insects. All travelers wear gloves, and a huge hood covering the
+head and face up to the eyes, and in their hands carry a horse-tail switch
+to lash back and forth over their shoulders. Being without such protection
+we suffered both day and night.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF
+  KULDJA.]
+
+The mountain freshets all along the road to Urumtsi were more frequent and
+dangerous than any we had yet encountered. Toward evening the melting
+snows, and the condensing currents from the plain heated during the day,
+fill and overflow the channels that in the morning are almost dry. One
+stream, with its ten branches, swept the stones and boulders over a
+shifting channel one mile in width. It was when wading through such
+streams as this, where every effort was required to balance ourselves and
+our luggage, that the mosquitos would make up for lost time with impunity.
+The river, before reaching Manas, was so swift and deep as to necessitate
+the use of regular government carts. A team of three horses, on making a
+misstep, were shifted away from the ford into deep water and carried far
+down the stream. A caravan of Chinese traveling-vans, loaded with goods
+from India, were crossing at the time, on their way to the outlying
+provinces and the Russian border. General Bauman at Vernoye had informed
+us that in this way English goods were swung clear around the circle and
+brought into Russia through the unguarded back door.
+
+With constant wading and tramping, our Russian shoes and stockings, one of
+which was almost torn off by the sly grab of a Chinese spaniel, were no
+longer fit for use. In their place we were now obliged to purchase the
+short, white cloth Chinese socks and string sandals, which for mere
+cycling purposes and wading streams proved an excellent substitute, being
+light and soft on the feet and very quickly dried. The calves of our legs,
+however, being left bare, we were obliged, for state occasions at least,
+to retain and utilize the upper portion of our old stockings. It was owing
+to this scantiness of wardrobe that we were obliged when taking a bath by
+the roadside streams to make a quick wash of our linen, and put it on wet
+to dry, or allow it to flutter from the handle-bars as we rode along. It
+was astonishing even to ourselves how little a man required when once
+beyond the pale of Western conventionalities.
+
+  [Illustration: SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE.]
+
+From Manas to Urumtsi we began to strike more tillage and fertility.
+Maize, wheat, and rice were growing, but rather low and thin. The last is
+by no means the staple food of China, as is commonly supposed, except in
+the southern portion. In the northern, and especially the outlying,
+provinces it is considered more a luxury for the wealthy. Millet and
+coarse flour, from which the _mien_ or dough-strings are made, is the
+foundation, at least, for more than half the subsistence of the common
+classes. Nor is there much truth, we think, in the assertion that Chinamen
+eat rats, although we sometimes regretted that they did not. After a month
+or more without meat a dish of rats would have been relished, had we been
+able to get it. On the other hand we have learned that there is a society
+of Chinamen who are vegetarians from choice, and still another that will
+eat the meat of no animal, such as the ass, horse, dog, etc., which can
+serve man in a better way.
+
+  [Illustration: THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM
+  SMOKING.]
+
+Urumtsi, or Hun-miao (red temple) of the Chinese, still retains its
+ancient prestige in being the seat of government for the viceroyalty of
+Sin-tsiang, which includes all that portion of western China lying without
+the limit of Mongolia and Tibet. Thanks to its happy position, it has
+always rapidly recovered after every fresh disaster. It now does
+considerable trade with Russia through the town of Chuguchak, and with
+China through the great gap which here occurs in the Tian Shan range. It
+lies in a picturesque amphitheater behind the solitary "Holy Mount," which
+towers above a well-constructed bridge across its swiftly flowing river.
+This city was one of our principal landmarks across the empire; a long
+stage of the journey was here completed.
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS.]
+
+On entering a Chinese city we always made it a rule to run rapidly through
+until we came to an inn, and then lock up our wheels before the crowd
+could collect. Urumtsi, however, was too large and intricate for such a
+manoeuver. We were obliged to dismount in the principal thoroughfare. The
+excited throng pressed in upon us. Among them was a Chinaman who could
+talk a little Russian, and who undertook to direct us to a comfortable inn
+at the far end of the city. This street parade gathered to the inn yard an
+overwhelming mob, and announced to the whole community that "the foreign
+horses" had come. It had been posted, we were told, a month before, that
+"two people of the new world" were coming through on "strange iron
+horses," and every one was requested not to molest them. By this, public
+curiosity was raised to the highest pitch. When we returned from supper at
+a neighboring restaurant, we were treated to a novel scene. The doors and
+windows of our apartments had been blocked with boxes, bales of cotton,
+and huge cart-wheels to keep out the irrepressible throng. Our host was
+agitated to tears; he came out wringing his hands, and urging upon us that
+any attempt on our part to enter would cause a rush that would break his
+house down. We listened to his entreaties on the condition that we should
+be allowed to mount to the roof with a ladder, to get away from the
+annoying curiosity of the crowd. There we sat through the evening
+twilight, while the crowd below, somewhat balked, but not discouraged,
+stood taking in every move. Nightfall and a drizzling rain came at last to
+our relief.
+
+The next morning a squad of soldiers was despatched to raise the siege,
+and at the same time presents began to arrive from the various officials,
+from the Tsongtu, or viceroy, down to the superintendent of the local
+prisons. The matter of how much to accept of a Chinese present, and how
+much to pay for it, in the way of a tip to the bearer, is one of the
+finest points of that finest of fine arts, Chinese etiquette; and yet in
+the midst of such an abundance and variety we were hopelessly at sea.
+Fruits and teas were brought, together with meats and chickens, and even a
+live sheep. Our Chinese visiting-cards--with the Chinese the great insignia
+of rank--were now returned for those sent with the presents, and the hour
+appointed for the exhibition of our bicycles as requested.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI.]
+
+Long before the time, the streets and housetops leading from the inn to
+the viceroy's palace at the far end of the city began to fill with people,
+and soldiers were detailed at our request to make an opening for us to
+ride through abreast. This, however, did not prevent the crowd from
+pushing us against each other, or sticking sticks in the wheels, or
+throwing their hats and shoes in front of us, as we rode by. When in sight
+of the viceroy's palace, they closed in on us entirely. It was the worst
+jam we had ever been in. By no possibility could we mount our machines,
+although the mob was growing more and more impatient. They kept shouting
+for us to ride, but would give us no room. Those on the outside pushed the
+inner ones against us. With the greatest difficulty could we preserve our
+equilibrium, and prevent the wheels from being crushed, as we surged along
+toward the palace gate; while all the time our Russian interpreter, Mafoo,
+on horseback in front, continued to shout and gesticulate in the wildest
+manner above their heads. Twenty soldiers had been stationed at the palace
+gate to keep back the mob with cudgels. When we reached them, they pulled
+us and our wheels quickly through into the inclosure, and then tried to
+stem the tide by belaboring the heads and shoulders in reach, including
+those of our unfortunate interpreter, Mafoo. But it was no use. Everything
+was swept away before this surging wave of humanity. The viceroy himself,
+who now came out to receive us, was powerless. All he could do was to
+request them to make room around the palace courtyard for the coming
+exhibition. Thousands of thumbs were uplifted that afternoon, in praise of
+the wonderful _twee-tah-cheh_, or two-wheeled carts, as they witnessed our
+modest attempt at trick riding and special manoeuvering. After refreshments
+in the palace, to which we were invited by the viceroy, we were counseled
+to leave by a rear door, and return by a roundabout way to the inn,
+leaving the mob to wait till dark for our exit from the front.
+
+  [Illustration: A BANK IN URUMTSI.]
+
+The restaurant or tea-house in China takes the place of the Western
+club-room. All the current news and gossip is here circulated and
+discussed over their eating or gambling. One of their games of chance,
+which we have frequently noticed, seems to consist in throwing their
+fingers at one another, and shouting at the top of their voices. It is
+really a matching of numbers, for which the Chinamen make signs on their
+fingers, up to the numeral ten. Our entry into a crowded _dungan_, or
+native Mohammedan restaurant, the next morning, was the signal for
+exciting accounts of the events of the previous day. We were immediately
+invited to take tea with this one, a morning dish of _tung-posas_, or nut
+and sugar dumplings, with another, while a third came over with his can of
+_sojeu_, or Chinese gin, with an invitation "to join him." The Chinese of
+all nations seem to live in order to eat, and from this race of epicures
+has developed a nation of excellent cooks. Our fare in China, outside the
+Gobi district, was far better than in Turkey or Persia, and, for this
+reason, we were better able to endure the increased hardships. A plate of
+sliced meat stewed with vegetables, and served with a piquant sauce,
+sliced radishes and onions with vinegar, two loaves of Chinese _mo-mo_, or
+steamed bread, and a pot of tea, would usually cost us about three and one
+quarter cents apiece. Everything in China is sliced so that it can be
+eaten with the chop-sticks. These we at length learned to manipulate with
+sufficient dexterity to pick up a dove's egg--the highest attainment in the
+chop-stick art. The Chinese have rather a sour than a sweet tooth. Sugar
+is rarely used in anything, and never in tea. The steeped tea-flowers,
+which the higher classes use, are really more tasty without it. In many of
+the smaller towns, our visits to the restaurant would sometimes result in
+considerable damage to its keepers, for the crowd would swarm in after us,
+knocking over the table, stools, and crockery as they went, and collect in
+a circle around us to watch the "foreigners" eat, and to add their opium
+and tobacco smoke to the suffocating atmosphere.
+
+A visit to the local mint in Urumtsi revealed to us the primitive method
+of making the _chen_, or money-disks before mentioned. Each is molded
+instead of cut and stamped as in the West. By its superintendent we were
+invited to a special breakfast on the morning of our departure.
+
+  [Illustration: A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA.]
+
+The Chinese are the only people in the Orient, and, so far as we know, in
+the European and Asiatic continents, who resemble the Americans in their
+love for a good, substantial morning meal. This was much better adapted to
+our purpose than the Russian custom, which compelled us to do the greater
+part of our day's work on merely bread and weak tea.
+
+  [Illustration: STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN.]
+
+From Urumtsi we had decided to take the northern route to Hami, via
+Gutchen and Barkul, in order to avoid as much as possible the sands of the
+Tarim basin on the southern slope of the Tian Shan mountains. Two guards
+were commissioned by the viceroy to take us in charge, and hand us over to
+the next relay station. Papers were given them to be signed by the
+succeeding authorities on our safe arrival. This plan had been adopted by
+every chief mandarin along the route, in order, not only to follow out the
+request of the London minister as written on the passport, but principally
+to do us honor in return for the favor of a bicycle exhibition; but many
+times we would leave our discomfited guards to return with unsigned
+papers. Had we been traveling in the ordinary way, not only these favors
+might not have been shown us, but our project entirely defeated by local
+obstructions, as was the case with many who attempted the same journey by
+caravan. To the good-will of the mandarins, as well as the people, an
+indispensable concomitant of a journey through China, our bicycles were
+after all our best passports. They everywhere overcame the antipathy for
+the foreigner, and made us cordially welcome.
+
+The costumes of our soldiers were strikingly picturesque. Over the front
+and back of the scarlet waistcoats were worked in black silk letters their
+military credentials. Over their full baggy trousers were drawn their
+riding overalls, which cover only the front and sides of the legs, the
+back being cut out just above the cloth top of their Chinese boots.
+Instead of a cap, they wear a piece of printed cloth wrapped tightly
+around the head, like the American washerwomen. Their well-cushioned
+saddles did not save them from the constant jolting to which our high
+speed subjected them. At every stopping-place they would hold forth at
+length to the curious crowd about their roadside experiences. It was
+amusing to hear their graphic descriptions of the mysterious "ding," by
+which they referred to the ring of the cyclometer at every mile. But the
+phrase _quai-ti-henn_ (very fast), which concluded almost every sentence,
+showed what feature impressed them most. Then, too, they disliked very
+much to travel in the heat of the day, for all summer traveling in China
+is done at night. They would wake us up many hours before daylight to make
+a start, despite our previous request to be left alone. Our week's run to
+Barkul was made, with a good natural road and favoring conditions, at the
+rate of fifty-three miles per day, eight miles more than our general
+average across the empire. From Kuldja to the Great Wall, where our
+cyclometer broke, we took accurate measurements of the distances. In this
+way, we soon discovered that the length of a Chinese _li_ was even more
+changeable than the value of the _tael_. According to time and place, from
+185 to 250 were variously reckoned to a degree, while even a difference in
+direction would very often make a considerable difference in the distance.
+It is needless to say that, at this rate, the guards did not stay with us.
+Official courtesy was now confined to despatches sent in advance. Through
+this exceptionally wild district were encountered several herds of
+antelope and wild asses, which the natives were hunting with their long,
+heavy, fork-resting rifles. Through the exceptional tameness of the
+jack-rabbits along the road, we were sometimes enabled to procure with a
+revolver the luxury of a meat supper.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL.]
+
+At Barkul (Tatar) the first evidence of English influence began to appear
+in the place of the fading Russian, although the traces of Russian
+manufacture were by no means wanting far beyond the Great Wall. English
+pulverized sugar now began to take the place of Russian lump. India
+rubber, instead of the Russianized French _elastique_, was the native name
+for our rubber tires. English letters, too, could be recognized on the
+second-hand paper and bagging appropriated to the natives' use, and even
+the gilded buttons worn by the soldiers bore the stamp of "treble gilt."
+From here the road to Hami turns abruptly south, and by a pass of over
+nine thousand feet crosses the declining spurs of the Tian Shan mountains,
+which stand like a barrier between the two great historic highways,
+deflecting the westward waves of migration, some to Kashgaria and others
+to Zungaria. On the southern slope of the pass we met with many large
+caravans of donkeys, dragging down pine-logs to serve as poles in the
+proposed extension of the telegraph-line from Su-Chou to Urumtsi. In June
+of this year the following item appeared in the newspapers:
+
+"Within a few months Peking will be united by wire with St. Petersburg;
+and, in consequence, with the telegraph system of the entire civilized
+world. According to the latest issue of the Turkestan 'Gazette,' the
+telegraph-line from Peking has been brought as far west as the city of
+Kashgar. The European end of the line is at Osh, and a small stretch of
+about 140 miles now alone breaks the direct telegraph communication from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific."
+
+  [Illustration: CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI.]
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA.]
+
+Hami is one of those cities which may be regarded as indispensable. At the
+edge of the Great Gobi and the converging point of the Nan-lu and
+Pe-lu--that is, the southern and northern routes to the western world--this
+oasis is a necessary resting-place. During our stop of two days, to make
+necessary repairs and recuperate our strength for the hardships of the
+desert, the usual calls were exchanged with the leading officials. In the
+matter of social politeness the Chinese, especially the "literati," have
+reason to look down upon the barbarians of the West. Politeness has been
+likened generally to an air-cushion. There is nothing in it, but it eases
+the jolts wonderfully. As a mere ritual of technicalities it has perhaps
+reached its highest point in China. The multitude of honorific titles, so
+bewildering and even maddening to the Occidental, are here used simply to
+keep in view the fixed relations of graduated superiority. When wishing to
+be exceptionally courteous to "the foreigners," the more experienced
+mandarins would lay their doubled fists in the palms of our hands, instead
+of raising them in front of their foreheads, with the usual salutation
+_Homa_. In shaking hands with a Chinaman we thus very often had our hands
+full. After the exchange of visiting-cards, as an indication that their
+visits would be welcome, they would come on foot, in carts, or palanquins,
+according to their rank, and always attended by a larger or smaller
+retinue. Our return visits would always be made by request, on the wheels,
+either alone or with our interpreter, if we could find one, for our
+Chinese was as yet painfully defective. Russian had served us in good
+stead, though not always directly. In a conversation with the Tootai of
+Schicho, for instance, our Russian had to be translated into Turki and
+thence interpreted in Chinese. The more intelligent of these conversations
+were about our own and other countries of the world, especially England
+and Russia, who, it was rumored, had gone to war on the Afghanistan
+border. But the most of them generally consisted of a series of trivial
+interrogations beginning usually with: "How old are you?" Owing to our
+beards, which were now full grown, and which had gained for us the
+frequent title of _yeh renn_, or wild men, the guesses were far above the
+mark. One was even as high as sixty years, for the reason, as was stated,
+that no Chinaman could raise such a beard before that age. We were
+frequently surprised at their persistence in calling us brothers when
+there was no apparent reason for it, and were finally told that we must be
+"because we were both named _Mister_ on our passports."
+
+  [Illustration: A LESSON IN CHINESE.]
+
+  [Illustration: A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+It was already dusk on the evening of August 10 when we drew up to the
+hamlet of Shang-loo-shwee at the end of the Hami oasis. The Great Gobi, in
+its awful loneliness, stretched out before us, like a vast ocean of
+endless space. The growing darkness threw its mantle on the scene, and
+left imagination to picture for us the nightmare of our boyhood days. We
+seemed, as it were, to be standing at the end of the world, looking out
+into the realm of nowhere. Foreboding thoughts disturbed our repose, as we
+contemplated the four hundred miles of this barren stretch to the Great
+Wall of China. With an early morning start, however, we struck out at once
+over the eighty-five miles of the Takla Makan sands. This was the worst we
+could have, for beyond the caravan station of Kooshee we would strike the
+projecting limits of Mongolian Kan-su. This narrow tract, now lying to our
+left between Hami and the Nan Shan mountains, is characterized by
+considerable diversity in its surface, soil, and climate. Traversed by
+several copious streams from the Nan Shan mountains, and the
+moisture-laden currents from the Bay of Bengal and the Brahmaputra valley,
+its "desert" stretches are not the dismal solitudes of the Tarim basin or
+the "Black" and "Red" sands of central Asia. Water is found almost
+everywhere near the surface, and springs bubble up in the hollows, often
+encircled by exterior oases. Everywhere the ground is traversable by
+horses and carts. This comparatively fertile tract, cutting the Gobi into
+two great sections, has been, ever since its conquest two thousand years
+ago, of vast importance to China, being the only feasible avenue of
+communication with the western provinces, and the more important link in
+the only great highway across the empire. A regular line of caravan
+stations is maintained by the constant traffic both in winter and summer.
+But we were now on a bit of the genuine Gobi--that is, "Sandy Desert"--of
+the Mongolian, or "Shamo" of the Chinese. Everywhere was the same
+interminable picture of vast undulating plains of shifting reddish sands,
+interspersed with quartz pebbles, agates, and carnelians, and relieved
+here and there by patches of wiry shrubs, used as fuel at the desert
+stations, or lines of hillocks succeeding each other like waves on the
+surface of the shoreless deep. The wind, even more than the natural
+barrenness of the soil, prevents the growth of any vegetation except low,
+pliant herbage. Withered plants are uprooted and scattered by the gale
+like patches of foam on the stormy sea. These terrible winds, which of
+course were against us, with the frequently heavy cart-tracks, would make
+it quite impossible to ride. The monotony of many weary hours of plodding
+was relieved only by the bones of some abandoned beast of burden, or the
+occasional train of Chinese carts, or rather two-wheeled vans, loaded with
+merchandise, and drawn by five to six horses or mules. For miles away they
+would see us coming, and crane their necks in wondering gaze as we
+approached. The mulish leaders, with distended ears, would view our
+strange-looking vehicles with suspicion, and then lurch far out in their
+twenty-foot traces, pulling the heavily loaded vehicles from the
+deep-rutted track. But the drivers were too busy with their eyes to notice
+any little divergence of this kind. Dumb with astonishment they continued
+to watch us till we disappeared again toward the opposite horizon. Farther
+on we would meet a party of Chinese emigrants or exiles, on their way to
+the fertile regions that skirt the northern and southern slopes of the
+Tian Shan mountains. By these people even the distant valley of the Ili is
+being largely populated. Being on foot, with their extraordinary loads
+balanced on flexible shoulder-poles, these poor fellows could make only
+one station, or from twelve to twenty miles a day. In the presence of
+their patience and endurance, we were ashamed to think of such a thing as
+hardship.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+The station-houses on the desert were nothing more than a collection of
+mud huts near a surface well of strongly brackish water. Here, most of the
+caravans would put up during the day, and travel at night. There was no
+such thing as a restaurant; each one by turn must do his own cooking in
+the inn kitchen, open to all. We, of course, were expected to carry our
+own provisions and do our own culinary work like any other respectable
+travelers. This we had frequently done before where restaurants were not
+to be found. Many a time we would enter an inn with our arms filled with
+provisions, purchased at the neighboring bazaars, take possession of the
+oven and cooking utensils, and proceed to get up an American meal, while
+all the time a hundred eyes or more would be staring at us in blank
+amazement. But here on the desert we could buy nothing but very coarse
+flour. When asked if they had an egg or a piece of vegetable, they would
+shout "_Ma-you_" ("There is none") in a tone of rebuke, as much as to say:
+"My conscience! man, what do you expect on the Gobi?" We would have to be
+content with our own tea made in the iron pot, fitting in the top of the
+mud oven, and a kind of sweetened bread made up with our supply of sugar
+brought from Hami. This we nicknamed our "Gobi cake," although it did
+taste rather strongly of brackish water and the garlic of previous
+contents of the one common cooking-pot. We would usually take a large
+supply for road use on the following day, or, as sometimes proved, for the
+midnight meal of the half-starved inn-dog. The interim between the evening
+meal and bedtime was always employed in writing notes by the feeble,
+flickering light of a primitive taper-lamp, which was the best we had
+throughout the Chinese journey.
+
+  [Illustration: STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN.]
+
+A description of traveling in China would by no means be complete without
+some mention of the vermin which infest, not only inns and houses, but the
+persons of nearly all the lower classes. Lice and fleas seem to be the
+_sine qua non_ of Chinese life, and in fact the itching with some seems to
+furnish the only occasion for exercise. We have seen even shopkeepers
+before their doors on a sunny afternoon, amusing themselves by picking
+these insidious creatures from their inner garments. They are one of the
+necessary evils it seems, and no secret is made of it. The sleeping
+_kangs_ of the Chinese inns, which are made of beaten earth and heated in
+winter like an oven, harbor these pests the year round, not to mention the
+filthy coverlets and greasy pillows that were sometimes offered us. Had we
+not had our own sleeping-bags, and used the camera, provision-bag, and
+coats for pillows, our life would have been intolerable. As it was there
+was but little rest for the weary.
+
+The longest station on the desert was thirty-one miles. This was the only
+time that we suffered at all with thirst. In addition to the high mean
+elevation of the Gobi, about four thousand feet, we had cloudy weather for
+a considerable portion of the journey, and, in the Kan-su district, even a
+heavy thunder-shower. These occasional summer rains form, here and there,
+temporary meres and lakes, which are soon evaporated, leaving nothing
+behind except a saline efflorescence. Elsewhere the ground is furrowed by
+sudden torrents tearing down the slopes of the occasional hills or
+mountains. These dried up river-beds furnished the only continuously hard
+surfaces we found on the Gobi; although even here we were sometimes
+brought up with a round turn in a chuck hole, with the sand flying above
+our heads.
+
+Our aneroid barometer registered approximately six thousand five hundred
+feet, when we reached at dusk the summit of the highest range of hills we
+encountered on the desert journey. But instead of the station-hut we
+expected to find, we were confronted by an old Mongolian monastery. These
+institutions, we had found, were generally situated as this one, at the
+top of some difficult mountain-pass or at the mouth of some cavernous
+gorge, where the pious intercessors might, to the best advantage, strive
+to appease the wrathful forces of nature. In this line of duty the lama
+was no doubt engaged when we walked into his feebly-lighted room, but,
+like all Orientals, he would let nothing interfere with the performance of
+his religious duties. With his gaze centered upon one spot, his fingers
+flew over the string of beads in his lap, and his tongue over the
+stereotyped prayers, with a rapidity that made our head swim. We stood
+unnoticed till the end, when we were at once invited to a cup of tea, and
+directed to our destination, five _li_ beyond. Toward this we plodded
+through the growing darkness and rapidly cooling atmosphere; for in its
+extremes of temperature the Gobi is at once both Siberian and Indian, and
+that, too, within the short period of a few hours. Some of the mornings of
+what proved to be very hot days were cold enough to make our extremities
+fairly tingle.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI.]
+
+A constant diet of bread and tea, together with the hard physical exercise
+and mental anxiety, caused our strength at length to fail.
+
+  [Illustration: A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI.]
+
+The constant drinking of brackish water made one of us so ill that he
+could retain no food. A high fever set in on the evening of August 15, and
+as we pulled into the station of Bay-doon-sah, he was forced to go to bed
+at once. The other, with the aid of our small medicine supply, endeavored
+to ward off the ominous symptoms. In his anxiety, however, to do all that
+was possible he made a serious blunder. Instead of antipyrin he
+administered the poison, sulphate of zinc, which we carried to relieve our
+eyes when inflamed by the alkali dust. This was swallowed before the truth
+was discovered. It was an anxious moment for us both when we picked up the
+paper from the floor and read the inscription. We could do nothing but
+look at each other in silence. Happily it was an overdose, and the
+vomiting which immediately followed relieved both the patient and the
+anxious doctor. What to do we did not know. The patient now suggested that
+his companion should go on without him, and, if possible, send back
+medical aid or proper food; but not to remain and get worse himself. He,
+on the other hand, refused to leave without the other. Then too, the
+outlying town of Ngan-si-chou, the first where proper food and water could
+be obtained, was only one day's journey away. Another effort was decided
+upon. But when morning came, a violent hurricane from the southeast swept
+the sand in our faces, and fairly blew the sick man over on his wheel.
+Famishing with thirst, tired beyond expression, and burning with fever as
+well as the withering heat, we reached at last the bank of the Su-la-ho.
+Eagerly we plunged into its sluggish waters, and waded through under the
+walls of Ngan-si-chou.
+
+  [Illustration: A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT.]
+
+Ngan-si-chou was almost completely destroyed during the late Dungan
+rebellion. Little is now to be seen except heaps of rubbish, ruined
+temples, and the scattered fragments of idols. The neglected gardens no
+longer check the advancing sands, which in some places were drifting over
+the ramparts. Through its abandoned gateway we almost staggered with
+weakness, and directed our course to the miserable bazaar. The only meat
+we could find was pork, that shibboleth between Mohammedanism and
+Confucianism. The Dungan restaurant-keeper would not cook it, and only
+after much persuasion consented to have it prepared outside and brought
+back to be eaten beneath his roof. With better water and more substantial
+food we began, from this time on, to recuperate. But before us still a
+strong head wind was sweeping over the many desert stretches that lay
+between the oases along the Su-la-ho, and with the constant walking our
+sandals and socks were almost worn away. For this reason we were delayed
+one evening in reaching the town of Dyou-min-shan. In the lonely stillness
+of its twilight a horseman was approaching across the barren plain,
+bearing a huge Chinese lantern in his hand, and singing aloud, as is a
+Chinaman's custom, to drive off the evil spirits of the night. He started
+back, as we suddenly appeared, and then dismounted, hurriedly, to throw
+his lantern's glare upon us. "Are you the two Americans?" he asked in an
+agitated manner. His question was surprising. Out in this desert country
+we were not aware that our identity was known, or our visit expected. He
+then explained that he had been instructed by the magistrate of
+Dyou-min-shan to go out and look for us, and escort us into the town. He
+also mentioned in this connection the name of Ling Darin--a name that we
+had heard spoken of almost with veneration ever since leaving Urumtsi. Who
+this personage was we were unable to find out beyond that he was an
+influential mandarin in the city of Su-chou, now only a day's journey
+away.
+
+  [Illustration: WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL.]
+
+Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which our Asiatic journey
+was begun and ended, we now struck, at its extreme western limit, the
+Great Wall of China. The Kiayu-kuan, or "Jade Gate," by which it is here
+intersected, was originally so called from the fact that it led into the
+Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders brought back the precious
+mineral. This, with the Shanghai-kuan near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan,
+on the Nankow pass, are the principal gateways in this "wall of ten
+thousand _li_," which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected the empire
+from the Mongolian nomads for a period of fourteen hundred years. In its
+present condition the Great Wall belongs to various epochs. With the
+sudden and violent transitions of temperature in the severe Mongolian
+climate, it may be doubted whether any portion of Shi Hoangti's original
+work still survives. Nearly all the eastern section, from Ordos to the
+Yellow Sea, was rebuilt in the fifth century, and the double rampart along
+the northwest frontier of the plains of Peking was twice restored in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth. North of Peking, where this prodigious structure
+has a mean height of about twenty-six feet, and width of twenty feet, it
+is still in a state of perfect repair, whereas in many western districts
+along the Gobi frontier, as here before us, it is little more than an
+earthen rampart about fifteen feet in height, while for considerable
+distances, as along the road from Su-chou to Kan-chou, it has entirely
+disappeared for miles at a stretch. Both the gate and the wall at this
+point had been recently repaired. We could now see it rising and falling
+in picturesque undulations as far as the Tibetan ranges. There it stops
+altogether, after a westward course of over fifteen hundred miles. In view
+of what was before us, we could not but smile as we thought of that French
+abbe who undertook, in an elaborate volume, to prove that the "Great Wall
+of China" was nothing more than a myth.
+
+We were now past another long anticipated land-mark, and before us, far
+down in the plain, lay the city of Su-chou, which, as the terminal point
+of the Chinese telegraph-line, would bring us again into electric touch
+with the civilized world. But between us and our goal lay the Edzina
+river, now swollen by a recent freshet. We began to wade cautiously
+through with luggage and wheels balanced on our shoulders. But just at
+that moment we perceived, approaching from the distance, what we took to
+be a mounted Chinese mandarin, and his servant leading behind him two
+richly caparisoned and riderless horses. At sight of us they spurred
+ahead, and reached the opposite bank just as we passed the middle of the
+stream. The leader now rose in his stirrups, waved his hat in the air and
+shouted, in clear though broken English, "Well, gentlemen, you have
+arrived at last!" To hear our mother tongue so unexpectedly spoken in this
+out-of-the-way part of the world, was startling. This strange individual,
+although clad in the regular mandarin garb, was light-complexioned, and
+had an auburn instead of a black queue dangling from his shaven head. He
+grasped us warmly by the hand as we came dripping out of the water, while
+all the time his benevolent countenance fairly beamed with joy. "I am glad
+to see you, gentlemen," he said. "I was afraid you would be taken sick on
+the road ever since I heard you had started across China. I just got the
+news five minutes ago that you were at Kiayu-kuan, and immediately came
+out with these two horses to bring you across the river, which I feared
+would be too deep and swift for you. Mount your ponies, and we will ride
+into the city together."
+
+  [Illustration: RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU.]
+
+It was some time before the idea flashed across our minds that this might
+indeed be the mysterious Ling Darin about whom we had heard so much.
+"Yes," said he, "that is what I am called here, but my real name is
+Splingard." He then went on to tell us that he was a Belgian by birth;
+that he had traveled extensively through China, as the companion of Baron
+Richthofen, and had thus become so thoroughly acquainted with the country
+and its people that on his return to the coast he had been offered by the
+Chinese government the position of custom mandarin at Su-chou, a position
+just then established for the levying of duty on the Russian goods passing
+in through the northwest provinces; that he had adopted the Chinese dress
+and mode of living, and had even married, many years ago, a Chinese girl
+educated at the Catholic schools in Tientsin. We were so absorbed in this
+romantic history that we scarcely noticed the crowds that lined the
+streets leading to the Ling Darin's palace, until the boom of a cannon
+recalled us to our situation. From the smile on the jolly face beside us,
+we knew at once whom we could hold responsible for this reception. The
+palace gates were now thrown open by a host of servants, and in our rags
+and tatters we rolled at once from the hardships of the inhospitable
+desert into the lap of luxury.
+
+A surplus is not always so easily disposed of as a deficit--at least we
+were inclined to think so in the case of our Su-chou diet. The Ling
+Darin's table, which, for the exceptional occasion, was set in the foreign
+fashion with knives and forks, fairly teemed with abundance and variety.
+There was even butter, made from the milk of the Tibetan yak, and
+condensed milk for our coffee, the first we had tasted since leaving
+Turkey, more than a year before. The Ling Darin informed us that a can of
+this milk, which he once presented to Chinese friends, had been mistaken
+for a face cosmetic, and was so used by the ladies of the family. The lack
+of butter has led many of the missionaries in China to substitute lard,
+while the Chinese fry their fat cakes in various oils. The Ling Darin's
+wife we found an excellent and even artistic cook, while his buxom twin
+daughters could read and write their own language--a rare accomplishment
+for a Chinese woman. Being unaccustomed to foreign manners, they would
+never eat at the same table with us, but would come in during the evening
+with their mother, to join the family circle and read aloud to us some of
+their father's official despatches. This they would do with remarkable
+fluency and intelligence.
+
+As guests of our highly respected and even venerated host, we were visited
+by nearly all the magistrates of the city. The Ling Darin was never before
+compelled to answer so many questions. In self-defense he was at last
+forced to get up a stereotyped speech to deliver on each social occasion.
+The people, too, besieged the palace gates, and clamored for an
+exhibition. Although our own clothes had been sent away to be boiled, we
+could not plead this as an excuse. The flowing Chinese garments which had
+been provided from the private wardrobe of the Ling Darin fluttered wildly
+in the breeze, as we rode out through the city at the appointed hour. Our
+Chinese shoes, also, were constantly slipping off, and as we raised the
+foot to readjust them, a shout went up from the crowd for what they
+thought was some fancy touch in the way of riding.
+
+  [Illustration: A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN.]
+
+From the barrenness of the Gobi to the rank vegetation of the Edzina
+valley, where the grass and grain were actually falling over from
+excessive weight, was a most relieving change. Water was everywhere. Even
+the roadway served in many places as a temporary irrigating-canal. On the
+journey to Kan-chou we were sometimes compelled to ride on the narrow
+mud-wall fences that separated the flooded fields of wheat, millet, and
+sorghum, the prevailing cereals north of the Hoang-ho river. Fields of
+rice and the opium poppy were sometimes met with, but of the silk-worm and
+tea-plant, which furnish the great staples of the Chinese export trade, we
+saw absolutely nothing on our route through the northern provinces. Apart
+from the "Yellow Lands" of the Hoang-ho, which need no manure, the arable
+regions of China seem to have maintained their fecundity for over four
+thousand years, entirely through the thoughtful care of the peasantry in
+restoring to the soil, under another form, all that the crops have taken
+from it. The plowing of the Chinese is very poor. They scarcely do more
+than scratch the surface of the ground with their bent-stick plows,
+wooden-tooth drills, and wicker-work harrows; and instead of straight
+lines, so dear to the eye of a Western farmer, the ridges and furrows are
+as crooked as serpents. The real secret of their success seems to lie in
+the care they take to replenish the soil. All the sewage of the towns is
+carried out every morning at daybreak by special coolies, to be preserved
+for manure; while the dried herbs, straw, roots, and other vegetable
+refuse, are economized with the greatest care for fuel. The Chinese
+peasant offsets the rudeness of his implements with manual skill. He weeds
+the ground so carefully that there is scarcely a leaf above the ground
+that does not appertain to the crop. All kinds of pumps and hydraulic
+wheels are worked, either by the hand, animals, or the wind. The system of
+tillage, therefore, resembles market-gardening rather than the broad
+method of cultivation common in Europe and America. The land is too
+valuable to be devoted to pasture, and the forests nearly everywhere have
+been sacrificed to tillage to such an extent that the material for the
+enormously thick native coffins has now to be imported from abroad.
+
+Streams and irrigating-ditches were so frequent that we were continually
+saturated with water or covered with mud. Our bare arms and legs were so
+tanned and coated that we were once asked by a group of squalid villagers
+if "foreigners" ever bathed like themselves. On dashing down into a
+village, we would produce consternation or fright, especially among the
+women and children, but after the first onset, giggling would generally
+follow, for our appearance, especially from the rear, seemed to strike
+them as extremely ridiculous. The wheel itself presented various aspects
+to their ignorant fancies. It was called the "flying machine" and
+"foot-going carriage," while some even took it for the "fire-wheel cart,"
+or locomotive, about which they had heard only the vaguest rumors. Their
+ignorance of its source of motive power often prompted them to name it the
+"self-moving cart," just as the natives of Shanghai are wont to call the
+electric-light "the self-coming moon."
+
+In one out-of-the-way village of northwestern China, we were evidently
+taken for some species of centaurs; the people came up to examine us while
+on the wheel to see whether or no rider and wheel were one. We became so
+harassed with importunities to ride that we were compelled at last to seek
+relief in subterfuge, for an absolute refusal, we found, was of no avail.
+We would promise to ride for a certain sum of money, thinking thus to
+throw the burden of refusal on themselves. But, nothing daunted, they
+would pass round the hat. On several occasions, when told that eggs could
+not be bought in the community, an offer of an exhibition would bring them
+out by the dozen. In the same way we received presents of tea, and by this
+means our cash expenses were considerably curtailed. The interest in the
+"foreign horses" was sometimes so great as to stop business and even
+amusements. A rather notable incident of this kind occurred on one of the
+Chinese holidays. The flag-decked streets, as we rode through, were filled
+with the neighboring peasantry, attracted by some traveling theatrical
+troupe engaged for the occasion. In fact, a performance was just then in
+progress at the open-air theater close at hand. Before we were aware of it
+we had rolled into its crowded auditorium. The women were sitting on
+improvised benches, fanning and gossiping, while the men stood about in
+listless groups. But suddenly their attention was aroused by the counter
+attraction, and a general rush followed, to the great detriment of the
+temporary peddlers' stands erected for the occasion. Although entirely
+deserted, and no doubt consumed with curiosity, the actors could not lose
+what the Chinese call "face." They still continued their hideous noises,
+pantomimes, and dialogues to the empty seats.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINAMAN'S WHEELBARROW.]
+
+The last fifty miles into Liang-chou, a city founded by a Catholic
+Chinaman over two hundred years ago, we were compelled to make on foot,
+owing to an accident that caused us serious trouble all through the
+remainder of our Chinese journey. In a rapid descent by a narrow pathway,
+the pedal of one of the machines struck upon a protuberance, concealed by
+a tuft of grass, snapping off the axle, and scattering the ball-bearings
+over the ground. For some miles we pushed along on the bare axle inverted
+in the pedal-crank. But the wrenching the machine thus received soon began
+to tell. With a sudden jolt on a steep descent, it collapsed entirely, and
+precipitated the rider over the handle-bars. The lower part of the frame
+had broken short off, where it was previously cracked, and had bent the
+top bar almost double in the fall. In this sad plight, we were rejoiced to
+find in the "City under the Shade" the Scotch missionary, Mr. Laughton,
+who had founded here the most remote of the China Inland Missions. But
+even with his assistance, and that of the best native mechanic, our
+repairs were ineffective. At several points along the route we were
+delayed on this account. At last the front and rear parts of the machine
+became entirely separated. There was no such thing as steel to be found in
+the country, no tools fit to work with, and no one who knew the first
+principles of soldering. After endeavoring to convince the native
+blacksmiths that a delicate bicycle would not stand pounding like a
+Chinese cart-wheel, we took the matter into our own hands. An iron bar was
+placed in the hollow tubing to hold it in shape, and a band of telegraph
+wire passed round from front to rear, along the upper and lower rods, and
+then twisted so as to bring the two parts as tightly together as possible.
+With a waddling frame, and patched rear-wheel describing eccentric
+revolutions, we must have presented a rather comical appearance over the
+remaining thousand miles to the coast.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE.]
+
+Across the Yellow Hoang-ho, which is the largest river we encountered in
+Asia, a pontoon bridge leads into the city of Lan-chou-foo. Its
+strategical position at the point where the Hoang-ho makes its great bend
+to the north, and where the gateway of the West begins, as well as its
+picturesque location in one of the greatest fruit-bearing districts of
+China, makes it one of the most important cities of the empire. On the
+commanding heights across the river, we stopped to photograph the
+picturesque scene. As usual, the crowd swarmed in front of the camera to
+gaze into the mysterious lens. All the missionaries we had met cautioned
+us against taking photographs in China, lest we should do violence to the
+many popular superstitions, but the only trouble we ever experienced in
+this respect was in arousing popular curiosity. We soon learned that in
+order to get something besides Chinese heads in our pictures it was
+necessary first to point the camera in the opposite direction, and then
+wheel suddenly round to the scene we wished to take. As we crossed the
+river, the bridge of boats so creaked and swayed beneath the rushing
+rabble, that we were glad to stand once more upon the terra firma of the
+city streets, which were here paved with granite and marble blocks. As we
+rode down the principal thoroughfare, amid the usual din and uproar, a
+well-dressed Chinaman rushed out from one of the stores and grabbed us by
+the arm. "Do you speak English?" he shouted, with an accent so like an
+American, that we leaped from our wheels at once, and grasped his hand as
+that of a fellow countryman. This, in fact, he proved to be in everything
+but birth. He was one of that party of mandarins' sons which had been sent
+over to our country some years ago, as an experiment by the Chinese
+government, to receive a thorough American training. We cannot here give
+the history of that experiment, as Mr. Woo related it--how they were
+subsequently accused of cutting off their queues and becoming
+denationalized; how, in consequence, they were recalled to their native
+land, and degraded rather than elevated, both by the people and the
+government, because they were foreign in their sentiments and habits; and
+how, at last, they gradually began to force recognition through the power
+of merit alone. He had now been sent out by the government to engineer the
+extension of the telegraph-line from Su-chou to Urumtsi, for it was feared
+by the government that the employment of a foreigner in this capacity
+would only increase the power for evil which the natives already
+attributed to this foreign innovation. The similarity in the phrases,
+_telegraph pole_ and _dry heaven_, had inspired the common belief that the
+line of poles then stretching across the country was responsible for the
+long-existing drought. In one night several miles of poles were sawed
+short off, by the secret order of a banded conspiracy. After several
+decapitations, the poles were now being restored, and labeled with the
+words, "Put up by order of the Emperor."
+
+  [Illustration: TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]
+
+In company with the English missionary, Mr. Redfern, while attempting to
+get out of the city on the way to his mountain home, we were caught in
+another jam. He counseled us to conceal the weapons we were carrying in
+our belts, for fear the sight of them should incite the mob to some act of
+violence. Our own experience, however, had taught us that a revolver in
+China was worth nothing if not shown. For persistence, this mob surpassed
+any we had ever seen. They followed us out of the city and over the three
+miles' stretch to the mission premises, and there announced their
+intention of remaining indefinitely. Again Mr. Redfern feared some
+outbreak, and counseled us to return to the city and apply to the viceroy
+himself for protection. This proved a good move. A special exhibition on
+the palace parade-grounds gained for us the valuable favor of one who was
+only fourth in rank to the emperor himself. A body-guard of soldiers was
+furnished, not only during our sojourn in the city, but for the journey to
+Singan-foo, on which a good reception was everywhere insured by an
+official despatch sent in advance. In order to secure for us future
+respect, a small flag with the government stamp and of yellow color was
+given us to fly by the side of our "stars and stripes." On this was
+inscribed the title of "The Traveling Students," as well as answers to the
+more frequent of the common questions--our nationality, destination, and
+age. The best mechanic in the local cannon-foundry was then ordered to
+make, at government expense, whatever repairs were possible on our
+disabled machines. This, however, as it proved, was not much; most of his
+time was spent in taking measurements and patterns for another purpose. If
+his intentions have been carried out, Lan-chou-foo is to-day possessed of
+a "foot-moving carriage" of home production.
+
+Our sojourn in this city is especially associated with the three names of
+Woo, Choo, and Moo--names by no means uncommon in Chinese nomenclature. We
+heard of a boy named the abstract numeral, "sixty-five," because his
+grandfather happened to reach that age on the very day of his birth. Mr.
+Moo was the local telegraph operator, with whom we, and our friends Woo
+and Choo, of Shanghai, associated. All operators in the Chinese telegraph
+system are required to read and write English. The school established for
+this purpose at Lan-chou we occasionally visited, and assisted the Chinese
+schoolmaster to hear the recitations from Routledge's spelling-book. He,
+in turn, was a frequent partaker of our "foreign chows," which our
+English-speaking friends served with knives and forks borrowed from the
+missionaries. Lily and bamboo roots, sharks' fins and swallows' nests, and
+many other Chinese delicacies, were now served in abundance, and with the
+ever-accompanying bowl of rice. In the matter of eating and drinking,
+Chinese formality is extreme. A round table is the only one that can be
+used in an aristocratic household. The seat of honor is always the one
+next to the wall. Not a mouthful can be taken until the host raises his
+chop-sticks in the air, and gives the signal. Silence then prevails; for
+Confucius says: "When a man eats he has no time for talk." When a cup of
+tea is served to any one in a social party, he must offer it to every one
+in the room, no matter how many there are, before proceeding to drink
+himself. The real basis of Chinese politeness seems to be this: They must
+be polite enough to offer, and you must be polite enough to refuse. Our
+ignorance of this great underlying principle during the early part of the
+Chinese journey led us into errors both many and grievous. In order to
+show a desire to be sociable, we accepted almost everything that was
+offered us, to the great chagrin, we fear, of the courteous donors.
+
+  [Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO.]
+
+  [Illustration: LI-HUNG-CHANG.
+  FROM A PHOTOGRAPH SENT TO THE AUTHORS BY THE PRIME MINISTER.]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    VI
+
+
+              AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA
+
+
+Our departure from Lan-chou was not, we thought, regretted by the
+officials themselves, for we heard that apprehension was expressed lest
+the crowds continuing to collect around the telegraph-office should
+indulge in a riot. However, we were loath to leave our genial friends for
+the society of opium-smokers, for we were now in that province of China
+which, next to Sechuen, is most addicted to this habit. From dusk till
+bed-time, the streets of the villages were almost deserted for the squalid
+opium dens. Even our soldier attendant, as soon as the wooden saddle was
+taken from his sore-backed government steed, would produce his portable
+lamp, and proceed to melt on his needle the wax-like contents of a small,
+black box. When of the proper consistency, the paste was rolled on a metal
+plate to point it for the aperture in the flute-shaped pipe. Half the
+night would be given to this process, and a considerable portion of the
+remaining half would be devoted to smoking small pinches of tobacco in the
+peculiar Chinese water-pipe. According to an official note, issued early
+in 1882, by Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of Chinese Customs, considerably
+less than one per cent. of the population is addicted to opium-smoking,
+while those who smoke it to excess are few. More to be feared is the use
+of opium as a poison, especially among Chinese women. The government
+raises large sums from the import duty on opium, and tacitly connives at
+its cultivation in most of the provinces, where the traders and mandarins
+share between them the profits of this officially prohibited drug.
+
+This part of the great historic highway on which we were now traveling,
+between the two bends of the Hoang-ho, was found more extensively
+patronized than heretofore. Besides the usual caravans of horses, donkeys,
+and two-wheeled vans, we occasionally met with a party of shaven-headed
+Tibetans traveling either as emissaries, or as traders in the famous
+Tibetan sheep-skins and furs, and the strongly-scented bags of the
+musk-deer. A funeral cortege was also a very frequent sight. Chinese
+custom requires that the remains of the dead be brought back to their
+native place, no matter how far they may have wandered during life, and as
+the carriage of a single body would often be expensive, they are generally
+interred in temporary cemeteries or mortuary villages, until a sufficient
+number can be got together to form a large convoy. Mandarins, however, in
+death as in life, travel alone and with retinue. One coffin we met which
+rested upon poles supported on the shoulders of thirty-two men. Above on
+the coffin was perched the usual white rooster, which is supposed to
+incorporate, during transportation, the spirit of the departed. In funeral
+ceremonies, especially of the father, custom also requires the children to
+give public expression to their grief. Besides many other filial
+observances, the eldest son is in duty bound to render the journey easy
+for the departed by scattering fictitious paper-money, as spirit toll, at
+the various roadside temples.
+
+  [Illustration: OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO.]
+
+  [Illustration: MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO.]
+
+Singan-foo, the capital of the Middle Kingdom, under the Tsin dynasty, and
+a city of the first importance more than two thousand years ago, is still
+one of the largest places in the empire, being exceeded in population
+probably by Canton alone. Each of its four walls, facing the cardinal
+points, is over six miles long and is pierced in the center by a
+monumental gate with lofty pavilions. It was here, among the ruins of an
+old Nestorian church, built several centuries before, that was found the
+famous tablet now sought at a high price by the British Museum. The
+harassing mobs gathered from its teeming population, as well as the
+lateness of the season, prompted us to make our sojourn as short as
+possible. Only a day sufficed to reach Tong-quan, which is the central
+stronghold of the Hoang-ho basin, and one of the best defended points in
+China. Here, between precipitous cliffs, this giant stream rushes madly
+by, as if in protest against its sudden deflection. Our ferry this time
+was not the back of a Chinese coolie nor a jolting ox-cart, but a spacious
+flat-boat made to accommodate one or two vehicles at a time. This was
+rowed at the stern, like the gondolas of Venice. The mob of hundreds that
+had been dogging our foot-steps and making life miserable, during our
+brief stop for food, watched our embarkation. We reached the opposite
+shore, a mile below the starting-point, and began to ascend from the
+river-basin to the highlands by an excavated fissure in the famous "yellow
+earth." This gives its name, not only to the river it discolors, but, from
+the extensive region comprised, even to the emperor himself, who takes the
+title of "Yellow Lord," as equivalent to "Master of the World." The
+thickness of this the richest soil in China, which according to Baron
+Richthofen is nothing more than so much dust accumulated during the course
+of ages by the winds from the northern deserts, is in some places at least
+two thousand feet. Much ingenuity has been displayed in overcoming the
+difficulties offered to free communication by the perpendicular walls of
+these yellow lands. Some of the most frequented roads have been excavated
+to depths of from forty to one hundred feet. Being seldom more than eight
+or ten feet wide, the wheeled traffic is conducted by means of sidings,
+like the "stations" in the Suez Canal. Being undrained or unswept by the
+winds, these walled-up tracks are either dust-beds or quagmires, according
+to the season; for us, the autumn rains had converted them into the
+latter. Although on one of the imperial highways which once excited the
+admiration of Marco Polo, we were now treated to some of the worst
+stretches we have ever seen. The mountain ascents, especially those
+stair-like approaches to the "Heavenly Gates" before reaching the Pe-chili
+plains, were steep, gradeless inclines, strewn with huge upturned blocks
+of stone, over which the heavy carts were fairly lifted by the sheer force
+of additional horse-flesh. The bridges, too, whose Roman-like masonry
+attests the high degree of Chinese civilization during the middle ages,
+have long since been abandoned to the ravages of time; while over the
+whole country the late Dungan rebellion has left its countless ruins.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE.]
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN.]
+
+The people of Shan-si province are noted for their special thrift, but
+this quality we observed was sometimes exhibited at the expense of the
+higher virtue of honesty. One of the most serious of the many cases of
+attempted extortion occurred at a remote country town, where we arrived
+late one evening, after learning to our dismay that one of our remarkably
+few mistakes in the road had brought us just fifty miles out of the way.
+Unusually wearied as we were by the cross-country cuts, we desired to
+retire early. In fact, on this account, we were not so observant of
+Chinese formality as we might have been. We did not heed the hinted
+requests of the visiting officials for a moon-light exhibition, nor go to
+the inn-door to bow them respectfully out. We were glad to take them at
+their word when they said, with the usual hypocritical smirk, "Now, don't
+come out any farther." This indiscretion on our part caused them, as well
+as ourselves, to suffer in the respect of the assembled rabble. With
+official connivance, the latter were now free, they thought, to take
+unusual liberties. So far, in our dealings with the Chinese, we had never
+objected to anything that was reasonable even from the native point of
+view. We had long since learned the force of the Chinese proverb that, "in
+order to avoid suspicion you must not live behind closed doors"; and in
+consequence had always recognized the common prerogative to ransack our
+private quarters and our luggage, so long as nothing was seriously
+disturbed. We never objected, either, to their wetting our paper windows
+with their tongues, so that they might noiselessly slit a hole in them
+with their exceptionally long finger nails, although we did wake up some
+mornings to find the panes entirely gone. It was only at the request of
+the innkeeper that we sometimes undertook the job of cleaning out the
+inn-yard; but this, with the prevalent superstition about the "withering
+touch of the foreigner," was very easily accomplished. Nor had we ever
+shown the slightest resentment at being called "foreign devils"; for this,
+we learned, was, with the younger generation at least, the only title by
+which foreigners were known. But on this particular night, our forbearance
+being quite exhausted, we ejected the intruders bodily. Mid mutterings and
+threats we turned out the lights, and the crowd as well as ourselves
+retired. The next morning the usual exorbitant bill was presented by the
+innkeeper, and, as usual, one half or one third was offered and finally
+accepted, with the customary protestations about being under-paid. The
+innkeeper's grumblings incited the crowd which early assembled, and from
+their whispers and glances we could see that trouble of some kind was
+brewing. We now hastened to get the wheels into the road. Just then the
+innkeeper, at the instigation of the crowd, rushed out and grabbed the
+handle-bars, demanding at the same time a sum that was even in advance of
+his original price. Extortion was now self-evident, and, remonstrance
+being of no avail, we were obliged to protect ourselves with our fists.
+The crowd began to close in upon us, until, with our backs against the
+adjoining wall, we drew our weapons, at which the onward movement changed
+suddenly to a retreat. Then we assumed the aggressive, and regained the
+wheels which had been left in the middle of the road. The innkeeper and
+his friend now caught hold of the rear wheels. Only by seizing their
+queues could we drag them away at all, but even then before we could mount
+they would renew their grasp. It was only after another direct attack upon
+them that we were able to mount, and dash away.
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN.]
+
+A week's journeying after this unpleasant episode brought us among the
+peanuts, pigs, and pig-tails of the famous Pe-chili plains. Vast fields of
+peanuts were now being plowed, ready to be passed through a huge coarse
+sieve to separate the nuts from the sandy loam. Sweet potatoes, too, were
+plentiful. These, as well as rice balls, boiled with a peculiar dry date
+in a triangular corn-leaf wrapper, we purchased every morning at daybreak
+from the pots of the early street-venders, and then proceeded to the local
+bake-shops, where the rattling of the rolling-pins prophesied of stringy
+fat cakes cooked in boiling linseed oil, and heavy dough biscuits cleaving
+to the urn-like oven.
+
+It was well that we were now approaching the end of our journey, for our
+wheels and clothing were nearly in pieces. Our bare calves were pinched by
+the frost, for on some of the coldest mornings we would find a quarter of
+an inch of ice. Our rest at night was broken for the want of sufficient
+covering. The straw-heated _kangs_ would soon cool off, and leave us half
+the night with only our thin sleeping-bags to ward off rheumatism.
+
+But over the beaten paths made by countless wheelbarrows we were now fast
+nearing the end. It was on the evening of November 3, that the giant walls
+of the great "Residence," as the people call their imperial capital, broke
+suddenly into view through a vista in the surrounding foliage. The goal of
+our three-thousand-one-hundred-and-sixteen-mile journey was now before us,
+and the work of the seventy-first riding day almost ended. With the dusk
+of evening we entered the western gate of the "Manchu City," and began to
+thread its crowded thoroughfares. By the time we reached Legation street
+or, as the natives egotistically call it, "The Street of the Foreign
+Dependencies," night had veiled our haggard features and ragged garments.
+In a dimly lighted courtyard we came face to face with the English
+proprietor of the Hotel de Peking. At our request for lodging, he said,
+"Pardon me, but may I first ask who you are and where you come from?" Our
+unprepossessing appearance was no doubt a sufficient excuse for this
+precaution. But just then his features changed, and he greeted us
+effusively. Explanations were now superfluous. The "North China Herald"
+correspondent at Pao-ting-foo had already published our story to the
+coast.
+
+That evening the son of the United States minister visited us, and offered
+a selection from his own wardrobe until a Chinese tailor could renew our
+clothing. With borrowed plumes we were able to accept invitations from
+foreign and Chinese officials. Polite cross-examinations were not
+infrequent, and we fear that entire faith in our alleged journey was not
+general until, by riding through the dust and mud of Legation street, we
+proved that Chinese roads were not altogether impracticable for bicycle
+traveling.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE PEI-HO.]
+
+The autumn rains had so flooded the low-lying country between the capital
+and its seaport, Tientsin, that we were obliged to abandon the idea of
+continuing to the coast on the wheels, which by this time were in no
+condition to stand unusual strain. On the other hand the house-boat
+journey of thirty-six hours down the Pei-ho river was a rather pleasant
+diversion.
+
+Our first evening on the river was made memorable by an unusual event.
+Suddenly the rattling of tin pans, the tooting of horns, and the shouting
+of men, women, and children, aroused us to the realization that something
+extraordinary was occurring. Then we noticed that the full moon in a
+cloudless sky had already passed the half-way mark in a total eclipse. Our
+boatmen now joined in the general uproar, which reached its height when
+the moon was entirely obscured. In explanation we were told that the
+"Great Dragon" was endeavoring to swallow up the moon, and that the
+loudest possible noise must be made to frighten him away. Shouts hailed
+the reappearance of the moon. Although our boatmen had a smattering of
+pidjin, or business, English, we were unable to get a very clear idea of
+Chinese astronomy. In journeying across the empire we found sufficient
+analogy in the various provincial dialects to enable us to acquire a
+smattering of one from another as we proceeded, but we were now unable to
+see any similarity whatever between "You makee walkee look see," and "You
+go and see," or between "That belong number one pidjin," and "That is a
+first-class business." This jargon has become a distinct dialect on the
+Chinese coast.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO.]
+
+On our arrival in Tientsin we called upon the United States Consul,
+Colonel Bowman, to whom we had brought several letters from friends in
+Peking. During a supper at his hospitable home, he suggested that the
+viceroy might be pleased to receive us, and that if we had no objection,
+he would send a communication to the _yamen_, or official residence.
+Colonel Bowman's secretary, Mr. Tenney, who had been some time the
+instructor of the viceroy's sons, and who was on rather intimate terms
+with the viceroy himself, kindly offered to act as interpreter. A
+favorable answer was received the next morning, and the time for our visit
+fixed for the afternoon of the day following. But two hours before the
+appointed time a message was received from the viceroy, stating that he
+was about to receive an unexpected official visit from the _phantai_, or
+treasurer, of the Pe-chili province (over which Li-Hung-Chang himself is
+viceroy), and asking for a postponement of our visit to the following
+morning at 11 o'clock. Even before we had finished reading this unexpected
+message, the booming of cannon along the Pei-ho river announced the
+arrival of the _phantai's_ boats before the city. The postponement of our
+engagement at this late hour threatened to prove rather awkward, inasmuch
+as we had already purchased our steamship tickets for Shanghai, to sail on
+the _Fei-ching_ at five o'clock the next morning. But through the kindness
+of the steamship company it was arranged that we should take a tug-boat at
+Tong-ku, on the line of the Kai-ping railroad, and overtake the steamer
+outside the Taku bar. This we could do by taking the train at Tientsin,
+even as late as seven hours after the departure of the steamer. Steam
+navigation in the Pei-ho river, over the forty or fifty miles' stretch
+from Tientsin to the gulf, is rendered very slow by the sharp turns in the
+narrow stream--the adjoining banks being frequently struck and plowed away
+by the bow or stern of the large ocean steamers.
+
+When we entered the consulate the next morning, we found three palanquins
+and a dozen coolies in waiting to convey our party to the viceroy's
+residence. Under other circumstances we would have patronized our "steeds
+of steel," but a visit to the "biggest" man in China had to be conducted
+in state. We were even in some doubt as to the propriety of appearing
+before his excellency in bicycle costume; but we determined to plead our
+inability to carry luggage as an excuse for this breach of etiquette.
+
+  [Illustration: SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU.]
+
+The first peculiarity the Chinese notice in a foreigner is his dress. It
+is a requisite with them that the clothes must be loose, and so draped as
+to conceal the contour of the body. The short sack-coat and tight trousers
+of the foreigner are looked upon as certainly inelegant, if not actually
+indecent.
+
+  [Illustration: WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER.]
+
+It was not long before we were out of the foreign settlement, and wending
+our way through the narrow, winding streets, or lanes, of the densely
+populated Chinese city. The palanquins we met were always occupied by some
+high dignitary or official, who went sweeping by with his usual vanguard
+of servants, and his usual frown of excessive dignity. The fact that we,
+plain "foreign devils," were using this mode of locomotion, made us the
+objects of considerable curiosity from the loiterers and passers-by, and
+in fact had this not been the case, we should have felt rather
+uncomfortable. The unsympathetic observation of mobs, and the hideous
+Chinese noises, had become features of our daily life.
+
+The _yamen_ courtyard, as we entered, was filled with empty palanquins and
+coolie servants waiting for the different mandarins who had come on
+official visits. The _yamen_ itself consisted of low one-story structures,
+built in the usual Chinese style, of wood and adobe brick, in a
+quadrangular form around an inner courtyard. The common Chinese paper
+which serves for window-glass had long since vanished from the ravages of
+time, and the finger-punches of vandals. Even here, at the _yamen_ of the
+prime minister of China, dirt and dilapidation were evident on every hand.
+The anteroom into which we were ushered was in keeping with its exterior.
+The paper that covered the low walls and squatty ceiling, as well as the
+calico covering on the divans, was soiled and torn. The room itself was
+filled with mandarins from various parts of the country, waiting for an
+audience with his excellency. Each wore the official robe and dish-pan
+hat, with its particular button or insignia of rank. Each had a portly,
+well-fed appearance, with a pompous, dignified mien overspreading his
+features. The servant by whom we had sent in our Chinese visiting-cards
+returned and asked us to follow him. Passing through several rooms, and
+then along a narrow, darkened hallway, we emerged into an inner courtyard.
+Here there were several servants standing like sentinels in waiting for
+orders; others were hurrying hither and thither with different messages
+intrusted to their care. This was all there was to give to the place the
+air of busy headquarters. On one side of the courtyard the doors of the
+"foreign reception" room opened. Through these we were ushered by the
+liveried servant, who bore a message from the viceroy, asking us to wait a
+few moments until he should finish some important business.
+
+The foreign reception-room in which we were now sitting was the only one
+in any official residence in the empire, and this single instance of
+compliance with foreign customs was significant as bearing upon the
+attitude toward Western ideas of the man who stands at the head of the
+Chinese government. Everything about us was foreign except a Chinese divan
+in one corner of the room. In the middle of the floor stood a circular
+sofa of the latest pattern, with chairs and settees to match, and at one
+end a foreign stove, in which a fire had been recently lighted for our
+coming. Against the wall were placed a full-length mirror, several
+brackets, and some fancy work. The most interesting of the ornaments in
+the room were portraits of Li-Hung-Chang himself, Krupp the gun-maker,
+Armstrong the ship-builder, and the immortal "Chinese Gordon," the only
+foreigner, it is said, who has ever won a spark of admiration from the
+Chinese people.
+
+While we were waiting for the viceroy, his second son, the pupil of Mr.
+Tenney, came in and was introduced in the foreign fashion. His English was
+fluent and correct. He was a bright, intelligent lad of nineteen years,
+then about to take his first trial examinations for the Chinese degree of
+scholarship, which, if attained, would make him eligible for official
+position. Although a son of the viceroy he will have to rise by his own
+merit.
+
+Our conversation with the viceroy's son extended over ten or fifteen
+minutes. He asked many questions about the details of our journey. "How,"
+said he, "could you get along without interpreter, guide, or servant, when
+every foreigner who goes even from here to Peking has to have them?" He
+questioned us as to whether or not the Chinese had ever called us names.
+We replied that we usually traveled in China under the _nom de Chinois_,
+_yang queedza_ (the foreign devils), alias _yeh renn_ (the wild men). A
+blush overspread his cheeks as he said: "I must apologize for my
+countrymen; I hope you will excuse them, for they know no better." The
+young man expressed deep interest in America and American institutions,
+and said if he could obtain his father's consent he would certainly make a
+visit to our country. This was the only son then at home with the viceroy,
+his eldest son being minister to Japan. The youngest, the viceroy's
+favorite, was, it was said, the brightest and most promising. His death
+occurred only a few months before our arrival in Tientsin.
+
+We were holding an animated conversation when the viceroy himself was
+announced. We all stood to show our respect for the prime minister whom
+General Grant included among the three greatest statesmen of his day. The
+viceroy was preceded by two body-servants. We stood before a man who
+appeared to be over six feet in height, although his head and shoulders
+were considerably bent with age. His flowing dress was made of rich
+colored silk, but very plain indeed. Any ornamentation would have been a
+profanation of the natural dignity and stateliness of Li-Hung-Chang. With
+slow pace he walked into the room, stopped a moment to look at us, then
+advanced with outstretched hand, while a faint smile played about his
+features and softened the piercing glance of his eyes. He shook our hands
+heartily in the foreign fashion, and without any show of ceremony led the
+way into an adjoining room, where a long council-table extended over half
+the length. The viceroy took the arm-chair at the head, and motioned us to
+take the two seats on his left, while Mr. Tenney and the viceroy's son sat
+on his right. For almost a minute not a word was said on either side. The
+viceroy had fixed his gaze intently upon us, and, like a good general
+perhaps, was taking a thorough survey of the field before he opened up the
+cannonade of questions that was to follow. We in turn were just as busily
+engaged in taking a mental sketch of his most prominent physical
+characteristics. His face was distinctly oval, tapering from a very broad
+forehead to a sharp pointed chin, half-obscured by his thin, gray
+"goatee." The crown of his head was shaven in the usual Tsing fashion,
+leaving a tuft of hair for a queue, which in the viceroy's case was short
+and very thin. His dry, sallow skin showed signs of wrinkling; a thick
+fold lay under each eye, and at each end of his upper lip. There were no
+prominent cheek-bones or almond-shaped eyes, which are so distinctively
+seen in most of the Mongolian race. Under the scraggy mustache we could
+distinguish a rather benevolent though determined mouth; while his small,
+keen eyes, which were somewhat sunken, gave forth a flash that was perhaps
+but a flickering ember of the fire they once contained. The left eye,
+which was partly closed by a paralytic stroke several years ago, gave him
+a rather artful, waggish appearance. The whole physiognomy was that of a
+man of strong intuition, with the ability to force his point when
+necessary, and the shrewd common sense to yield when desiring to be
+politic.
+
+  [Illustration: FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN
+  CHARACTERS.]
+
+"Well, gentlemen," he said at last, through Mr. Tenney as interpreter,
+"you don't look any the worse for your long journey."
+
+"We are glad to hear your excellency say so," we replied; "it is
+gratifying to know that our appearance speaks well for the treatment we
+have received in China."
+
+We hope our readers will consider the requirements of Chinese etiquette as
+sufficient excuse for our failure to say candidly that, if we looked
+healthy, it was not the fault of his countrymen.
+
+"Of all the countries through which you have passed, which do you consider
+the best?" the viceroy then asked.
+
+In our answer to this question the reader would no doubt expect us to
+follow etiquette, and say that we thought China was the best; and,
+perhaps, the viceroy himself had a similar expectation. But between
+telling a positive lie, and not telling the truth, there is perhaps
+sufficient difference to shield us from the charge of gross inconsistency.
+We answered, therefore, that in many respects, we considered America the
+greatest country we had seen. We ought of course to have said that no
+reasonable person in the world would ever think of putting any other
+country above the Celestial Empire; our bluntness elicited some surprise,
+for the viceroy said:
+
+"If then you thought that America was the best why did you come to see
+other countries?"
+
+"Because until we had seen other countries," we replied, "we did not know
+that America was the best." But this answer the viceroy evidently
+considered a mere subterfuge. He was by no means satisfied.
+
+"What was your real object in undertaking such a peculiar journey?" he
+asked rather impatiently.
+
+"To see and study the world and its peoples," we answered; "to get a
+practical training as a finish to a theoretical education. The bicycle was
+adopted only because we considered it the most convenient means of
+accomplishing that purpose."
+
+The viceroy, however, could not understand how a man should wish to use
+his own strength when he could travel on the physical force of some one
+else; nor why it was that we should adopt a course through central Asia
+and northwestern China when the southern route through India would have
+been far easier and less dangerous. He evidently gave it up as a
+conundrum, and started out on another line.
+
+"Do you consider the Shah of Persia a powerful monarch?" was his next
+question.
+
+"Powerful, perhaps, in the Oriental sense," we replied, "but very weak in
+comparison with the Western nations. Then, too, he seems to be losing the
+power that he does have--he is compelled to play more and more into the
+hands of the Russians."
+
+"Do you think that Russia will eventually try to take possession of
+Persia?" the viceroy interrupted.
+
+"That, of course, is problematical," we answered, with the embarrassment
+men of our age might feel at being instigated to talk politics with a
+prime minister. "What we do know, for certain, is that Russia is now, with
+her Transcaspian railroad, within about forty miles of Meshed, the capital
+of Persia's richest province of Khorasan; that she now has a
+well-engineered and, for a great portion of the way, a macadamized road to
+that city across the Kopet Dagh mountains from Askabad, the capital of
+Russian Transcaspia; and that half that road the Persians were rather
+forcibly invited to construct."
+
+  [Illustration: MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE
+  SHIPPING BUSINESS.]
+
+"Do you think," again interrupted the viceroy, whose interest in the
+Russians now began to take a more domestic turn, "that the Russians would
+like to have the Chinese province of Ili?"
+
+To this question we might very appropriately have said, "No"; for the
+reason that we thought Russia had it already. She is only waiting to draw
+it in, when she feels certain that her Siberian flank is better protected.
+The completion of the Transsiberian railroad, by which troops can be
+readily transported to that portion of her dominion, may change Russia's
+attitude toward the province of Ili. We did not, however, say this to his
+excellency. We merely replied that we believed Russia was seldom known to
+hold aloof from anything of value, which she thought she could get with
+impunity. As she was now sending cart-load after cart-load of goods over
+the border, through Ili, into northern and western China, without paying a
+cent of customs duty, while on the other hand not even a leaf of tea or
+thread of cotton passed over the Russian line from China without the
+payment of an exorbitant tariff; and as she had already established in
+Kuldja a postal, telegraph, and Cossack station, it would seem that she
+does not even now view the province of Ili as wholly foreign to the
+Russian empire.
+
+At this the viceroy cleared his throat, and dropped his eyes in thoughtful
+mood, as much as to say: "Ah, I know the Russians; but there is no help
+for it."
+
+At this point we ventured to ask the viceroy if it were true, as we had
+been informed, that Russia had arranged a treaty with China, by which she
+was entitled to establish consuls in several of the interior provinces of
+the Chinese empire, but he evaded the question with adroitness, and asked:
+
+"Didn't you find the roads very bad in China?"
+
+This question was creditable to the viceroy's knowledge of his own
+country, but to this subject we brought the very best Chinese politeness
+we could muster. We said that inasmuch as China had not yet adopted the
+bicycle, her roads, of course, were not adapted to that mode of
+locomotion.
+
+The viceroy then asked us to describe the bicycle, and inquired if such a
+vehicle did not create considerable consternation among the people.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.]
+
+We told him that the bicycle from a Chinese point of view was capable of
+various descriptions. On the passports given us by the Chinese minister in
+London the bicycle was called "a seat-sitting, foot-moving machine." The
+natives in the interior had applied to it various epithets, among which
+were _yang ma_ (foreign horse), _fei-chay_ (flying-machine), _szuedzun
+chay_ (self-moving cart), and others. The most graphic description,
+perhaps, was given by a Chinaman whom we overheard relating to his
+neighbors the first appearance of the bicycle in his quiet little village.
+"It is a little mule," said he, "that you drive by the ears, and kick in
+the sides to make him go." A dignified smile overspread the viceroy's
+features.
+
+"Didn't the people try to steal your money?" he next inquired.
+
+"No," we replied. "From our impoverished appearance, they evidently
+thought we had nothing. Our wardrobe being necessarily limited by our mode
+of travel, we were sometimes reduced to the appearance of traveling
+mendicants, and were often the objects of pity or contempt. Either this,
+or our peculiar mode of travel, seemed to dispel all thought of highway
+robbery; we never lost even so much as a button on our journey of over
+three thousand miles across the Chinese empire."
+
+"Did the governors you met treat you well?" he asked; and then immediately
+added: "Being scholars, were you not subjected to some indignity by being
+urged to perform for every mandarin you met?"
+
+"By nearly all the governors," we said, "we were treated very kindly
+indeed; but we were not so certain that the same favors would have been
+extended to us had we not cheerfully consented to give exhibitions of
+bicycle riding."
+
+There was now a lull in the conversation. The viceroy shifted his position
+in his chair, and took another whiff from the long, slender Chinese pipe
+held to his mouth by one of his body-servants. One whiff, and the pipe was
+taken away to be emptied and refilled. After a short respite he again
+resumed the conversation, but the questions he now asked were of a
+personal nature. We enumerate a few of them, without comment, only for the
+purpose of throwing some additional light on the character of our
+questioner.
+
+"About how much did the trip cost you? Do you expect to get back all or
+more than you spent? Will you write a book?
+
+"Did you find on your route any gold or silver deposits?
+
+"Do you like the Chinese diet; and how much did one meal cost you?
+
+"How old are you? [One of the first questions a Chinese host usually asks
+his guest.] Are you married? What is the trade or profession of your
+parents? Are they wealthy? Do they own much land?" (A Chinaman's idea of
+wealth is limited somewhat by the amount of land owned.)
+
+"Will you telegraph to your parents from Shanghai your safe arrival there?
+
+"Were you not rash in attempting such a journey? Suppose you had been
+killed out in the interior of Asia, no one would ever have heard of you
+again.
+
+"Are you Democrats or Republicans?" (The viceroy showed considerable
+knowledge of our government and institutions.)
+
+"Will you run for any political office in America? Do you ever expect to
+get into Congress?
+
+"Do you have to buy offices in America?" was the last inquiry.
+
+There was considerable hesitancy on the part of us both to answer this
+question. Finally we were obliged to admit that sometimes such was the
+case. "Ah," said the viceroy, "that is a very bad thing about American
+politics." But in this censure he was even more severe on his own country
+than America. Referring to ourselves in this connection, the viceroy
+ventured to predict that we might become so well-known as the result of
+our journey that we could get into office without paying for it. "You are
+both young," he added, "and can hope for anything."
+
+During the conversation the viceroy frequently smiled, and sometimes came
+so near overstepping the bounds of Chinese propriety as to chuckle. At
+first his reception was more formal, but his interest soon led him to
+dispense with all formality, and before the close of the interview the
+questions were rapidly asked and discussed. We have had some experience
+with examining attorneys, and an extended acquaintance with the American
+reporter; but we are convinced that for genuine inquisitiveness
+Li-Hung-Chang stands peerless. We made several attempts to take leave, but
+were interrupted each time by a question from the viceroy. Mr. Tenney, in
+fact, became fatigued with the task of interpreting, so that many of the
+long answers were translated by the viceroy's son.
+
+  [Illustration: A CHINESE BRIDE.]
+
+The interview was conducted as nearly as possible in the foreign fashion.
+We smoked cigarettes, and a bottle of champagne was served. Finally the
+interview was brought to a close by a health from the viceroy to
+"Ta-ma-quo" (the great American country).
+
+In conclusion we thanked the viceroy for the honor he had done us. He
+replied that we must not thank him at all; that he was only doing his
+duty. "Scholars," said he, "must receive scholars."
+
+The viceroy rose from his chair with difficulty; the servant took him by
+the elbows and half lifted him to his feet. He then walked slowly out of
+the room with us, and across the courtyard to the main exit. Here he shook
+us heartily by the hand, and bowed us out in the Chinese manner.
+
+Li-Hung-Chang is virtually the emperor of the Celestial Empire; the
+present "Son of Heaven" (the young emperor) has only recently reached his
+majority. Li-Hung-Chang is China's intellectual height, from whom emanate
+nearly all her progressive ideas. He stands to-day in the light of a
+mediator between foreign progressiveness and native prejudice and
+conservatism. It has been said that Li-Hung-Chang is really anti-foreign
+at heart; that he employs the Occidentals only long enough for them to
+teach his own countrymen how to get along without them. Whether this be so
+or not, it is certain that the viceroy recognizes the advantages to be
+derived from foreign methods and inventions, and employs them for the
+advancement of his country. Upon him rests the decision in nearly all the
+great questions of the empire. Scarcely an edict or document of any kind
+is issued that does not go over his signature or under his direct
+supervision. To busy himself with the smallest details is a distinctive
+characteristic of the man. Systematic methods, combined with an
+extraordinary mind, enable him to accomplish his herculean task. In the
+eastern horizon Li-Hung-Chang shines as the brilliant star of morning that
+tells of the coming of a brighter dawn.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 FOOTNOTE
+
+
+    1 Eight years before the first recorded ascent of Ararat by Dr. Parrot
+      (1829), there appeared the following from "Travels in Georgia,
+      Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia," by Sir Robert Ker Porter,
+      who, in his time, was an authority on southwestern Asia: "These
+      inaccessible heights [of Mount Ararat] have never been trod by the
+      foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then; for my idea is
+      that the Ark rested in the space between the two heads (Great and
+      Little Ararat), and not on the top of either. Various attempts have
+      been made in different ages to ascend these tremendous mountain
+      pyramids, but in vain. Their forms, snows, and glaciers are
+      insurmountable obstacles: the distance being so great from the
+      commencement of the icy region to the highest points, cold alone
+      would be the destruction of any one who had the hardihood to
+      persevere."
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+The list of illustrations has been added in the electronic text.
+
+The following typographical errors have been corrected:
+
+      page 82, period changed to comma (after "was")
+      page 140, "Siberan" changed to "Siberian"
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation (_e. g._ "footsteps" and "foot-steps",
+"innkeeper" and "inn-keeper", "moonlight" and "moon-light", "pigtails" and
+"pig-tails", "wickerwork" and "wicker-work"), punctuation or italicizing
+has not been changed. The authors use both "Yengiz" and "Yenghiz",
+"bakshish" and "baksheesh", "pilaff" and "pillao".
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE***
+
+
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