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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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