specimen of summary Oriental justice inflicted on a poor. wight who had incurred the displeasure of some one of the officers. He was brought up for trial before the governor, and adjudged to suffer ten blows for the alleged offence, to which, had he submitted without attempting any justification of himself, he would no doubt have escaped the severer punishment which quickly took the place of the trifling douceur he would otherwise have received.

Any attempt to plead innocent after the sapient governor's judgment was once passed, was to impugn his sagacity and question his infallibility. This crime was worse than the first.

Scarcely a minute elapsed between the commission of the first offence and the consummation of the multum in parvo discipline which followed the ipse dixit of the impartial judge.

One clap of the hand, and the poor Greek was pounced upon by the executioner of the law, thrown upon his face, with the soles of his feet in the air, on which came fast and strong the sharp twang of the supple bamboo.

The action so soon followed the word, that we had not time to plead in his behalf, and I was half inclined to believe that it was a scene got up impromptu for our especial benefit, and to show how well the machinery of good government worked in the hands of so accomplished an executive.

By this time François had returned from the bazar with a supply of fresh provisions for his department, and, our pipes with the governor being smoked out, we exchanged salaams with him and his court, mounted, and rode off.

It was noon before we got under way, which made the ride very short the first day, besides we were much amused at what we saw along the road.

This being a grain district, the winter wheat was ripe and being harvested. Men and women were seen in the field indiscriminately; the former, with their huge turbans and wide trousers, made a queer figure among the grain,

and the women with their flowing blue mantles and close veils, looked like anything but effective reapers. The lord of the manor stood looking on, with his long chibouck at his lips, while a handsome Greek maiden stood near him, with a sickle in one hand and a bunch of straw in the other, reminding me very forcibly of that old engraving we see so often representing Ruth and Boaz.

The plain of Mullah is very extensive, and the best cultivated of any we had seen in the country; its fertility is produced and sustained by a complete system of irrigation. Water is kept at a considerable elevation along the hill sides, and is let on to the lower ground at pleasure.

We encamped near a village, and, before our tent was half raised, we were visited by the chief of the place, a handsome young Turk of exceedingly urbane and polished manners, and, withal, the very pink of neatness in his attire.

He was accompanied by an old patriarch, whose intelli. gent countenance, kind expression, and affable conversation at once gained my confidence.

He said he was the oldest man in his village, and that he had never been beyond Mullah; he farthermore said that he had just heard that a Frank lady had arrived, and, not having seen or heard of one ever before passing through the country, he felt desirous of calling upon her, as he might never again have such an opportunity.

He apologized for his intrusion before our evening arrangements were completed; but, as night was coming on, he desired to see the Russian lady by daylight.

I felt guilty in imposing on the old gentleman, or perhaps it might have been amor patria which induced me to claim for one of my own country women the honour (if any honour there was in it) of being the first Frank lady who had passed through the wilds of Karamania.

I only half undeceived him as to the nationality of our party. I said (and with truth on my side) that, although a

A FIELD OF TOMBS.

233

part of our company was from Russia, yet I was from Amer. ica. Is not that in the New World, he inquired, and have not some of your ships of war visited Ismir (Smyrna)? I answered in the affirmative, when his younger companion eagerly inquired if it was true that all the opium which went to the New World was there used in bread.

Before I could reply, one of the gentlemen assured him that such was the fact, and advised him to try it.

Pipes and coffee being now over, they both departed, with many a profound salaam; one congratulating himself on having seen a Frank lady, the other priding himself on the new "wrinkle" he had acquired on the subject of bread.

The next day we had another scramble over rocky precipices, though the mountains had here sunk into hills. All the rocks we had seen up to this point were of a variegated green colour, much resembling serpentine; but now the rocks entirely changed their appearance, and were composed of a coarse white marble.

After passing this precipitous region we came to another plain, bounded by hills on each side. Here we rode through a district apparently uninhabited by the living, yet with extraordinary evidence that it had once been densely populated at some remote period.

Immense graveyards were scattered over the face of the country, and, if one might judge from the fashion of the old gray tombstones, they whose mortal remains lie beneath them were not Turks; they were no doubt the descendants of the ancient Greeks, who still constitute a majority of the inhabitants of Asia Minor.

The following day we crossed the plain of Karpulsi, passing a piece of ground covered with ancient sarcophagi, eacn hollowed out from a massive block of stone. Many others were just peeping above the sod, while doubtless a far greater number are still beneath it. We saw on the hillside, at some distance from our road, extensive ruins of a very an

cient city, the name of which we had no means of ascer taining, not finding any person of whom to inquire. All our postboys could say in reply to our interrogations was, Antica, Antica. Pococke supposes it to be the ancient Alabanda.

Well may it be said that, with respect to geographical and scientific information, two thirds of Asia Minor is a blank !

This plain descended gently towards the north, and final. ly opened into the great plain of the Meander, which runs nearly east and west. In about six hours we reached the brink of this classic stream, and were soon ferried across it in a large scow, which carried over our whole caravan at one time.

The river at this point is about fifty yards wide, and very turbid.

I was much amused at seeing the manner in which a large caravan of camels crossed this stream. Their load and packsaddles were first put into a boat; then one camel was tied by the nose to the stern of the boat, a rope from the head of another was tied to the tail of the first, and so on until there was a string of some twenty or thirty. The boat then pushed off, and all the camels, rather resistingly, were driven into the water, and forced, nolens volens, to swim for their lives.

Two hours more brought us to the city of Guizel Hissar, the ancient Greek Tralles, one of the most eligibly situated cities of the interior of Asia Minor.

This immense plain of the Meander commences at the Egean Sea, and extends eastwardly into the heart of the country for a great distance.

It appears to be exceedingly fertile. We rode through the city of Guizel Hissar, and saw numerous marble fragments of ancient temples worked into the walls of the modern houses. We were now in Ionia, and this was one of

A CIVIL GOVERNOR.

235

its fairest cities. As very few towns that we have seen for the last half year offered us as good accommodations as our tent, we generally rode through them and encamped beyond their borders. In this instance, however, we descried in a garden on the outskirts of the town, a kiosk attached to a caffijee's premises; we soon struck a bargain for one night, and forthwith unloaded all our travelling gear, which we disposed around the room, if room it should be called, which was nothing more than a raised platform, with four posts supporting a roof. We soon supplied walls from a portion of our tent. Scarcely had we arranged our divan, when we had a visit from two officers in the service of the pacha governor, who sent them to inquire if we stood in need of any supplies, and to inform us, if we did, that he would order them furnished, and render us any other assistance that lay in his power. He sent also a particular message to the Frank lady, that, if she was fatigued with her long ride, she would be perfectly welcome to repose herself in his hareem, where his ladies would take much pleasure in attending to all her wants. Think of that, to repose in bashaw," and to be waited

the hareem of a "three-tailed on by his Fatimas and surrounded by houris! the gentlemen all the while the guest of a caffijee! I declined the honour, however, with many compliments to old Blue Beard and his ladies. The gentlemen also sent him their thanks for his politeness and friendly offers, and made known to him that they were plentifully supplied with all travelling requi. sites; but would be obliged to his highness for horses to make an excursion up the valley to Laodicea. The reply was, that he was not authorized to order the government post-horses from the direct post-routes, and that all the peasants' horses were down in the plains assisting at the harvest. The pacha, however, finding that he could be of no service to us in any other way, got up an equestrian treat for our amusement. He sent all his beautiful Arabian