Evening star., 1925-10-11

angle. The effect in the dusk was
very beautiful and pleasing. and the
sound of the bells of the leading
camelS is always sweet music to
! real lover of the East.
We had a little oilins and greasing
to do to Felix. and after leaving Alum
Karihissar, during a whole afternoon
we were passing through beautiful
country, which was we'll wooded and
watered. We decided to camp at the
first suitable spot we struck.
We pitched camp on top of small
| hill. The ground was very rough and
stony. and abounded in scorpions,
| tarantulas, and every jumping insect
| The others turned in, but the place did
| Dot please me, and | felt disinclined
| for sleep. and lay reading for some
| time until | dozed off to the music
| of bowling jaCkals. / suddenly woke
to the noise of Galloping hoofs, and
| large deer raced through the camp
pursued by large wild dog.
Bedknap woke also. and the sudden
shock kept us awake for a while. Ap
parently the deer won the race, for the
dog returned. bringing a large crowd
of friends, who sat around the camp
| and kept up terrible din for two
hours. We refrained from shooting,
as we had passed several ugly look
in. crowds on the previous afternoon.
] could see several camp fires
| around us, and shots might have at
| tracted inquiSitive strangers to camp.
| We had q very uncomfortable and
| SleepleSs night, and ii was obvious
that the question of keeping watch at
night must be seriously considered.
individually these dogs are not dan
Gerous, but collectively l have known
them to attack human beings. Red
knap was 10 have a very nasty expert
ence of this few nights later. At the
same time we were having such
! severe physical labor during the day
| that good rest was absolutely essen
tial at night, and to interrupt sleep
with watches would not tend to in
crease our bodily fitness.
! Wroe. think. would sleep while
| his throat was being cut. Redknap
was fairly light sleeper but luckily
| continual travel has blessed me with
| the faculty of getting sound sleep,
with one eve open.
We left this unpleasant camp at
| dawn, and five hours driving over
rocky hill country brought us to the
| edge of a vast plain. where we had a
| beautiful view of the City of konia
| the ancient capital of the Turkish
Empire, during the Selducian dynasty.
II was fine sight, with its golde n
domes and minarets peeping above
| the poplar groves.
The eternal bad weather still dog
ged us and made our journey a
| continuous mudlark, as for the next
| few days we slowly wended our way
toward the Taurus Mountains. About
a day before we reached Eregli we
made our camp about 400 yards from
a village, and that night. after we
had finished our evening meal. Red
| knap wandered over to the village
spring to get rid of some of the days
| collection of mud.
Half way there he was attacked by
a herd of about a dozen Dariah dogs
led by one huge Bessa ra bian sheep
| dog. Hearing the noise, all the vii.
| laGe children collected beyond the
dogs. and he was too fearful of shoot
| ing the youngsters to risk using his
pistol.
Luckily there were plenty of large
| stones about, so he armed himself and
kept his face towards the leader.
| They made a rush at him. but he
aimed we'll and hit the big fellow in
the chest with a piece of rock. This
cooled the leaders, courage a bit and
! the rest followed suit and waited
|
every time he moved they did also
They gradually closed in, but he used
his stones to good effect and delayed
matters as long as possible. Eventu
ally the villagers, hearing the noise,
arrived and drove the dogs off.
AS the wind was blowing away from
the camp. we could hear nothing, and
Redknap returned still unwashed, and
very shaky. We also decided to re
main unwashed until daylight, rather
| than risk being eaten.
Here day by day, we were moving
like a ship at sea on no defined track
taking our direction on the plains by
compass, and wondering along the foot
of the hills to find a way across. We
had already passed over 120 broker
bridges. and in nearly every case we
had to make a detour to pass them
We gradually got resigned to this