A Ride Through Western Asia (Electronic book text)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3CHAPTER III ANGORA TO SIVAS We started for Sivas along a good road winding over the hills. The heat was intense, and I do not know how I should have borne it if it had not been for a bashluk, or starched linen baby's bonnet, such as the Turkish soldiers wear in the hot season, which protected my head from the sun very effectively. My wardrobe consisted of a Norfolk jacket, three pairs of riding breeches, and three flannel shirts, which we got washed in the towns we passed through, Murad mending them when necessary. I had no arms except a revolver in a holster, a 12-bore, and a whip. These, with a pair of field- glasses and a compass, made up my equipment. About half-past ten on July 25, we reached a big lake called the Emir Gul, where we halted and lunched under some trees. The keeper of the trees was a Persian, and was very grateful for a bechlik, (ninepence in English money), and a cigarette, in exchange for some bread and cucumber. The heat when we resumed our journey was intolerable, the sun now beating on our backs with such power asto burn the skin. Even in latitudes further south I have never experienced such intense heat, and I believe it was exceptional even for Asia Minor. Murad and the Chawush, although they ought to have been used to it, mopped their black heads constantly, murmuring " Sijak, chok sijak" (It is hot, very hot). As we travelled without any halts every day, it was a marvel that none of us fell ill. That first evening we put up at a khan in a village called Tul. Murad bought a chicken for three piastres, and boiled it with some rice, and this with bread and the rough country wine we had brought with us, made up my dinner every night for a month except when I was in the towns. Meat is difficult to get, fruit is dangerous; vegetables, except cucumber and rice, are unknown ...