The gipsies—A fearful instrument—The musicians—The
dancers—The chief of the gipsy women—Her attire—Vankovitch's
wife—A glass of raki—The fat woman—The man with the
bagpipes—The dance—The two girls—The old lady accompanies
them—The castanets—What is the good of dancing?—The
Lord Chamberlain, who is he?—The marriage festivals
in a harem—The old woman dances a _pas seul_—Osman's
interview with Vankovitch—Oh, Osman! thou descendant
of a line of thieves!—What is the meaning of this?—The
Effendi's horses—The people at the Khans—An undulating
country—Mostaphas—Unwillingness to fight their country's
battles—Several inhabitants killed in Servia—Industrious
insects—A country like the Saxon Switzerland—A district
abounding with pine forests—The telegraph wire to
Sivas—Sawmills—Gogderi Soo—A house with two rooms—The
stable—The fire—The harem—My host and his wives—Two shots
in the air—The ladies—Their legs—The discomfort of the
proprietor.
Some gipsy men now entered, and, squatting down on the carpet, began
to tune their lutes. One of their party carried a fearful instrument.
It was rather like the bagpipes. He at once commenced a wild and
discordant blast. The musicians were followed by the dancers.
The chief of the gipsy women was provided with a tambourine. She was
attired in a blue jacket, underneath this was a purple waistcoat,
slashed with gold embroidery, a pair of very loose, yellow trousers
covered her extremities. Massive gold earrings had stretched the
lobes of her ears, they reached nearly to the shoulders, and by way
of making herself thoroughly beautiful, and doing fit honour to the
occasion, she had stained her teeth and finger-nails with some red
dye. Her eyebrows had been made to meet by a line drawn with a piece of
charcoal. Gold spangles were fastened to her black locks. Massive brass
rings encircled her ankles, the metal jingling as she walked, or rather
waddled round the room.
The two girls who accompanied her were in similar costumes, but without
the gold spangles for their hair, which hung in long tresses below
their waists. The girls, advancing, took the hand of Vankovitch's wife,
and placed it on their heads as a sort of deferential salute. The Pole
poured out a glass of raki for the fat woman, who, though a Mohammedan,
was not adverse to alcohol. She smacked her lips loudly; the man with
the bagpipes gave vent to his feelings in a more awful sound than
before; the lutes struck up in different keys, and the ball began.
The two girls whirled round each other, first slowly, and then
increased their pace till their long black tresses stood out at right
angles from their bodies. The perspiration poured down their cheeks.
The old lady, who was seated on a divan, now uncrossed her legs,
beating her brass ankle-rings the one against the other, she added
yet another noise to the din which prevailed. The girls snapped their
castanets, and commenced wriggling their bodies around each other with
such velocity that it was impossible to recognize the one from the
other. All of a sudden, the music stopped. The panting dancers threw
themselves down on the laps of the musicians.
"What do you think of the performance?" said Vankovitch to me, as he
poured out another glass of raki for the dancers. "It is real hard
work, is it not?" Then, without waiting for an answer, he continued,
"The Mohammedans who read of European balls, and who have never been
out of Turkey, cannot understand people taking any pleasure in dancing.
What is the good of it when I can hire some one else to dance for me?"
is the remark.
"They are not very wrong," I here observed; "that is, if they form an
idea of European dances from their own. Our Lord Chamberlain would soon
put a stop to these sort of performances in England."
"The Lord Chamberlain, who is he?" inquired an Armenian who was
present, and who spoke French.
"He is an official who looks after public morals."
"And do you mean to say that he would object to this sort of a dance?"
"Yes."
"But this is nothing," said Vankovitch. "When there is a marriage
festival in a harem, the women arrange their costumes so that one
article of attire may fall off after another during the dance. The
performers are finally left in very much the same garb as our first
parents before the fall. We shall be spared this spectacle, for my wife
is here. The gipsies will respect her presence because they know that
she is a European."
Now the girls, calling upon the old woman, insisted that she too should
dance. The raki had mounted into the old dame's head. Nothing loath,
she acceded to their request; rising to her feet, she commenced a _pas
seul_ in front of the engineer. First shrugging her shoulders, and then
wriggling from head to toe, as if she were suffering from St. Vitus's
dance, she finally concluded by kneeling before my hostess, and making
a movement as if she would kiss her feet.
The following morning, and just before my departure, the Pole, who had
come to say good-bye to me, called Osman to his side.
"The Effendi is paying two medjidis a day for his horses," remarked
Vankovitch, "and six piastres for a chicken! Oh! Osman! thou descendant
of a line of thieves! What is the meaning of this?"
The Turk changed colour for a moment; but then, collecting himself,
replied,—
"The Effendi's horses are not like other horses, they eat more, and
work more. We and he, too, we all like large chickens. The Effendi
is rich, and he pays; he is big, and he eats a great deal. He is
not giving more money for barley now than he gave when he was in
Constantinople. The people at the Khans tell me the price, I give them
what they ask. It would not do for me to be mean with my lord's gold.
In future I shall know better. I will find out the proper value of
everything, and will only pay what is just."
I interrupted him.
"Osman," I said, "you are a thief! However, as we leave Yuzgat to-day,
there is no time for me to get another servant. Only, beware! for if
I find you deceiving me any more, not all the hairs in the Prophet's
beard shall save you from being discharged."
"The Effendi knows what is best," said Osman coolly. "He has brain, and
I—I am the dust in his sight. Another time we will not give so much for
our barley, we will tighten our purse-strings to the chicken-sellers.
We have all been deceived, we will be so no longer."
We rode through an undulating country, in the direction of Sivas.
The track was firm and good; there was an abundant supply of water
throughout the district, numerous flocks and herds were grazing by the
side of the path.
After marching for six hours and a half, we halted at a Turkoman
village, called Kulhurdook, which contained forty-five mud hovels. With
much difficulty I obtained accommodation in a filthily dirty barn. Here
our horses were also sheltered; side by side with them stood several
cows and oxen. A small piece of carpet covered the ground in one corner
of the building. The proprietor, bringing me a pillow, which once
had been white, but was now black with dirt, placed it under my head,
Radford and Osman lying down by the side of the horses.
There were several mostaphas, or men belonging to the last army
reserve, in this village. They eagerly inquired if there would be war,
but did not express any wish to fight their country's battles. This
struck me as the more remarkable, for elsewhere I had observed great
martial ardour amongst the rural classes. I afterwards learnt that
several men who had been enlisted from this village had been killed
in Servia, hence the unwillingness of the mostaphas to go to what they
considered certain death.
I tried to sleep: this was impossible; some little insects, which
the manager of the Crystal Palace advertises as "industrious," proved
their industry by making fierce onslaughts on my body. Repeated groans
from Osman made me aware that even his skin was not proof against
the attack; whilst my English servant, who had given up all idea of
sleeping, was walking about with a pipe in his mouth, and probably
doing anything but bless his master who had brought him to such an
out-of-the-way region.
"Can you not sleep, Radford?" I inquired.
"Sleep, sir! No! They are running up my legs like coach 'osses.
Hosman's skin is like an ironclad, but they give him no peace; they
worry awful, that they do. I have been trying to smoke them off me, but
'bacca is nothing to these fleas. We shall be eaten alive if we stay
here much longer—I know we shall!"
Having come to much the same conclusion, I ordered him to saddle the
horses, and, to the astonishment of the proprietor of the hovel, we
left our quarters three hours before daybreak.
Presently the country became more mountainous. It reminded me a good
deal of the Saxon Switzerland, the scenery being very picturesque as
our path wound round some wooded slopes.
We were in a country abounding with pine forests. The telegraph-wire to
Sivas was stretched not far from our track. Many saw-mills, turned by
the mountain streams, showed where the telegraph-posts had been made;
they had then been dragged by oxen to their destination.
Our road ran through a pleasant valley, and by the side of a mountain
stream known as the Gogderi Soo. In a few hours we arrived at a river,
called the Tchekar Ermak. It is crossed by a weak stone bridge, the
stream being about thirty yards wide by four deep. We halted for the
night at the village of Tchirklik, a two days' march, or thirteen hours
from Kulhurdook.
I was accommodated in a house which actually possessed two rooms. They
were not constructed in the side of a hill, as the other dwellings
in the neighbourhood, but of wood—one room being reserved for the
proprietor's cattle, sheep, and camels, the other for himself and
harem.
I was permitted to sleep in the stable. Osman, with Radford and our
horses, were lodged in a hovel at the other end of the village.
In the middle of the night I awoke with a feeling of suffocation, my
throat was dry and parched, my eyes began to smart; a crackling noise
overhead could be heard. It gradually dawned upon me that the house
was on fire. I now discovered that the flames from the fireplace had
ignited some boards in the chimney: they, in their turn, had set fire
to the roof. If the proprietor, who was sleeping in the next room,
were not immediately aroused, his house would in all probability be
destroyed. The building was surrounded by a courtyard with high mud
walls. The space outside the dwelling was infested by dogs. They at
once came smelling around me.
Shutting the door, to prevent the flames from bursting out inside, I
went to the harem. The entrance was barred from within. The proprietor
and his wives were fast asleep, they paid no attention to the noise
which I made at the door.
It is of no use standing upon any ceremony with a man when his house
is being burnt down: drawing my revolver, I fired two shots in the
air; thinking that the sound of the reports would arouse the sleeping
inmates. The effect was instantaneous: the whole family awoke, the man,
greatly alarmed, thinking that an attack was being made on the village
by a tribe of Kurds; slowly drawing the bolt, he looked through a crack
in the door.
"Come!" I said, "your house is on fire! Be quick, or it will be burned
down, and your camels and oxen be suffocated!"
The proprietor bounded out of the room. He was followed by the harem;
the ladies, in the confusion, did not think of covering their faces,
and were very scantily attired. They ran to a well in the yard and
brought some pitchers of water. The proprietor by this time had climbed
to the roof of his house. It was a windy night. The gusts were a source
of considerable inconvenience, to the water-bearers; their hands being
occupied with the pitchers, they could not arrange their garments.
The latter fluttered above the ladies' heads, to the great discomfort
of the proprietor, who, much enraged at his house being on fire, was
equally annoyed at his wives' legs being exposed to the view of an
unbeliever.
To relieve his mind, I clambered on to the roof. From this position the
ladies' limbs could no longer be seen. After pouring several buckets of
water on the charred rafters, we managed to extinguish the flames.