a “shake down” on the floor, a cup of
coffee or a glass of vishner is obtainable, and opposite
which another Greek keeps an eating-house. There
is no separate kitchen in this latter establishment
as in the one at Isrnidt; one room answers for cooking,
eating, nargileh-smoking, coffee-sipping, and gossiping;
and while I am eating, a curious crowd watches my
every movement with intense interest. Here, as
at Ismidt, I am requested to examine for myself the
contents of several pots. Most of them contain
a greasy mixture of chopped meat and tomatoes stewed
together, with no visible difference between them
save in the sizes of the pieces of meat; but one vessel
contains pillau, and of this and some inferior red
wine I make my supper. Prices for eatables are
ridiculously low; I hand him a cherik for the supper;
he beckons me out of the back door, and there, with
none save ourselves to witness the transaction, he
counts me out two piastres change, which left him
ten centa for the supper. He has probably been
guilty of the awful crime of charging me about three
farthings over the regular price, and was afraid to
venture upon so iniquitous a proceeding in the public
room lest the Turks should perchance detect him in
cheating an Englishman, and revenge the wrong by making
him feed me for nothing. It rains quite heavily
during the night, and while waiting for it to dry
up a little in the morning, the Geivehites voluntarily
tender me much advice concerning the state of the road
ahead, being governed in their ideas according to
their knowledge of a ’cycler’s mountain-climbing
ability. By a round dozen of men, who penetrate
into my room in a body ere I am fairly dressed, and
who, after solemnly salaaming in chorus, commence
delivering themselves of expressive pantomime and
gesticulations, I am led to understand that the road
from Geiveh to Tereklu is something fearful for a
bicycle. One fat old Turk, undertaking to explain
it more fully, after the others have exhausted their
knowledge of sign language, swells himself up like
an inflated toad and imitates the labored respiration
of a broken-winded horse in order to duly impress
upon my mind the physical exertion I may expect to
put forth in “riding"-he also paws the air with
his right foot-over the mountain-range that looms
up like an impassable barrier three miles east of the
town. The Turks as a nation have the reputation
of being solemn-visaged, imperturbable people, yet
one occasionally finds them quite animated and “Frenchy”
in their behavior — the bicycle may, however,
be in a measure responsible for this. The soil
around Geiveh is a red clay that, after a shower,
clings to the rubber tires of the bicycle as though
the mere resemblance in color tended to establish
a bond of sympathy between them that nothing could
overcome, I pass the time until ten o’clock in
avoiding the crowd that has swarmed the khan since
early dawn, and has been awaiting with Asiatic patience
ever since. At ten o’clock I win the gratitude