been one of the ancient
gates of Cilicia.

Beyond this, our road led over high, grassy hills, without a sign of human
habitation, to the ruined khan of Koord Koolak, We dismounted and unloaded
our baggage in the spacious stone archway, and drove our beasts into the
dark, vaulted halls behind. The building was originally intended for a
magazine of supplies, and from the ruined mosque near it, I suspect it was
formerly one of the caravan stations for the pilgrims from Constantinople
to Mecca. The weather was intensely hot and sultry, and our animals were
almost crazy from the attacks of a large yellow gad-fly. After the noonday
heat was over we descended to the first Cilician plain, which is bounded
on the west by the range of Durdun Dagh. As we had now passed the most
dangerous part of the road, we dismissed the three soldiers and took but a
single man with us. The entire plain is covered with wild fennel, six to
eight feet in height, and literally blazing with its bloomy yellow tops.
Riding through it, I could barely look over them, and far and wide, on all
sides, spread a golden sea, out of which the long violet hills rose with
the liveliest effect. Brown, shining serpents, from four to six feet in
length, frequently slid across our path. The plain, which must be sixty
miles in circumference, is wholly uncultivated, though no land could
possibly be richer.

Out of the region of fennel we passed into one of red and white clover,
timothy grass and wild oats. The thistles were so large as to resemble
young palm-trees, and the salsify of our gardens grew rank and wild. At
length we dipped into the evening shadow of Durdun Dagh, and reached the
village of Koord Keui, on his lower slope. As there was no place for our
tent on the rank grass of the plain or the steep side of the hill, we took
forcible possession of the winnowing-floor, a flat terrace built up under
two sycamores, and still covered with the chaff of the last threshing. The
Koords took the whole thing as a matter of course, and even brought us a
felt carpet to rest upon. They came and seated themselves around us,
chatting sociably, while we lay in the tent-door, smoking the pipe of
refreshment. The view over the wide golden plain, and the hills beyond, to
the distant, snow-tipped peaks of Akma Dagh, was superb, as the shadow of
the mountain behind us slowly lengthened over it, blotting out the mellow
lights of sunset. There were many fragments of pillars and ca