ith a bright purple blossom. The
asphodel grew in great profusion, and an ivy-leaved shrub, covered with
flakes of white bloom, made the air faint with its fragrance. Still
further up, we came to orchards of walnut and plum trees, and vineyards
There were no houses, but the innabitants, who were mostly Turcomans, live
in villages during the winter, and in summer pitch their tents on the
mountains where they pasture their flocks. Directly over this quiet
pastoral, vale towered the Taurus, and I looked at once on its secluded
loveliness and on the wintry heights, whose bleak and sublime heads were
mantled in clouds. From no point is there a more imposing view of the
whole snowy range. Near the head of the valley we passed a large Turcoman
encampment, surrounded with herds of sheep and cattle.

We halted for the evening at a place called Kolue-Kushla---an immense
fortress-village, resembling Baias, and like it, wholly deserted. Near it
there is a small town of very neat houses, which is also deserted, the
inhabitants having gone into the mountains with their flocks. I walked
through the fortress, which is a massive building of stone, about 500
feet square, erected by Sultan Murad as a resting-place for the caravans
to Mecca. It has two spacious portals, in which the iron doors are still
hanging, connected by a vaulted passage, twenty feet high and forty wide,
with bazaars on each side. Side gateways open into large courts,
surrounded with arched chambers. There is a mosque entire, with its pulpit
and galleries, and the gilded crescent still glittering over its dome.
Behind it is a bath, containing an entrance hall and half a dozen
chambers, in which the water-pipes and stone tanks still remain. With a
little alteration, the building would make a capital Phalanstery, where
the Fourierites might try their experiment without contact with Society.
There is no field for them equal to Asia Minor--a glorious region,
abounding in natural wealth, almost depopulated, and containing a great
number of Phalansteries ready built.

We succeeded in getting some eggs, fowls, and milk from an old Turcoman
who had charge of the village. A man who rode by on a donkey sold us a bag
of _yaourt_ (sour milk-curds), which was delicious, notwithstanding the
suspicious appearance of the bag. It was made before the cream had been
removed, and was very rich and nourishing. The old Turcoman sat down and
watched us while we ate, but would not join us, a