ed
up to hold our steeds for us to mount. With the greatest difficulty we
impressed upon our persistent assistants that they could not help us. By
the time we reached the khan the crowd had become almost a mob, pushing
and tumbling over one another, and yelling to every one in sight that "the
devil's carts have come." The inn-keeper came out, and we had to assure
him that the mob was actuated only by curiosity. As soon as the bicycles
were over the threshold, the doors were bolted and braced. The crowds
swarmed to the windows. While the khanji prepared coffee we sat down to
watch the amusing by-play and repartee going on around us. Those who by
virtue of their friendship with the khanji were admitted to the room with
us began a tirade against the boyish curiosity of their less fortunate
brethren on the outside. Their own curiosity assumed tangible shape. Our
clothing, and even our hair and faces, were critically examined. When we
attempted to jot down the day's events in our note-books they crowded
closer than ever. Our fountain-pen was an additional puzzle to them. It
was passed around, and explained and commented on at length.

Our camera was a "mysterious" black box. Some said it was a telescope,
about which they had only a vague idea; others, that it was a box
containing our money. But our map of Asiatic Turkey was to them the most
curious thing of all. They spread it on the floor, and hovered over it,
while we pointed to the towns and cities. How could we tell where the
places were until we had been there? How did we even know their names? It
was wonderful--wonderful! We traced for them our own journey, where we had
been and where we were going, and then endeavored to show them how, by
starting from our homes and continuing always in an easterly direction, we
could at last reach our starting-point from the west. The more intelligent
of them grasped the idea. "Around the world," they repeated again and
again, with a mystified expression.

Relief came at last, in the person of a messenger from Osman Beg, the
inspector-general of agriculture of the Angora vilayet, bearing an
invitation to supper. He stated that he had already heard of our
undertaking through the Constantinople press, and desired to make our
acquaintance. His note, which was written in French, showed him to be a
man of European education; and on shaking hands with him a half-hour
later, we found him to be a man of European origin--an Albanian Greek, an