d
a cousin of the Vali at Angora. He said a report had gone out that two
devils were passing through the country. The dinner was one of those
incongruous Turkish mixtures of sweet and sour, which was by no means
relieved by the harrowing Turkish music which our host ground out from an
antiquated hand-organ.

[Illustration: MILL IN ASIA MINOR.]

Although it was late when we returned to the khan, we found everybody
still up. The room in which we were to sleep (there was only one room) was
filled with a crowd of loiterers, and tobacco smoke. Some were playing
games similar to our chess and backgammon, while others were looking on,
and smoking the gurgling narghile, or water-pipe. The bicycles had been
put away under lock and key, and the crowd gradually dispersed. We lay
down in our clothes, and tried to lose consciousness; but the Turkish
supper, the tobacco smoke, and the noise of the quarreling gamesters, put
sleep out of the question. At midnight the sudden boom of a cannon
reminded us that we were in the midst of the Turkish Ramadan. The sound of
tramping feet, the beating of a bass drum, and the whining tones of a
Turkish bagpipe, came over the midnight air. Nearer it came, and louder
grew the sound, till it reached the inn door, where it remained for some
time. The fast of Ramadan commemorates the revelation of the Koran to the
prophet Mohammed. It lasts through the four phases of the moon. From
daylight, or, as the Koran reads, "from the time you can distinguish a
white thread from a black one," no good Mussulman will eat, drink, or
smoke. At midnight the mosques are illuminated, and bands of music go
about the streets all night, making a tremendous uproar. One cannon is
fired at dusk, to announce the time to break the fast by eating supper,
another at midnight to arouse the people for the preparation of breakfast,
and still another at daylight as a signal for resuming the fast. This, of
course, is very hard on the poor man who has to work during the day. As a
precaution against oversleeping, a watchman goes about just before
daybreak, and makes a rousing clatter at the gate of every Mussulman's
house to warn him that if he wants anything to eat he must get it
instanter. Our roommates evidently intended to make an "all night" of it,
for they forthwith commenced the preparation of their morning meal. How it
was despatched we do not know, for we fell asleep, and were only awakened
by the muezzin on a neighboring m