to ride,
and, hoping that this would gain for us a comfortable night's rest, we
yielded, and, amid peals of laughter from a crowd of Turkish peasants,
gave an exhibition in the moonlight. Our only reward, when we returned to
our quarters, was two greasy pillows and a filthy carpet for a coverlet.
But the much needed rest we did not secure, for the suspicions aroused by
the first glance at our bed-cover proved to be well grounded.

[Illustration: TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH.]

About noon on April 20, our road turned abruptly into the broad caravan
trail that runs between Smyrna and Kaisarieh, about ten miles west of the
latter city. A long caravan of camels was moving majestically up the road,
headed by a little donkey, which the _devedejee_ (camel-driver) was riding
with his feet dangling almost to the ground. That proverbially stubborn
creature moved not a muscle until we came alongside, when all at once he
gave one of his characteristic side lurches, and precipitated the rider to
the ground. The first camel, with a protesting grunt, began to sidle off,
and the broadside movement continued down the line till the whole caravan
stood at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the road. The camel of
Asia Minor does not share that antipathy for the equine species which is
so general among their Asiatic cousins; but steel horses were more than
even they could endure.

[Illustration: THE "FLIRTING TOWER" IN SIVAS.]

A sudden turn in the road now brought us in sight of old Arjish Dagh,
which towers 13,000 feet above the city of Kaisarieh, and whose head and
shoulders were covered with snow. Native tradition tells us that against
this lofty summit the ark of Noah struck in the rising flood; and for this
reason Noah cursed it, and prayed that it might ever be covered with snow.
It was in connection with this very mountain that we first conceived the
idea of making the ascent of Ararat. Here and there, on some of the most
prominent peaks, we could distinguish little mounds of earth, the ruined
watch-towers of the prehistoric Hittites.

[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS.]

Kaisarieh (ancient Caesarea) is filled with the ruins and the monuments of
the fourteenth-century Seljuks. Arrowheads and other relics are every day
unearthed there, to serve as toys for the street urchins. Since the
development of steam-communication around the coast, it is no longer the
caravan center that it use