s that?" said a burly member of the group, as he looked round with
scowling face at his companions. "Yes; what was that?" they echoed, and
then made a rush for the manipulator of the black box, which they
evidently took for some instrument of the black art. The photographer
stood serenely innocent, and winked at the zaptieh to give the proper
explanation. He was equal to the occasion. "That," said he, "is an
instrument for taking time by the sun." At this the box went the round,
each one gazing intently into the lens, then scratching his head, and
casting a bewildered look at his nearest neighbor. We noticed that every
one about us was armed with knife, revolver, and Martini rifle, a belt of
cartridges surrounding his waist. It occurred to us that Turkey was
adopting a rather poor method of clipping the wings of these mountain
birds, by selling them the very best equipments for war. Legally, none but
government guards are permitted to carry arms, and yet both guns and
ammunition are sold in the bazaars of almost every city of the Turkish
dominions. The existence of these people, in their wild, semi-independent
state, shows not so much the power of the Kurds as the weakness of the
Turkish government, which desires to use a people of so fierce a
reputation for the suppression of its other subjects. After half an hour's
rest, we prepared to decamp, and so did our Kurdish companions. They were
soon in their saddles, and galloping away in front of us, with their arms
clanking, and glittering in the afternoon sunlight.

At the spring we had turned off the trail that led over the Sardarbulakh
pass into Russia, and were now following a horse-path which winds up to
the Kurdish encampments on the southern slope of the mountain. The plain
was strewn with sand and rocks, with here and there a bunch of tough, wiry
grass about a foot and a half high, which, though early in the year, was
partly dry. It would have been hot work except for the rain of the day
before and a strong southeast wind. As it was, our feet were blistered and
bruised, the thin leather sandals worn at the outset offering very poor
protection. The atmosphere being dry, though not excessively hot, we soon
began to suffer from thirst. Although we searched diligently for water, we
did not find it till after two hours more of constant marching, when at a
height of about 6000 feet, fifty yards from the path, we discerned a
picturesque cascade of sparkling, cold mountain w