ch is so polyglottic that its
inhabitants understand signs very well.) My Turk friend, from the very
first, filled my heart with sympathy because of his love for his horses.
Since he had come under the war-rule of the Bulgarians, he complained to
me, he had not been allowed to feed his horses properly. They were
fading away. He wept over them. Actual tears irrigated the furrows of
his weather-beaten and unwashed cheeks.

As a matter of fact the horses were in very good condition indeed,
considering all the circumstances; as good, certainly, as any horses I
had seen since I left Buda-Pesth. But my heart warmed to this Turcoman
and his love for his horses. I had been seeking in vain up to this point
for the appearance of the Terrible Turk of tradition; the Turk, with his
well-beloved Arabian steed, his quite-secondary-in-consideration
Circassian harem; the fierce, unconquerable, disdainful, cruel Turk,
manly in his vices as well as in his virtues. My Turk had at least one
recognisable characteristic in his love for his horses. As he sorrowed
over them I comforted him with a flagon--it was of brandy and water: and
the Prophet, when he forbade wine, was ignorant of brandy, so Islam
these days has its alcoholic consolation--and I stayed him with
cigarettes. He had not had a smoke for a month and, put in possession of
tobacco, he plunged into a mood of rapt exultation, rolling cigarette
after cigarette, chuckling softly as he inhaled the smoke, turning
towards me now and again with a gesture of thanks and of respect. I had
taken over the reins and the little horses were doing very well.

[Illustration: A CONTENTED TURK]

That day, though we had started late, the horses carried us thirty-five
miles, and I camped at the site of a burned-out village. The Turk
made no objection to this. Previously coming over the same route with an
ox-cart, my Macedonian driver had objected to camping except in occupied
villages where there were garrisons. He feared Bashi-Bazouks (the
Turkish irregular bands which occasionally showed themselves in the rear
of the Bulgarian army) and wolves. Probably, too, he feared ghosts, or
was uneasy and lonely when out of range of the village smells. Now I
preferred a burned village site, because the only clean villages were
the burned ones; and for the reason of water it was necessary to camp at
some village or village site. Mr. Turk went up hugely in my estimation
when I found that he had no objections to