In a ring formed round a centre of blazing torches, white-robed men wail and mourn for the holy martyr, slashing their heads with swords. They dip their hands in the flowing blood, and sprinkle it all over their faces. I was haunted for weeks by the ghastly spectacle, which I shall never be able to forget, of those stained robes and faces, amidst the wild fanatical shrieks. When, as often happens, a man thus kills himself in the fury of exaltation, he is acclaimed a martyr, and his family are pensioned for life. When I asked why such awful ceremonies were permitted, I was reminded of Turkey’s “non-interference” with every creed and all the “pieties” of all peoples. * * * * * At Rome, I lodged in a quiet convent, which closed at 7.30. But the Ambassador called at eight and was followed by a succession of Turkish friends, until Mihrinour and her husband arrived at 10.30. I apologised next morning to the Mother Superior for such unseemly interruptions of her ordered life; explaining, in a fifteen minutes’ lecture, how anxious a Turk would always feel for the comfort of any friend. “You are perfectly right,” she said, “I know them well. I lived eighteen years on the shores of the Bosphorus!” Djelaleddine Arif Bey gave me a right royal welcome to Rome, and allowed me to trouble him with all sorts of questions. In Constantinople he had been what we call Dean of the Faculty of Law, and one day, on an official visit to the Sultan, wearing a frock-coat and patent-leather shoes, _he had just time to escape to Angora_, dressed as he was. His knowledge of both the Cheriat and European Laws was invaluable to the Assembly, and it is a delight to hear from his own lips that Turkey is going to establish her _own_ Constitution, not a poor imitation of ours. “Our justice has been paralysed by capitulations,” he said; and told me of an Italian murderer who had found sanctuary in his Consulate, because the Kavass would not give him up. “We have been bound and fettered all these years, but it cannot go on.” His admirable organisation of Justice in Angora developed from one colleague to twenty-five assistants, for work which occupied three hundred men in Constantinople! Yet he very soon established complete order, though after the peace he hopes for still greater perfection. He was interested in the personality of Cardinal Gasparri, whom I had met for the first time. I found him a great contrast to Cardinal Merry de Val, with whom I had long discussions about Islam ten years ago.