It was evident that our arrival had been expected. Groups of people were collected in the street up which we passed, and were occupying posts of vantage along the route. I have little doubt that their interest in us was due to the attitude of the authorities towards our visit, rather than to curiosity on the part of such semi-animate individuals to see a European enter their town. The presence of the chief of the police, attired in a new greatcoat, from the brass buttons of which flashed the device of the crescent, was alone sufficient to attract a crowd. He stood in front of his office, facing the main street, and saluted us gravely as we wound up the steep ascent over an irregular pavement towards the central bazar. In the foreground of the picture before our eyes rose a massive minaret with a spacious gallery; and we admired the rambling design, composed of the admixture of yellow and brown blocks of stone, which varied the surface of the circular column of masonry. It belongs to the mosque of Aladdin Bey. The humble houses straggle down the side valleys, from which the stalk-like trunks of poplars rise. Looking backwards, the eye rests upon the green of tobacco fields in the main valley; and we noticed that the large leaves had already been gathered, leaving the stems of the plant almost bare. The gaunt sticks were preparing to wither under the first severe frost. Little foliage remained upon the trees in the gardens, and the poplars were already stripped of leaves. The dwellings are constructed of rubble-stone, faced with mud. Some are whitewashed; but in the case of the greater number lapses of the mud coating reveal the rudeness of the structure behind. The flagstones in the bazar were swimming in filth of every description as we picked our way through the accumulation of heterogeneous objects--bullock carts, piles of straw, the skins of slaughtered animals with the entrails gathered up within the skin. The bazar of Mush is a mere aggregate of miserable open booths, clustering about the base of the minaret. The richest merchant--an Armenian--owned a stall which was not much larger than that of a costermonger. In this booth we observed the figure of a general in blazing uniform, squatted on the boards and gossiping with the shopman. It was none other than the Commandant of the troops. The place was crammed with sightseers, clad in red and blue cottons; their loose shirts, open to the waist, revealed the breasts of the men and the bosoms of the women, in whom bad diet, unwholesome tenements, and ceaseless toil had destroyed the graces natural to their sex. It was painful to see such a collection of miserable human beings; and the lank features and dishevelled locks of the old women haunted us for many a day. From the bazar we were escorted to the government house, in order to be received by the Mutesarrif or chief civil official of the sanjak of Mush.