I suppose it facilitates marketing, or else the shopkeepers can keep prices more or less level by mutual arrangement. It was nice to see again most of the marketing being done by women with baskets, rather than by men, as is usually the case in the East: Strapping country women, passing in groups from shop to shop, bareheaded in the sunlight, with their tight cloth bodices and short full skirts; town dwellers with finer clothes; here a lady in the simpler, straighter dress such as Aryenis wore, with a servant behind her; there a couple of soldiers in steel caps, bows slung behind them, chaffing good-naturedly a buxom matron with an unruly donkey. And over all a vivid blue sky, and beyond, the great snow-peaks of Saghar Mor--blue shadowed white--that seemed to fill the northern sky. We turned into a winding street that ran slightly uphill, and at the end came to the entrance of the big tower I had seen. It was built in the centre of a high stone-walled enclosure, which formed the citadel of the town, and inside the walls were soldiers’ barracks, some dwelling-houses, and the big stone house of Torka, Henga’s brother, who was chief of the sub-clan of the Blue Sakae of these parts. As we rode up to the gate, he came out to meet us, a tall, well-built man, not unlike Henga, but clean-shaven, an uncommon thing among the Sakae. He had a pleasant, very intellectual face, grave and keen. I learnt later that he was versed in the law, and after the custom of the Sakae administered law and justice through his district, subject always to the right of appeal to the chief of the clan. As we entered the great hall, Aryenis ran down the stairs to greet us and ask anxiously what news her father brought, and whether all had gone well. She was very disturbed when she saw the bloodstained bandage round his neck, and it took a good deal to reassure her that it was indeed--as Kyrlos said--only a deep scratch. She insisted on Forsyth coming to see it at once, and bandaging it properly then and there. After we had brushed off the traces of our journey a bit, we had a late breakfast, at which Kyrlos announced his intention of riding round the town in the afternoon and inspecting the troops and defences. Forsyth asked if he might accompany them, and Kyrlos said he would be very pleased if he did. Stephnos and Wrexham had breakfasted before we came, and then ridden straight on to visit the fort at Takos, some ten miles north near the border. There had been some Shaman activity reported there, and Stephnos, in his capacity of A.D.C. to his father, had gone to get a report from the local commander. Wrexham, anxious to see all he could, had ridden with him, taking Firoz along, too.