The following morning I started at daybreak in the direction of Dudusa, a village about five hours from Sivas. For some distance we marched alongside the left bank of the Kizil Ermak. The track was very heavy. The baggage-horses had great difficulty in making a way through the mud. Presently we came upon some firm soil. The scenery changed from a flat expanse of plough-land to a winding chain of rugged heights. Chain succeeded chain. Snowy crests were piled up in rear of each other like the billows of the deep. Our path led round these mountain peaks. From time to time we caught a glimpse of the Kizil Ermak, which, white as silver, flowed through the vale at our feet. Nature's walls on all sides of us were of every colour; at every moment, red, blue, and grey sandstone met our gaze. We round a neighbouring crag; a vast rock of the purest marble lies before our party. Huge blocks strew the borders of the path; they sparkle beneath the sky, and rival in their Parian whiteness the snowy heights overhead. On the summit of an adjacent hill is the monastery of Dudusa, and at its foot the village of the same name, made up of straggling houses, built at long intervals apart—some of mud and marble; others—where the inhabitants had been too idle to transport the blocks from the adjacent rock—of dried clay; and a few of the abodes of the better-to-do farmers actually boasting glass windows! In other houses the panes were replaced by paper or pieces of some transparent alabaster, which is found in large quantities in the neighbourhood. Dudusa is an Armenian village. I now learnt that Issek Pacha was very popular amongst the villagers. I must say that I was a little surprised at this, after the way the Armenians in Sivas had abused their governor. Two months previous, some Turks, from a neighbouring hamlet, had made a raid on the flocks belonging to the inhabitants of Dudusa, and had carried off fifty sheep. Information of the robbery was given to the Pacha, he at once sent out a party of soldiers. The robbers had been arrested. They were expiating their offence in prison. I had heard at Sivas that a redif battalion which had lately marched to Erzeroum had outraged some women near Dudusa. I took the opportunity to inquire if the story were true. Like many other statements which had been made to me by the so-called Christians in Anatolia, it turned out to be a fiction. The redif soldiers had passed that way. The only thing which could be said against them was that they had not paid for the bread with which they had been supplied, as the military authorities had not given them any money. There were no officers with the troops, but the men had given the name of their regiment. On application to head-quarters, the amount due would be transmitted to the villagers.