Accompanied by this man, he went down into the land of Tkhuma, which is as wild a district of Christian _ashirets_ as any in Hakkiari. It was just after harvest, and folk had nothing to do; so a little friendly fight was in progress between two Christian villages. Of course the foreign traveller was stopped and questioned by armed men, who demanded who he was and what he had come for. Had he told the truth, and said that he was neutral in the dispute, he might have been as safe as the Kenites were, when Sisera was fighting out his quarrel with certain Israelitish _ashirets_: but his wretched Armenian was panic-struck, and was at some pains to explain that his master had come down in the interests of one particular faction, and was the intimate friend of its leader. As a matter of fact (though he did not realize it till too late), the gentlemen who had stopped him were prominent leaders on the other side. Hence, taking the man's own account of himself as true, they were much disposed to deal with him as an enemy and a spy. Fortunately they postponed sentence till they had reported the case to Mar Shimun; and the Patriarch ordered that he should be released, that his property (which had naturally been confiscated) should be returned to him, and that he should be conducted out of the district. They obeyed, only retaining one "kodak" as a trophy, and led him to their frontier. Still, it was not in human nature to refrain from representing that the journey was very dangerous; and that they could not dream of letting so honoured a man go without a large escort--and a large fee for each member of it, payable in advance. Thus escorted, the traveller was taken to the border of the Christian territory, where as luck would have it, they encountered a party of Châl Kurds. "What have you there?" said the Châl men. "A Frank of sorts, who says he wants to study your manners and customs," said the Tkhumans. "Hand him over to us, and he shall have ample opportunity," said the Kurds. So he had; for having been once robbed by the Christians, he was now robbed over again by the Kurds, and this time there was no Patriarch to appeal to. Thus it was a very tattered and woe-begone traveller who was at last delivered at Amadia. He was certainly uninjured personally, save in self-esteem; but otherwise nothing was left him but the clothes he stood up in, which were not many; and perhaps he was fortunate in retaining as much as that!