The great circuit of the Halys encloses a tract of country a hundred and fifty miles across, watered chiefly by tributaries of the same river. Of these the Delije Irmak is chief, and it is perhaps more directly concerned with the fertility of the country than its parent river. It rises in the watershed of the Ak Dagh Mountains, under the southern slopes of which the Halys itself flows down the long reach between Sivas and the bridges near Cæsarea. Thence in its course it makes a similar circuit within that of the Halys, which it only joins in the middle of the north-westerly reach. This river is more gentle in its flow, and its banks are mostly flat alluvial tracts of great fertility; indeed, the land would support a population many times more numerous than its settled inhabitants. Long green pastures and arable spots remain unneeded and neglected. It is small wonder that the wandering Turkoman and other nomad peoples have found out this favoured region so suitable to their habits and the feeding of their flocks. Their tents in little groups are found quite frequently in places off the beaten tracks; indeed their encampments remaining through several years sometimes mark the foundation of villages and settled life. The tent of the nomad is generally made of lengths of rough hand-made cloth, woven from home-spun goats’ wool. These are sewn together to give a considerable expanse of cover, which is spread over vertical poles and brought down to earth on the windward side. In such a tent the owner and his family share a common shelter with their flocks and any other animals they may possess.[48] In some cases the development of the house from tent may be watched growing proportionately with the duration of their stay. For the ashes and rubbish are regularly thrown out around the back of the tent for mere convenience. This refuse gradually accumulates, and may be increased by earth cleared gradually from within, and by stones collected from the land in use around, so that in a year or two a wall or mound three or four feet high already encloses the tent on three sides. The worn-out cloth cover is now replaced by a roof of rafters and twigs covered with earth, and perhaps without realising it the nomad has settled and built a house. The solution is not always so simple or purely economical. In some cases walls of reed are built, over which the cover will be stretched as before and held down all around with pegs. In due course, with a prolonged stay, the worn-out cloth will be replaced by thatch, and rough stone walls supplant the decaying reeds; and so, as he loses the habit of wandering, the nomad loses also the necessaries of his journeys. [Illustration: PLATE XIII CHESME KEUPRU: INTERIOR OF THE HAN (_See p. 28._) NEAR SEKKELI: YURUK ENCAMPMENT (_See p. 29._)]