The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and SpainTaylor, Bayard
History
The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain
Taylor, Bayard
Middle East -- Description and travel; Spain -- Description and travel
We knew that the tombs of the Phrygian Kings could not be far off, and, on
making inquiries of the corporal, found that he knew the place. It was not
four hours distant, by a by-road and as it would be impossible to reach
it without a guide, he would give us one of his men, in consideration of a
fee of twenty piastres. The difficulty was evident, in a hilly, wooded
country like this, traversed by a labyrinth of valleys and ravines, and so
we accepted the soldier. As we were about leaving, an old Turcoman, whose
beard was dyed a bright red, came up, saying that he knew Mr. H. was a
physician, and could cure him of his deafness. The morning air was sweet
with the breath of cedar and pine, and we rode on through the woods and
over the open turfy glades, in high spirits. We were in the heart of a
mountainous country, clothed with evergreen forests, except some open
upland tracts, which showed a thick green turf, dotted all over with
park-like clumps, and single great trees. The pines were noble trunks,
often sixty to eighty feet high, and with boughs disposed in all possible
picturesqueness of form. The cedar frequently showed a solid white bole,
three feet in diameter.
We took a winding footpath, often a mere track, striking across the hills
in a northern direction. Everywhere we met the Turks of the plain, who are
now encamped in the mountains, to tend their flocks through the summer
months. Herds of sheep and goats were scattered over the green
pasture-slopes, and the idle herd-boys basked in the morning sun, playing
lively airs on a reed flute, resembling the Arabic _zumarra_. Here and
there was a woodman, busy at a recently felled tree, and we met several of
the creaking carts of the country, hauling logs. All that we saw had a
pleasant rural air, a smack of primitive and unsophisticated life. From
the higher ridges over which we passed, we could see, far to the east and
west, other ranges of pine-covered mountains, and in the distance the
cloudy lines of loftier chains. The trunks of the pines were nearly all
charred, and many of the smaller trees dead, from the fires which, later
in the year, rage in these forests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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