A.SIATIC TURKEY.*
IN 1875, Mr. Davis travelled through portions of Cilicia, Lycaouia, Cappadocia, and the little known district of Isauria, and his tour included a journey to the ruins of ancient Isaura, which had previously been visited only by Hamilton in 1836, and a little earlier, by Texier. The traveller was not mistaken in believing that a description of the con- dition of the people in a remote province of the Otto- man Empire, "almost uninfluenced by the pseudo-civilisa- tion of Stamboul," would be interesting in itself, and would stimulate the attention with which all thinking and reading persons observe the solution of the Eastern Question ; and his book is an undeniably valuable contribution to the vast mass of the literature of that question. It is a disheartening book as to its statements, for they convey a lamentable picture of suffering and misrule, and its style is somewhat lacking in colour. When the reader has ascertained that Mr. Davis found the Kaaamanian people "endowed with many noble qualities, and the country contain- ing many elements of natural prosperity," that he protests against the " peoples " being confounded with the corrupt official and governing classes (contact with whom he carefully avoided during his journey), and that he entirely denies that in Karamania any special class-oppression of Christians by Moslem exists, all that is necessary for the comprehension of the political side of the author's narrative has been supplied. He is despondent of the future of Asiatic Turkey, holding that nothing could be worse than Ottoman rule, except the substitution for it of Russian government; and as he evidently contemplates no other alternative as worthy of practical consideration, he limits himself to a hope that "the fiery trial of 18764 will be productive of good to the various races under the sceptre of the House of Othrnau." Of those races we, perhaps, know least concerning the dwellers in Northern Syria, and the adjacent territory of Karamania, which have only recently been reduced to anything like order, and opened up to commerce. In time, these wild regions may be visited as Palestine is visited now, but up to the present time, with rare exceptions, "the only Europeans who find their way thither are a few buyers of walnut-wood, or leech merchants, chiefly Greeks, on whom the wonderful antiquities and surpassing beauties of the country naturally make but little impression." The interest of the tour commences with the traveller's arrival at Tarsus, the city of St. Paul, where, how- ever, with the exception of a well, called by his name, there is no traditional memorial of the Apostle. The country is beauti- ful ; the gardens, in which nightingales abound, are full of mag. nificent trees, and luxuriant, neglected fruit; the poverty of the people is extreme, the taxes are frightful, and the encouragement to explorers who might be tempted to employ 801110 labour iu * Life in A &rite realm): a Joarnal of Travel'. By tho Rev. E. J. Davis, M.A. London : Edward Stanford.
excavation of the antiquity-laden earth, may be estimated from the followine. :—
"Perhaps the most beautiful antique yet found at Tarsus is the white marble sarcophagus, presented by the American Vice-Consul to the Museum at New York, and to remove which the 'Shenandoah' came to Messina in 1871. With considerable difficulty its transfer was obtained, and it was,dragged to Messina on a kind of car by six-
teen buffaloes It was discovered near the eastern end of the bridge over the Cydnns, and it is believed that there are other sarcophagi near the spot ; but the Government will not allow any excavation. Even those who make accidental discoveries have generally cause to rue it ; for instance, in 1872, a man, while working in a garden, not far from the American Vice-Consulate, came upon three bronze statues, and four of life-size in marble, upon a basement of beautiful mosaic pavement. The finder immediately gave notice of his discovery to the Governor, and awaited his reward. The statues were forwarded to Constantinople, and for his reward the finder was imprisoned, in ordor to compel him to confess if he had discovered other, and more portable, treasures in his garden. Since that time, whenever similar treasures are found, they are either broken up, or covered over again by the finder."
The borderland between Syria and Turkey has always been disturbed, and much frequented by robbers, so that, although things had quieted down of late years, Mr. Davis's journey was not without actual risk, in addition to its many discomforts. Nevertheless he enjoyed it, and he conveys to his readers a sense of the wild beauty of the scene. Here is one among many sketches,—it is that of the Billali Bel, or Whetstone Pass, in the great mountain chain called Giaour Dagh :—
"Some of the slopes across whioh it passes are at so steep an incline, that a stone could be thrown down directly, and without effort, into the roaring river hundreds of feet below. The scenery is grand, with lovely views down tlfe pass of the great ridges of the Giaour Dagh. All is well wooded, especially the river ravine, which is full of planes and walnuts. The stream, clear as crystal, now roars along in rapid torrent, now foams in cascades over great masses of green or red marble or dolomite, now curls round roots of gnarled and aged trees, now sleeps in a placid pool ; and every side-valley brings its tribute of waters. Here and there are lonely cottages, with a few patches of cultivated ground round them, perched high up, in positions almost inaccessible, on the side of the ravine. What a life their owners must load!"
It would not, however, seem to be such a pitiable life, after all, for the author says of the dwellers in this wild and beautiful
borderland, that they are a simple-minded, honest, and really religious race, free from many of the vices of civilised society. A particularly interesting chapter is devoted to the country through which the Sabroon and Sombaz rivers flow, and to the investigation of the curious rock fortresses of Anazarba and Sis, with their fine remains, and Armenian and Italian inscrip- tions. At Anazarba, which has suffered from earthquake more
than any known city, the travellers found a true sample of the "strong man armed," in possession. Mr. Davis's description of Arslan, the Syrian, of Tripoli, who bought the place, including the site of the ancient city, from the Government, and holds it, with his little colony of Greek Christians, against Moslem in- trusion, keeping, by the terror of his resolute presence even the thievish, prowling Circassiana at bay, reads like a bit of medimval romance. It must produce a strange effect upon the imagination, to come, after such a journey through almost unknown regions of the earth, by wind- ing ways of mountain pass, and forest, and river, under Asiatic skies, to the bold, barbarous settlement beneath the . shadow of the great cliffs of Anazarba, which sink like a wall to a depth of 800 feet, and at whose base once stood the great city, with the world-famous rock fortress on its height. Of all the grandeur of that ancient civilisation which flourished where Arslan rules his people and feeds his herds to-day, there remains ono object,—the "Arch of Triumph." There is no inscription on this great monument, which is within the circuit of the wall called Justinian's, but Mr. Davis says, "It is of a style common towards the end of the second century, and in many respects it resembles the architecture of the Roman part of the temple at Baalbec." Ruined aqueducts and the remains of the great rock fortress engross the traveller, who leaves them for the heights above, whence he may survey an almost bound- less expanse, covered with the flocks and herds of the Turko- mans. In the encampments of these people Mr. Davis saw them weaving the "Killim" carpets, beautiful, brilliant fabrics, with, in particular, a matchless brown dye, which are sold at Adana for much money, but for which the poor weavers get very little. The approach to Sis is beautiful, the great, red rock, with the fortress on its summit, being backed by a range of deep purple mountains, and the valley being rich with orange and lemon trees; but the town is ruinous and wretched, and the population, Armenian Christians, poverty-stricken. The beauty of the country between Sis and Adana would seem to be equal to its insalubrity ; and of the chief Cilician city the author
gives a really picturesque description, adding that nothing
which he has ever seen can rival the cloud and sunset effects, in this most lovely, but dangerous land. He was, very naturally,.
desirous of getting away from Adana, for there his travelling
companion died of the deadly malaria; and we soon find him penetrating the magnificent Pylin Cilicke, en route for Karaman, and crossing the great plain beyond, with its few scattered villages, which had suffered fearfully from the famine that had desolated the entire district a year before. There is a dreadful sameness in all stories of famine ; this one has only a single distinguishing feature ; the victims "died princi- pally of hunger,—no food could be obtained, but there was no epidemic." The chapters which narrate the author's journey over the Great Plain to Ibreez are interesting, though one can hardly tell why, only that there is always a charm in space, in solitude, in freedom, and in ruins. From one of the villages by the way, Mr. Davis was taken by a native into a ravine of the background of mountains, and shown a strange little ruin. It was a Christian hermitage ; the apse had been hewn out of the overhanging rock, and the chapel built on a strong masonry platform. The whole interior had been lined with cement, on which had been painted the figure of our Lord, and saints. A few fragments of the frescoes and one head remain, in a by no means bad style of' art, and with colouring still vivid, after 900 years. A lonely dwell- ing that must have been, as the traveller felt, when he turned away from it to the steep descent, amid the silence, broken only by the song of a thrush. A few days' journey further, and he was examining a Hemathite bas-relief and inscription on a rock at Ibreez. The former is a fine design, of two figures, the anatomy well indicated, after the manner of the- Assyrian sculptures. The villagers have no tradition respecting this strange work of art, and no ruins of any ancient town exist in the district. Mr. Davis gives a charming description of the flowers on a portion of the Great Plain, where also the
trefoil and clover grow in such profusion as to explain how it is that the villagers keep such vast flocks and herds. Even to the impassive Orientals, a European traveller was an object of curiosity at Karaman; eight years before, two buyers of walnut-wood had been seen there, but "a real travelling Effendi was an absolute novelty. About the city, which rises abruptly from the plain, there is nothing remarkable, either in its present half-deserted condition, or the contrast of that condition with its former importance. There are two beautiful ranges of moun- tains near the city, Kara Dagh and Bozallah Dagh, besides. other distant and less lofty ranges. "The plain," says the author, " with its rich colony and luxuriant crops, and the grand old citadel, dismantled and ruinous, with its background of mountains, all contribute to render Karaman one of the most picturesque places I have seen."
The author likes and pities the people who dwell in these beautiful and desolate regions ; he dwells upon the monotony,. the hardship, the misery of their lives, even before the terrible war, which wrung its tribute of suffering and, ruin from them, too. We have rarely read a narrative of travel which leaves a more depressing impression, or more strongly reminds Us of the hackneyed line:— " Where all but the spirit of man is divine."
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