DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4719#0131
110
PHBYGIA.
guides, and in a country without road and with so few marked
features, it was no easy matter to find the way. The tracks
through the woods are innumerable, for the road is changed
at each season as the swamps become passable; many of
them are only the tracks of the woodcutters. Steering by
compass however we took the right course, but the delay in
climbing the hills in this steeple-chase mode of travelling
caused us to be benighted.
"Were I disposed to dwell on personal annoyances, I
might here relate our ride of twenty-five miles against a
strong wind from the north-east, and getting thoroughly wet
through with cold rain, which was succeeded by a heavy
fall of snow: darkness came on, and we were compelled for
the last ten miles to trust ourselves entirely to the guidance of
our horses, being unable to distinguish the stones from the
streams, many of which wound down the steep craggy rocks
over which we were riding. In this manner we had to
cross and re-cross thickets and swamps. But it was in our
favour that our horses were approaching home ; and at last
we found to our great joy, that an object which in the
darkness we had fancied to be a curiously shaped rock, was
the wall of the citadel of Kootiya. As it was ten o'clock
when I arrived, wet through and miserably cold, I asked
to be allowed to undress and have tea by myself, instead
of in the presence of eight or nine friends of my host; my
request was granted, but one or two of the sons were di-
rected to remain with me, that I might not be lonely. My
servant told me afterwards that the good gentleman was
much hurt at my request, attributing it to my dislike of
the society around him.
There is little to be said of Kootaya. Through its streets
run several rivulets, which carry away the remains of ani-
mals, often a nuisance in Turkish towns: the streets are
wide, and the houses better built than usual.
Today I borrowed the only thermometer in the town (the
t
;
; si :: -
(M
[k»ki
«offeJUi
-■' '
PHBYGIA.
guides, and in a country without road and with so few marked
features, it was no easy matter to find the way. The tracks
through the woods are innumerable, for the road is changed
at each season as the swamps become passable; many of
them are only the tracks of the woodcutters. Steering by
compass however we took the right course, but the delay in
climbing the hills in this steeple-chase mode of travelling
caused us to be benighted.
"Were I disposed to dwell on personal annoyances, I
might here relate our ride of twenty-five miles against a
strong wind from the north-east, and getting thoroughly wet
through with cold rain, which was succeeded by a heavy
fall of snow: darkness came on, and we were compelled for
the last ten miles to trust ourselves entirely to the guidance of
our horses, being unable to distinguish the stones from the
streams, many of which wound down the steep craggy rocks
over which we were riding. In this manner we had to
cross and re-cross thickets and swamps. But it was in our
favour that our horses were approaching home ; and at last
we found to our great joy, that an object which in the
darkness we had fancied to be a curiously shaped rock, was
the wall of the citadel of Kootiya. As it was ten o'clock
when I arrived, wet through and miserably cold, I asked
to be allowed to undress and have tea by myself, instead
of in the presence of eight or nine friends of my host; my
request was granted, but one or two of the sons were di-
rected to remain with me, that I might not be lonely. My
servant told me afterwards that the good gentleman was
much hurt at my request, attributing it to my dislike of
the society around him.
There is little to be said of Kootaya. Through its streets
run several rivulets, which carry away the remains of ani-
mals, often a nuisance in Turkish towns: the streets are
wide, and the houses better built than usual.
Today I borrowed the only thermometer in the town (the
t
;
; si :: -
(M
[k»ki
«offeJUi
-■' '