Ramsay, William Mitchell: Impressions of Turkey during twelve years' wanderings (London, 1897)

II. THE WAY HOME JJ

ascended towards the south, where a stone in a
fountain bore an interesting epigram. About six
miles south of Synnada we reached a village
Baghche-Hissar (Garden-Castle, incorrectly in maps
Baljik-Hissar), near the top of the glen. Here the
villagers told us that a conical hill above the village
on the east contained many traces of Djineviz (old
walls), but that there were no inscribed stones there.
Then a villager told us that he knew of a stone
among the hills with letters on it; but it was not
marble, only " black stone ". He said it was two
hours distant, close to our road ; and I induced
him to come and show it, by promising him a good
reward, if it bore an inscription ; but payment was
to be strictly by results ; no letters, no money. I
was eager to get this inscription, as from his de-
scription, it seemed likely to be a boundary stone,
and therefore perhaps of the highest importance
and rarity. As these Turkish villagers are fickle
and changeable, it is always advisable to go with
them the moment they show any willingness : if
you postpone for even a short time after they have
been brought to the scratch, you are liable to find
that their habitual sluggishness has resumed its
sway, and it is doubly difflcult.sometimes impossible,
to get them started again.

We therefore sacrificed the Djinevizof the hill-
city. It is remarkable how the name Genoese is