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

106 THE MOHAMMEDAN RACES

been that they were Mongolian, but, in his final
work on Lycia, he abandons his original opinion.
I cannot pretend to hold any ethnological view ;
but, while his later opinion seems in some respects
startling and at first sight improbable, it has the
merit of explaining the difference of haunts between
Yuruk and Turkmen. Moreover, it is certain that
there is a decidedly greater difference in character
between Yuruk and Turkmen than there is between
Turkmen and Turk.1

Differing from Dr. Humann, who declared that
the Yuruks have no religion at all, Von Luschan
maintains that they are good Mussulmans, regular
in the five daily prayers, and in many cases going
on pilgrimage to Mecca. My own experience is
intermediate ; they do indeed claim to be Moham-
medans, and practise circumcision, but I never saw
a Yuruk praying in his own home, though, when
they come into the settled villages, they put on all
the appearance of good Moslems.2 It is, however,
possible, as Von Luschan remarks, that the Lycian
Yuruks may differ in character from those of other
regions known better to Humann and to me.

Von Luschan heard among the Yuruks a language
different from Turkish. He is, doubtless, right; but
I know nothing to confirm it. In general appear-

1 Rciscn in Lykien, etc., 1889, ii., p. 216 ff.

2 So Sir C. Wilson, Handbook, Turkey (Murray), p. 68.