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

OF ASIA MINOR 109

and turbulent Avshahr. They presented the Uzun-
Yaila to the Circassians, and bade them enter in
and take possession. This was a thoroughly
Turkish plan ; whichever side conquered, the
government would be rid of two troubles, for in
a war between two such races the losers would be
sadly broken in numbers and power, and even the
winners would suffer severely. In the end, after a
hard struggle, the remnant of the Avshahrs was
driven into the Anti-Taurus, and the Circassians
now own all the Uzun-Yaila.

Cooped up in these glens, the Avshahrs have
lost much of the nomadic character; they are
adopting the settled habit; and, shorn of their
former power, they are far from being so free as
they were on the Great Yailas. But even yet they
are far bolder and prouder than the Turkish vil-
lagers. In 1882, when a zaptieh who was with us
began to demand camp-requisites in his usual
hectoring style, he was told to remember that he
was now in the mountains, and that, if he uttered
another word in that tone, they would beat him
till he could not stand.

But there are other Avshahr villages in Asia
Minor in which the recollection of racial character
has been almost or entirely lost. It is not uncom-
mon to find a village named Avshahr: in the valley
of the Kazanes (Kara-Eyuk-Ova) there are two,