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

OF ASIA MINOR 113

almost in a state of war with their Turkish neigh-
bours, who regard them with intense hatred and
fear. Your archaeologist can' hardly induce his
Turkish servants to enter a Circassian village. In
1888 my wife and I, reaching a Circassian village at
noon after a six hours' ride, stopped to lunch. We
sat down in the verandah of a house ; our two
servants put up our horses and disappeared. We
spent near three hours talking with a number of
Circassians, who gathered round. All Circassians
have a great natural faculty for geography, and
good intellectual power generally; and they are
therefore always interesting to talk to. One young
fellow, a stranger stopping, like us, in the village, had
travelled widely, and we had a long and animated
discussion whether he or I had seen more of Turkey.
When we intimated a desire to go on, the Circassians
got ready our horses, brought them, and were ex-
traordinarily cordial. We rode out of the village,
and about a quarter of a mile on found our two ser-
vants waiting with their own horses, starving and
unhappy. That, however, was the worst case of
terror that I have known.

Many have had a less pleasant experience among
the Circassians than we. They are very expert
horse thieves; and one hears many tales of their
exploits in that way. A friend of ours had a horse
stolen from the door of a wayside coffee-house, into