19143 At Demir Hissar 



Fortunately I was able to get off without accident, 

 after which he broke away and left for home at a 

 dead run. The vehicle itself was a singularly ancient a state 

 state equipage, with a high seat in front and a formal ^^^"««' 

 top behind, but it held all three of us comfortably; 

 and we soon invited Papamilos, who was running 

 alongside, to ride on the step. Toward nightfall we 

 reached the end of our journey, the ancient Turkish 

 town of Demir Hissar, Sidero Castro in Greek, both 

 names meaning "Star Tower" and referring to the 

 ruins of an old Turkish lookout on the great cliff 

 which towers above the town. Before the war, this 

 city of eight or ten thousand people contained about 

 an even number of Bulgarians, Turks, and Greeks, 

 the latter occupying the quarter nearest the river. 



After the battle of Kilkis, the chief encounter be- 

 tween Greeks and Bulgarians in the second Balkan war, 

 the Bulgarian army broke and fled, not so much because 

 it had been defeated as because the men were eager 

 to get back to block the Roumanian invasion threat- 

 ening their own homes. The line of retreat crossed the Atrocities 

 Struma a few miles to the west of Demir Hissar, ^^^1^^"^° 

 whence the Greeks sallied out and killed some three 

 hundred wounded borne in the rear. A company of 

 Bulgarians then turned back to the town, killed the 

 Greek priest who seemed to be the leader, and burned 

 the whole Greek quarter. After the Treaty of Bucha- 

 rest, Bulgarians and Turks were alike expelled, and 

 the Greeks spread over what remained of the city. 



The chief hotel, " Xenodocheion tee Orthodoxou Primitive 

 Ellenikos Koinoutou" (Communal Inn of the Holy 'J^^^'^ 

 Orthodox Greek Confession), we found far from 

 sumptuous; the only place to wash, for instance, was 

 an alcove containing a coal-oil can filled with water 



I 597 3 



