THE TOWN OF KONIA. 33 



vice, however, in view of the probable consummation 

 of the Baghdad railway scheme, may be looked upon as 

 temporary : when the train de luxe, which is now in 

 course of construction with a view to future eventual- 

 ities, is in use, all this will be changed. 



Konia, the present terminus of the railway, is a 

 scattered town of about 40,000 inhabitants, and capital 

 of a vilayet, though for the moment government-house 

 was untenanted, the vali, Ferhit Pasha, having left to 

 take up his duties as president of the Macedonian 

 Reform Committee, while his successor Tewfic Pasha 

 had not arrived. I found the tekke of the Mevlevi 

 dervishes, which contains the tombs of Hazret Meviana, 

 the founder of the order, and of his successors, and a 

 semi-ruined building with a ceiling of beautiful enamel 

 tile-work, a worthy rival of the renowned specimens of 

 Samarkand, the objects of chief interest ; but on the 

 whole I was not greatly edified by a morning's wander- 

 ing in the town, and after persevering through a suc- 

 cession of filthy lanes and alleys, was quite ready to 

 agree with the genial companion of my walk, that in 

 Konia it would be superfluous to name the streets, — 

 there was, of course, no thought of doing so, — one knew 

 them by their smells ! 



It is only fair while speaking of Konia to mention 

 in passing how greatly the whole district has benefited 

 under the enlightened rule of the late governor, though 

 I observed that an excellent scheme of irrigation, pro- 

 pounded by him some years ago, had, so far, proceeded 

 no farther than the brain of its deserving originator, 

 lack of funds no doubt forming a formidable bar to its 

 practical application. 



