THE EOAD OF THE EAST. 35 



with an entire dispensation from ablutions. Fowls and 

 eggs, it is true, may be obtained in the villages on the 

 Konia plateau, but in winter, when the rigours of 

 climate have driven away the encampments of nomads, 

 which are to be found in the mountains duringf the 

 summer months, nothing can be expected from the 

 dilapidated khans which serve for stages on the main 

 artery of communication between the desert uplands 

 of Western Anatolia and the lowlands of Cilicia and 

 Mesopotamia beyond. 



When I left Konia by carriage on the morning of 

 December the 20th I had not the benefit of the experi- 

 ence which I was so shortly to acquire, and I accepted 

 thankfully and literally the information that there was 

 a passable road the whole of the way. There is, how- 

 ever, one road of the West and another of the East, and 

 it very soon became evident that the road in question 

 was essentially and unmistakably of the latter. That 

 is to say, there was no road at all ; but we just drove 

 over the plain in the direction of our objective, following 

 more or less faithfully, according to circumstances, the 

 tracks of others who had gone before. In this case, 

 Eregli, a village at the foot of the Bulgar Dagh Mount- 

 ains, was our objective, with the villages of Ismil and 

 Kara Bunar as intermediate points. 



The south - eastern -' corner of the great highland 

 plateau, known as the Axylon, presents a picture of 

 mournful desolation. An arid and dessicated expanse 

 for one-half of the year, it becomes in winter a sea of 

 mud, producing to all appearances, where it produces 

 anything at all, a crop of sorry -looking camel-thorn, 

 such life as there is being presented by small strings of 

 camels that pass with silent ghostly tread, and here and 

 there by a small clump of miserable little houses, 

 dignified by the title of village. 



