6 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



halts to let the ponies drink, their loads were not taken 

 off their backs until half an hour after midday. Every 

 country has its own customs, and thus, when on the 

 occasion of the two short halts made to let the ponies 

 drink, I at once took my English saddle off my horse's 

 back, as one would do in South Africa, I was much 

 astonished to see its Turkish master immediately re- 

 place it ; and when my interpreter asked him the 

 reason, he said that the horse was liable to catch cold 

 if the saddle was only removed for a few minutes and 

 then put on again. 



The morning's travelling was pleasant, as before it 

 became very hot we entered a pass through a range of 

 hills down which a cool breeze was blowing. In the 

 early morning I walked on ahead of the ponies, and in 

 two and a half hours reached a fine spring of water pour- 

 ing out from the base of a rocky hill. This is known 

 as the Sultan's Spring; and here we found a Turkish 

 soldier in a wayside guardhouse, who was very civil, 

 and brought me a tiny cup of Turkish coffee. The 

 road we travelled must, I think, have been an ancient 

 caravan route, dating back topre-Mohammedan times, 

 as there had evidently once been a paved track, some 

 four or five feet broad, right through the hills, reminding 

 one of a street in Pompeii, though the stone-work was 

 a good deal rougher. In places, for a space of twenty 

 or thirty yards, portions of this ancient paved track 

 still remained in perfect order, although the greater part 

 of it had been more or less completely destroyed by the 



