16 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



we should have to pass. Here I could spend a few 

 days if I liked, as there were wild goats in the sur- 

 rounding mountains with whose haunts and habits 

 Achmet was well acquainted. He then showed me 

 several skins of adult male wild goats, all whitish yel- 

 low in general ground colour, with the broad black 

 shoulder-stripe which is so conspicuous in these hand- 

 some animals. These skins all came from the Musa 

 Dagh, he averred, and were used for praying rugs, 

 the skins of old wild goat rams being much prized for 

 this purpose by the Turks of Asia Minor. He had no 

 horns to show me, but measured off with his hands on 

 a stick the length to which he said they attained, which 

 worked out to forty-eight inches, a very great but 

 not improbable length. I was unable to get any in- 

 formation about red or fallow deer from the Bey or any 

 of his attendants, and so presume that these animals 

 do not exist anywhere in the vicinity of El Maly. 

 Wild boar, however, he said, were numerous quite 

 close to the town. 



After a long chat, and with renewed promises that 

 the ponies and the soldier should be ready early the 

 following morning, our courteous host took his leave, 

 retiring, I suppose, for a midday siesta, as the weather 

 was still very hot. In the evening I took a stroll 

 with Antonio and Manoli through the town, which 

 presents many points of interest, as it has not been 

 Europeanised in any way. 



El Maly is built on the lower slope of a steep hill, 



