102 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



tions, men with fair or reddish hair and blue or grey 

 eyes are common; and whilst some of these fair 

 men are handsome, others have snub noses and the 

 generally irregular features that may be seen any day 

 in the streets of a western European city. On the 

 other hand the prevailing type is dark-haired, with a 

 complexion that is sometimes excessively swarthy, 

 often with high aquiline features, of an altogether non- 

 European caste. The origin of the fair-skinned, blue- 

 eyed people, who are now scattered amongst the more 

 numerous swarthy inhabitants of Asia Minor, is trace- 

 able, I am told, to a Gaulish colony which was estab- 

 lished in that country before the Christian era, the 

 inhabitants of which were known in the time of Saint 

 Paul as Galatians. Fair and dark alike, the people 

 amongst whom I travelled are now all Mohammedans, 

 and probably very fanatical when their religious pre- 

 judices are excited. Otherwise they are a very agree- 

 able people to travel amongst, unprogressive and 

 unintellectual, no doubt, but friendly and hospitable, 

 courteous in their manners, and more honest and less 

 extortionate probably than many Christian races. 

 Physically, they are, as a rule, strong hardy-looking 

 men, frugal, sober, and industrious in their way of liv- 

 ing, and self-evidently splendid raw material for the 

 Turkish army. 



As the baggage ponies did not reach the village 

 until some time after our own arrival, and as it was 

 necessary to give them a rest and a feed before pro- 



