138 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the town, began now again to droop, and evidently 

 considered us chargeable with a breach of promise in 

 thus prolonging their labours. "Whither to go we 

 could not tell A labyrinth of streets lay before us, 

 and amongst them it was our object to pick out the 

 way to the Armenian quarter. Turks keep early 

 hours, and but few people were astir in the streets 

 when we entered, and after our wanderings had con- 

 tinued but a short time, scarcely a soul was to be 

 seen. Xow I am prepared to say, that no desolation 

 is like the desolation of strangeness in a large city. 

 St Jerome in the wilderness, or Stylites on his pillar, 

 were not more lonely than many a poor recluse in our 

 city of two million inhabitants. And we ourselves 

 would have been infinitely more at ease had we been 

 called upon to bivouac beyond the sight of human 

 habitation. 



Up one street and down another we passed, till 

 we were wearied almost beyond endurance, and really 

 uneasy for our cattle. We met no one, or if we did, 

 no one that noticed us. The muffled figure of some 

 woman would pass by, who, when she saw the giaours, 

 would draw her veil yet more closely over her, and 

 hurry on her way. One or two children stopped to 

 stare at us ; but we knew experimentally that their 

 untutored fanaticism was more likely to have a shy 

 at our heads than to attempt to understand or direct 

 us. We kept a sharp look-out for some Greek or 

 Armenian house wherein, for lucre's sake, we might 



