ON THE NOMAD TRIBES OF ASIA MINOR. 181 



action of water, which has since found another outlet, presumably the 

 one in the centre of the ruins of Takht i-Suleiman. A lofty mountain 

 near has a fortress at the top, but owing to the depth of snow we were 

 unable to visit it ; this is known as Takht-i-Bulgais or Belkis, Bulgais 

 being the name for the Queen of Sheba. The legends of Solomon in these 

 parts are very curious. The rains themselves are called Solomon's 

 throne ; a curious long formation of petrifaction which runs across the 

 valley is supposed to be a serpent turned into stone at Solomon's 

 command. The hole in the mountain is called Solomon's prison, and 

 the ruins of a building are known amongst the peasants as Solomon's 

 bath ; these ruins are favourite summer quarters for the tribes with 

 their flocks, and on casually asking their ideas respecting Solomon I was 

 seriously told that inasmuch as Solomon was the wisest of mankind of course 

 he chose the best spot in the world for his residence. In summer-time 

 this may be true, but when we visited it the cold season was hardly 

 suflBciently over to enable us to endorse this opinion. 



At Baba Nazere we were joined by Mahomed Housein Khan, the 

 third son of Haidar Khan, the chief of the Afshah tribe, together with a 

 large retinue, who had been despatched to conduct us safely through 

 the dangerous country which borders on Kourdestan. Haidar Khan 

 apologised that his health would not permit him to come in person, but 

 he sent us presents of a lamb, several loaves of sugar, and packets of tea. 

 Some of these we distributed to our host, and we were much struck by 

 the graceful way in which the Kourdish chiefs received the presents. 

 They first kissed it, put it to their forehead, and then bowed ; pre- 

 sently they brought us in return presents of cream, bread, and cakes, 

 and on my wife saying that the bread was the best we had eaten on this 

 journey, Sarmas Beg's son put his hand to his heart, and bowed like a 

 Parisian. 



On leaving Baba Nazere, Sarmas Beg and his sons, with the long 

 lance, accompanied us for several miles, the old Persian custom of istikbal, 

 to speed the parting guest, and then they took farewell of us with many 

 protestations of good will, and we were handed over to the protection of 

 Mahomed Housein Khan and the Afshahs. At the village of Akbulak 

 our new protector had ordered a sumptuous repast to be prepared 

 for us in the house of a relative, consisting of a large tray groaning 

 under a weight of pilaw, kabobs, meat prepared with pi-nnes and rice, 

 thickened cream, mast, or curdled milk, fried eggs, sherbet in a blue 

 bowl, sour milk, and bread wrapped up in a handsome cloak. He then 

 conducted us to the village of Paderlu, inhabited by Afshahs, and close 

 to a curious natural phenomenon — a floating island in the centre of a small 

 highland lake. This floating island is called Chamli-gul, or the meadow of 

 water, and consists of a thick mass of roots and reddish clay about 40 

 feet by GO ; the thickness of the island at its edge is one yard and a half, 

 and it moves from one side of the lake to the other according as the wind 

 blows, approaching the edge of the lake so near that we could easily 

 jump upon it. It is all covered with grass and reeds, and in the summer 

 is a favourite pasturage for flocks. The lake itself is very deep, far 

 deeper than I had any means of fathoming ; it is surrounded by rich 

 marl hills, covered with green, and backed up by the stupendous range 

 of Seehend. During our stay at Paderlu the island changed its position 

 four times. 



The Afshahs of Paderlu have a bad rei)utation, and we were thankful 



