EDWARD RIGGS. 103 
most every site of ancient buildings throughout the 
country, and has occasionally led to discoveries of more 
value to the antiquarian than to the hungry seeker after 
gold. A find of another sort was made a few years ago 
in thiscastleat Amasia. <A shepherd wandering with his 
goats among these ruins accidentally came across a store 
of salt, and soon began secretly bringing down a donkey 
load of it every night and selling it in the market place 
in the morning. As salt is a government monopoly in 
Turkey, this procedure soon led to suspicion and dis- 
covery. The poor shepherd was robbed of his stealthy 
gains, and the government officials took out several tons 
of salt, which had been stored there, in some long past 
age, as one item of provision against a siege, and then 
forgotten and buried out of sight for centuries. 
This castle is provided with one of those deep sloping 
wells, with a perennial supply of delicious water, but 
rather far to fetch. From the mouth of this well a cov- 
ered passage, partially subterranean, leads to a far dis- 
tant portion of the castle thus securing an undisturbed 
supply of the precious fluid to all parts of the en- 
closure. 
Asa fortress this rock was long since abandoned, and 
yet the visitor will not fail to notice one rusty old can- 
non, bolstered up on broken trunnions, but evidently 
kept in readiness for use. This serves no longer a mili- 
tary but a religious or rather a social purpose, One 
month in the year the pious Moslem eats and drinks 
absolutely nothing during the day time—from the time 
in the morning when he can tell a black hair from 
a white one until the sun goes down. Consequently the 
moment of sunset acquires at that time of year a most 
important significance, and the correctness of every- 
body’s watch is not to be relied upon. So in every 
town which can boast the facilities, a cannon is fired at 
the exact moment of sunset. Instantly the voice of the 
