The Days of a Man Cign 



and provided with a wooden spigot. The cheap iron 

 bedsteads had no bedding to speak of, what there 

 was being thoroughly infested with the dominant 

 insect of Macedonia. For meals we went to a Greek 

 cafe, not bad but adorned with bloodthirsty posters, 

 the worst I ever saw, in which " Konstantinos Boul- 

 garophagos" (Bulgar Eater) figured conspicuously. 

 The While we were there a long procession of camels 



donkey ladeu with Turkish tobacco from the Bistritza came 

 cameitrain Up the winding Street and crossed the high stone 

 bridge. Tied together in line, the string was led by a 

 gallant little donkey which, though undirected, 

 steered the proper course. A donkey has more 

 brains than a dozen camel-drudges; these, if left 

 alone, go straight ahead, paying no attention to roads 

 or hedges.^ As to camels I have met, I recall Will 

 Thompson's caravan song: 



Orderly and dutiful, the little door of years 

 Opens up in Wonderland ! the camel train appears. 

 Who that knows the gorgeous East, their magic can 



withstand .? 

 Velvet-footed camels on the road to Samarkand! 



A mile behind the picturesque but dilapidated town 

 stands its station on the road connecting Constanti- 

 nople and Salonica. This had formerly done a large 

 business, running daily two first-class trains each way. 



1 "If docile means stupid ... the camel is the very model of docility. 

 But if the epithet . . . designates an animal that takes an interest in his 

 rider . . . the camel is by no means docile. He takes no heed of his rider . . . 

 walks straight on when set agoing, merely because he is too stupid to turn aside, 

 and then should some tempting thorn or green branch allure him out of the 

 path . . . he is too dull to turn back into the right road. ... An undomes- 

 ticated and savage animal rendered serviceable by stupidity alone. 

 Neither attachment nor even habit impresses him . . . never tame but never 

 wide-awake enough to be exactly wild." sir f. palgrave in Encychpcedia 

 Britannica 



I 598 3 



