THE CONE-DWELLERS OF ASIA MINOR 



293 



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HERD THE CAPS OF THE OBELISKS ASSUME GREAT PROPORTIONS AND THEY ARE 

 EQUAL TO ONE-HALF OE THE ENTIRE HEIGHT OE THE OBELISKS 



have been walled in with fences of stout 

 masonry. 



They have sought and found for them- 

 selves complete isolation. They seem to 

 have none of the instincts of agricultural 

 man and they are wholly inhospitable. 



The entrances to their dwellings are 

 high up in the almost perpendicular walls 

 of the cliffs, and they are reached solely 

 by means of long poles, which are light 

 enough to be drawn up when the lord of 

 the den and his family are safely housed. 

 And when housed they really are safe 

 from intrusion, for it would require a 

 host to force an entrance against the will 

 of the family. (For methods of ingress 

 by other types of Troglodytes, see illus- 

 tration on page 285.) 



This very method of reaching the en- 

 trance by means of a pole makes it im- 



perative for all the members of the sev- 

 eral families of these cliff-dwelling Trog- 

 lodytes to be strong and vigorous persons, 

 for the sick, the aged, and the infirm can 

 neither enter nor leave the dwelling, nor 

 can they be brought in nor taken out by 

 others, unless they be strapped to the back 

 of a man, who would need to be not only 

 strong, but very active as well. 



A PRACTICE OE KILLING THE AGED AND 

 INEIRM 



One ancient writer tells us that some 

 Troglodytes made a practice of killing all 

 those who were not in first-rate physical 

 condition, on the ground that a man who 

 cannot earn his own living has no right 

 to live ; and when one sees these dwell- 

 ings, one can imagine still another reason 

 for killing off the aged and the infirm — 



