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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



shoulders and said : "I suppose the Kurds 

 up the river killed him and threw him 

 in. Perhaps they robbed him. They 

 often do that sort of thing." 



In the village that night the servants 

 remarked : "Do you know what the Kurds 

 did while you were gone ? They said, 

 'The foreigner can't fool us. He asked 

 about that cave because he had read in 

 the inscription that the treasure is buried 

 there.' So they got a rope and let one 

 of their number down. He pawed around 

 in the dirt and at last was pulled up, 

 and said that there was nothing there. 

 'You're a liar,' said the others. A second 

 man was let down and brought the same 

 report. A third had to be let down be- 

 fore the Kurds believed that there was 

 no money in the cave." 



The Kurds are full of strange ideas as 

 to ruins. One day the conversation 

 touched upon the hardness of the mortar 

 in a certain ancient wall. "Do you know 

 why it's so hard?" said one. "I'll tell 

 you. This castle was built by a great 

 king, who had an enormous flock of hens. 

 When he was building the castle he had 

 a huge trough built. Every night he 

 gathered the eggs from twenty thousand 

 hens and put them in the trough. The 



next day his men broke up the eggs and 

 used them to make mortar. That's why 

 the walls are so strong." 



Credulous, fierce, and untractable as 

 the Kurds are, they are nevertheless a 

 people of true strength of character. 

 Today they are a menace to the develop- 

 ment of constitutional government in 

 Turkey. They themselves are ruled 

 partly by the patriarchal system, partly 

 by the clan system, and partly by the 

 feudal system, and all have had bitter 

 experience of the hated rule of a despotic 

 monarchy. Now they are suddenly 

 given an opportunity to live under con- 

 stitutional government. Little they care 

 for that ; but if they once understood it 

 they would probably be among its 

 staunchest supporters. For three thou- 

 sand years they have lived the same wild, 

 simple life, remote from all men and at 

 strife with all men. Now, by no act of 

 their own, modern ideas are coming to 

 them. It is hard to foretell whether the 

 recent changes in the government of Tur- 

 key will have any effect upon them, or 

 whether they will continue to be influ- 

 enced only by the mountains and the hard 

 conditions of their immediate environ- 

 ment. 



ONE THOUSAND MILES OF RAILWAY BUILT 

 FOR PILGRIMS AND NOT FOR 

 DIVIDENDS* 



By Colonel F. R. Maunsell 



THE Damascus to Mecca Railway 

 has many remarkable features 

 which distinguish it from other 

 lines. Its principal object is to provide 

 a means for faithful Moslems to perform 

 their pilgrimage to the holy places of 

 Mecca and Medina with a greater degree 

 of comfort than formerly, f 



Its inception is due to the initiative of 



the present Sultan, and the enthusiasm 

 created by its first announcement brought 

 in subscriptions from the faithful in all 

 parts of the Islamic world. A special 

 stamp-tax forms a solid annual contribu- 

 tion to the expenses, somewhat less 

 evanescent than other contributions may 

 prove to be. 



Geographically, the line has provided 



* Abstracted from the Geographical Journal of London. 



t There are still many of the more rigidly orthodox who prefer the long, tedious journey 

 by camel, with its fifty-two stages from Damascus to Medina, and count the hardships involved 

 as part of the duty of pilgrimage. 



