356 
throughout all Turkey. We therefore changed horses 
once, and sometimes twice every day. 
In order to be free from the cares of travelling, it is 
customary to bargain with a Tartar, who undertakes all 
expenses upon the road, such as horses, lodgings, and 
provisions, for a stipulated sum of money; one half of 
which is paid to him at the moment of departure, and 
the other at the end of the journey. 
I had agreed to give my Tartar 800 piastres for my 
journey from Aleppo to Constantinople, and he fur- 
nished me with a horse for myself, another for my slave, 
and a third for my baggage; independent of all ex- 
penses for provisions, lodging, and accidental charges, 
which were also at his cost. 
Wednesday, 7th October. 
We set out at half past six in the morning in a 
western direction, across the same desert plain. I ar- 
rived at Ismii at one o'clock, where we halted, though 
it was but a poor place. 
I observed several wells upon this road, which had 
each a stone staircase that descended to the water's 
edge. I descended one which had fifty steps, and found 
the water very good. The plain, which consists of clay, 
does not present a single tree. 
Thursday, Sth October. 
We continued our route at three quarters past five 
in the morning across the same plain, going first to the 
W.N.W. and afterwards to the N.W. About half past 
eight we traversed a kind of wood, which intersects the 
plain, and is nothing else than a great space covered 
with reeds, rushes, and other marshy plants of different 
heights, interwoven together, but in some places rising 
