Chap. XXIII. 
COUNTRY PEOPLE. 
stare, or scarcely condescended to look up from 
the work with which they were engaged. At 
other times they gathered round me, and, when 
they found I was civilized enough to know a little 
of their language, put all sorts of questions, com- 
mencing, for politeness, with those in relation to 
my name, my age, and my country. On one occa- 
sion, as I was passing through a village, a solitary 
lady, rather past the middle age and not particu- 
larly fascinating, was engaged in rubbing out 
some corn in front of her door. I gave her the 
usual salutation. She looked up from her work, 
and when she saw who stood before her she gave 
me one long earnest stare, and whether she thought 
I was really “ a foreign devil ” or a being from some 
other world I cannot say, but after standing for 
a second or two, without speaking or moving, she 
suddenly turned round and fled across the fields. 
I watched her for a little while; she never ap- 
peared to slacken her pace or to look back, and 
for aught I know she may be still running away ! 
About noon I began to get near the foot of the 
mountains, and I could see in the distance a group 
of temples extending from the bottom to near the 
top of a hill, and nestling amongst trees. This 
looked like an oasis in the landscape, for all else 
round about was wild and barren. Shortly after- 
wards we left the main road, and another mile of 
a byway brought us to the bed of a mountain 
stream, dry at this season, and covered with 
boulders of granite, but no doubt filled with a 
