i 3 6 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
the milk was close at hand. There was a flat- 
stepped ladder, which led through a ceiling of 
rough plank; upon ascending this, we arrived 
upon a very clean landing, with a couple of small 
rooms, and a kitchen close at hand. This was all 
very nice; we could see the cow by looking per¬ 
pendicularly through the broad crevices between 
the boards which formed the floor; we could 
also smell her, and hear the calf. 
There are no chimneys in Turkish houses. A 
large brazier of charcoal warms the room most 
thoroughly; but great caution is necessary in the 
use of this simple apparatus, as the charcoal 
must be in a complete glow before it is admitted 
to the room. Without this precaution the 
inmates would be asphyxiated. It was the 
winter (December) of i860 when we were at 
Sabanja, and a few days after our arrival the 
ground was covered by a heavy snowfall. 
Unfortunately I had no spaniels, and my 
two pointers were useless for the covert, where 
woodcocks were in considerable numbers. The 
cold weather had brought all game down from 
the mountain - tops, and the wolves became so 
daring that they took a calf from a shed during 
the night, from a house next to that we occupied, 
the door not being securely fastened. 
This was a sporting residence, on the margin 
of a forest that extended for an unknown dis¬ 
tance. I could leave the house, and expect a 
shot at woodcocks within 150 yards from the 
