CONSULAR EXPERIENCES IN TURKEY. 
42 9 
26tli July and then started for Mush, en route for Van. Major Trotter 
and Dr. Lanzoni, a medical officer in the Turkish service, accompanied 
me for the first two days. I had bought a couple of bell tents, one for 
myself and the other for my retainers, and hired horses to carry myself, 
my men and the baggage. 
We first crossed the Palandoken mountains, close behind Erzeroum, 
and then reached a rolling country coveredwith grass. We passed in this 
country several villages of settled Kurds who complained of the depreda¬ 
tions of nomad tribes of Kurds and of the venality of the Government 
officials. The villages are nearly invisible until one rides almost on to 
the tops of the houses. The villages are built on the slopes of hills. 
A little of the hillside is cut away, the escarpment forming the back 
wall of the house, the front and part of the sides being formed of 
rough stone walls. Erom the hill to the walls are placed poles to form 
the roof which is plastered with mud. Thus the buildings scarcely pro¬ 
ject from the hillside and one might easily ride on to a roof without 
knowing it. 
On the third day from Erzeroum I reached Khnus, the principal 
place on the fertile plain called after it. The town is built mainly in 
a ravine with perpendicular walls cut in the plain by a stream and 
reminded me much of the description of Petra. The ruins of a 
Genoese castle overlook the place. Here I was hospitably entertained 
by a Turkish gentleman. 
Two days later I reached Mush, the seat of Government of a Mutes- 
sarif, or Lieutenant-Governor. Some way out of Mush I was met by 
a cavalry escort and a deputation of Armenians to invite me to stay at 
the Bishop’s house. Nearer Mush I should think the whole Armenian 
population turned out to meet me and escorted me to the house. 
I remained at Mush four days, receiving and paying visits and hear¬ 
ing much from the Armenians of the sufferings of the villagers at the 
hands of the Kurds. The mountainous country south of Mush is a 
very wild region—in fact, it contains Sassoun, where the first of the 
recent massacres took place. I shall have more to say about this part 
presently. The Mussulman population of Mush seemed to me more 
fanatic than in any other place I went to. I have seen nowhere else 
such scowling looks as I passed through the streets, and on another 
visit to Mush my Turkish groom narrowly escaped being thrashed for 
having so far forgotten his religion as to serve a giaour. 
On the 4th August I left Mush for Bitlis. The way ran along the 
foot of the hills over a rich alluvial plain watered by a stream 
which falls into the Euphrates near Mush. Numerous villages are 
scattered over this plain, inhabited mostly by Armenians, who had 
many tales to tell of depredations by the Kurds. The next day, 
after ascending a ridge which closes the Mush plain on the east, we 
reached the head of the valley in which Bitlis is situated and in about 
another hour and a half the town itself, a number of inhabitants and 
the Kaimakam coming out to meet me. Bitlis is a large town with a 
ruined Genoese castle, standing very picturesquely on the steep sides 
of the valley with the stream foaming at the bottom, There was only 
