and certainly dating from the thirteenth century, and we had
come down from there in a high state of heat, dust and disgust. We had
been to see figs packed for the market in a place and after a manner
which made us think of the motto of the Garter. We had gone to see the
Whirling Dervishes, and had witnessed the drill of the Turkish nizam at
the grand new barracks. We had visited the English military cemetery
formed in Crimean days, and had experienced a strange home-feeling as we
read the familiar names on the headstones. We had had sailing-parties on
the bay for consuls and consulesses, landing at Sanjak Kalessi to take
luncheon and to see the huge old-fashioned guns in the fort, with their
stone balls (of granite or marble, two feet in diameter), once thought
so formidable. We had been the round of the Greek cafes which flourish
in such numbers in Smyrna, where polyglot concerts and the worst
features of the _cafe chantant_ seem never to tire their patrons. We had
seen a Persian caravan start--a sight well worth rising early for, if
only to see their outlandish drivers lash the loads upon the camels,
which groan and bellow and scold during the operation, retracting their
hare-lips, showing their long yellow teeth, and projecting from their
mouths the very hideous and peculiar bag of flesh and blue color; in
which condition they attain a point of repulsiveness possessed by no
other animal I know of.

An official reception and visit by the pacha had of course been
accomplished, both parties seeming to be about equally bored by the
ceremony, and Smyrna seemed, for us, to be pretty well "played out." We
were reduced to dropping small coin over the taffrail for expectant men
and boys to dive for through the clear blue water, and to betting upon
the time of arrival of the Austrian Lloyds or the Russian mail-steamer.

Clearly, this was not a wholesome state to be in; and knowing this, a
Good Samaritan, our acting consul, Mr. G----, proposed as a distraction
trips to neighboring places of interest, especially to Ephesus and
Magnesia. They were both to be reached by rail, and so near as to
require but a single day's absence, which was of importance to us, as we
were expecting orders to sail at any moment.

The first-mentioned place naturally attracted us most, from its
association with our youthful studies, both biblical and secular; and so
it was decided that we should make a day of it at Ephesus, and have a
picnic. The pa