nd formerly cultivated and
very fertile--in some places merely in the fallow-time, but in others in
consequence of the proper tillers of the soil being driven away,
hopeless from endless exactions on the part of the greedy pachas and
kaimacans set over them. There was one comfort. They got little from the
Bedawee or the Yourouks, who flitted when tax-time came. These hills had
quite recently been the scene of the exploits of Kitterji Janni, a
celebrated robber-chief not long gone to his account. From all we heard
of him he was not altogether a bad fellow, but robbed the rich and gave
to the poor in a quite Rinaldo-Rinaldini sort of style.

We were already on friendly terms with all our entertainers except the
Armenian lady, the wife of Mr. A----, whom we now met for the first
time. She was still a young woman, tall, with a very comely face and
laughing black eyes, but hugely fat, as Armenians are apt to become
very early. She was dressed in bright colors and in the latest Parisian
style, including the bonnet and parasol. A jolly, wholesome, honest look
and manner prepossessed us in her favor, but, unfortunately, she did not
speak a word of either English or French. Her husband, tall and fat too,
was a good fellow, and, unlike his wife (who possessed only Turkish,
Greek and Armenian), spoke in addition French, Italian and English with
great ease and fluency. Indeed, the Armenians are the best of the
different nationalities of Asia Minor and Syria: diligent in business,
moderately honest, good linguists and accountants, they have more
dignified manners and stability than the Fanariot Greeks, and more
brains than the Turks. They retain their physical type as distinctly as
do the Parsees in India, and are equally ready to turn an honest penny,
_en gros_ and _en detail_.

We rattled along the excellent railway in a style calculated to make the
"limited express" look to its laurels, and in less than two hours drew
up at the station of Aiasulouk. Here the western chain of hills which we
had skirted ceases, and the great marshy plain of Ephesus opens out, the
river Cayster meandering through it. The insignificant station-house and
platform, with a small coffee-house and some dwellings, reminded me of a
prairie station in our Western country. But the eye was at once
attracted by something we should not find in the Western World--to wit,
some ruins, large, roofless, but with solid walls, two domes, some
pinnacles and a graceful