here in Persia on Mount Seir.[63]
And he had lived here as a boy and a man, save for the time when his
splendid American father had sent him to Marietta, Ohio, for some of
his schooling, and to Princeton for his final training. His dark brown
moustache and short beard covered a firm mouth and a strong chin.
His vigorous expression and his strongly Roman nose added to the
commanding effect of his presence.

A haunting terror had driven these ragged village people into the city
of Urumia, to ask help of this wonderful American leader whom they
almost worshipped because he was so strong and just and good.

For the bloodthirsty Turks and the even more cruel and wilder Kurds
of the mountains were marching on the land. The Great War was raging
across the world and even the hidden peoples of this distant mountain
land were swept into its terrible flames.

For Urumia city lies to the west of the southern end of the extremely
salt lake of the same name. It is about 150 miles west from the
Caspian Sea and the same distance north of the site of ancient
Nineveh. It stands on a small plain and in that tangle of lakes,
mountains and valley-plains where the ambitions of Russia, Persia and
Turkey have met, and where the Assyrians (Christians of one of the
most ancient churches in the world, which in the early centuries had
a chain of missions from Constantinople right across Asia to Peking),
the Kurds (wild, fierce Moslems), the Persians, the Turks and the
Russians struggled together.

In front of Dr. William Ambrose Shedd there stood an old man from
the villages. His long grey hair and beard and his wrinkled face were
agitated as he told the American his story. The old man's dress was
covered with patches--an eyewitness counted thirty-seven patches--all
of different colours on one side of his cloak and loose baggy
trousers.

"My field in my village I cannot plough," he said, "for we have no ox.
The Kurds have taken our possessions, you are our father. Grant us an
ox to plough and draw for us."

Dr. Shedd saw that the old man spoke truth; he scribbled a few words
on a slip of paper and the old man went out satisfied.

So for hour after hour, men and women from all the country round
came to this strange missionary who had been asked by the American
Government to administer relief, yes, and to be the Consul
representing America itself in that great territory.

They came to him from the villages where, around the fire in the
K