brought from the muleteer a burst of Turkish profanity that made
the rocks of Ararat resound with indignant echoes. The spirit of
insubordination seemed to be increasing in direct ratio with the height of
our ascent.

We came now to a comparatively smooth, green slope, which led up to the
highest Kurdish encampment met on the line of our ascent, about 7500 feet.
When in sight of the black tents, the subject of Kurdish guides was again
broached by the zaptiehs, and immediately they sat down to discuss the
question. We ourselves were through with discussion, and fully determined
to have nothing to do with a people who could do absolutely nothing for
us. We stopped at the tents, and asked for milk. "Yes," they said; "we
have some": but after waiting for ten minutes, we learned that the milk
was still in the goats' possession, several hundred yards away among the
rocks. It dawned upon us that this was only another trick of the zaptiehs
to get a rest.

[Illustration: OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION.]

We pushed on the next 500 feet of the ascent without much trouble or
controversy, the silence broken only by the muleteer, who took the _raki_
bottle off the donkey's pack, and asked if he could take a drink. As we
had only a limited supply, to be used to dilute the snow-water, we were
obliged to refuse him.

At 8000 feet we struck our first snowdrift, into which the donkeys sank up
to their bodies. It required our united efforts to lift them out, and half
carry them across. Then on we climbed till ten o'clock, to a point about
9000 feet, where we stopped for lunch in a quiet mountain glen, by the
side of a rippling mountain rill. This snow-water we drank with raki. The
view in the mean time had been growing more and more extensive. The plain
before us had lost nearly all its detail and color, and was merged into
one vast whole. Though less picturesque, it was incomparably grander. Now
we could see how, in ages past, the lava had burst out of the lateral
fissures in the mountain, and flowed in huge streams for miles down the
slope, and out on the plain below. These beds of lava were gradually
broken up by the action of the elements, and now presented the appearance
of ridges of broken volcanic rocks of the most varied and fantastic
shapes.

It was here that the muleteer showed evident signs of weakening, which
later on developed into a total collapse. We had come to a broad
snow-field where the donkeys stuc