The heat, too, in the lowlands became unbearable, compared with our recent semi-arctic experiences, and when, from a slight elevation, towards sundown one evening we saw the domes, mosques, and minarets of Erzeroum standing out in black relief against a saffron sky, we felt a thrill of delight, which can only be appreciated by those who after many roving years again see the white cliffs of old England from the deck of a homeward-bound vessel.

The reputation of Zohrab, the British Consul, had long since gone before him. There was a kindly welcome awaiting us there, we knew, for we all felt that in Erzeroum we should find that pearl beyond price—a friend. This feeling, however, was unshared by the arabaji, whose one idea was to improve the shining hour by demanding baksheesh, it being a custom with native drivers to be paid on sighting the minarets of the town which is their destination. The hiding he had had produced the most wholesome result, and when with a cheery voice he asked for extra pay as compensation for it, I almost felt when giving it to him that I was rewarding him for special services.

No, certainly Eastern towns do not improve on close acquaintance; the effluvia which the exhalations of innumerable carcases sent up, as we entered Erzeroum by one of the narrow drawbridges which cross the fosse, into which every description of decomposing matter seems to be indiscriminately thrown, was, I assure you, anything but agreeable. This dry ditch in olden days, no doubt, was used for purposes of defence. It had now become a cordon of disease, more fruitful than the most promising open drain could ever pretend to be. The quick and the dead commingle here curiously; the jackal, wolf, and man-eater contest their right of occupation with vultures, bustards, and carrion crows, all equally intent on the banquet which lies festering before them. Indeed, to these gormandizers the natives feel they owe so great a debt of gratitude, that to kill one is considered murderous to the last degree, and he whose unfortunate revolver does the deed is shunned as an uncanny thing by those who witnessed the

act.

I remember being fascinated on one occasion, after an engagement near Zevin, by the huge proportions of a vulture, which had so overgorged itself on human flesh that it could

only hop languidly about in a most absurdly intoxicated manner, and presented so favourable a mark, that I dismounted, and, had not my dragoman come to the rescue, I should certainly have shot it with a view to preserving its skin, and thereby have incurred the hatred of all those with whom I afterwards came in contact, who would, I was informed, have at once been told to beware of the 'vulture-slayer.'

I shall never forget that languid, lacklustre-eyed vulture. There was a sort of fat-boy-in-Pickwick peculiarity about that protruding, half-featherless paunch, that feeble tail-those limp wings, so innocent of flutter; there was an appealing look

about him, as, with a sort of nervous, I might say drunken, uncertainty, he clung to the offal on which he was perched, his beak still reeking with the remains of a recent repast. Indeed, when I levelled my revolver at him, there was an eloquence in that orb, dimmed as it was by gluttony, which said plainly as words could ever do

"If that which you present be food, mock me not by offering it me; or, if you would compass my end, then "if 'twere done when 'tis done, then 'twere well 'twere done quickly," for surely death would be preferable to the indigestion from which I

suffer.' Oh, what a lesson to the over-indulgent flesh-eater this was!

To return to Erzeroum, however. It will be remembered that I mentioned just now the man-eater, and lest it be supposed by the uninitiated that I speak of the tiger (of which there are none in this part of the world), I may explain that I referred to a semi-wild dog, which finds his chief food in the graveyards, from which habit the name originates, the result of the grim courses in which he indulges being, that his hair, especially about his hind quarters, falls off, giving him a horribly hungry, cadaverous appearance.

Having wended our tortuous way down several long and dirty streets, we came upon a broader one, in which we were not long in finding the Consulate, where, wearied with many days' rough travel, we at once dismounted, and sent in our names to Her Majesty's representative. We had been waiting but a short time in the great stone hall, when a sallow, squat, dwarf-like Asiatic, with a scimitar like a huge new moon, suddenly drew aside some heavy draperies, and there before us stood a man of middle height and soldierly bearing, with the kindliest of kindly expressions on his handsome sunburnt face.

There was no occasion for Consul Zohrab to give us verbal welcome, for, to paraphrase the old song, 'he spoke to us only with his eyes,' and I think 'we pledged with ours,' as we returned his cordial greeting. After the usual salutations, he said, 'In the first place, follow me. I have one or two old friends to whom I wish to introduce you; the sight of them will, I am sure, be to you almost as refreshing as their more intimate acquaintance; and remember, whilst here, you must look on the Consulate as an oasis in the desert, where all Britishers are heartily welcomed.' With this he led us into a small anteroom, where a few bottles of Allsopp were displayed, which our kind host had somehow secured, that we weary sons of Albion might be refreshed thereby after our many long hours of hard dusty riding up country.

One should perhaps not think too much of creature comforts, and there may be those reading this record who might suggest I make too much of sinall events; let them, however, try living on sour milk and filthy water for a week or ten days. I fancy then we might be of the same opinion!