“But,” said Yussuf, “your people did more than their excellencies.”
“Yes, perhaps so,” said the head-man; “but they are fools and pigs. Let the English effendis go, and not touch the ruins again.”
Yussuf explained, and the professor made a gesture full of annoyance.
“Ask him, Yussuf, if he believes this nonsense.”
“Not when I am with you, excellencies,” he said smiling; “but when I am with my people, I do. If I did not think as they do I could not live with them. I am head-man, but if they turn against me they are the masters, and I am obliged to do as they wish.”
There was nothing for it but to go, and they left the village with all its interesting surroundings as soon as the horses were packed, the people uttering more than one menacing growl till they were out of hearing.
“So vexatious!” exclaimed the professor. “I feel as if we have done wrong in giving up. The firman ought to have been sufficient. We shall never find such a place again—so rich in antiquities. I have a good mind to turn back.”
“No, no, effendi,” said Yussuf, “it would only mean trouble. I can take you to fifty places as full of old remains. Trust to me and I will show you the way.”
They journeyed on for days, finding good, bad, and indifferent lodgings. Sometimes they were received by the people with civility, at others with suspicion, for Yussuf was taking them farther and farther into the mountains, where the peasants were ignorant and superstitious to a degree; but, save where they crossed some plain, they were everywhere impressed by the grandeur of the country, and the utter ruin and neglect which prevailed. Roads, cities, land, all seemed to have been allowed to go to decay; and, to make the journey the longer and more arduous, over and over again, where they came to a bridge, it was to find that it had been broken down for years, and this would often mean a journey along the rugged banks perhaps for miles before they found a place where it was wise to try and ford the swollen stream.
There was always something, though, to interest the professor—a watch-tower in ruins at the corner of some defile, the remains of a castle, an aqueduct, a town with nothing visible but a few scattered stones, or a cemetery with the remains of marble tombs.