Charbahur is backed by a barren slope of the Khamur heights, and is screened from all freshness on the side of the north. On the other hand, it is exposed to the sultry southern breezes, which find their way through the passage of the Murad, acting like a funnel to the furnace of Mush plain. There were said to be some sixty houses in the village; but I should say that there were more. Some of the tenements are well built, resembling neat cottages; but unfortunately they swarm with fleas. The standard of living is far higher than among the Armenians; but one feels that there is little or nothing in the race. Our impression of the Circassians did not improve upon longer acquaintance; although they are by no means the worthless and predatory people which they are sometimes represented to be. Their conspicuous characteristic is an inordinate love of swagger; and their handsome figures encourage the tendency of their disposition. One afternoon, as we were busy at work, a bugle sounded; and immediately a band of horsemen galloped into the village. One by one they passed our tent at the utmost speed of their horses, jumping to the ground and vaulting back into the saddle, while still at full pace. Those Cossack manœuvres heralded the approach of their chief, Suleyman Pasha, who, it appeared, was riding over from the neighbouring capital of the caza in order to honour us with a visit. When he arrived the place became full of irregular troops, with whom were combined a small detachment of regular cavalry. Dismounting from a well-bred horse, he came towards us with hands outstretched, tall and supple, with a rhythm of movement which at once revealed his Circassian blood. His large and animated eyes, the thin, aquiline nose, the high forehead and the black hair, waving on brow and chin, were set off by the contrast of a very correct uniform—a deep-blue tunic with a pale crimson collar. The voice suited the man; it was resonant and was meant to be so, and his words were accompanied by a profusion of gestures. He was followed by two valuable English pointers, which, however, he did not treat with proper respect. To him the world was a gallery; yet he lacked the mind of the actor; and, while his principal occupation was the giving of orders, his directions were not less empty than his words. But these defects were in the nature of inherited failings; personally he was extremely kind, and, I believe, a staunch friend. He spoke with gratitude, which was sincere, of the service which had been rendered to his countrymen by England and England’s Queen. It has sunk deeply into the hearts of Circassians. At home we are too much imbued with excellent business principles; and few of us realise the value in politics of sentimental considerations, especially when we are dealing with the untrained peoples whose destiny happens to link with ours.
The most interesting occupants of such a village are, no doubt, the girls and young women. They retain their fair complexion even in this climate, as well as their roundness of face and form. Several among them would come to the margin of an adjacent stream, in order to wash their grain. Their bare feet were as shapely as their hands. From Charbahur we made an excursion to the passage of the Murad, riding first to the confluence of the important stream which collects the drainage of the southern slopes of the Bingöl plateau. A ridge from the Khamur heights extends across the wide valley, choking it up and checking the drainage of its considerable extension towards the west. The stream cuts through this obstacle a little west of Charbahur, issuing into the alluvial plain at the Circassian village of Charbahur Tepe. It joins the Murad at the egress of the river from the valley. It comes in beneath the shade of willows and silver poplars. It brings a large addition to the waters of the Murad, and is by far its most important tributary since it received the Bingöl Su. Unhappily this affluent bears the same name as that river; but I need not fear that my reader will confuse the two. This Bingöl Su had a width of about 30 yards; its depth was fairly uniform, and it reached above our horses’ knees.[6] The Murad now becomes a stately river, recalling, both by its volume and the manner in which it flows, the course of the Danube in Upper Austria. We forded it at a point some 3 miles down the passage, where it was over 100 yards wide and reached above our horses’ girths. It had descended to a level of 4570 feet.
The cutting through the broad block of mountain which is interposed between the plain of Mush and the long valley through which the river has been flowing for so many miles—a valley which is continued as far west as the little plain of Dodan—is perhaps too broad to be described as a gorge. Yet the heights on either side descend to the margin of the Murad, which has turned at right angles to its former course. It pursues this southerly direction until it has gained the floor of the Mush depression. From the ford we mounted the slopes on the eastern side of the valley, and, after a sharp climb, reached the summit of the block. Our position was a little south of that pleasant grove which has been mentioned, belonging to the village of Ali Gedik. We stood on a sheet of lava; but the limestone was all about us, on the face of the cliff, in the bed of the river, where it formed long ridges, fretting the current into rapids. It was seen to contain fossils of the cretaceous period, and its strike or axis of elevation was towards east-north-east. The heights on the opposite bank appeared to be of similar nature. The view extended over the plain of Mush. Mush itself was seen nestling in a recess of the border range. We could see the village of Sikava, well in the plain, and the almost imperceptible break in the wall of mountain where the Murad issues from the plain. In the north, the line of cliffs belonging to the Bingöl plateau dominated the scene. Bingöl itself was either hidden behind their lofty edge, or could not be distinguished from the mass. We returned to Charbahur not along the valley, but down the gentle southern slope of these heights. Its even nature is due to a flow of basaltic lava. We found the Murad above the junction with the Bingöl Su to be flowing in two separate channels, which we forded and so returned to our camp.
August 15.—To reach Gumgum and the westerly extension of the long valley, it is necessary to cross the ridge from the Khamur heights which I have mentioned; such was our purpose and our next task. We found it to consist of grey lacustrine clays and marls with interbedded lavas. A thick layer of tuff occurs high up on the ridge; and the summit of the whole formation displays a cap of basaltic lava, sloping northwards in the direction of Gumgum. The parapet lessens in height as it stretches obliquely into the valley towards the block on its southern verge; yet even at the lofty col, over which our track lay, it was less elevated than the corresponding ridge which joins the Khamur heights to the Bingöl plateau, and which is surmounted by the road from Gumgum to Khinis. As we descended, a pleasant stretch of fairly even ground lay beneath us, in the lap of which we could see the capital of the caza. It was watered by several streams, which issue from the slopes of the wide amphitheatre described by the Khamur heights and the bold outline of the Bingöl cliffs. One river alone was seen to proceed from the very heart of the Bingöl system, coming into the plain through a tremendous chasm in the cliffs. Above that abyss we obtained a glimpse of the western summit of Bingöl. Further west the great valley was choked up with minor heights, rising up from its floor. On the south it is bounded by the commanding block of mountain which continues, across the passage of the Murad, the long wall of the northern border of Mush plain. Limestones, buff and white, could be seen high up on that flat-topped mass, with the same axis of elevation as those further east. The scene was bleak, without a tree and scarcely a bush.
Gumgum had evidently blossomed since my last visit, for it possessed at least two stone houses above ground, besides several little shops. We found it in a state of extraordinary commotion, owing to the presence of Suleyman Pasha. A troop of regular cavalry, mounted on white horses, had met us on the road. They had been sent as a guard of honour to escort us into the place. The scene before the Government building was extremely picturesque; and what was our astonishment when we beheld, among the medley of Circassian cavalry, a ragged band of horsemen whom we at once identified as Kurds, and in whom we recognised the much-talked-of Hamidiyeh! Here indeed was food for the note-book and the camera! On the steps of the building stood the Kaimakam, not my friend of the first journey; and beside him the Hakim in a black robe. Behind these were gathered the notables, and among them a giant who enhanced the imposing nature of the show. When we had received and returned the greetings of this distinguished company, we were ushered into the presence of the Pasha, seated in an inner room. He overwhelmed us with every token of kindness; and, when the Kaimakam read me a telegram relating to a supply of money, he waved him aside with a gesture of magnificent contempt, and drew from his pocket a reel of gold which he begged me accept. A little speech, modelled on his own, seemed to allay the sting of my refusal; but he insisted upon our taking with us to our camp on Bingöl a detachment of cavalry. This offer was gratefully accepted. Orders were at once given to prepare a repast. The servants left the presence with a deep obeisance; but, alas! it transpired, after a considerable interval, that there were no viands in the house and none to be found. All this time the audience chamber was filled full of as strange a company as it had ever been our privilege to see. Suleyman Pasha appeared to hold a roving commission in connection with the Hamidiyeh. But the men of his own race, settlers in the country, had come in from all directions to do honour to a countryman in his high position, and to a nobleman in whose veins their bluest blood flowed. The Circassians furnish recruits to the regular army, differing in this respect from the tribal Kurds. But, jealous of their ancestral customs, they maintain the irregular cavalry, of which a strong contingent was gathered together in Gumgum. The principal men, one by one, were introduced into the apartment; each bowed low and kissed the Pasha’s hand. To each was assigned a seat on the divan. Most had passed the middle age; their wizened and wrinkled faces harmonised with the drab hues of the Cossack dress. The Pasha was resplendent in his blue and crimson uniform; several swords, in richly engraved and valuable scabbards, rested by his side. Near him sat a grave and gloomy personage in European uniform. His cruel face displayed the true Tartar lineaments and expression; yet he was a Kurd, and the colonel of one of the four Hamidiyeh regiments recruited among the Jibranli tribe. The Pasha treated him with great courtesy, if with a little condescension; but, although he received the many orders which were addressed to him with military obedience, his manner scarcely concealed the irritation which they produced. There was mischief in the man’s face. He is seen on the left of my illustration ([Fig. 190]); his bugler, a young Kurd, richly attired, is placed on his left hand. Behind him are some of his horsemen, of which in all there were mustered a hundred, after extraordinary exertions on the part of the Pasha. Yet the nominal strength of the regiment is six hundred. The whole force—regulars and irregulars, Kurds and Circassians—were drawn up in a half-circle for our benefit. The regulars were, as usual, a fine body of men; of the rest the very refuse were the Kurds.
Fig. 190. Hamidiyeh Cavalry at Gumgum.
We did not regret to leave a scene which was pathetic as well as humorous, and to set forth on an expedition to one of the most remarkable of those works of Nature with which Asia—past mistress of violent contrasts—appears to mock the contemporary littleness of her sons. We had experienced the greatest difficulties in obtaining supplies; for the wretched shopmen, alarmed at the inundation of undisciplined soldiery, had absconded after barring up their humble booths. The promise of some cavalry had proved empty; none came or intended coming. We had said good-bye to our excellent escort from Akhlat, of whom the officer, a handsome man with charming manners, had suffered in health owing to the hardships of the journey. But we had been met by our tried and trusted zabet from Erzerum; and to him was attached a fellow-officer from Gumgum with several men. We might have proceeded on a fairly direct course to our mountain, which indeed is situated almost north of the little town. But I was anxious to retrace my former journey as far as Dodan, in order to complete my rough survey of this interesting region, interrupted on that occasion by failing light. Our course was therefore directed up the long valley, with the outline of the stupendous Bingöl cliffs on the one side, and, on the other, that of the border heights of Mush plain. At the hamlet of Alagöz we forded the stream which comes down through the great chasm, and which, perhaps, for want of a better name, we may call the Gumgum Su. It unites at this point with the combined streams which water the plain, and the joint river flows off through a gorge in some minor heights to effect a confluence with the Bingöl Su. I have already mentioned that the valley is choked up with insignificant hills; on its southern margin flows the river last named. Eruptive volcanic action has played a great part in its configuration; and the axis of the masses of lava which rise up from its floor is about the same as that of the plain of Mush. These eruptive hills are varied by heights composed of limestone, or of marls and clays, interbedded with lava and tuff. After a long ride through this wild scene we at length emerged upon the plain of Dodan, level as the lake which it must have supported in fairly recent times. Dodan lay beneath us; but we pushed on to a further village, the picturesque and pleasant settlement of Gundemir.
[1] The list is divided into cazas and villages:—Adeljivas caza—1, Uran Gazi; 2, Kogus. Van caza—3, Shikhare; 4, Shikhuna; 5, Azikare; 6, Pakis. Akhlat caza—7, Kholik; 8, Agjavireh; 9, Yogurtyemes; 10, Develik; 11, Khanik. Melazkert caza—12, Serdut; 13, Yarelmish; 14, Kara Ali; 15, Simu. Bulanik caza—16, Gopo. Khinis caza—17, Lekbudagh. Varto caza—18, Charbahur; 19, Charbahur Tepe; 20, Akhpoghan; 21, Zirnek; 22, Budag; 23, Shekan; 24, Aineh. In addition to these—I will not vouch for the spelling—there were, he said, to be found Circassians on the side of Erzerum. [↑]