"Not long ago, and in the neighbourhood of Karpoot, a Kurdish robber attacked a Turkish merchant. The robber was wounded. He fled from the scene of his crime, and took refuge in the house of a Kurd known as Miri Mehmed, a rich and powerful sheik or chief. News of the outrage reached Erzeroum. The Pacha sent orders to the colonel of a regiment in the neighbourhood of the sheik's encampment to arrest the robber. The chief soon heard of this. He was able to dispose of several thousand armed men. He was not at all inclined to submit. In the meantime the officer, who did not know how to arrest the Kurd, wrote to the sheik and invited him to dinner.
"The colonel had lately taken to himself a young and beautiful bride," added the Consul, by way of a parenthesis. "Most of the officers in his regiment were married men. The day fixed for the dinner arrived. At the appointed hour the sheik rode down to the encampment. He was unaccompanied by any retainers, dismounting at the door of the colonel's tent, he passed the threshold. The officer received his guest very courteously, gave him a magnificent entertainment, and, after the dinner was over, asked him to give up the Kurdish robber. To this, however, the Kurd would not agree. 'He has eaten bread and salt in my house,' was his reply. 'I shall not surrender him.' The officer exerted all his powers of persuasion, finally, discovering that the Kurd was obdurate, he arose, and, taking a document from his pocket, showed him that his orders were to arrest the sheik himself sooner than that the robber should be allowed to escape. 'So you mean to arrest me?' said the Kurd. 'You probably think that, because I am unattended, I have no one at my beck and call. Wait! If I have not returned to my encampment in three hours' time, my men will come here to look for me; and I tell you what will happen. I shall take the wife you love best, I will revenge myself by dishonouring her before your eyes. My men shall do the same to the wives of every officer in your regiment!' The colonel was dreadfully alarmed at this," continued the Consul. "He knew that the sheik was quite capable of carrying his threat into effect, he trembled at the vast superiority of numbers on the side of the Kurds. He went down upon his knees, and implored the chief for mercy. The other officers were equally alarmed. They entreated the Kurd to depart. The colonel, kneeling down on the ground, embraced the sheik's feet as a sign of humility and respect. The chief was inflexible," added the speaker. "He stood motionless as a block of stone. He made no remark. At last the colonel, goaded to a state of frenzy, sprang to his feet and cried out to the chieftain, 'You are worse than a Christian! you are not a Mohammedan! You have eaten bread and salt in my house, and yet you wish to do me this great wrong.' 'And what did you wish to do to me?' said the Kurd. 'You thought that I was without my followers and unprotected. You wished to take me a prisoner to Egin; and then what would have been my fate? Perhaps I should have been put in gaol or hanged, as has been the lot of some of my tribe. But,' added the sheik, 'you have thrown in my teeth the remark that I am worse than a Christian! I will show you if I am so. My followers will be here in a very short time. They shall not harm your women. To-morrow morning I will go with you to Karpoot; but only on one condition—that we ride there without any of our men. I will send for my wife whom I love, and you shall take your wife whom you love. They shall accompany us. We will go together to the governor of the town.' The next day they started," added Mr. Zohrab. "The governor was first of all for treating the Kurd very severely; but when the news had been telegraphed to the authorities, and all the facts of the case were known, an order came to release the chief."
"From whom did you learn this story?" I inquired.
"From a Hungarian doctor who was attached to the battalion in question, and who was an eye-witness of the greater part of the scheme."
"Some of these Kurds are very chivalrous fellows," remarked an Armenian. "However, they are great robbers, and a curse to the neighbourhood. They often bribe the Pachas," he continued, "and when troops are sent to force the mountaineers to submit, the general in command, instead of surrounding the mountain, or blocking up all the passes, will purposely leave one or two defiles open. The Kurds then escape, and the Pacha telegraphs back to Constantinople that perfect order reigns throughout the district under his command."
"What will the Kurds do in the event of a war with Russia?" I inquired.
"They will go with the side which pays them the most money," was the reply. "They are many of them known to be in Russian pay, and presents are continually being sent by the authorities in the Caucasus to the chiefs in this part of Anatolia."
CHAPTER XIII.
The weather—The number of troops in the town—Wood is very dear—Tezek—The shape of the town—Trade with Persia—Ismail Pacha's head servant—Have the Russians arrived? No, Effendi, but the Pacha has hanged himself! that is all—The Pacha's wives—He was gay and handsome—The Consul's dragoman—An attack of dysentery—Starting for Van—Major-General Macintosh—His opinion about the Kurds—The Bazaar at Van—Fezzee Pacha—Kiepert's map—Erzeroum is very weak—Fezzee Pacha's opinion about the impending war—The curious Caves.
It was bitterly cold at Erzeroum. The thermometer had fallen below zero. The half-clad recruits could be seen running up and down in front of their barracks endeavouring to keep themselves warm. There were at that time about 12,000 troops in the town. The number was continually changing, every week fresh battalions of redifs arrived from the interior, and then the older soldiers were marched off in the direction of Bayazid, Kars, or Ardahan.