The postman proved to be more chivalrous than I expected. Spurring his horse, he made his animal leave the track. Man and steed were half buried in the snow. We followed him. The mule was now able to pass with the ladies, who seemed much alarmed lest their quadruped should stumble. The women appeared to be very uncomfortable in their conveyance. One of them was much heavier than the other, the Persian had balanced her weight by putting a huge stone in the pannier containing his thinner wife. Some parts of the road along which they had come led by the side of a precipice. It must have been very disagreeable for the ladies to have sat still in their baskets, and have looked down the abyss, with nothing save the sure-footedness of their animal to insure them against eternity.
This caravan had come from Khoi and Bayazid—the owner reported that the roads were in a dreadful state. He had been twenty days performing the journey. We halted that evening at an Armenian village called Herteff, containing about ninety houses, and a short distance from Kupri Kui. I was not sorry to reach a resting-place. My illness had weakened me. I had discovered this when we were obliged to wade on foot through the snow, and was now quite as great a cripple as Radford had been when on the road to Erzeroum.
The owner of the house where we stopped was not a cleanly object. His domicile was as dirty as his person. His wife and children were manufacturing some tezek for fuel in one of the two rooms the house contained; this room was given over for the use of my party and self. It was bitterly cold outside. To keep the habitation tolerably warm, the owner had blocked up a hole in the roof, used as ventilator, chimney, and window. The smell of the tezek, and the ammonia arising from the horses and cattle, was excessively disagreeable. There was no other accommodation to be obtained. Mohammed presently informed me that two merchants had been waiting three days in the village. They wished to go to Van, and had made several attempts to cross the mountain, but in vain.
The wife of the Armenian host, and her children, were not at all coy about showing their faces—at least so much of them as the dirt did not hide from our view. They squatted round my English servant, who was making tea, and watched his proceedings with great interest. Now the woman, sticking her filthy fingers into the basin, took out a lump of sugar; then, putting it in turn into each of her children's mouths, she had a suck herself. "Give it me!" suddenly exclaimed her husband. The lady did not show any signs of readiness to surrender the prize. The man sprang to his feet; thrusting a finger and thumb into the mouth of his helpmate, at the same time clasping her tightly round the throat with the other hand, so as to avoid being bitten, he extracted the delicacy. Holding the sweet morsel high in the air, he displayed the treasure to the assembled guests; then, greatly to the woman's indignation, he placed it within his own jaws.
CHAPTER XV.
The Kurd—His bonnet—Mohammed is ill—Radford doctors him—The mustard plaster—The plaster is cold—Where has the Frank put the flames—An old frost-bite—The two merchants—Bayazid—A Turkish lieutenant—A very dirty Christian—Crossing the Araxes—Kupri Kui—Yusueri—Deli Baba—Earthenware jars—How they are made—When the winter is over—Procrastination.
In the next room, which was only separated from us by a railing about three feet high, there were buffaloes, cows, calves, and pigeons, besides the relatives of the Armenian, the postman, and a Kurd. The latter individual had a wonderful turban in the shape of a bonnet on his head. It was made of blue satin, and adorned with gold thread. He was evidently very proud of this attire, and told the Armenian that he had purchased it at Erzeroum, and that, when he had finished wearing the turban, he should give it to his favourite wife.
Presently an Armenian woman brought in a wooden tray, on which were several of the cakes which are used as bread by the inhabitants, and some oily soup.
The Kurd, postman, and Armenians, squatting round the dishes, devoured the contents with rapidity.
Mohammed was lying in a corner of my room; from time to time a groan escaped his lips. I discovered that he was suffering from rheumatism. Radford had put a mustard plaster on him by way of alleviating the pain. Mohammed had been told that he was to keep it on all night. The mustard was rapidly creating a blister.