difference in situation. They rode; the Armenians walked. Yet the
Armenians were less afraid; and when we crossed a swollen ford where
a mule caught his forefoot between rocks and was drowning, it was
Armenians, not Turks, who plunged into the icy water and worked him
free without straining as much as a tendon.

The Turks were obsessed by perpetual fear of robbers. That, and
no other motive, made them tolerate the hectoring of Rustum Khan,
who had constituted himself officer of transport, and brought up
the rear on his superb bay mare. As he had promised us he would,
he rode well armed, and the sight of his pistol holsters, the rifle
protruding stock-first from a leather case, and his long Rajput saber
probably accomplished more than merely keeping Turks in countenance;
it prevented them from scattering and bolting home.

His own baggage was packed on two mules in charge of an Armenian
boy, who was more afraid of our Turks than they of robbers. Yet,
when we demanded of our muleteers what sort of men, and of what nation
the dreaded highwaymen might be they pointed at Rustum Khan's lean
servant. At the khan the night before one of them had pointed out
to Monty two Circassians and a Kurd as reputed to have a monopoly
of robbery on all those roads. Nevertheless, they made the new
accusation without blinking.

"All robbers are Armenians--all Armenians are robbers!" they assured
us gravely.

When we halted for a meal they refused to eat with our Zeitoonli,
although they graciously permitted them to gather all the firewood,
and accepted pieces of their pasderma (sun-dried meat) as if that