346 JOURNEYS IN KURDISTAN LETTER xxxn

out of my hand, and following me like a dog. I never
saw so gentle and trustworthy a creature. His hair has
grown very long, thick, and woolly, and curls in parts
like that of a retriever. His sweet ways have provided
him with a home after his powerful legs and big feet
have trudged with me to Trebizond, for my hosts here,
who are old and somewhat frail, have taken such a fancy
to his gentleness and winsomeness that he is to return
to them when the roads open in the spring.

It was a grand ride from Undzag over lofty moun-
tain passes to the exquisitely-situated village of Ghazit,
built in a deep cul de sac above the lake. Ter-
races, one above another, rise from the lake shore, so
beautifully cultivated as to realise Emerson's description
of the appearance of English soil, " Tilled with a pencil
instead of a plough." A church stands on a height, and
the village, almost hidden among magnificent walnuts, is
crowded upon a terrace of green sward at the foot of a
semicircle of mountains which wall it in from the world.
The narrow village road, with its low, deep-eaved stone
houses, was prettily brightened by colour, for all the
women were dressed more or less in red, and wore high
red coronets with dependent strings of coins, and broad
aprons, reaching from the throat to the feet, of coarse
dark blue cotton, completely covered with handsome
patterns worked in cross-stitch in silk.

Fine walnut trees are one of the specialities of this part
of Turkey. They provide much of the oil which is used
during the long fasts which both Armenians and Syrians
observe, and they develop very large woody excrescences
or knots, the grain and mottling of which are peculiarly
beautiful. These are sought for by buyers for Paris
houses even in the remote valleys of Kurdistan for use
in the making and veneering of furniture, especially of
pianos. Fortunately the removal of this growth does not