Camp above Delir
the wickedness of everywhere else, shepherded me, with a
tumultuous crowd behind, out of the village streets, and
walked along for half an hour or so up the valley, till only the
stronger-minded pursuers followed. The Refuge of Allah
stayed behind to collect food.
The ridge behind Delir rises up gradually to the Hazarchal,
the Pass of the Thousand Hollows and its peaks, which lead
like lesser notes of music to the grand chord of Solomon's
Throne, out of sight. We sat at the opening of the valley,
enjoying tranquillity, and looking at the new peaks behind
shifting clouds through my glasses, until The Refiige appeared
with five eggs in his hand and a crowing cock under his arm
whose throat he proceeded to cut with a pocket-knife, in a
silent spasm of viciousness evidently intended for the un-
civilized population of Delir. Little trailing processions of
inhabitants, visible far away across the fields, disturbed the end
of our meal, and drove me farther up the valley, not before a
Mirza's daughter, a tiresome girl who would have been a blue-
stocking in a town, cross-questioned me in religion amid a
circle of her female friends. There are no Kurds or Turks in
this part of the country. The people are dark-eyed and
fanatical; the name of Armenian, indiscriminately applied to
any Christian, rouses dislike. But I found that what knowl-
edge I had of the Quran, and the ordinary politeness of men-
tioning the Moslem saints and prophets with the tides of respect
to which the people are accustomed, would make them
friendly very soon.
The river of Delir is considered locally to be the Chalus
River, and we followed it to where it swirls round a corner
from its source in the valley of Seven Springs. Here we
decided to camp for the night. Shepherds had built a semi-
circular enclosure against a cliff by the stream, and there we
made our fire: there were two small plots of arzan behind
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