96 PLEASURE AND ADVANTAGE, OR OTHERWISE,

departure he seemed to carry off both health and fair weather, for the rain poured down till the court became a pond, and we all succumbed to the Again Mr. Layard came

fever, servants and all.

previous to his return

and paid me a visit south, and at last the doctor and artist prepared for a start on their way to Stamboul. For myself this was impossible; a start out of bed brought me to the floor. How could one begin a wild journey of three hundred miles, with servants sick into the bargain?

It would be difficult to determine between travelling alone, or with company, and much might be said on either side of the question. The difficulty is to find two persons congenial in habits and taste; for, without this, little pleasure can be expected. Alone, perhaps, the traveller omits much which he might, with an agreeable companion, survey with interest; but, then, he is masterperfect master-"lord of himself”—perhaps, as the poet sings, of "a heritage of woe," but often extremely agreeable.

"Ah, wretched and too solitary he,
Who loves not his own company;
He'll feel the weight of many a day,
Unless he call in sin or vanity
To help to bear't away."

OF TRAVELLING ALONE.

97

But it is weary, for months and months to travel on without the smallest polished society. The natives, with a very few exceptions, are unintellectual to a degree "money, money" their only conversation; and I am not sure but that he who travels with his dragoman, without any knowledge of Arabic, has the most enjoyment. For him there is the charm of mystery; he only hears what is said, filtered through translation : he sees the venerable native, a very patriarch; he sees the granddaughter, a perfect houri: unable to penetrate further, he fills up the picture from fancy, nor finds the one a voracious Jew, the other but a waxen doll.

It is, indeed, pleasant, now and then to meet a European, to interchange ideas, and to enjoy the intercourse we enjoy alone in the civilised West. To see and hear open, honest ideas, and enlightened views, is singularly refreshing; after some period of Eastern travel, the mind requires this. As in the days of Sulieman El Ioudee, so now: "A friend sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." With all, there are moments when companionship with one's kind is agreeable, and then the lonely traveller will find the want of a com

98

TRAVELLING ALONE.

panion; and even objects of veneration, of grandeur, and admiration, lose half their pleasure when gazed at alone. We long to admire with another the remarks, the reflections of a friend, indicate new points which have, perhaps, failed to strike us. And pleasure itself is but half pleasure after all, when smothered within ourselves.

For myself, my wandering steps had roamed, in former years, over many parts of this historic land; then life was fresh, and everything was viewed beneath the influence of youth and spirits ; then, with oneself, one found sufficient companionship; but in these, my later travels, I freely own that, many and many times, I regretted the want of friend and comrade-never more than now, when, laid low by sickness, I was left to suffer alone.

LEFT ALONE IN SICKNESS.

99

CHAPTER VI.

Misery of being left alone in Sickness-The Hytas-His History-His Habits and peculiar Cookery-Illusions and Vagaries of Delirium— Reception by the Hadji of the truant Servants-Visit of the Armenian Bishop-Mussulman Fast-How the Kavass of Mr. Layard kept it-His exploit at Van-Interior of the Church-The Chapels— Trading in the East-Monks of the Convent-Armenians-Their good and bad Qualities-Opprobrious Terms used by Turks against Christians-Gathering Harvest-Character of the Christians of the East-Return to Van-Turkish Doctors-Their Carousals-Taken by the Pasha to his Country-house-His Opinion on the Affairs of Turkey-Antiquity of Armenia as a Kingdom-Its present PowerServant beaten by Soldiers-How that Injury was redressed-Leave Van-The Hasnedara of the Pasha-How his Memory of me was to be kept lively-Pass several Villages-The Monastery of Yavik.

It was not without many melancholy forebodings I saw these last Europeans depart. There seemed a safe feeling as long as they were near,-some one upon whom I had a claim; and, in spite of caution, I crept to the window to see them ride away. They mount; they move; bob low under the porte cóchère, and I am alone with fever, weakness, and perhaps death. The chill, added to the anxiety, had done me harm; and for the next

100

IMPOSITION OF MY SERVANTS.

two days chaos had come again. I awoke again, sensible, thank God; but conscious of fever, headache, weakness. My poor skull seemed to bound, to split; and I gave up quinine to avoid madness. At first, my only wish was to relapse into insensibility; but as the head became clearer, even though it ached to bursting, one could but be thankful for

reason.

My first conscious moments were embittered by the only two servants with me, who came and demanded wages in advance, one plucking my sleeve to arouse me from my trance. This imposition I firmly resisted; upon which they immediately threatened to quit my service, and I was left alone again in that dreary room. Not that I took the solitude quietly,-not a bit. I bawled and yelled, but as nobody answered, I gave it up. The next day, however, a half-crazy Hytas, a legacy of Mr. B.'s, came back from Van, where he had been sent, and putting his horse-cloth in a corner of the room, did nurse me, poor fellow, to the best of his abilities. He was a Mahometan of Egypt, and had passed his life in a species of military wandering. He had served as pipe-boy to a Mamlouk Bey, as a soldier to Ibrahim; had then