. Across Asia Minor on foot . ounted on his horse, I went there againfrom Gulek Boghaz Khan. Frozen snow was crispunderfoot, the sunlight radiant, the air clear; greatergrandeur there might be, but nowhere would you findperfect weather, historical interest, and rare beautyof scene combined in such degree as they were thisJanuary morning along the immemorial Cilician the caravans were all coming down to theMediterranean. The winding; road, overhunof withpine - trees, was dotted with strings of Bactriancamels ; they filed slowly across old ivy-covered stonebridges; their swaying bell
. Across Asia Minor on foot . ounted on his horse, I went there againfrom Gulek Boghaz Khan. Frozen snow was crispunderfoot, the sunlight radiant, the air clear; greatergrandeur there might be, but nowhere would you findperfect weather, historical interest, and rare beautyof scene combined in such degree as they were thisJanuary morning along the immemorial Cilician the caravans were all coming down to theMediterranean. The winding; road, overhunof withpine - trees, was dotted with strings of Bactriancamels ; they filed slowly across old ivy-covered stonebridges; their swaying bells filled the gorge with amusical beating. Thus the caravans must have comein the times of Darius and Alexander, and thus theyhave come ever since ; but a year or two hence thispicturesque ancient traffic will be no more, for goods-trains of the Bagdad Railway will have taken itsplace. By noon we had got back to Gulek Boghaz Khan;an hour later the horse was loaded, we had eaten, andwere on the road once more. We were to make a. o o THE GATE OF HOLY WAR 319 short stage of twelve or fifteen miles and halt at YeniKhan, a hostel of such reputation that it was said tobe almost a la Franga, or in the Frank or Europeanmanner. There I should be within one long daysmarch of Tarsus, birthplace of that Holy Paul whomLondon has honoured during many centuries. Ap-proaching Tarsus this way I hoped to enter by the Gate of Holy War, for so, in flourishing Arabdays, the city gate was named which fronted theCilician Pass. Did ever city gate have a name more glamorous,more redolent of the East, or prompting imaginationto a wider picture ? It conjures up at once not merelywar, but centuries of embittered warfare twixt Crossand Crescent. Remark, also, how well it conveys theCrescents traditional aggressiveness. The mere name,indeed, raises a vision of hot, white - walled ArabTarsus standin^f under the blue skies and sunliofht ofthe fertile Mediterranean seaboard—a vision of whitehemispherical dome
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