ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE EXCAVATIONS.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES.

THE removal of the stones from the peribolus wall to the railway station was effected by a bullock-cart drawn by two bullocks, which were yoked to it with some difficulty. One of the animals resisted furiously. The yoke, the goad, and the stony ground of Scripture are all to be found at Ephesus. In ploughing, the bullocks are yoked together, and are driven by a goad or long sharp-pointed rod; while the stony ground pervades the whole of the ruins of the city and suburbs, small fragments of marble being so thick on the ground that it is impossible to avoid slipping on them.

FALL FROM THE GREAT THEATRE.

In the course of the summer of 1866, during which I found it impossible to retain any workmen for a week together, I made a survey of the city, and I measured carefully all the public buildings. In measuring the Great Theatre one day I was taking a dimension with the assistance of my trusty cavass Edrise, and standing on the outer wall I inadvertently stepped backward; I was nearer the edge of the wall than I thought, so I fell back off the wall into the branches of a tree which fortunately broke my fall of some twenty feet. When my cavass ran up to me I was on my back on the ground panting for breath. The man instinctively did the very thing that was needed at that moment, he pressed his hands firmly on my chest, and in a few minutes I was quite myself again and almost uninjured. So we went on with our work.

A circular mound near the Odeum attracted my attention, and as far as my funds would allow I laid it bare. It was a Roman monument domed over with spurs of masonry large enough for the pedestals of equestrian statues.

Near this building were found the remains of a square Roman building surrounded by a portico, one of the pedestals of which had a dedicatory inscription to Publius Vedius Antoninus by the wool-factors; so this was probably the wool-factors’ hall and market. The excavations at this time excited the curiosity of the natives at Tchirkenjee, a village some hundreds of feet above the plain of Ephesus, and they came down in groups of fifteen or twenty men, women, and children, and gazed wonderingly at the buildings I had already exhumed. To their minds there was something of magic in the discovery of buildings which had been buried for centuries. The young women were often very attractive in their simple dress and head-gear, the latter a coloured kerchief; their walk was peculiarly graceful, and their demeanour was modest and pleasing. These people are Greeks, but they speak Turkish only.

MURDER AT THE GREAT THEATRE.

While the excavations at the theatre were going on a murder was committed, the knowledge of which came to me through my ganger, a young Greek of good family, whose conscience would not allow him to keep as a secret what had been told him by the only conscientious Turk then in my employment. The ganger came to me with an air of mystery one Saturday evening, and reminding me that I had been up into the theatre that day, asked me if I had smelt anything unpleasant there. I had done so, and concluded that it was caused by a dead snake or some other creature. ‘No, sir,’ said the ganger, in a solemn voice, ‘it’s a dead man, one who has been killed by some of our men; Osman told me of it, I commended the young man. for reporting the murder to me, when he said he was sure I would not allow it to pass without inquiry. It was, of course, my duty to ascertain if possible how and by whom the murder had been committed, both to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. I had at that time seventy men, and this man, Osman, was the only man who retired at midday to say his prayers; the others ridiculed him for his piety.

I told my ganger that I must investigate this matter of the murder, and I ordered him to have four men at the theatre with picks and shovels at nine in the morning. When, however, the morning came the rain came down in such torrents that it was quite impossible to venture out and exhume the body of the murdered man. Towards evening, however, the weather cleared, and I had had time for reflection. It now occurred to me that it would be injudicious to undertake the investigation of the murder without the presence of the Mudir of the district, who lived at Tchirkenjee, a village on the side of the mountain west of Ephesus. I therefore rode up to see the Mudir, and told him of the murder; he at once offered to accompany me to Ayasalouk with three Zaptiehs. As it was Sunday evening, many of my men, who had spent most of the day in the cafés at Ayasalouk, were still there as we approached the village, so in order not to give them warning of our approach in force, we entered by several routes, and in this manner caught a number of the men. These we took and left at the Konak in charge of the Zaptiehs of Ayasalouk. We then provided ourselves with a quantity of strong rope, which we cut into long lengths, each sufficient to tie five or six men together by their waists. We then proceeded to the sleeping-places of the men amongst the ruins, which were chiefly in some arched substructure of the ancient public buildings.

These we readily found under the guidance of one of the men, but it was quite dark on our arrival there. We found them in gangs of five or six, and we took them prisoners without resistance; and by the time we arrived at the theatre we had made thirty-seven prisoners, with those found in the village. One of the men pointed out the spot where the body would be found, and two of the best workmen were set to work to remove the stones which had been thrown in over the body, which had ° been buried deeply. It took fully two hours to remove the stones and to expose to view the body. Meanwhile the men clustered in picturesque groups around the spot, and this weird scene was illuminated by the flickering red flame of large torches which we had brought with us.

The murder had been committed on Tuesday; it was now Sunday. The worms had taken possession of the body; it was a horrible sight, and as I stood or sat over the spot for the whole time the men were at work, I felt that if I never had fever again I could certainly never run a greater risk. Evidence had now been acquired that a murder had really been committed, and nothing could now be done but to cover up the body, this time with earth as well as stones. Then we all marched off solemnly and silently to Ayasalouk, where the men must remain for the night. I led the way, as I best knew the numerous pitfalls I had dug all over the plain. On the following morning the Mudir and Zaptiehs took their thirty-seven: prisoners to Scala Nova (Neapolis), where they were brought before the Kaimachan. After the lapse of several days, as my men did not return, I rode over to Scala Nova with the Mudir, to ascertain what had been done. I arrived at the time that the Kaimachan and Medjilis were sitting.

After hearing my account of the murder, and our proceedings at Ephesus in respect of it, the men were called in; it was not easy to accommodate so many men in a court of rather small dimensions, but they finally ranged themselves on one side in two long lines, and the Kaimachan requested me.to call their names, to which they were told to answer. I then asked whether any clue had been found to the murderer, as he must be known to many of the men. The Kaimachan had discovered nothing, and he asked me if I suspected any one of them. This was a difficult question for me to answer. I had indeed suspected one of the men for two reasons; my ganger had named him with great distrust, and he was the only man who had attempted to make his escape when we searched the cafés at Ayasalouk. I could not, however, denounce the man on such slight grounds, and I was obliged to give an evasive answer, to the effect that I had trusted them all, one as much as another, as I had been down in deep holes with most of them, and had even paid them their wages in such holes from a large bag full of silver, and no one had taken advantage of me. The man I had most reason now to suspect had dug the deepest holes, and, because he was fearless, had been employed for some time exclusively on that work. As I pressed the Kaimachan to let me have my men, he consented on condition that if he sent for any one of them I should allow him to go.

The men had been sent out of court during the latter part of our conversation, so I asked leave to go to their prison and announce to them that they were free to go with me to Ephesus. I was shown down into a filthy courtyard, where the men passed the day, and where they were now assembled; they had been housed in an equally filthy stable, into which I looked, but did not attempt to enter, from fear of disagreeable consequences. When I expressed my disgust at their having been so foully lodged, they showed their appreciation of my sympathy by an appropriate and expressive murmur; when I told them that they would be allowed to accompany me to Ephesus, and that I should start from the market-place ‘in one hour’s time, they shouted for joy, and at the appointed time they all came to meet me. For a long distance our journey was by the sea-shore; here the younger men gamboled, and ran and splashed one another, and many of them kept pace with my horse, which I rode at varying speed in order to encourage their frolic; and before we reached our destination I allowed a number of them to pass me, and they on their arrival assembled on a little knoll past which I had to ride, and they cheered me as I went on to Ayasalouk.

BLIND GUIDES AT EPHESUS.

Visitors to Ephesus who put themselves under the guidance of guides to the ruins are sometimes amused at the stories of these ignorant men. A gentleman one day engaged one of these men to take him round the ruins, not caring to ask him for information which he thought he could not give him; but on arriving at the theatre my friend, for the sake of saying something to the old man, remarked, ‘So this is the theatre?’ ‘No! this, looking toward the auditorium, ‘was a school for little boys. This was the theatre, turning toward the proscenium. The poor man had evidently heard of the school of Tyrannus, which had been alluded to by some guide-book then recently issued. The guides who come with parties from Smyrna are even more ignorant and less conscientious than this old man at Ayasalouk, none of them having taken the trouble to make themselves acquainted with the various points of interest; and they make incorrect statements about the few things they pretend to explain. They also hurry visitors unnecessarily, bringing them back to Ayasalouk long. before the train starts.

A WOULD-BE ASSASSIN.

I had great difficulty from time to time in obtaining my full complement of workmen; and on one occasion I employed a man (a cavass out of service) to obtain twenty men. He went away and did not reappear for two days; he then came accompanied by ten men, whom he had picked up in the neighbouring villages, and pretended he had gone a long way for them. There was not a workman among them; they were simply café-loungers. As I had very great need of men, I put on a few of these men, and in settling with the cavass I gave him a medjid; this he threw down upon the table, saying he wanted at least three medjids. As I refused to give him more, he muttered ugly threats of vengeance, and was about to leave the room, but turned back and took the medjid, in accepting which, according to the custom of the country, he could make no further claim. The station-master told me that the man had told him all that had occurred, and that he had proposed to go to a café with him and spend Mr. Wood’s medjid, that he did not care now for money, it was blood he would take. I took the precaution, therefore, of arming myself with my revolver; and as I rode home alone in the evening from the theatre, where my men were then. at work, I kept a sharp look-out for my enemy, especially as I passed through the cemetery, where the underwood afforded an opportunity of ambush. A week passed in this manner, and he one evening came into a café where the station-master happened to be at the time, and throwing his gun down on the floor with an oath, he said he had not been able to get a shot at me. Mr. Cumberbatch, the English Consul, hearing of these threats, thought that I ought not to run any further risk, the man appearing to be in earnest, so one of the consular cavasses was sent to Ayasalouk, and, with the aid of a Zaptieh, he captured my enemy, who was taken down to Smyrna, and was eventually banished. The incident did not end here. A cousin of the banished man came up to my room one day soon after, and asked me why I had had his cousin banished. I replied, ‘Perhaps you are not aware that your cousin threatened to take my life, and had said himself that he had laid in wait for me for a whole week. The man did not appear satisfied; but although I was told that he had recently taken a man’s life for a trifling dispute, and might any day take mine, he did not offer me any violence.

STORKS AT AYASALOUK.

Every year early in March storks came to Ayasalouk, and built their nests on the piers of the ancient Turkish aqueduct which supplied the town of Ayasalouk. It was difficult to understand all the manceuvres of these curious birds. A single stork at first made his appearance in the morning, as if he had been travelling all night; he apparently did nothing but look about him; he was possibly sent forward to survey the state of the climate and other points of interest to them all, for he disappeared the day after his arrival, and in the course of a day or two a single pair, male and female, would be seen early in the morning, as if they also had been travelling all night. They took possession of the aqueduct pier, which had the least ruined nest of last year upon it — the one which would give them the least trouble to repair and put in order. But although the old nests appeared to have need of very little work to make them comfortable homes for themselves and the coming family, they were a long time (about three weeks) completing their nests. The male bird went for sticks, twigs, feathers, bits of rag, &c., and in proportion to his success they bent their heads backward and clapped their beaks, to show their satisfaction. They often stood looking at the new acquisition and studying the best means of utilizing it, about which there seemed to be some difference of opinion — not an unusual thing with married couples. There was often a great fight for the best nests, which was partly carried on by swooping down upon one another in turns with their powerful wings, against which it was impossible to stand on the edge of the nest. The clapping of their beaks continued at intervals during day and night. One day, near the Odeum, I saw a stork carry away captive in his beak a large snake, which twisted and wriggled in vain to escape. He doubtless made a very substantial meal for the storks.

TURKISH DANDYISM.

When I was digging at the Great Theatre the Pasha of Smyrna, who had been told that I had found great treasures and beautiful statues, sent his secretary to visit the works and report upon them. On an appointed day we therefore went out to Ephesus together. The secretary was effeminate and very dandified, wearing black cloth clothes and patent leather boots, the latter quite unsuitable for the business he had come about. I took him to the edges of the pitfalls I had dug on the road from the station to the theatre, and by the time we reached the theatre he was thoroughly sick of the whole matter, and was glad to refresh himself in the theatre with the lunch I had provided. The result of his visit was that I was left in peace to pursue my explorations undisturbed.

BRITISH SAILORS AT EPHESUS.

As all the antiquities selected for export to England were sent to the British Museum, English men-of-war were sent by the Admiralty from Malta to Smyrna to fetch them from time to time. The Terrible, commanded by Captain (now Admiral Sir John) Commerell, was the first that came. Captain Commerell told off twenty-six blue-jackets, of whom two were petty officers, all under the command of Lieutenant Hallett. This was in January and February, 1868, when unusually cold weather had set in; this, however, was favourable to the work. The blue-jackets were all quartered in the large lower room of my house near the railway station. It did not take them long to settle down, fix their cooking-stove, and get everything in ‘apple-pie order;’ and all but those engaged in preparing the food for supper turned out for a stroll, which they enjoyed very much after the confinement on board ship. I had a long table set with chairs round it, and after they had supped, one of the petty officers presided over the evening’s pastime, which consisted of smoking, drinking their grog, and singing songs. Some of their songs were deeply touching and sentimental; one especially was sung with extra sentiment, but it had what ‘Jack’ would call a ‘rousing chorus’; indeed, every song had a chorus, in which, judging from the noise they made, every one must have joined. At ten o’clock they all turned in, and then all was quiet.

To fetch the stones from the ruins I had a strong two-wheeled cart or truck, which was capable of taking two tons at a time. It was really astonishing to see this cart, manned by the sailors, drawn up steep places covered with débris. They surmounted by their energy and determination all obstacles, and in the course of twenty-two days they conveyed to the railway station as many stones as the frigate could take away.

NARROW ESCAPE FROM CAPTURE BY BRIGANDS.

In the spring of the year 1869, while I was tracing the road leading from the Magnesian gate to the temple, it was rumoured at Ayasalouk that a band of thirteen ‘brigands had collected at Cosbouna, a few miles from Ephesus. I had at that time only one cavass as a general servant and body-guard, and I was in the habit of riding twice a day to inspect the trial-holes which my men were sinking in the plain to the north-east of the city. I was habitually unarmed, and I was attended by an unarmed groom. This had evidently been seen by the brigands from the neighbouring heights, and a day was arranged by them for my capture. It so happened, most fortunately for me, that on that day Mrs. Wood telegraphed to me from Smyrna, asking me to meet the train at Ayasalouk and accompany her to Aidin. I did so, and was therefore absent in the afternoon, when three out of eight brigands who had been lying in wait for me in one of my trial trenches, capable of concealing them, advanced to a hole where one of my men was at work, and looking down, asked, ‘Where is Chelebeh?’ The workman, looking up and seeing three suspicious-looking strangers, at once suspected their design, and cunningly answered, ‘He has gone to Constantinople;7 on which they asked, ‘How long will he be away?’ The man replied, ‘Perhaps a month. The brigands then left, and on my return to Ayasalouk that evening my cavass, groom, and one or two of my workmen met me on the platform, and congratulated me on my escape. The next day, notwithstanding the warning, several petty officers from a British man-of-war accompanied Mrs. Wood and myself round the ruins, but I afterwards took the necessary precaution of adding three more cavasses to my bodyguard, and I armed myself with pistol and dagger. A week or two thus passed. Thus prepared, I ventured to visit the works daily, which were then going on in opening up the peribolus wall at the angle of which the inscriptions were found; and only on one other occasion, to my knowledge, did I have a narrow escape. One day I was inspecting the work, and went down into a deep trench to examine more minutely the inscriptions, and to copy them. While in the trench I found my revolver and belt very warm and oppressive; I relieved myself of them, and put them down in the trench. After a time I got up out of the trench, and with my back to the barley, which came close up to the place where I stood, was about to give some order, when I observed by the expression of one of my cavasses who were at a little distance from me that some one was behind me. I turned round quickly, and within two paces of me a rough-looking, strange man confronted me. I had been cautioned that I might one day be caught unawares and pinioned by one man coming from an ambush of the whole party. So I was not surprised on seeing this man, who approached me stealthily, but I simply asked him what he wanted there; he said he wanted to see the wall I had laid bare. I ordered him peremptorily to leave the spot, and I saw him fairly off before I settled down to my work again. I of course allowed the ambush of the men in the barley to remain undisturbed. I may here add that barley in Asia Minor attains a height of eight feet when full grown, as it was in this case.

It was into the lair of these brigands that I rode with my cavass when they were at Cosbouna. I had promised Monsieur Waddington to obtain a copy of an inscription on a fountain near Cosbouna, and although I knew that the brigands were in the neighbourhood, I was not aware till afterwards that they were within gun-shot distance of the fountain. I came away, however, in safety with the inscription.

WORKMEN'S STRIKE.

One morning, as I went to the diggings, I met all the workmen coming away from them, with shouldered picks and shovels. Upon questioning their leader, a young man who had on another occasion shown a rebellious spirit, in answer to my inquiries, he told me that they had all decided to give up the work. At first he would not give any reason, but on being pressed, he said that one of the cavasses placed over them was in the habit of stealing their food, and unless I discharged him they would not remain. It would have weakened my authority over the men if I had consented to this, so I told them that I should not discharge the cavass, but I would give him other work to do. At first this would not satisfy them, but on my repeating what I said they consented, and returned to their work.

I had not then as many men as I really needed; it was one of the difficulties I had to contend with. Numbers of men who would willingly work elsewhere would not work at Ephesus, it had such a bad reputation for malignant fever.

FATAL ACCIDENT.

The only fatal accident which occurred during my eleven years of work at Ephesus took place soon after I had discovered the temple. In the course of sinking trial-holes before the discovery, I had found an inscription twenty-two feet underground, and I left it to be taken up at some future time; but as I was anxious to show it to Mr. Newton on the occasion of his visit on a certain Monday, I ordered my ganger, on the previous Saturday, to have it brought up to the surface by the time the train arrived from Smyrna. Unfortunately, heavy rain fell on Sunday, and the ganger, thinking my order was to be obeyed under any circumstances, sent the very best man I had, a negro named Miryan, down into the hole where the stone was, to clear it and put a rope round it. The poor man had adjusted the rope, and was about to climb up out of the hole, but he unfortunately turned back to adjust the rope more firmly when some tons of earth fell upon him, and seven minutes elapsed before he could be taken out. He was then dead; and when Mr. Newton and myself arrived, his body was laid out on an ancient tomb in the picturesque little mosque in the lower village of Ayasalouk.

A TURK’S IDEA OF PROTESTANTS.

When I had opened up a considerable amount of the ruins of the temple, and laid bare many drums of the large columns, the Mudir of the district, an old-fashioned Turk, who had not long been elected to the office, paid me a visit of ceremony, and expressed a desire to see the ruins of the temple under my guidance. We strolled leisurely down to the temple; the works were suspended for three days to enable the men to keep the feast of Bairam. On our arrival at the ruins, the Mudir was astonished to see such large blocks of marble, and wondered by what means they had been discovered, as there had been nothing on the surface to indicate the existence of anything so important. After looking wonderingly at the ruins, the Mudir, turning to me, asked me to what building they had belonged. I explained to him that it was a large Djami (mosque) which had been built by the Greeks more than 2,000 years ago, and was dedicated to a woman, a goddess, whose statue, thirty or forty feet high, was placed in the building, and had attracted vast crowds of worshippers from all parts. ‘Ah!’ said the Mudir, ‘Bilirim’ (I understand); ‘they were Protestants. The Mudir had evidently not made any distinction between Roman Catholic and Protestant modes of worship. The same Mudir expressed his astonishment at seeing a woman (Mrs. Wood) going so freely among the workmen, and giving medicaments and medicine to the workmen who needed them; he threw up his arms and exclaimed, ‘Oh, those English women!’ Mrs. Wood twice a day walked down to the diggings with an apron of many pockets full of necessaries for the sick men; but he visited us often enough to become accustomed to the sight, and instead of a. feeling which seemed at first almost one of aversion, he entertained one of respect and admiration, until at last he invited her to sit by his side on a bank commanding a good view of the workmen.

WORKMEN’S DEMONSTRATION.

One day, when I had more than two hundred men at work, the Mudir and another government official came to collect the poll-tax. The men appealed to me to protect them against the imposition, as they called it, saying that they would have to pay the tax again on their return home. I did not, of course, interfere with the duty of the Turkish officials, but to evade the tax one hundred and fifty of the men came afterwards to my house, to ask for the money due to them for the two days they had worked since the weekly payment of their wages. I did not, of course, take out more money than was sufficient to pay the men’s wages for the previous week; I had therefore no money to meet their demand. This they would not for some time believe, notwithstanding my repeated assurances, and as they lingered about the house, the sergeant of the police placed two sentries at my door with fixed bayonets. This was an act of supererogation, for if the men had wished to enter the house the two sentries could not have prevented them. After waiting a little longer the men returned to their work, and I heard no more about the poll-tax.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE WORK.

In carrying on the excavations from first to last I had many difficulties and discouragements to contend with, more indeed than I can here recount. Scarcity of workmen was one very great difficulty, when I had overcome that of getting money for the excavations. I would arrive in September ready to put on at least two hundred men, and it took weeks to get together one hundred. A Khoja from beyond Konia, fourteen days’ journey on foot from Ephesus, when he heard that the works had commenced, several times came with a number of men. These men were the best I had for steady work, but they were not intelligent, and could not be entrusted with work in the lowest stratum of six feet, where almost all the marbles of consequence were found. Among my most formidable enemies rain, when abundant, was a terrible one. Not only did the men cease their work, but the rain-water quickly and readily percolated through the sand on every side, and I had once 11 feet 4 inches of water above the pavement. This caused great delay in the work, as I was obliged to wait for the water to subside. On this particular occasion the Duke of St. Albans paid me a visit; he saw nothing but a muddy lake with some wheel-barrows floating in it with outstretched arms, like so many drowning men appealing for help.

So at this time I had money and workmen, but the weather stopped the work. Another difficulty was the bread supply. By law the bakal was obliged to supply the men with a loaf of bread weighing an oke (2¾ lbs.) for two piasters (about 4d.), but the bread was often short of weight and bad in quality, and I was called upon repeatedly to interfere. I was obliged to protect the men against the imposition of the bakal, and the bakal in his turn against the dishonesty of the men, who, in the earlier stage of the work, would run into debt with the bakal, and go away without warning. To prevent this, I was obliged to take the bakal’s list every week, and pay the men their wages minus the amount owing to the bakal. In this manner I found an immense difference in the habits of the men; some few of them would have little or nothing coming to them, they had saved nothing. All the men eat their bread in the morning warm from the oven, I tried in vain to persuade them to eat stale bread.

In the earlier stages of the work, and before the temple was found, my men often deserted me for employment on the railway, which they probably thought more permanent, but they often returned to me after a few days.

I need scarcely say that I was a great sufferer from fever, although it did not often keep me from my work. My workmen were greater sufferers, and I have had at one time as many as seventy-five men down with fever. There were many difficulties at the time the explorations were going on, which I cannot now call to mind. They have disappeared in the long retrospect.

ARREST OF KIOURTS FOR BRUTAL TREATMENT OF A FELLOW-WORKMAN.

One evening after dinner and we had settled down for a quiet evening after the day’s labour, my head cavass (Edrise) came to me, and told me that fifteen drunken Kiourt men had maltreated one of my men, and that the man was dying. I had forbidden gambling amongst my men, and he had refused to gamble with them that evening, as he had done to his loss on a former occasion; they had consequently set upon him and beaten him nearly to death. I asked where the police were. There were only two, and they were drunk, and therefore useless; so I told Edrise to call the cavasses, and the one sapper I had then with me, every man to be fully armed. They were soon ready; and when I had obtained enough rope to tie these fifteen men together in gangs of five, we started for the lower village where the poor wounded man was said to be dying. As we approached the spot, I halted my men; an idea had occurred to me as we marched down. It appeared to me to be highly injudicious for us all to rush into the room where the Kiourt men were assembled. So I told my men that I should goin amongst them with Edrise only, fearing that if I went in accompanied by all my force, there would probably be a fight, the Kiourt men being drunk, and therefore likely to resist their arrest, unless it was quietly done.

Before going after these men, I went to see in what state the man assaulted really was. I found him stretched out at full length in a large café which was full of my men; he was moaning, and apparently breathing his last. The external injuries were bruises upon his body and some severe wounds of the scalp, which was frightfully lacerated. I now sent the sapper back to my house to get some bandages from Mrs. Wood, who was preparing them for myself or any of my people who might need them. I then proceeded to the room where the Kiourt men were, under the guidance of one of my men who said he knew where they were. We had not far to go. We entered an outer yard, and our guide went forward to the room, and boldly throwing back the shutter of the window, looked in, and exclaimed that they were all there. I must here confess to one second’s hesitation; but, repeating my instructions, I went forward, accompanied by Edrise only, and opened the door, and went in. There were about twelve men seated on their heels in a semicircle round a fire. On my entrance they all rose to their feet; I stepped within the circle, and, standing with my back to the fire, faced the men. The first thing to be done. was to write down the men’s names, so that if any of them escaped they might be arrested afterwards. I thought I might exhibit some nervousness if I wrote their names down with my own hand, but as I handed my book to Edrise, I observed that my hand was perfectly steady, so I thought it was a good opportunity to make the men believe I had no fear, and I kept the book and wrote the names down myself. One of these men I had discharged for some weeks, but instead of going away to his village, which discharged workmen generally did, he remained at Ayasalouk, and often appeared in the lane between the diggings and my house, as I went to and fro alone. He several times stood chopping off small twigs with the knife which all Turkish working-men carry in their girdles. This knife I now took from him, reminding him that he had often threatened me with it. I then ordered six of the men out of the room, and as they went out slowly one by one, they were arrested by my men outside, and taken to the Konak, where they were detained. I was afterwards told that if the wounded man had died that night, the prisoners would have been rescued by a strong gang of their fellow-workmen, who I suppose were also Kiourts. I had at that time a number of these men, and I discharged them all.

KHANS IN ASIA MINOR.

Soon after this I went to Samos with an English gentleman who had lived may years in Asia Minor, and had been on one occasion severely wounded in an encounter with brigands. We had to traverse the mountain between Ephesus and Neapolis, so we took Edrise and my groom, a Nubian named Billal. On our arrival at Neapolis we found the sea so rough that we could not persuade the boatmen to venture crossing over to Samos, so we were obliged to remain at the khan waiting for the sea to calm down; and as it was uncertain when the boatmen would come and announce their willingness to start, we went to bed, though in fear and trembling. The result justified our fears. We left our candles alight, and we soon saw what our fate must inevitably be. A full brigade of some regiments of — cavalry, judging from their speed, came from the ceiling down — down — down the walls, while numbers of skirmishers issued from their ambush in all four corners of the beds, and lost no time in attacking us. Sleep or rest were quite out of the question; the remainder of that wretched night, till the sailors came to tell us that we might set sail, was employed in indiscriminate slaughter. It was past midnight when we sailed for Samos; we reclined upon the cargo, which was of valonia (acorns). We feared meeting with more annoyance by parasites, but we were undisturbed, and made quite a pleasant voyage across to Vathi in a few hours. We remained that day and a great part of the next day at Samos — saw the remains of the Temple of Hera, which had columns of even a larger diameter than those of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

On the following day we returned, but we were becalmed; the consequence was, we did not reach Neapolis till after sunset. It was now a question whether we should remain at Neapolis all night at the khan, or venture across the mountain we had to cross on our way to Ayasalouk. We decided that we would rather run the risk of being met by brigands than encounter the horrors of another night at the khan. Two men, strangers to myself and my people, offered to join us on our way to Ayasalouk; they said that they were connected with the post. We at once suspected that they might be connected with the brigands; I therefore called my men, and in a voice heard all over the khan, I told them to see to their pistols, as we might have to fight our way over the mountain. If the two strangers joined the band against us, we were four well-armed resolute men, but we started off with some apprehension of danger. Beside brigands, I thought of the Kiourt men whom I had discharged, who knew where I had gone, and might now revenge themselves by meeting me on the mountain with an overpowering force.

As we approached the most dangerous part of the pass, where the numerous bushes made a good ambush, one of the men who had volunteered to accompany us, and with his companion had by this time taken the lead, rode into the bushes, took the cigarette from his mouth and flourished it several times above his head. This doubtless was a signal, and I thought it must be to attack; I accordingly prepared by taking my revolver in hand. A few hundred yards farther on the signal was repeated, but we passed on without seeing anything of our expected assailants, and we breathed freely again when we had fairly descended into the plain. Every man of the party of six had up to that time kept perfect silence; and now, on comparing notes with my friend, we came to the conclusion that the signal with the cigarette must have been not to attack. Our apprehension of danger had been greater, from the fact that when we passed the guard-house there was no light to be seen in it, and no reply was made to our repeated shoutings; we concluded, therefore, that the ‘guards’ were out with the robbers, lying in wait for travellers, who often fall victims simply by non-resistance, when they are stopped on the road. But travelling by night in Turkey is seldom indulged in; it is considered too dangerous.

ARABS VERSUS TURKS.

During the season 1872-73, more than one hundred Arabs with their wives and children, and in a few cases their fathers and grandfathers, having heard that these excavations were going on, came to Ephesus and pitched their tents near the excavations, and on the side of the hill at Ayasalouk. I employed all the able-bodied, amounting to about one hundred, and they gratefully accepted employment. I soon found that they were quicker than the Turks, so I pitted them against the Turks, giving gangs of both an equal amount of work to do. This arrangement stimulated them all, the Arabs filled the barrows and ran away with them to the ‘tip,’ and the Turks attempted for a time to imitate their example and compete with them, but the Arabs were by far the quickest, and the Turks were obliged to give up the contest and soon settled down to their old easy pace. Over every thirty men I placed an overlooker. I thus utilized my body-guard of four cavasses, and the English sappers from the Royal Engineers who had been sent to my assistance. So I got much more work out of ‘Johnny Turk’ than he would have given me of his own accord.

Out of a gang of three hundred men I was eventually able to select about thirty who could be trusted to work at the lowest stratum where any remains of the temple were likely to be found. Fourteen feet above this stratum consisted of nothing but sand and rough stones; hundreds of the latter formed a pavement only four feet below the surface, which was probably cotemporary with the Mosque of Sultan Selim. The sand was black, and was washed down from the adjacent mountains, which were chiefly composed of mica-schist. The Arab workmen were quite in their element with the sand, they undercut it, and it fell in tons at a time. One day a larger quantity than was expected fell upon a number of the Arabs, but they were very quickly extricated by their fellow-workmen, who soon scratched them out with their hands, and not a single man appeared to be hurt by his temporary burial.

I remember that I had to keep a watchful eye over the men, to prevent a regular pitched battle between the Arabs and Turks, and I once had to intervene to prevent a fight.

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES AT EPHESUS.

The large Mosque of Sultan Selim on the west side of the hill at Ayasalouk is supposed by many people, ignorant of architecture and archeology, to have been the Church of St. John the Divine; but it certainly never was a Christian church at any time, it was built as a mosque at the same time that the Turks built a large. town in that part of the plain of Ephesus; this is clearly indicated by the numerous ruins of small mosques, baths, and seminaries now to be found there.

Under the impression, however, that the great mosque was St. John’s Church, the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Monsignore Spaccapietra, the well-known enthusiastic supporter and advocate of the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope, at the Œcumenical Council held in St. Peter’s at Rome in 1870, gathered on more than one occasion a solemn assembly of some fifty or sixty of his Smyrna congregation, and, erecting an altar against the modern east division-wall of the mosque, performed mass, much to the satisfaction of himself and his congregation. In conversation with the archbishop, I found that he quite believed that his service had been performed in the Church of St. John, and I think he would have been sorry to have been undeceived.

The Armenians hold a service on the top of Mount Coressus, which attracts many hundreds of worshippers, numbers of whom go from Smyrna on the eve of the saint’s day, and bivouac near the few stones which they say mark the site of the ancient church dedicated to their patron saint. The railway authorities erect for their accommodation two large marquees, to protect them as far as possible from the night air, which is believed to be so deadly at Ephesus.

The remains of an ancient Greek church were discovered on the top of the hill at Ayasalouk by some of the people connected with the railway from Smyrna to Aidin. A large marble chair, probably the bishop’s, was found, as well as other proofs of its having been an early Christian church. The modern Greeks conceived a great reverence for these remains and their site, and they collected a sum of money sufficient to build a small church, using the walls of the ancient church as foundations. In this little church regular services were held on Sundays, and fast and feast days; to which the villagers were invited by a large bell, suspended on a wooden frame on the top of the hill. It appeared, indeed, as if the lamp of Ephesus was relighted; but I was sorry to find, on a recent visit to Ephesus (April 1887), that this interesting little church had been accidentally burnt down, and there seems to be little hope of its being rebuilt. There are on the hill at Ayasalouk many remains of ancient buildings; among these a young religious enthusiast came to live; he chose for his repose at night a small opening in one of the massive piers of masonry, just long enough and wide enough to lie down in. He painted rough ideal likenesses of St. John and other saints for sale, but the young hermit disappeared from among us as quietly and mysteriously as he had appeared, and no one knew afterwards what had become of him. One of his pictures represented John the Baptist beheaded and carrying his head under his arm; this picture was placed in the church, and I suppose the Greeks kissed it fervently and reverently, as they do the pictures of saints in their churches.

We often had as visitors in our little house at Ayasalouk Protestant clergymen and missionaries of the Church of England. Some of the latter were conversant with modern Greek, and held services in the large room of our house, when a few of the villagers attended. These were chiefly Greeks, and they seemed to be much pleased and interested in hearing portions of the New Testament read and explained in a manner quite new to them.

DISHONESTY OF TURKS.

I am sorry that I am obliged to give an adverse opinion as to the honesty of Turks generally. Of my own workmen, there was never more than a small percentage of the men that I could trust. The men would habitually take any small object, if unobserved, and they would even rob one another. On one occasion at the end of the season, when the men set out for their own homes in one another’s company for safety’s sake, two men attacked a fellow-workman and robbed him of all his savings, which were the result of great self-denial, and which he was taking home to his wife. The poor man returned penniless to Ayasalouk before the whole of the men had started, and these men subscribed liberally to replace part of the money the poor man had been robbed of.

An armlet of solid gold was found by one of my workmen; he did not give it up, but confided the secret of the find to one of his fellow-workmen who shared his room with him. The other at once claimed one-half, which the finder resisted, so they quarrelled over it, and the discovery was revealed to one of my cavasses, through whom I obtained the armlet. I packed it against the lid of one of the cases I sent to the British Museum; it was unfortunately overlooked by the men who opened the case, and no one could afterwards say what had become of it.

It is difficult to prevent the stealing of any small objects found in excavations. In my case most of the antiquities were found in the lowest stratum of about six feet in depth, and on this I placed the men in whom I had the greatest confidence, both for their honesty and their careful work. I consoled myself with the reflection that they could not run off with the heavy marbles.

SUPERSTITION OF THE TURKS.

An eclipse of the moon occurred while I was digging at Ephesus. When it commenced the people of Ayasalouk, Greeks as well as Turks, fired off their guns and pistols. On inquiring the reason for this, I found that they believed that a great monster had fastened itself upon the moon and was about to eat it up, and they fired off their guns to frighten away the monster. They of course believed that they succeeded in this, as the moon eventually cleared; but on this occasion one of them shot an old cow and killed her, and her carcase served the following day to supply the whole village with beef, a luxury not often indulged in by the inhabitants of Ayasalouk.

FIGHT BETWEEN GREEKS AND TURKS.

One Sunday evening a Turkish workman, having taken too much raki, on passing a café in Ayasalouk, outside of which a priest and some Greeks were sitting, on being ridiculed by one of the Greeks, stopped and cursed both them and their religion. ‘Why do you curse my children?’ said the priest. The Turk replied by striking the priest with his stick. The Greek then rose up and began to assault the Turk, who laid about him furiously with his stick, and was soon joined by some of his fellow-workmen. Extending from small beginnings, the fight soon became a pitched battle between fifty or sixty combatants armed with sticks and stones. Our sergeant, M° Kin, in vain threw himself between them. The men were not then on the works, as they had been on several previous occasions, when he had succeeded in stopping a fight between Turks and Arabs; in this case the affair had been brewing for a long time. They now told him to get out of the way, or he would be hurt, but they must have it out. So the fight went on. The Turks being most numerous as well as the most courageous, drove the Greeks into the barley fields, and obliged many of them eventually to take refuge in some of the cafés. The door of one of them was kept by the sergeant, who narrowly escaped injury. The fight lasted more than two hours. The stationmaster, who had gone up to Tchirkenjee, hearing of the fight as he approached the village, was afraid to return to the station that night, but early in the morning he ventured to return, and he telegraphed to Smyrna and Aidin for help. Some of the cafés were broken into and robbed; my house was fortunately respected, although it was deserted by the cavasses who had charge of it.

I received news of the fight only when we arrived at the railway station at Smyrna on Monday morning, on our way up to Ephesus. The telegram, professing to give full particulars of the disturbance, greatly exaggerated its seriousness. A great fight, they said, had taken place among my workmen, and numbers had been killed and wounded, and the fight was still going on; that soldiers had been sent for from Aidin to prevent further hostilities, &c., &c. On hearing this news, I hesitated to take Mrs. Wood with me; but she determined to go, saying that her services to the wounded might be of more use than usual. Miss Constance Cumberbatch, who accompanied us that morning, also decided to go out and assist. Only arriving at Ayasalouk we found the rooms at the station and part of the station platform occupied by the wounded, the Turks and Greeks having been carefully separated. One poor man, a Turk, was on the platform with a large splinter in his forehead, which I tried in vain to extract, and it was only removed next day by a surgeon from H.M.S. Swiftsure, who had to use a strong arm and powerful forceps. The Greek priest, who had been chiefly the cause of the fight, had been cudgeled from head to foot, and his lamentations over his hard fate were loud and bitter, and another sufferer had three broken ribs. Fortunately, no knives had been used, so there had been no stabbing, and therefore no loss of life. One hundred soldiers had been sent from Aidin, and the Kaimachan of Scala Nova and the Deputy-Governor of Aidin had come to investigate the affair. Those of my workmen who had not been arrested, or who had taken no part in the fight, were found at the excavations methodically digging and wheeling, as if ° nothing had happened. A hasty glance from some of them, to see how the affair had affected me, was all that I could detect.

The soldiers had unfortunately not brought bread with them, and they arrived just in time to secure for themselves the batch of loaves intended for my workmen, and which was then in the oven; my men had therefore to wait till more bread could be baked. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wood occupied herself in binding up the heads and limbs of the wounded, and did all she could to alleviate their sufferings, assisted by Miss Cumberbatch, till the arrival of the doctor from the Swiftsure, for whom I had telegraphed on our arrival.

The Turkish officials made the railway platform their justice-hall, sentries being posted at each end to prevent intrusion. The depositions of the wounded men were taken and carefully written down by the Governor’s clerk, to be forwarded to Smyrna with the prisoners. I lost the services of some of my best workmen by this affair, as they were not liberated for five weeks. Even Tahir Bey, the chief of the police, who had served in India, and had English sympathies, had not sufficient influence to obtain their release, and their trial was deferred from day to day and from week to week. Imprisonment in such prisons as the gaol in Smyrna is of itself a severe punishment.