Note 1837 — Chapter VI · PASTORAL LIFE.

Or even in the shed of a Turkish shepherd in Asia Minor. Dr. Chandler has a passage illustrative of the hospitality of pastoral tribes, which is at once so picturesque and concise that I am tempted to transcribe it: “About two in the morning our whole attention was fixed by the barking of dogs, which, as we advanced, became exceedingly furious. Deceived by the light of the moon we now fancied we could see a village, and were much mortified to find only a station of poor goatherds without even a shed, and nothing for our horses to eat. They were lying wrapped in their thick capotes or loose-coats by some glimmering embers, among the bushes in a dale under a spreading tree by the fold. They received us hospitably, heaping on fresh fuel and producing caimac or sour curds and coarse bread which they toasted for us on the coals. We made a scanty meal, sitting on the ground lighted by the fire and by the moon, after which sleep suddenly overpowered me. On waking I found my companions by my side, sharing in the comfortable cover of the Janizary’s cloak which he had carefully spread over us. I was now much struck with the wild appearance of the spot. The tree was hung with rustic utensils, the she-goats in a pen sneezed and bleated and rustled to and fro; the shrubs, by which our horses stood, were leafless, and the earth bare; a black cauldron with milk was simmering over the fire, and a figure more than gaunt or savage close by us was struggling on the ground with a kid whose ears he had slit, and was endeavouring to cauterise with a piece of red-hot iron.” Chandler, vol. i. 180, seq.