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 CHAPTER X

A JOURNEY ON FOOT—A COUNTRY MADE BY GOD, UNTOUCHED BY MAN

It is not given to many in this enlightened twentieth century to travel in a country as God made it, almost untouched by man. Upon the road from Gunhani I saw no signs of man's handiwork, save a few miles of Deacoville, a tunnel, and the primitive carts of Anatolia. These are made from a few logs nailed together, and fastened to two wheels, cut solidly out of a block of wood. Their continuous squeak does not seem out of keeping with the primitive surroundings, and may be regarded as an "accompaniment" to the peasant's songs.

The story is told of a "benevolent" American whose imagination was fired by the project of turning this land into a "new America." He would subject the fertile soil to "intensive" cultivation and smother it with sky-scrapers. So he persuaded a Turk to come over to "God's own country" (as man has made it) and study the United States.

His guest, however, refused to admire, took passage for home at the earliest possible opportunity, and informed his friends that, "having now seen man's 'best' country, he would never again leave God's."

Nevertheless, in the Western mind these wide stretches of waste land among the beautiful mountains, beneath a cloudless sky, cannot fail to rouse a longing to break the silence by a "little emptying of our crowded towns." The women and old men are digging, sowing, and cultivating, with but slight return for their heavy labour; now that the young are all "wanted" for defence.