Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/100

 84 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.ea. rounded by orchards and gardens, where vegetables, flowers, and fruit, as fine as any seen in our European markets, testify to the productiveness of the soil, and were better methods of agriculture and less primitive implements introduced, a population five times as large would find ample accommodation. The want of timber is severely felt in Lycaonia and sundry adjoining districts, be it for building or culinary purposes. As in the central wastes of Asia, here also, the sole means for cooking your dinner is the dried-up dung of cows and camels.^ Wood, whether as rafters, doors, win- dow-frames, and the like, is only met with in the more important houses, the huts of the peasantry being constructed with mud and uncemented stones. Despite centuries of neglect and dilapidation, the forests on the southern slopes of the Taurus and the spurs it throws out into the twin provinces of Cilicia and Lycia, as well as the hilly ranges that run parallel with the Euxine, are not all destroyed. These forests, besides all the trees of Europe, contain also, notably along running streams, magnificent cedar and plane trees. Isolated cones are brown and barren, like the Argaeus, but clumps of oaks fringe the ravines ; and umbrella-like pines spring out of every cleft on the hillside. In the northern regions of Phrygia are still vast forests, in the midst of which, hidden in a valley of picturesque rocks, are the tombs and other monuments of the ancient kings of the land. Large herds of cattle graze on the hills ; the tinkling of bells, the bleating of young lambs, break pleasantly on the ear amidst these vast solitudes. It is a curious fact, that on this side the forest seems neither to have advanced nor retreated since the beginning of our era. It was certainly crossed by the consul Manlius Vulso in his expedition against the Galatians, for it skirts the route from Kutaniah to Sivri-Hissar ; and, like a good general, he wished to save his soldiers a march under an almost vertical sun. At the latter place, the Romans were obliged to forsake the covert and take the high-road, which at this point makes a great curve towards the plain. I was able to test step by step the correctness of Livy's statement in regard to the march of Manlius, which he copied, as did Polybius, from the Antonine Itinerary.'^ From this ^ G. Perrot, Souvenirs^ etc., p. 381. 2 Exploration Archeologique de la Galatie, etc., executee en i86r, et publiee sous les auspices -du ministere de I'instruction publique, par MM. G. Perrot, E. Guil- laume, and J. Delbet, 2 vols, in folio, 80 planches, et 7 feuilles d'itineraires, 1872, Firmin Didot.