An hour before sunset we reached Ilguen, a town on the plain, at the foot of one of the spurs of Emir Dagh.  To the west of it there is a lake of considerable size, which receives the streams that flow through the town and water its fertile gardens.  We passed through the town and pitched our tent upon a beautiful grassy meadow.  Our customary pipe of refreshment was never more heartily enjoyed than at this place.  Behind us was a barren hill, at the foot of which was a natural hot bath, wherein a number of women and children were amusing themselves.  The afternoon heat had passed away, the air was calm, sweet, and tempered with the freshness of coming evening, and the long shadows of the hills, creeping over the meadows, had almost reached the town.  Beyond the line of sycamore, poplar and fig-trees that shaded the gardens of Ilguen, rose the distant chain of Allah Dagh, and in the pale-blue sky, not far above it, the dim face of the gibbous moon showed like the ghost of a planet.  Our horses were feeding on the green meadow; an old Turk sat beside us, silent with fasting, and there was no sound but the shouts of the children in the bath.  Such hours as these, after a day’s journey made in the drowsy heat of an Eastern summer, are indescribably grateful.

After the women had retired from the bath, we were allowed to enter.  The interior consisted of a single chamber, thirty feet high, vaulted and almost dark.  In the centre was a large basin of hot water, filled by four streams which poured into it.  A ledge ran around the sides, and niches in the wall supplied places for our clothes.  The bath-keeper furnished us with towels, and we undressed and plunged in.  The water was agreeably warm (about 90 deg.), had a sweet taste, and a very slight sulphury smell.  The vaulted hall redoubled the slightest noise, and a shaven Turk, who kept us company, sang in his delight, that he might hear the echo of his own voice.  When we went back to the tent we found our visitor lying on the ground, trying to stay his hunger.  It was rather too bad in us to light our pipes, make a sherbet and drink and smoke in his face, while we joked him about the Ramazan; and he at last got up and walked off, the picture of distress.

We made an early start the next morning, and rode on briskly over the rolling, grassy hills.  A beautiful lake, with an island in it, lay at the foot of Emir Dagh.  After two hours we reached a guard-house, where our teskeres were demanded, and the lazy guardsman invited us in to take coffee, that he might establish a right to the backsheesh which he could not demand.  He had seen us afar off, and the coffee was smoking in the finjans when we arrived.  The sun was already terribly hot, and the large, green gad-flies came in such quantities that I seemed to be riding in the midst of a swarm of bees.  My horse suffered very much, and struck out his hind feet so violently, in his endeavors to get rid of them, that he racked every joint in my body.  They were