Friday Ap 19. [19 April 1907] Went with Jamil and Tahir to see the
ruins of the temple of Hecate. Hamdy did some work here but it is all
overgrown with brush wood. Got onto our horses at 8 and rode to the
top of Giok Bel a very wild and beautiful path. Jamil had procured our
horses for us and he sent with us two ragged and very cheerful
muleteers and an equally cheerful and ragged boy. A little kahweh at
the top of the pass where we drank coffee. Then down through
wonderful pine woods, carpeted with forgetmenot. Fattuh told me that
Tahir had offered Jamil £T3 if would let the brigand go and no doubt
he would, martini and revolver and all, for as Fattuh said he got no
pay probably and he must live. At 12 we stopped for 3/4 of an hour
and lunched by a mountain stream. Immediately after we left the
woods and rode down a shallow winding valley, quite uncultivated, all
rocky. 2 small villages at the bottom of the wood, no other people.
Near the end of this valley we saw the remains of an aqueduct that
had carried water to Arabhissar - Alabanda. About 3.30 we came out
into the China [«ine] valley, very wide and covered with crops and
grass, and rode along the foot of the hills to Arabhissar which we
reached at 5. A miserable little hamlet mostly clustered round the
great theatre, the supporting walls of which are very fine. We lodged
at Jamil's demand in the house of one Hajji Salih Effendi, a charming
old Turk. I had a little house to myself - barring fleas - at the bottom of
his compound. He fed us and our horses and men and would take no
money for it. Fattuh succeeded in giving him a mej. for his children.
Storks on all the ruined walls.