If we examine in detail some of the characteristics mentioned in the list, it appears that hospitality and courtesy are the natural results of gentleness and good temper, com-
my reception among the poorer people were more or less a cloak for their fears. They brought their best, in part at least, because they dared not do otherwise. We stopped one day at an unusually isolated little farmhouse near the ruins of Choka to ask some questions about the region. While the half-blind old peasant talked with us, his wife, a mild little woman, ran excitedly to and fro. With the help of her daughter-in-law, who kept in the background out of sight, she produced a ragged felt, a bowl of sour milk, and some hot bread, very full of hulls. Being interested, I sat down, whereupon my men asked whether there were no fruit.
"No," answered the farmer in some trepidation, "but," with an air of relief, " there is corn."
After further excitement in the house, the corn was brought to us under the trees, little hot yellow ears, roasted in the husk, and carried from the fire on the extended hand and long sleeve of the old woman. Fifty feet from us she halted, called softly to her husband, and handed it over to him. It would not have been proper for her to come nearer, in spite of her age. As I ate the corn, tough but sweet, the fears of the timid peasants faded. Out of real hospitality, they brought what was to them a great luxury, hot eggs, roasted in primitive style in the ashes. It was worth a day's ride to see the genuine affection of the gentle old couple, and the trustful way in which the man handed over to his
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