watching him carefully; he was completely calm and steady. He was looking at the lake and surrounding mountains. His fingers were long and thin. He was shining as though electric was burning inside him. He was wearing a silver ring set with a stone, and on his back was a garment of very high quality cloth.

It was immediately the time for the afternoon prayers since the days were short. He wanted to perform them in the boat. We turned the boat towards the qiblah then I heard the sound of "Allahu akbar". The first time I heard the words uttered in this awe-inspiring and solemn way was from him. He declared the words "Allahu akbar", "God is Most Great", in such a fashion that we all shivered. His manner did not resemble that of any other hoja. We were trying not to let the boat veer away from the direction of the qibla. Bediuzzaman offered the words of peace and completed the prayers, then turned to us and said: "Yes, brother, that was a bother for you." He was a most polite and gentlemanly person. We arrived at the Barla jetty after a voyage of some two hours. The forester Burhan was wandering up and down on the jetty. I called out to him: "Hey, son, come here!" He came immediately. We took the hoja's basket and sheepskin from him and put them on the donkey.

At this point, the boatman Mehmed took the forester's rifle intending to shoot partridges with it, but Bediuzzaman prevented him saying: "The spring is close now and their nesting season. It's a shame, give up the idea if you like." He stopped him shooting them. And the partridges took off and started to fly over our heads following us.

I slung my rifle over my left shoulder and took Hoja Efendi's left arm. We climbed the hill slowly and after walking for about an hour came to Barla. The partridges which had taken off from the shore remained above us as far as Barla. They kept flying round above us.

Evening had drawn close. We stopped at the police station beside the Ak Mescid in Barla. The head official of the district, Bahri Baba, and the chief of the police station were there. I handed Bediuzzaman Efendi over to them and got them to sign the papers. After spending the night there I returned to Eğridir in the morning. [^36]

[^36]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 262-4.