154 AKARAT. 



brown maids, witli briglit eyes and plaits of beautiful 

 brown hair, wliicli streamed out from under a bandker- 

 chief, and reached down to tbe waist. They wore bright- 

 coloured jackets and short petticoats. The men are said 

 to be dangerous customers, but we always found them very 

 civil and friendly, like most Mahommedan country-people, 

 and they seemed pleased to discover that we were English. 

 In the present instance they helped our baggage into the 

 boat, and after some delay we got across. Meantime the 

 passage of the flocks was amusing. Hundreds of sheep and 

 goats were forced to face the stream by shouts and pistol- 

 shots, while boys and girls dashed into the water to meet 

 and land them safely. Camels lined the bank, waiting 

 their turn with an air of patient resignation, and two 

 huge sheep-dogs, off duty for a time, beguiled their leisure 

 hour with a fight ; three hundred yards off the ferry-boat 

 moved backwards and forwards over the main river. All 

 this made a lively foreground ; and in the distance stood 

 Ararat, as usual wrapped in his afternoon cloud, and the 

 two peaks of Alagoz relieved against a bright-blue sky. 

 It was a picture one longed to see transferred to canvas, 

 by some painter equal to the occasion, and we lamented 

 once more our own incapacity to use brush or pencil to 

 any purpose. The ferry-boat, which is large enough to 

 take on board a carriage, and works on a stout rope, 

 floated us easily over the main stream. 



The question now arose, how we should get on to Aralykh, 

 still three miles off, as of course our carts had been left 

 behind. There were some Cossacks in charge of the ferry, 

 and on showing our letter, addressed to the Colonel at 

 Aralykh, their chief found us a horse to carry the baggage. 

 As no more animals were to be had, we were compelled to 

 walk, in the full heat of the afternoon sun, over the bare 

 sandy waste between us and the village, which is situated at 



