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The National Geographic Magazine 



alone. At last our man came forward 

 with his rug, asking piteousl}- for twelve 

 roubles, and we compromised on eleven. 

 His sharp Armenian instinct served him 

 well at the last, however, for he sug- 

 gested so ingenuously that the boy who 

 rolled up the rug ought to have twent}^ 

 kopecks (eleven cents) for his services 

 that we could not resist the appeal. 



I^ate in the evening of the first day 

 we arrived at Deli j an, a picturesque lit- 

 tle village at the foot of the pass of the 

 same name, and as we looked across the 

 Akstafa Valley we could see what most 

 of the United States contingent of our 

 party had never seen before — the lights 

 of a large camp of soldiers who were in 

 active service. Delijan is the military 

 headquarters of a district. The princi- 

 pal house of the village was thrown 

 open for our accommodation, and we 

 were settled for the night on beds and 

 benches and on mattresses placed on the 



floor in the house and in the barn. The- 

 seven ladies of our party were put into- 

 the best room, which was so small that 

 some of them had to retire before all the 

 beds could be put into place. A fifty- 

 mile drive in the mountains is apt to 

 produce sleep under any circumstances, 

 even if there are seven people in one 

 small room and two of the beds fall to 

 the floor during the night, and one of 

 the occupants of the room has such a 

 severe cold that her breathing sounds 

 like the exhaust of a steam-engine and 

 another has the nightmare ! 



Three o'clock in the morning came 

 all too soon, but we had to arise to con- 

 tinue our journey. It was bitterly cold 

 and many of us performed our toilets 

 with as little ceremony and delay as 

 possible, but others showed the influ- 

 ence of long and stylish habits. I saw 

 one gentleman of the party, a noted 

 English geologist, out on the porch 



The Mountains lyooking Northeastward from the Pass of Delijan 



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