Old Post-Road from Tiflis to Erivan 



303 



Tlie X'illao-e of Semenovka 



kneeling before a chair on which he had 

 set a glass of cold water and a pocket 

 mirror, shaving himself by the light of 

 a coiled taper. The job was so well 

 done, however, that it was evident that 

 he had shaved under difficulties before. 

 Later, when we were in the hot, arid 

 country where water is so scarce, I 

 learned that a half cup of water could 

 serve for the toilet purposes of this 

 same gentleman and his wife and still 

 furnish him enough for his shave. 



By sunrise we had had our breakfast 

 and were on our way up the pass. As 

 we climbed higher the view became 

 wilder and more extended. At one time 

 w^e could see ten zig-zags in our road 

 below us, wdiile above and around were 

 snow-capped peaks and grassy slopes, 

 on which the light of the rising sun gave 

 effects which well-repaid us for the exer- 

 tion of an early start. At the summit 

 of the pass there is a great change in 



the character of the scenery, and as we 

 looked toward the south, instead of the 

 heavil}^ wooded and grass-covered slopes 

 through which we had been coming, 

 stretched out before us we saw the great 

 Armenian plateau, above which rises the 

 barren cone of many an extinct volcano. 

 For some miles our route lay along the 

 shores of Take Goktchii, a beautiful 

 sheet of water 53 miles long by 23 miles 

 wide, the surface of which is 700 feet 

 above the top of Mount Washington. 

 The region is inhabited by the adherents 

 of several religious sects. From this 

 region come a portion of the Dukho- 

 bortsi, of whom so much has been said 

 of late years because of their emigration 

 to British Columbia rather than give up 

 their religious tenets, which forbid their 

 bearing arms for any reason. The fol- 

 lowers of another sect subsist entirely 

 upon milk during Tent. We stopped at 

 the little village of Jelenovka, on the 



