TABRIZ TO ARZ-ROUM. 
297 
refused to pay the duties, alleging that his beasts were canying part 
of our baggage ; and were therefore in the King's service, and as such 
exempt from the impost. In fact, however, my Charwardar {or con¬ 
ductor of the mules or caravan) had added to my charge this number, 
above those that were necessary for my purposes*; and, having already 
received a part of their hire from me, was now employing them still 
more to his own profit, by conveying upon them, duty-free, in my 
name, the goods of some Tabriz merchants. On discovering the fraud, 
I resigned him into the hands of the officer, with full liberty to exact 
his dues; a licence, under which he begun immediately to cudgel the 
shoulders of the defaulter. The duties here are high, being five reals 
on each load. 
Some miles before we reached Tasouj , the lake begins to make an 
elliptical termination, and the road to turn off on a more Northern 
angle. We were eight hours in travelling the whole distance from 
Ali Shah, which we reckoned at thirty-two miles, on a bearing of 
N. 60 W. Tasouj , from the great extent of the ruined walls about it, 
appears once to have been a large place, but it is now reduced, by 
earthquakes, to the denomination of a village. There are remains of 
domed bazars and mosques, spread in every part of the place. 
June 3. The distance from Tasouj to Khoi is called eight fur swigs; 
we were however nine hours on the road, and calculated the journey at 
thirty-six miles. The general direction was N. 30 W. Our course for 
the first ten miles, to the foot of the range, (which encloses the plain 
and lake of Shahee) bore nearly West; when we suddenly turned 
to the North through the mountains; and, for ten miles more, wound 
among them through some very narrow defiles, and by some sharp 
ascents and descents, till we reached on the opposite side the plain of 
Khoi. Towards the lake the mountains are mostly of an argillaceous 
soil, but change into fine earth as they approach the plain of Khoi. 
In this direction they are green to their very summits, and their inter¬ 
vening vallies are covered with the finest pastures. 
We had left Tasouj by moon-light : we could not therefore discover 
