332 
ARZ-ROUM TO AMASIA. 
from Chifiik there is in ruins, a small circular building of stone, which 
is probably a Turkish tomb. 
We rested for the night at Caraja , though the proper Menzil Khoneh 
is three hours distance, at a place called Sheyran , which gives name to 
a district, or Mahale , containing this and between thirty and forty 
other villages. Our horses were collected from the individual villagers; 
for the regular establishments were broken up about a month before 
our arrival, by the disturbances in the country. From Caraja to 
Gumuck Khoneh (a large town) is twelve hours, and thence to Trebisond 
ten hours, on a general bearing throughout the whole distance of N. 
Arsinghan is a considerable town, twenty-four hours S. from Caraja. 
The corn fields in all this region are fenced off with rails, made of the 
trunks of pine trees; and here and there the boundaries of each man's 
territory are marked by large stones; a greater evidence of property, 
and consequently of prosperity, than we had seen any where. On our 
road to-day we saw a great number of juniper bushes with very fine 
berries upon them. 
In our passage through the woods we met three Tatars going in 
great haste to Arz-roum, bearing to Emin Aga the news of his having 
been created a Facha. They told us that they had then been seven 
days from Constantinople. Their errand is called carrying the Mudjdeh , 
which is merely a verbal notification of the appointment, and which 
very frequently proves false; for the Tatar who is the bearer of it 
generally gets it from the Capi Kiayah or Homines d* Affaires of the 
great man in the province, and then takes the chance of the news 
proving false afterwards. As soon as the Tatar arrives, he is carried 
immediately into the presence of the person whose new dignity he 
announces, and simply informs him of Ins promotion. If the news 
which he brings prove correct, he receives perhaps one thousand 
piastres , and the succeeding Tatars (for there are frequently twenty 
who set off on similar expeditions) get sums in proportion to their 
early or tardy arrival. The person indeed who on these occasions 
secures the highest prize, is generally he who brings the pelisse of 
