ARZ-ROUM TO AMASIA. 
333 
office, which is the common mode of investiture in Turkey. On 
the present occasion we were told by the Tatars that the pelisse was 
actually on the road. 
The Aga or Governor of Caraja was a Turk of a very fierce appear¬ 
ance, but of a behaviour more agreeable than his looks. He accom¬ 
modated us with the upper part of his own house, an open room 
looking over a beautiful plain, and in the evening treated us with a 
dinner. The greatest and best ingredient of the entertainment was a 
large lamb roasted whole; round this were seated twelve persons, 
mostly the farmers of the place, among whom however I could dis¬ 
tinguish the Imaum, or parish priest, and the Hodja or schoolmaster. 
All these gentlemen arrived with very good appetites to the feast; 
for no sooner were they seated and the lamb placed before them, than 
every one had his right hand in the dish at once, tearing off as large 
pieces from the animal, as his strength and dexterity would admit. 
This species of attack did not finish, until there remained nothing but 
the bare bones of the lamb; when every man very deliberately retired 
to smoke his pipe in a corner of the sofa, and to drink a cup of coffee, 
that was then handed round to each of the guests. Although such a 
meal may be repugnant to the delicacy of those, who have been ac¬ 
customed to a civilized mode of eating, yet there was a species of wild 
and generous hospitality in the manners of these people, that I could 
not help admiring; and a few ingredients of which would add ex¬ 
tremely to the delights of a modern table. 
27th. We proceeded from Caraja , and halted at the distance of 
twenty miles, on a bearing of N. 60 W. Our station was on the 
banks of a stream in a beautiful valley, and we reached it through a 
country, which (almost above that of the preceding march) was finely 
wooded, and in the intervals among the mountains richly cultivated. 
Among the forests the pines were of an uncommon size. Whilst we 
were eating our dinner under a tree, a heavy storm of thunder and 
lightning and rain, from the Westward, came over us. In this situa¬ 
tion we were joined by a Persian who was coming post from Constant 
