336 
ARZ-ROUM TO AMASIA. 
The heat was that of summer; the com had lost its green tints, and was 
ripening into yellow. Such was the difference of our elevation since 
the preceding day: our descent to Carahissar indeed had been gradual 
for nearly four hours. 
The houses are terraced, and are built of all materials, mud, bricks, 
stone, and wood. There is a custom-house : the town is administered 
by a Musselim under the jurisdiction of Arz-roum. The place has two 
mosques, and two baths: one of the former is a good structure with a 
dome covered with lead. In the vicinity are many villages: among 
others to the South, are GezlichS , Yaiche, Sayit and Soucher . 
Scarcely a fortnight before our arrival the town and the adjacent 
country had been in a state of great disturbance; a party of Janizaries 
inimical to Jussuf Pacha (now (1809) the Grand Vizir, who had 
lately governed the district) set fire to a large house which he had built 
at Carahissar , and the whole, with an immense property which it con¬ 
tained, was totally consumed. 
We were delayed some time, at the moment of our departure, by a 
fierce dispute that arose between the Persians and the Turk and his 
family at whose house we had lodged. One of the Persian servants 
had lost his shalwars or riding breeches, and, in his anxiety to find 
them, taxed the Turk with having stolen them. The Turk retorted 
with warmth; and the contention was already going on at a high rate, 
when the Embassador arrived, brandishing the breeches in the air, and 
joining in the attack on the Turk. It seems that the Embassador, who 
had before suspected the integrity of our host, immediately on hearing 
the affray, searched in the suspicious parts of our chamber, and in a 
bye-corner found (wrapped up in a slip of hay) the unlucky object of 
dispute. The confusion of the Turk, who, by his dress and exterior 
possessions, was passing for a man of respectability in the town, may 
be better imagined than described. 
We at length left Carahissar , and travelled eighteen miles W. on a 
mountainous and stony road. About three miles from our last station 
we saw the road to Diarbekir and Bagdad , bearing S. 25 W. We con- 
