NUNS. 
149 
with naked feet, and a leathern belt round their waists, to which were 
suspended their keys, &c. Not one of them could talk Persian. From 
the convent we went to the house of an Armenian priest, whose family 
required the Doctor’s assistance. We entered the habitation through a 
low and mean door, that led us into a clean court, which was shaded 
by a vine, that grew on a treillage, and spread itself all about the en¬ 
closure. We went into a neat room, covered with good carpets, in one 
corner of which was a swinging cradle, like a sailor’s hammock, the 
ends of which were tied to a nail in the wall on one side, and to the 
window-bars on the other. On our approach, the woman tending the 
child in the cradle removed it into an inner apartment. The Surgeon 
first examined the priest’s mother, who had a cataract in one of her 
eyes, which could not be removed without couching, and to which she 
did not choose to submit. The priest’s sister then appeared, who had 
no other complaint than a head-ache; and last of all the priest’s wife, a 
jolly young dame, who came from mere curiosity to see us, as she com¬ 
plained of nothing but the dil-dardi, the heart-ache. As soon as it 
was known that the Surgeon was in the town, many other women also 
came, who with sicknesses, real or imaginary, all came to have their 
pulses felt, or their eyes inspected. Sore eyes appeared to be the ge¬ 
neral complaint; and they did not appear to have any effectual means 
of removing it, although they used many ridiculous nostrums, among 
which that of woman’s milk and sugar, mixed up together, was the 
most common. 
The Armenian women do not wear so entire a veil as the Mahome- 
dan. It leaves the eyes at full liberty, and just encloses the nose, by 
which some general idea may be formed of the features and expression 
of the face. That which covers the lower part of the face, is so 
very tightly compressed, that the nose of every Armenian woman 
is flattened as broad as a negro’s. Their features are broad and 
coarse, their complexions are fair and ruddy, and their eyes black; but 
their countenances in general excite but little interest. When they go 
from home, they cover themselves with a large white veil from head to 
foot. In the house they still wear the noseband, which is never laid 
