150 
ARMENIAN TOMBS. 
aside, even in bed. Their dress consists of a silk shift, a pair of silk 
trowsers which reach to the ancles, a close garment which fastens at the 
throat with silver clasps, and an outer garment, generally made of 
padded chintz, and open all the way in front. They wear a silver 
girdle, which rests on the hips, and is generally curiously wrought. 
Their feet are naked, and some of them wear silver rings round their 
ankles. No hair is seen, excepting a long plaited tail, that hangs 
over the back to the ground. On their heads they place a species of 
cushion, which expands at the top. The priest’s wife above mentioned, 
as being the most favoured, was clad in crimson silk: the others wore 
cotton printed stuffs. 
On the 31st of August we buried the Ambassador’s coachman, a 
young man scarcely one-and-twenty, who fell a victim to an obstinate 
fever, notwithstanding all our efforts to save him. He was interred in 
the Armenian burying-ground, that is situated on the skirts of Julfa; 
and which by its extent confirms the accounts that we read in former 
travellers of the greatness of the Armenian population, during the 
flourishing days of the Seffi dynasty. The tombs are generally com¬ 
posed of one oblong block of black stone, with an inscription, oftentimes 
with an emblematical designation of the trade or profession of the de¬ 
ceased, sculptured upon them. Thus, if a carpenter, a saw and ham¬ 
mer are designed; if a tailor, his shears and measure; and if a 
learned man, a book and reading-board. At the extremity of this bu¬ 
rial-ground, near the mountains, are still to be seen the tombs of the 
Dutch, English, French, and Russians, who died here during the 
time that European nations had factories and merchants settled in 
Persia. Among others, we remarked the tomb of a certain Rodolphe, 
a German watchmaker, whom the Armenians look upon as a martyr, 
because he would not forsake his religion (which was the Protestant) to 
turn Mahomedan. Chardin, who relates this story, says that he was 
put to death by Sefi the First, for having killed a Persian, although in 
self-defence; and if he had turned Mussulman (which that King for a 
long time pressed him to do) his life would have been spared. On his 
tomb is this simple epitaph—“ Ci git Rodolphe.^' 
