244 
ASLANDOUS. 
in mj own tent. My companions were quartered in other parts of tlie 
camp. I had intended to proceed at once to Aslandous, but the wea¬ 
ther continuing unfavourable, I determined to remain where I was dur¬ 
ing the night and to proceed the next morning. I passed the remainder 
of the day in the company of the Persian officers, who appeared most 
anxious to learn the nature of the negotiations now on foot between 
their government and the Russian ; and as they knew from experience 
what an unsuccessful struggle they had hitherto maintained against 
the superior power of their enemy, they seemed sincerely to hope 
that peace would take place. They were now in the month of Ra¬ 
mazan, during which they neither eat, drink, or smoke, until after 
sunset; and it was very amusing to observe their impatience until 
that moment arrived. All the Chiefs of the camp were assembled to 
dine, and among them Peer Kouli Khan, their Serdar, or General. 
After talking on a variety of trifling subjects, they pulled out their 
watches, compared them one with the other, calculated the time remain¬ 
ing to sunset, and by way of allaying their appetites, expatiated with 
great warmth upon good eating, and discussed the merits of a variety of 
dishes. When the moment came they soon ceased to speak, and eat 
with a voracity equal to their impatience. 
We reached Aslandous early the next morning, where, instead of a 
village, we found a collection of temporary huts made of reeds and mats, 
tenanted by a few miserable Eelauts who had lately fled from the Russian 
territories. Here is an artificial hill, in the shape of a cone, which is 
attributed to Tamerlane, and which was now fortifying by the Persians, 
by running palisadoes all around it for the purpose of making it a mili¬ 
tary port to defend the adjacent fords of the Araxes. The man who 
commanded here lived in an open shed built of wood and reeds, raised 
high from the ground on four pillars. We learnt that such sheds are 
much used in the damp soil of Ghilan, and that when the inhabitants 
want to free themselves from the musquitoes, which flourish there in 
swarms inconceivaole, they burn stubble beneath, the smoke of which 
drives them away. 
Most of our party remained behind at Aslandous, whilst the Arme- 
