302 
MARAND. 
veiled in a narrow valley in some places very swampy, until it expanded 
to the pasturages, or cliemen of Yam, in the middle of which stands a 
ruined caravanserai. This chemen bounded on the one side by a high 
mountain, on the summit of which the snow still rested, and on the 
other by green hills, here and there intermixed with projections of 
rock, is one of the summer resorts of the Prince. The fine grass which 
it affords, is exclusively appi'opriated to the use of his owm cattle 
and his cavalry. From this we turned abruptly to the right, into the 
beautiful verdant plain of Marand, covered with villages, and every 
where richly cultivated. The Ambassador was met by Nezer Ali 
Khan, the Governor, followed by about an hundred well-mounted 
cavalry, and as we approached the town, we again went through the 
tedious ceremony of marching in the rear of a large body of infantry, 
who preceded us until we reached our encampment. These men did 
not ill personify soldiers, for they marched very well in files, were 
uniformly dressed in green cloth jackets and red facings, and appeared 
to keep their firelocks bright and in good order. A party of them were 
stationed to keep watch at our tents as before. 
Marand is a large straggling village, overlooked on one side by a small 
hill fort. It has diminished extremely in size since the days of Chardin, 
for when he passed through it, it boasted of2500 houses, now it has scarce¬ 
ly 500. The idle report that it is the repository of the remains of Noah’s 
mother, led us to the spot, where we found two ignorant Mollahs, who 
took us to the corner of a mosque and told us, that tradition had 
pointed that out as the place, but upon what grounds or pretensions 
they were not able to inform us. They then shewed us a very large 
building, which from the extreme solidity of its structure appeared the 
work of an age much more flourishing than the present. It has several 
domes, and each separate dome rests upon square pilasters of immense 
magnitude. In one of its recesses is an ornamented front, looking 
more like the altar-piece of a Christian church, than any thing Ma- 
homedan, and this would corroborate one of the tales attached to the 
building, viz, that it originally was an Armenian place of worship. 
