322 
CURIOUS PREDATORY EXCURSION. 
All payments are made in kind, except from those districts which are 
farmed for money. The Serdar takes one-fifth of the produce of cotton, 
rice and millet, and one-tenth of corn ; the remainder goes to the cul¬ 
tivator, who finds his own seed, cattle, implements, and water. The 
seed he advances at sowing time, but takes it back at harvest. Rivers 
are so abundant in the territory of Erivan, that irrigation is compara¬ 
tively a small expense. The Zengui, the Arpachai near Sherour, the 
Gerni, the Ashtarek River, are all most convenient for irrigation, but 
the depth of the bed in which the Araxes flows, renders its waters un¬ 
serviceable to the cultivator. A few water wheels would remedy this 
defect, but that useful piece of machinery, though it goes by the name 
of the Persian wheel, is scarcely known here. 
The Serdar treats his Armenian peasantry with peculiar hardship, 
for from them, he takes one-third of the produce, leaving them all the 
expenses of cultivation. Those of the Eelauts, who cultivate the 
ground, are treated like the other peasantry, but they whose property 
consists only in cattle, are taxed upon each head of cattle. They pay 
nothing for the right of pasturage, although their walks are regulated 
by his orders. 
Resides these sources of revenue, he himself trades with his own 
stock to a very large amount. He monopolizes all the cotton of Erivan, 
which he sends to Georgia; and in return he imports Yapunchehs, 
the common cloak of Georgia, which is generally used throughout the 
north of Persia. 
Those who interfere with his trade are sure to suffer most severely ; 
yet his rapacity is not always successful, as a story related to us on the 
spot may prove. During the cessation of arms with the Russians, he 
prohibited by the orders of his court, but much against his own will, 
all the chappows or predatory excursions, to which his troops were 
accustomed. But having heard of a large caravan richly laden, that was 
travelling from Teflis, he called some of his soldiers about him, and said, 
“ You know that we are strictly ordered to abstain from chappow on the 
“ Russian territory, and a caravan is now on its road from Teflisthe 
