SWINE. 
329 
rally keep here a force of about two thousand men, with artillery in 
proportion. On an eminence is an old Armenian church, where a few 
monks perform divine service. The town is unprotected by walls, but 
the Russians have constructed a fortress of palisades, upon which they 
have about twenty guns mounted, and which makes an impregnable 
defence against such enemies as they have to contend with. The houses 
of Kara Klisseh, as well as those of all the villages in this part of the 
country, are built under ground, which gives them a barbarous ap¬ 
pearance, more wretched if possible than the mud-houses of Persia; 
but they seem to be the best protection against the snows and cold of 
this elevated region. The Russian officers at Kara Klisseh, construct 
for themselves temporary houses of wood, which are very commodious, 
and reminded me much of the post-masters’ houses that I have seen in 
Hungary and Transylvania. 
Here, for the first time since we landed in Persia, we saw swine; large 
herds of which are led to feed on the hills. So completely ignorant 
are the original Persians of this animal, that a native of Tabriz, (one of 
our servants,) on seeing them, exclaimed, “ See what sheep they have 
in this country!” 
u u 
