354 
ARMENIAN SUPERSTITION. 
lieved by some at Teflis, that as soon as the spear head had entered 
the city through one gate, the plague in the shape of a cow with a 
human head had darted out through another, and that then the dis¬ 
order instantly ceased. 
We had promised the Patriarch to remain the following day with 
him; but when we went to bed we knew not the nature of the 
night’s entertainment preparing for us. Wrapt up under the protection 
of musquito nets, which yet left us exposed to the constant buz of the 
insects around us, we had just managed to fall asleep, when at about 
midnight all the bells of the church (not fifty yards from our ears) be¬ 
gan ringing, to which was added, a chorus of all the monks. As we 
were accustomed to the quiet and solitude of the mountains, these 
strange sounds astonished us all. In vain v/e expected that their zeal 
would soon be expended; the din continued without intermission till 
the break of the morning, when, unable to sleep, we softly got up, stole 
down to our horses, had them saddled, and long before the good old 
Chief of the Armenian church could have been aware of what had hap¬ 
pened, we were half way to our tents. 
A day or two after, by way of apology, he sent me a superb letter, 
gilded and ornamented, to accompany a small tin box full of what he was 
pleased to call antiquities, in the pursuit of which, he had heard that 
all Englishmen were mad. These consisted of 1st, a figure riding on 
a fish, cut upon coral, which he was pleased to call the portrait of one 
of the ancient kings of Armenia, Samson by name ; which however 
happened to be a Neptune. 2d, A snuff-box of composition stone, 
mounted with gold rims and hinges, worth about ten shillings, and 
about as old as his Eminency himself. 3d, Three Sassanian coins, and 
one large silver Spanish dollar, well worn down in the pocket of some 
Armenian priest. Of course my acknowledgments were equal to the 
value of the present, and we were all great friends again. 
During our stay at Aberan, a drove of two hundred dromedaries ar¬ 
rived from Circassia, for sale. They were exhibited by their owners, who 
were Circassians, to the Serdar, who bought several. Their forms were 
slender, and their double humps instead of remaining erect, flapped 
down, being as it seemed composed of a fleshy substance. 
