ARMENIAN PATRIARCH. 
395 
vintage, and that the quantity of wine which had been produced was 
so great, that he had been obliged to fill all the cisterns in his garden, 
which' are plastered with a strong sort of cement, and if kept well 
cleaned, do not hurt the wine. A similar mode of keeping wine in 
plastered cisterns is remarked by Xenophon*, when the Ten Thousand 
were in the countries that bordered upon the Carduchians and Ar¬ 
menia. The Patriarch entertained me at dinner, on a table set out in 
the European manner, and well furnished with wine. Besides His 
Eminency and myself, we had two Armenian Bishops, one of whom, 
before we sat down, said a grace in the Armenian language, near a 
quarter of an hour in length. The conversation of the Patriarch was 
entirely wrapt up in parable; and he never recommended me to a dish, 
or to drink of his wine, without a preface of considerable length. By 
way of entertainment after dinner, he ordered two singing-boys of his 
choir to appear before him, and made them chaunt some of their 
most approved church music, and sing an Armenian song, set to a 
Turkish tune, which, as far as I could collect, was composed in honour 
of the Emperor Alexander. Having been obliged to remain two days 
at Etchmiatzin, on account of very bad weather, we departed on the 
9th, and reached the village of Haji Bairamlu, situated on the banks 
of the Arpachai river, which forms the boundary of Turkey and Persia. 
I was lodged in the house of an hospitable man, who spoke of the dis¬ 
tressed state of this part of the country. The next morning we crossed 
the Arpachai, or Arpasou, (the ancient Harpasus,) a broad and rapid 
river, full of large loose stones, that are frequently carried along 
with great force by the violence of the stream. At the place where 
we crossed, it might be about 100 yards in breadth, increasing as it 
approached its confluence with the Araxes. The Harpasus, where the 
Greeks saw it, was 400 feet broad; but the breadth of this river, as it 
is of most Asiatic rivers, varies greatly according to the seasons, and 
according to the quantity of rain or snows that have fallen on the 
mountains. My Mehmandar seized two villagers, who were made to 
• K«i yaj elvof noXvf So'ti iv Xaxxoig xovixlolg eh^ov. Anabasis, lib. iv. e. 2. 
3 E 2 
