396 
CROSSING OF THE ARPACHAI. 
strip, and to wade through the stream on each side of our baggage- 
horses, to prevent them from falling j a service which, after considerable 
difficulty and danger, they succeeded in performing; but one of these 
poor fellows had found the water so cold, that as soon as he had got 
to the other side, and without reach of the Mehmandar, he fled, and 
secreted himself among the weeds until we had all passed. I never 
found myself so disagreeably situated as on the passage of this river. 
The water was over the top of my boots, and it was with difficulty that 
I could keep my horse’s head above water; for finding no sure footing 
on the large loose stones, almost every step was a stumble, and an incli¬ 
nation to fall. One of my Tatars informed me, that he had once fallen 
into this stream, and had been borne away for some distance with the 
saddle-bags, containing his dispatches; but that such was their excel¬ 
lence, and the good precautions he had taken to wrap up his papers in 
wax-cloth, that when they were taken out of the river no damage had 
accrued. 
Immediately on crossing the Arpachai, we commenced an ascent 
through a country of defiles, generally infested by robbers, on which 
account we were escorted by a dozen of Persian infantry-men, de¬ 
tached from a corps of disciplined troops stationed at Hajibairamlu; 
and from the top of this ascent I had a commanding view of the junc¬ 
tion of the Arpachai and the Araxes, which is not a considerableniver 
until it receives the water of the former. The junction is formed near 
an insulated red rock, of wild and picturesque appearance, about two 
miles below Hajibairamlu. The water of the Araxes, which in general 
is clear, now wore a red tinge, which was to be attributed to the soil 
washed into it by the preceding heavy rains. 
We reached Ekrek, an Armenian village, the houses of which answer 
in description to those mentioned by Xenophon in Armenia; and it 
may be remarked, that houses upon the same principle are used 
throughout all this part of Armenia, including part of Georgia, which 
is so deservedly celebrated for the severity of its cold. The inhabitants 
make a considerable excavation, which, according to the nature of the 
ground, gives them one, two, or three sides of their house, and then 
