472 
MOUNTAINS OF COURDISTAN. 
legitimate representatives of the ancient Carduchians; and, 
probably, neither in manners nor language are much changed, 
since Xenophon traversed their country in his way to Armenia. 
The formidable bow is still in use amongst them, as well as 
the spear, dagger, sword, and shield ; and also many possess 
ancient shirts of mail, which, they assert, have been handed 
down in their families from time immemorial. During my pas¬ 
sage through Courdistan, several of these suits were shewn to 
me, bearing every appearance of great antiquity. With the 
people themselves, the estimation of their value rises in pro¬ 
portion to the thickness of the small rings of which the shirt is 
composed, and the great projection of the rivets. Mahmoud 
Beg exhibited one with much pride; which, he told me, he had 
taken from a Bilbossi, who had plundered it from a Rewandoozi, 
who had sworn it was made in the time of Dowd (David), king 
of Israel ! 
December 15th. — About nine o’clock this morning, we were 
to leave our mountain citadel, for a journey yet higher into the 
clouds. The hospitable chief brought me his son, at the head 
of a dozen well-armed Gourds, my promised guards and pledges 
of safety all the way to Serdasht, my next quarters ; while Mah¬ 
moud himself, with ten more horsemen, prepared to be our ad¬ 
ditional escort over the summit of the mountain. The lofty 
Daroo forms one link of the vast alpine chain issuing from the 
stupendous Ararat; being, in fact, part of the great range of 
mountains called by the ancients Mount Taurus. The line on 
which the Daroo rises, continues in a winding and nearly unin¬ 
terrupted course from Ararat, southward and south-east, to the 
shores of the Persian Gulf; where, after having borne many 
names, it terminates near the Isle of Hormuz. During this 
