MOURNING OF HOSSEIN AND HASSAN. 
623 
by a few voluntary tears. In short, to what else can we assign 
such regular seasons of weeping as we read of in heathen story, 
commemorating the deaths of Adonis, and of “ Thammuz, wept 
by Syrian maids ?” Here also, is an annual time of mourning 
ordained by the Mahomedan sages; and I do not doubt its 
salutary effects on the usual burning blood of his sons, so far to 
the East. 
I found my lodgings in the house of an Armenian, and my 
apartments singularly clean ; I may say singularly, that people 
being considered the dirtiest in Asia: but a man must have 
visited Asia, fully to appreciate the superlative in such a com¬ 
parison ! The house was admirably situated, on a declivity of 
the steep bank of the Zengay; and from its roof I had a most 
beautiful and extensive view of the luxuriant country on the 
opposite side, its gardens and groves, the fortified residence of 
the Sardar ; and beyond all, the far-stretching plain, closed with 
the double-headed and sublime Ararat. * 
October 25th. — This morning I was invited to a splendid 
breakfast with the veteran chief, who welcomed in a really 
royal style my second appearance. At my first visit I was 
rather a novice in Asiatic manners ; but an absence of almost 
two years having made me perfectly acquainted with most of 
his contemporary governor-courts, even from the south-east of 
Persia to his own northern boundary; and his own character 
now being well known to me, I conversed with him like an old 
acquaintance; and obtained from his ready assent, every facility 
to explore the celebrated scenes of antiquity amongst the moun¬ 
tains in his neighbourhood. 
See Plate LXXXIV. ;■— also p. 195—202. in Vol. I. 
