ARZEROOM. 
671 
these stately personages moving solemnly along in their motley 
attire, could not possibly distinguish the degree of one from the 
other. I remember, on entering the town of Kars, meeting a 
most gorgeously apparelled gentleman, who, from his gravity and 
majestically-slippered walk, I might have mistaken for the Pasha’s 
Vizier, had not a string of little tallow-candles in one hand, and 
a plate of sour cream in the other, proclaimed his title to some 
humbler calling. 
The Tatars or Janissaries are all clothed in a dark yellowish 
crimson colour. Their ordinary head-dresses are high turbans 
made of black lamb-skin, terminated at top with a huge cushion 
of yellow cloth. This turban is presented to them by their chief 
on being appointed to the corps ; and may, in fact, be regarded 
as their commission ; for, on the possessor committing any mis¬ 
demeanour held derogatory to the body he belongs to, the cap 
is taken from him, and from that time he is no more a Janissary. 
