ARM 
of tli-eir own, by whom they were governed till the country 
was fubdued by Occadan, or, as iome ftyle him, Hcccata , 
the fan of Cingis, the firft cham of the Tartars. Neither 
was the conqueft of Armenia by the Tartars fo abfolute as 
to extirpate the race of their kings: for we read of Haithon , 
lurnamed the Armenian, reigning fome time after, and going 
in perfon to treat with Mungo, the great cham of Tartary, 
of the concerns of his kingdom ; and in our chronicles we 
.find mention made of Leo king of Armenia, who in the 
reign of Richard II. came into England to fue for aid 
.a gain ft the Turks, by whom lie had been driven from his 
kingdom. In the year 1472 of the Chriftian era, Ulian 
Call'anes, king of Armenia, fucceeding to the crown of 
Perfia, made Armenia a province of that empire ; in which 
hate it continued till the year 1522, when it was lubdued 
by Selim II. and made a province of the Turkilh empire ; 
ftnee which time it has continued fubjefft to the Turks, 
.except the eaftern part, which is under the dominion of 
the Perfiar.s. 
Concerning Armenia Minor we find very little recorded, 
except what has been already mentioned, and what falls 
under the Roman hiftory. It was made a Roman province 
by Vefpafian, and continued fo till the divifton of the em¬ 
pire, when it was lubjedted to the emperors of the eaft ; 
.and, on the decline of their power, was 1 fubdued firft by the 
Perfians, and afterwards by the Turks, who gave it the 
name of Genech , and have continued matters of it ever lince. 
This country is ftill divided into the Great and Small. 
Great Armenia comprehends what is now called Turco¬ 
mans. It has Georgia on the north, from which it is fe- 
parated by high mountains; the river Euphrates on the 
weft ; Diarbeker, Curdiftan, and Aderbijan, on the fouth ; 
and Shirvan on the eaft. The chief towns in that part of 
Armenia belonging to Turkey are, Arzum the capital, 
near the fprings of the Euphrates, a large city and a great 
.thoroughfare for the caravans between Turkey and Perfia ; 
Kara, a ftrong city, head of the government of the fame 
name ; Bayazid, a republic of Hurds, near mount Ararat; 
Baha, another republic of the fame ; and Van or Wan, on 
the lake Van, the head of a government of the fame name ; 
with other towns of lefs note. That part of Armenia fub- 
je£l to Perfia is chiefly contained in the province of Aran, 
in which are feveral fine towns ; as, Erivan or Rivan, the 
capital of the whole ; Ganjals, one of the fineft cities in 
Perfia, in the north of the province, near the Kur ; Ka- 
pan, on the fouth fide, near the Aras; befides Nakchivan, 
Aftabad Julfa, Ordabad, Baylakan or Pilkan, on the Aras; 
Berdah and Shilkah on the Kur. 
The country in general is full of mountains and valleys, 
lakes and rivers; particularly the country about the three 
churches, near Erivan, is admirably fine, being full of ri¬ 
vulets, which render it extremely fruitful. Befides great 
quantities of all forts of grain, here are fields of a prodi¬ 
gious extent covered with tobacco : but it is not a native 
of the place, though fuppofed by fome to be the feat of 
paradife, or the garden of Eden mentioned in the Scrip¬ 
tures. The reft of the country produces rice, cotton, flax, 
melons, and grapes ; in fliort, there is nothing wanting but 
.olives; which is by Lome thought to prove that the ark 
could not reft on mount Ararat, becaufe the dove brought 
an olive-branch in her mouth, and this tree never leaves a 
place where it once grew. It feems, however, to have 
been otherwife anciently; for Strabo tells us, that the olive 
grew in Gogarene, a province of Armenia. The water¬ 
melons are as cold as ice in the hotteft day, and melt in 
the mouth ; the belt are produced in the falt-lands, near 
the three churches and the river Aras. After rain, the 
fea-falt lies in cryttals upon the fields, and even crackles 
under the feet. About ten miles from the thre.e churches, 
in the road to Teflis, ther.e are pits or quarries of foffile 
Jalt, which yield enough to fupply.all Perfia, without being 
^exhaufted : they cut it into large pieces like done, and each 
buffalo carries two of them ; the mountain from whence it 
is dug is an entire mafs of fait, which appears like ‘a rock 
; £>f filver, when the fun fliines, on thd places not covered 
V01.. JI. No. 6G 
A R M 1 ()f 
with earth. The whole country has been remarkable for 
its extreme cold, from the remoteft antiquity. Sir John 
Chardin tells us, that he found ice in the rivulets in the 
mornings even of the month of July. In many places, 
alfo, if they had not the convenience of watering their 
grounds, they would be almoft entirely barren. 
The Armenians are an honeft, civil, polite, people, 
fcarcely troubling themfelves about any thing elfe but 
trade, which they carry on in mod parts of the world, by 
which means they have fpread themfelves over the eaft, 
and alfo a great part of Europe. The religion of the Ar¬ 
menians is the Chriftian, of the Eutychian fe£t : that is, 
they own but one nature in Jefus Chrift ; and, when they 
fpeak of tire hypoftatical union, that he is perfect God and 
perfect man without mixture. The Armenian clergy con- 
fift of patriarchs, archbifhops, doctors, fecular priefts, and 
monks. The fecular priefts are not allowed to marry a 
fecond time, and therefore they take care to choofe young 
healthy wives: they maintain themfelves and families b* 
following fome occupation, infomuch that they have hard¬ 
ly time to perform their ec.cleftaftlcal funftions : they lie 
in the churches on the vigils of thofe days they are obliged 
to officiate. The Armenian monks are of the order of St. 
Bafil; and every Wednefday and Friday they eat neither 
fifh, nor eggs, nor oil, nor any thing made of milk, and 
dining Lent they live upon nothing but roots: they are 
allowed wine only on the Saturday in the Holy Week, and 
meat on the Eafter Sunday. Belides the great Lent, they 
have four others of eight days each, which are inftituteii 
to prepare for the four great feftivals of the Nativity, the 
Afcenlion, the Annunciation, and St. George ; in which 
times they do not eat eggs, fifli, oil, or butter. They have 
feven facraments; baptifm, confirmation, penance, the 
eucharift, extreme undlion, orders, and matrimony. In 
baptifm, the child is plunged three times into the water, 
and the fame form of words that is ufed with us is repeat¬ 
ed every time ; the prieft then puts a fmall cord made with 
filk and cotton on the neck of the infant, and anoints his 
forehead, chin, ftomach, arm-pits, hands, and feet, making 
the fign of the crofs on each part. When the child is bap¬ 
tized, he is carried home by the godfather with the found, 
of drums and trumpets. The women do not go to church 
till forty days after their delivery ; and they obferve many 
Jewifli cuftoms. 
AR.MENPACA, f. in botany. See Prunus. 
ARME'NIAN,yi Something belonging to or produced 
in Armenia: thus we fay, Armenian Jlone, Armenian bole, See. 
ARMEN'TAL, or Armen'tine, adj. \_armentalis, or 
armentinus, Lat.] Belonging to a drove or herd of cattle. 
ARMENTE'QUl, or Armenza, a village of Spain, 
in the country of Alava, once a city and fee of an archbi- 
fhop, but now only a fmall place, one mile from Vittoria. 
ARMENTIE'RES, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the North, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftrict of Lille, iituated on the Lys. It was taken and re¬ 
taken feveral times in the wars between France and Spain. 
Lewis XIV. deftroyed the fortifications in 1667. It is eight 
leagues eaft of St.Omer, and two and a quarter weft of Lille. 
ARMEN'TO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Na¬ 
ples, and province of Bafilicata, twenty miles fouth-fouth- 
eaft of Potenza. 
ARMENTO'SE, adj. [ armentofus , Lat.] Abounding 
with cattle. 
ARME'NUS, one of the Argonauts, and of Theflalian 
origin. From him the country of Armenia is laid to have 
received its name. 
Armenus .Lapis, or Armenian Stone, a mineral 
fubftance, which is but improperly called a Jlone-, being 
no other than an ochreous earth, and properly called blue 
ochre. It is a very valuable fubftance in painting, being 
a'bright and lively blue. It was in fo high efteem as "a 
paint among the ancients, that counterfeits were continu¬ 
ally attempted to fetve in its place. Theophraftus has re¬ 
corded it as a thing judged worthy a place in the Egyptian 
annals, which of their kings had the honour of inventing 
3 K tlSt 
