BECK ANT. 
167 
with something like cupboards left in them, to hold the little 
property of the family. Directly over the fire-place, we find a 
small hollow of the same kind, for the reception of a hand-lamp ; 
and this they never failed lighting up, whenever I happened 
to be their guest, though I always, on such occasions, burnt my 
own candles. So much for the human-habitable part of this 
sepulchral-like abode: the rest of it, that is, the pit, was assigned 
to the pigs, sheep, horses, &c. of the family. There is something 
particularly savage in this account; yet, I fear we need not go 
many miles on the other side of the Irish Sea, to find similar 
inhabitants in one apartment, even in the British dominions. 
We left Amamloo, November 13th, (O. S.), under a heavy 
snow ; and, quitting the now-compressed channel of the 
Bambek, crossed some hills, which form a sort of minor branch 
of the great chain of Mosschian mountains; one ramification, 
to the south, being called the Karaklissa hills ; while another, 
lower down to the north, takes the name of the Bambek. 
Having descended the connecting range, from our last quarters, 
we arrived at the redoubt, and village of Beckant. The latter 
is built on the side of a hill, and the military station occupies 
the summit. At the bottom, runs the little river Tchitchiana. 
Our route, this day, had been south-west. 
Next morning, we resumed our march, with the cold at eight 
degrees of Beaumur, and taking a north-west direction, up the 
valley, but under a clear and beautiful sky. At a distance of 
seven wersts from our starting-point, we began to ascend a 
mountain, which shuts up the valley at that extremity. The 
wind was very keen, and became more so, as we mounted into 
the higher regions; yet there was a bracing tone in the air, very 
different from its incumbent relaxing influence, while surcharged 
