188 
MONASTERY OF EITCH-MAI-ADZEN. 
this ponderous vestibule, which is evidently of a later date than 
the cathedral itself. On entering the sacred building, I found 
it exceedingly dark and gloomy; with ill-drawn, and worse- 
coloured, legends of saints painted on the walls ; black transcripts 
of devout Armenian sentences ; and dingy fresco, in imitation 
of arabesque decorations: all adding to the gloom, without in¬ 
creasing the solemnity. 
The altar still blazed with gold and jewels ; although, some 
twenty years ago, great part of its riches was purloined by one 
of the brethren ; whose previous misconduct, in other respects, 
had been charitably borne with for some time, under the hope 
of penitence and amendment; but he completed his train of 
errors by the crimes of murder and sacrilege. Finding it neces¬ 
sary to remove out of his way more than one individual, before 
he could get possession of the treasure in the sacristy, he did it 
by poison ; and having accomplished his object, the holy vessels 
were secretly dispatched to Astrachan, and sold. But the theft 
and the perpetrator being immediately discovered, he was con¬ 
signed to a punishment, worthy the wisdom and mercy of his 
judges : to be immured for life in a solitary cell. If ever repent¬ 
ance be to visit a hardened wretch, it certainly must be in such 
a situation; where, for years, he has no other companion than 
his own conscience, and the recollections of a religion he had so 
obstinately despised. This man is now very old ; and was still 
alive in his confinement when I was at the monastery. The 
holy relics, being no longer profitable merchandise, remained 
untouched; and they exist much in the same state as when 
Chardin described them : he gives the catalogue so minutely, I 
need not repeat it here ; and shall notice two or three only of 
the most celebrated. The stone on which Saint Gregory sat, or, 
