SEASONS NEAR ARARAT. 
191 
Turks, the holy deposits of its temples would be dispatched to 
the safe-keeping of the remoter walls of Eitch-mai-adzen. The 
spear-head which they show here, is very large, and has a 
Greek cross cut in its centre ; a testimony that may be received 
of its former lodging at Constantinople, but a direct contra¬ 
diction to the pretended evidence of its having belonged to a 
heathen soldier: so much for transmitted relics. But one is 
also produced, which might have been expected as the growth 
of^ the place itself. A fragment of the ark, which had havened 
in the mountain under whose shadow this venerable monastery 
has continued for so many centuries in perfect safety. The cir¬ 
cumstances which brought the relic into the possession of the 
fathers is thus related: — Many hundred years ago, a certain 
pious monk of the order undertook the hitherto unattempted 
task, of ascending to the top of the mountain, to find the 
remains of the sacred vessel, and to bring away some part of it, 
to receive a due shrine in the church at the foot of Ararat. 
But ere he had gone far over the snows of the last terrible 
regions of ice and cold, he fell asleep, and an angel appearing 
to him in a vision, told him, that beyond such a point no 
mortal, since the descent of Noah, was permitted to pass ; but 
that in reward to the singular piety of the convent, a heavenly 
messenger had been commanded to bring to this, its devout 
brother, a plank of the holy ship ; which at his awaking he 
would find at his side. When the monk arose, he found it 
was as the angel had said, and the remainder of the long story 
may easily be guessed at. 
Notwithstanding the time of the year, I found the weather at 
this place mild and delightful. Every object bore the appear¬ 
ance of spring, rather than of the approach of winter. The air 
