200 
THE SARDAR OF ERIVAN. 
appearance of a guard, nor of any thing indicating a garrison. 
The embrasures in the bastions, which flanked a double entrance, 
were filled up with straw. My conductor then led me through 
several bye-alleys to the quarter which I understood was the 
governor’s palace. I dismounted at the entrance, and was 
ushered along two square courts ; whence, passing through a very 
small door-way, I ascended a few ruinous steps, crowded with 
natives, whose dingy aspects agreed better with the dilapidated 
state of the mansion, than with the rank of its present resident. 
One of these men raised a curtain- with his hand, under which, 
it was intimated I must pass ; and, having done so, I found myself 
in the presence of the Sardar. 
He was seated on a carpet, close to a window at the upper end 
of the room. Opposite to him, sat his brother, a Persian Khan. 
A chair had been prepared for me; and after pronouncing the 
usual salutation of Hoche omedi , or welcome, the Sardar made 
a sign to me to sit down. Several minutes elapsed before the 
person made his appearance who was to act as an interpreter; 
and, meanwhile, I had leisure to observe my host. He seemed 
to be about seventy ; with a sensible, and energetic countenance ; 
and a frame, sufficiently strong and vigorous, to promise active 
service for many years to come. His eye is vivid and quick, 
his complexion sallow, and his beard large, though not long, 
kept perfectly black; which ungrisled hue, and comparative 
shortness, tend not a little to the preservation of the look of 
prime manhood. A hoary, and lengthened beard, while it 
stamps age with a peculiar air of grave dignity, also gives im¬ 
pressions of the decay of manly vigour. But years appear to 
have failed in abstracting any thing from the mind or body of 
the Sardar. His character for enterprise, and steady bravery, is 
