MARANDE. 
217 
All the way, from the immediate vicinity of this deserted 
resort of far-wandered commerce, to the gates of our proposed 
quarters, the country showed a more pleasing aspect; changing 
its sterile rocks for rich herbage; and, in place of the bed of a 
dry torrent, we found ourselves on the gentle slopes of a fertile 
vale, which runs between the hills, open to the morning and 
evening sun at each extremity, and sheltered by the pale 
summits of the northern mountains from the severest blasts of 
winter. This luxuriant valley, though hardly five miles in width, 
is upwards of thirty in length, and covered with every mark of 
an industrious and thriving population. Villages, appearing in 
the midst of trees, and gardens, producing delicious fruit, and 
the people themselves, wearing a semblance of personal comfort 
I had not seen since my quitting Georgia. A small but beau¬ 
tiful river meanders through this happy scenery ; adding its 
enriching facilities on every side, to the steady labours of the 
peasantry. 
The town of Marande, which has its station nearly in the 
centre of the valley, is a large and prosperous place, and has, 
lately, been honoured by the erection of a new fortress, which 
stands on an eminence close to the town. Ptolemy mentions, 
in his list of towns in Media, one of this name ; and, pro¬ 
bably, it is the same place. The valley is too favourably endowed 
by nature, to have ever been otherwise than an inhabited spot. 
And I have often made a remark, while comparing the geo¬ 
graphical works of the ancients on Asia, with the country itself, 
that a very great number of the towns and cities, of the second 
order of consequence, have still preserved their original names. 
Their comparative obscurity, probably, having in that respect 
been their protection ; conquerors only caring to change ap- 
F F 
VOL. I. 
