Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/50

16 Oghloo, stretching out his fat arms to their utmost extent, as if to intimate that the document in question was two yards long and adequately stringent in import.

Oct. 3rd.—After breakfasting with the Consul we set off from Samsoon at 10, our road lying over a hilly country well clothed with wood, particularly the stunted oak and several species of acacia. In about three hours we entered the skirts of a forest, but were soon obliged to leave the caravan route and to take refuge in a miserable Moslem village called Chakal-kieui, as the rain now descended upon us in torrents. Here our accommodations were of the worst description; a sorry beginning to those of our party who had not been accustomed to eastern travelling. The khan of the village being full, and moreover open in every direction to the impending storm, we were obliged one and all to take up our abode in a wretched hovel, about ten feet by twelve, the mud floor of which was covered with piles of wild apples, which grow in the woods around. This fruit is gathered by the villagers and sent in large quantities to Constantinople, where it is used for culinary purposes. Besides the apples, a number of agricultural implements and articles of household furniture of the most rustic description were left to encumber the only room of the poor tenants who had been dislodged for our temporary accommodation. Uncomfortable as we were under these circumstances, the discomfort was nothing compared to what we suffered during the night from the swarms of fleas, which prevented any one of our party from sleeping a wink, until the morning dawn bade us to prepare for our departure.

Oct. 4th.—Left Chakal-kieui at 7 and in two hours and a half reached Cavak, a Mohammedan village of about forty mud and log huts, with a small mosque, where we exchanged horses at the Menzil-knaneh, or post-house. The road hither led us through a continuation of the forest which we entered yesterday, and was romantic in the extreme. Here and there