Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/56

22 which the former never fail to vex them. In this instance the Konagh consisted of an open room with three walls and a roof; and another of smaller dimensions which we shared with our horses and mules.

Oct. 7th.—Left Ina Bazaar at, and travelled over a tolerably level road between low hills scantily covered with wood. In three hours we reached a Derbend, or guard-house, where we rested until our baggage came up. These Derbends are stationed by the pashas of the different provinces in such parts of the road as are considered unsafe, and are garrisoned by from six to ten men. They are for the most part wretched hovels, and the guards themselves equally miserable, being generally irregular soldiers who occasionally receive arms and clothing from the government, but little or no pay. For this they chiefly depend upon the presents which they exact from caravans and travellers who may require their services, and very frequently from those who do not.

Half an hour after leaving the Derbend our road lay for some time along the bed of the Gooroo Soo, a tributary of the Iris, now dry, but in spring a stream thirty yards wide. At half-past 10 we reached another branch of the same river, known anciently as the Scylax, which flows through the plain in which the large village of Toorkhal is situated, and which we reached about noon. Toorkhal contains upwards of 500 Moslem families, two mosques, and a bath, built chiefly of mud. The river flows two hours from the village, but a stream therefrom runs close by, and serves to water the fields in the vicinity by means of irrigating machines, such as are used at Amâsia. Behind the village are the ruins of a castle, apparently of modern construction, though the foundation may be of older date, as Toorkhal seems to occupy the site of the ancient Sebastopolis.

Oct. 8th.—Left Toorkhal at half-past 3, and travelled with our baggage mules, so that we did not reach Tocât till 1 The road lay for the most part through an extensive valley between two ranges of hills, those to the right being tolerably covered with wood, those to the left barren and only cultivated near the base and at long intervals. A few miles to our right flowed the river, on the banks of which were several