Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/57

Rh villages. Three hours before entering Tocât we journeyed through the pleasant orchards for which this town is justly celebrated. The town itself covers the bases of three hills which unite towards its centre. The houses are well built, the streets clean and regular, and the bazaar spacious and well supplied with merchandize. A branch of the Iris flows through the town and waters the picturesque vineyards and gardens which fill up the environs. The grapes and pears of Tocât are considered superior to any in this part of the country, but from some opposite property, supposed to exist in the atmosphere, the inhabitants are obliged to send their grapes to Siwâs to be made into wine, as that prepared by themselves is of a very inferior quality.

Tocât was formerly one of the great centres of Asiatic commerce, but since the establishment of steam communication between Constantinople and the shores of the Black Sea, Trebizond and Erzeroom have become the principal caravan route to the Persian and other eastern markets. Some years back it possessed many large calico printing manufactories, but these have well nigh disappeared, the owners here, as in other towns of Turkey, having found it impossible to compete with the cheapness and superiority of British exports, the produce chiefly of our Manchester and Liverpool machinery. The principal trade of the place at the present day is in copper utensils, wrought out of the metal brought from Arghana Maaden in the Taurus, and from hence sent to every part of the empire. I met here an Austrian engineer who was engaged in putting up a machine for purifying the copper ore which was to be worked by the water of the river. The only other Frank at Tocât was a young man from Trieste, who acted as agent to an extensive company established in Austria for trading in leeches. This gentleman informed me that the natives caught them by entering into the pools and streams, having their legs covered with felt stockings to which the leeches adhered, and were thus easily secured.

Tocât is governed by a Moohassel, or collector, appointed by the pasha of Siwâs, who ordered us a lodging at the residence of the Papal Armenian Bishop. The Bishop being absent, we