National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Overland to India : vol.1 |
76 OVERLAND TO INDIA
CHAP.
is low and they want their supper. On the plain before 111
us a still greyish-blue veil of smoke indicates the proximity 0
of a town, and soon the stacks of dung with their domed 0
tops appear out of the smoke. A few minutes later the ;%
team stands trembling and shaking their heads before the 0
yus-bashi, or house of the headman, where we are saluted 0
by barking dogs, women, and children in red tatters, and 01
officious soldiers. These, and a resonant bugle-call indi- pi
cate a garrison town, and here, in Diadin, it seems that t:I
two regiments of Hamidiehs are stationed. In a corn- it
paratively cosy room I am waited on, as usual, by the `_
authorities, one of them a lieutenant who has learned
French in Constantinople and is remarkably outspoken. r_
He says that the country is impoverished by bad adminis-
tration, and that it is impossible to understand the Sultan's :i
intentions. Only in one respect do the Sultan's views
coincide with his own—in hatred of the Armenians, who t1i
cherish the same feeling towards the Turks. This is a gi
mutual national aversion, which cannot be extinguished it
till one race becomes the slaves of the other, and mean- It
while implacable dissensions bring the country to rack
and ruin. 1
On November 24 the sky is brilliantly clear, and er
immediately beyond Diadin we commence the ascent up iv
to a small secondary pass, from the top of which there is tU
a charming view of Ararat, most of it lying in its own t
shadow of dull greyish-blue tints, with the light azure-blue a
expanse of heaven as a background. The sun-lighted It
slopes are dazzling white, and contrast sharply with those ti
in shade. To the right of Great Ararat is seen Little se
Ararat, of a still more regular conical form, and to the j
west a smaller crest with a little snow. On this side of 4
the famous mountain stand some lower elevations which, ;i
however, will presently hide the magnificent view. 1
Ararat, or, more correctly, Airarat, " the plain of the S
Aryans," is the name given from time immemorial to the 4
high land on the middle course of the Araxes, and when t
it is stated in the first book of Moses, chapter viii. and t
verse 4, that Noah's Ark rested on Ararat, this high land
is really meant, and the name has been in Europe im- i
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