_ 295 _ us good service on the way by guarding the caravan a few nights when we camped in the open. On the Friday morning we left here. As the mules were tired and the inn was quite far away, we stopped at midday near some ruined houses. We had travelled in the same direction through ranges of mountains called in Turkish Cazan Guirva, which in Turkish means “mountains of the cauldron”. I could not, however, find anyone who could tell me the reason for this name, but I was told it was very ancient. On the next day in the morning we set out again in the same direction. Towards nightfall we came upon a large village to the west of the road, called Seidavar, peopled by Armenians and a few Turkomans, situated in an open plain, very fertile with grain and livestock of every kind, and with many fruit-orchards. There are many other small villages situated in the same plain, which is very large. As we were told here that in a city a league ahead, the last settlement in the domain of Shah Tahmasp, we would not be allowed to pass without a great deal of trouble, and as it was always the custom to harass passing caravans, so that they gave something, we agreed to pass through it by night. In order to do this we engaged a local man to guide us, because our muleteers did not know the road well, having never travelled it before.
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