_ 298 _ inhabited by Armenians and a few Turkomans. Let whoever reads this account of my journey understand tacitly that every time I name the people by whom these places are inhabited, they should be understood to be white, for it would be verbose to specify this in every place. There are many fruit-orchards and much livestock here. Across this plain flows a large river of very good water, which springs from some mountains ahead and passes through the city of Hoi. From there it flows until it meets the River Araks, and the two together fall into the Caspian Sea. We travelled along this now. At almost midday we arrived in a valley which is called in Turkish Goturdere, which means “valley of scabies” because of the roughness and size of the mountain-ranges which encircle it. We travelled through this along the same river which flows through it and rises for the most part from the end of them the mountain-ranges, together with many other springs and streams which rise and join together. A great quantity of snow melts in the same mountains and makes it the river large and fast-flowing. We travelled along it between very high, close and dense mountains and hills. About a league into them we came upon a great crag, at the foot of which was an excavation like a small house, very black and smoke-stained from the fires which the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy