_ 326 _ Behind this castle there are three or four streets of small shops, built of wood, in which everything necessary for the city and travellers is sold, and two very good caravanserais, in which people lodge and take shelter. This is a very mountainous land, of ranges without roads or ways in through which armies can enter. On the other side of it, in a northerly direction, a short day’s journey away, is the kingdom of the Georgians, white Christian people, subjects of the Turk. Having paid the dues, which were six xains per load from here on there are others to pay which are four vinterns each, and having spent two days here, we left on the next Sunday, 16th of the month. We travelled along the large stream which flows through the middle of the city. It passes through many very high ranges of mountains, and the roads are very rough with steep descents. There was so much snow falling that we could not distinguish one of ourselves from another, and we could not recognise either the road or the colour of the clothes we were wearing. About a league farther on, we passed through a great portal the length of a lance, made with pickaxes in a hill, through which the road passes. We put up about another league farther on, for with the heavy snow we could not proceed, at a caravanserai, near which,
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