Chapter XXII: Statistical and Political (2)

Such a situation is suggestive; nor can we feel surprise if the Armenian has exercised his Oriental imagination upon it in a manner less prudent than may be calculated to appeal to the slower veined races of the West. The idea of a modern Armenian kingdom has set the spark to that national enthusiasm which the perusal of his historical records has fed. The example of Eastern Europe has seemed to justify his speculations. When I come to deal with the Turkish provinces, I shall endeavour to show the falseness of such premisses; but I do not believe that any such details have influenced his somewhat more general conceptions, and they are not pertinent here. The vision of an independent Armenian state, could it be realised in a remote future, will not appeal to all minds alike. Many will see a real danger to human progress in the creation of these small states. The national sentiment they would place among those realised ideals upon which, as our civilisation widens, it is necessary to build anew. The magnitude of the conflict, should any of the greater nations enter the arena of war, acts as a wholesome preventive to ambitions which the small state is prone to indulge on the least pretence. The gratification of such ambitions causes bad administration and ends in bankruptcy, while few of the advantages which are offered by a great empire can the people of a little country enjoy. Such considerations have great weight, and it would probably be well if, whenever it were practicable, our political actions were founded upon them; yet they scarcely indicate a solution in the present case. The Armenian, who is a convert to such views, might justly ask in what quarter he should look. The Turkish Empire will not even protect him, and massacres its Armenian subjects; while, should he turn his eyes to Russia, he sees no prospects of material advantage which would enable him to rise above the economic stage to which he has already attained, and surrender to Russian ideals could only be effected in his opinion at the price of moral and intellectual annihilation. Confronted with such an outlook, he seeks refuge within himself; and, should he consult his more sober perceptions, he will labour in silence and without ostentation to supply the requirements which his race still needs; to raise the peasant from his present degradation, to purify the Church, to promote the interest of his richer neighbours in work for the common good. These are the more legitimate ambitions which, however tedious, are certain of success, and which will establish, whatever be the revolution of politics, his right to influence the history of his country as one of the only stable native elements of progress in the Nearer East.

If, before concluding these reflections, we turn to the broader issues upon which such questions bear, and, having examined the comparative failure of Russia in Armenia, consider its significance to the larger world, we may find that the very strength of the Russian system as a powerful factor in international life derives from the self-same character which has denied her victory here. Had Russia through a natural process of attraction been able to draw towards her the higher races who stood on her path, she would have been a greater nation, but perhaps a less formidable force. Round her she groups the less cultivated peoples--the nomads of Asia, the wanderers of the steppe--and arms them with the might of a European organisation which the intellect of Europe, impressed into her service, perfects as a weapon for her use. The dangers which such results threaten can only imperil the improvident and those whose nervous powers are unstrung; but the world has not yet advanced sufficiently to render those dangers unreal. The indolence of mind which shrinks from facing difficulties and leaves them to solve themselves is not the least element of weakness in her European neighbours by which Russia profits and through which she grows; but the victory will now as always be given to those states which unite with a higher civilisation a spirit of enterprise still healthy and powers still unimpaired.

END OF VOL. I

NOTES

[1] J. P. Fallmerayer, born in 1790, the son of humble parents, whose flocks he tended on the mountain-sides as a boy. Died in 1861; a great scholar, a great writer, whose work has not yet received all the recognition which it deserves.

[2] Finlay, Mediæval Greece and the Empire of Trebizond, Oxford, 1877, p. 340.

[3] The dimensions of the interior are: length to head of apse, 33 feet; breadth, 21 feet 7 inches.

[4] The ornament is as follows: .

The inscription is: .

I notice that M. Gabriel Millet identifies this figure as a Saint Michael (op. infra cit. p. 436).

[5] Bejeshkean (op. infra cit.) publishes the inscription of Justinian on the face of the old gateway of Tabakhaneh, which has now disappeared. It records the restoration of the public edifices of the city by that emperor. See also Hamilton, op. infra cit.

[6] The population of Trebizond at the present day is estimated at 45,000 souls.

[7] Since writing this chapter two articles in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique (Paris) for 1895 have come to my notice. They are: G. Millet, Les monastères et les églises de Trébizonde, pp. 419-459; and J. Strzygowski, Les chapiteaux de Sainte Sophie de Trébizonde, pp. 517-522.

[8] A railway, connecting the capital of Georgia, Tiflis, with Alexandropol and Kars, has been completed since the date of this journey. It winds its way up the valley of the Borchala.

[9] At 11.15 A.M. 83° F.

[10] Temperature 86° F.

[11] Temperature at 10 P.M. 72° F.; 6.30 A.M. 66° F.

[12] Radde (Reisen in Hoch Armenien, Petermann's Mitth., Gotha, 1875, p. 59) says: "It appears that at least in this district potato culture is making considerable progress in recent times among the Armenians." He attributes this to the example of the Molokans and Dukhobortsy.

[13] By the road the distance, according to our coachman, would be 15 versts or 10 miles; by the track which we followed 10 versts or 6 1/2 miles.

[14] Dubois de Montpéreux, Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris 1839-43, vol. ii.

[15] Brosset, Voyage archéologique en Transcaucasie, St. Petersburg, 1849, 1re livraison, 2me rapport, pp. 119 seq., and atlas, plates v. and vi.; Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 292 seq.

[16] Brosset, op. cit. p. 143.

[17] Population of Akhaltsykh:--

(1) According to nationality: Armenians, 10,417; Georgians,
2730; Jews, 2545; others (including 145 Russians and 110 Poles),
424--Total, 16,116.
(2) According to religion: Gregorian Armenians, 9678; Catholic
Armenians, 739; Roman Catholics, 2311; Jews, 2545; others
(including 777 Russian Orthodox, 9 Lutherans, and 57 Sunni
Mohammedans), 843. (Statistics concerning the populations of
Transcaucasia derived from the family lists of 1886. Published
by Government, Tiflis, 1893.)

[18] They were: Akhaltsykh, Atzkur, Aspinja, Khertvis, Akhalkalaki, Ardahan (Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 284-85).

[19] The slave trade was carried on through Circassians, who kidnapped the inhabitants of Georgia proper and fled with them across the Turkish border to Akhaltsykh (Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 261-62; Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, London, 1854, p. 100).

[20] Adrien Dupré in Gamba, Voyage dans la Russie méridionale, Paris, 1826, vol. i. p. 403.

[21] For the interesting siege and capture of Akhaltsykh by Paskevich I may refer the reader to Monteith, Kars and Erzerum, London, 1856, ch. vi. pp. 182 seq.; Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 258 seq., and a note to Haxthausen, op. cit. p. 100. Eli Smith, who travelled in the country in 1830-31, informs us that the siege of Akhaltsykh was one of the two occasions upon which the Turks gave the Russians a fair trial of their bravery. The other was at Baiburt (Missionary Researches in Armenia, London, 1834, p. 82).

[22] Dubois saw it still standing in 1833. I cannot find when it was cut down. Brosset (op. cit. p. 149) mentions the conversion of the mosque.

[23] Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 263.

[24] Eli Smith informs us that at the time of his journey (1830-31) Akhaltsykh was the only place, coming within the range of his enquiry in Turkish Armenia, that contained any Jews (Missionary Researches, p. 100).

[25] Brosset, op. cit. p. 149.

[26] Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 267.

[27] Brosset, op. cit. pp. 139, 149.

[28] Brosset speaks of the church and tower of Akhashen as being remarkable both as an example of composite architecture and for possessing a fine sculptured cross on the door and a figure of St. Theodore on horseback (Voyage archéologique en Transcaucasie, St. Petersburg, 1849, 1re livraison, 2me rapport, p. 150).

[29] Neither Dubois (Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris 1839-43, vol. ii. p. 330) nor Brosset (Voy. arch. 2me rapport, p. 176) has more than passing notices of Aspinja. But Dubois tells us that in his time all the inhabitants spoke Georgian except the mollah, who had recently arrived from Asia Minor. He adds that they were formerly Georgian Christians, and their ancient church still existed in a ruinous condition.

[30] I have not verified their statement, which was repeated in other places, that according to a decree of 1890 they would be liable to military service in ten years after the date of the decree.

[31] 229 houses, with 1360 inhabitants (Family lists of 1886).

[32] He gives a population of 800 souls (op. cit. vol. ii. p. 304).

[33] Dubois (op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 298, 299) informs us that the Mussulmans of these districts are the old Georgian inhabitants whom Safar Pasha compelled to embrace Islam in 1625. He adds that the Armenians escaped this persecution, having been accorded by the reigning Sultan liberty of conscience, like the Jews in France under similar conditions.

The river Kur is essentially a Georgian river, even where it traverses districts which belong geographically to the Armenian tableland. For the history and character of the country about its upper course one may usefully consult the works of Dubois and Brosset already cited in this chapter, and Koch's Reise im pontischen Gebirge, Weimar, 1846.

[34] Dubois (op. cit. vol. ii. p. 314) calls the Kur a torrent above Khertvis, and says it only becomes a river after the junction with the Toporovan river.

[35] I must refer the reader to Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 302 seq., and Brosset, Voy. arch. p. 152.

[36] So Abich explains the phenomena (Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, part iii. p. 31).

[37] Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 308 seq.; Brosset, Voy. arch. 2me rapport, p. 165, who gives an account of the adjacent church of Tsunda; and Abich, op. cit. part iii. p. 34. I would refer my reader to the last of these writers for an account of the geology of the gorge of Zeda Tmogvi (part iii. pp. 35, 36).

[38] Brosset is not quite sure about it (Voy. arch. 2me rapport, p. 165). The governor of Akhalkalaki had no doubt about the correctness of the identification.

[39] Dubois, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 319; and see also Brosset, Atlas (plate xii.) to the Voyage archéologique and text, pp. 163 seq. I shall not attempt to reconcile the text of Brosset with his plan of the church, his plan with that of Dubois, or the measurements of either with my own. My own measurements at Vardzia and throughout the journey were made by myself with a long tape-measure which I always carried with me. The height of the church is given by Dubois as 40 feet.

[40] In taking leave of Vardzia may I refer the reader to the excellent description of Dubois. He mentions the existence of a third and smaller church, which he says is adorned with ancient frescos, with inscriptions which are all in the Greek language. The frescos are in the Byzantine style, and cannot be much later than the middle of the eleventh century. Brosset, who also saw this chapel, maintains, on the other hand, that all the inscriptions are in the Georgian ecclesiastical character; he adds that there is a Greek inscription disposed about the emblems of a Calvary in an adjoining niche (Voy. arch. 2me rapport, p. 106).

[41] The published total of 59,496 is made up as follows:--Armenians, 42,301; Georgians, 9771; Russians, 6617; Kurds, 689; others, 118 (official statistics based on the lists of 1886, Tiflis 1893). It is noticeable that the Governor's list places the Russians at 6300, a diminution since 1886.

[42] The plain has a gulf-like extension or arm on the side of Lake Tabizkhuro. Coming from the lake, Radde estimated that the plain proper commences at the village of Kestano, which I take to be the Bejano of the Russian map, and that this village lay some 1000 feet lower than the level of the lake. The plain would therefore have an altitude of 5650 feet at its north-eastern extremity. From Bejano to the south-western shore of Lake Khozapin is a direct distance on the map of thirty-six miles.

[43] Radde in Petermann's Mitth. 1876, p. 143.

[44] Radde is almost certainly in error in making the pass of Karakaya, which is the shortest route, over 9500 feet high (Petermann's Mitth., 1876, p. 141).

[45] Monteith (Kars and Erzeroum, pp. 85, 168, 173 seq.). Haxthausen informs us that "not one Turk accepted his life--every man remained dead upon the spot" (Transcaucasia, p. 100). He had received the story in this truly Oriental form.

[46] Abich calls it "das am weitesten umfassende des armenischen Hochlandes" with the exception of the view from Ararat (Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1887, part iii. p. 39). But few have been or probably ever will be privileged to reach the summit of the mother of the world under conditions entirely favourable to such a panorama. And from such a height the world appears very insignificant.

[47] According to Eli Smith (Missionary Researches in Armenia, London 1834, pp. 195 seq.), upon whom I have based this account, the whole number of these German colonists was in 1830 about 2000 souls. Their present number may be estimated from the published statistics of 1886. The following are the figures for the various colonies:--

Government of Tiflis: Town of Tiflis, 1117. Administrative
division (ouezde) of Tiflis: Alexandersdorf, 384; Marienfeld, 396;
Petersdorf, 195; Friedenthal, 83; Elizabeththal, 1148. Ouezde
of Borchali: Ekaterinenfeld, 1209; Alexandershilf, 366. Other
localities, 60. Total for Government of Tiflis, 4958.

Government of Elizabetpol: Helenendorf, 1457; Anenfeld, 437. Total,
1894.

Grand total, 6852 souls.

[48] Eli Smith, speaking of the Roman Catholic missions, is not ashamed to make use of the following language:--"Unfortunately a missionary can hardly set his foot upon any spot in that field (the Mediterranean) without encountering some sentinel of the 'Mother of Harlots,' ready to challenge him and shout the alarm" (op. cit. p. 210). In the course of my reading I have incidentally collected parallel passages from the works of other writers belonging to the cloth, and it is with pain that I note that for foul thoughts, expressed through a foul mouth, it would be difficult to find their equal in the writings of lay authors.

[49] The Armenian Lutherans of Baku were numbered at 350 souls in 1886 (Official Statistics, etc.). According to Sembat, there are also communities at Shemakha, Erivan and its neighbourhood, Karakala, near Kars, and Tiflis.

[50] Müller-Simonis, Du Caucase au Golfe Persique, Paris, 1892, p. 3.

[51] Letter of the Rev. Athelstan Riley to Daily Chronicle of London, August 1897.

[52] Maksimoff, Transcaucasia, quoted by Radde in Petermann's Mitth., 1896, p. 145.

[53] See Count Tolstoy in the Times, October 23, 1895. I would also refer my reader to a book published since this chapter was written, entitled Christian Martyrdom in Russia, edited by Vladimir Tchertkoff, with a chapter and letter by Leo Tolstoy, London, 1897.

[54] Tolstoy (the Times, loc. cit.) puts their present number at 20,000, I know not upon what authority. The official figures based on the lists of 1886 are:--Government of Tiflis (Akhalkalaki and Borchali), 7263; Government of Elizabetpol, 2404; Government of Kars, 2766; Government of Erivan, 15. Total, 12,448.

[55] According to the statistics of 1886 it would contain 93 houses and 839 inhabitants.

[56] Koch speaks of the surprise with which he saw rye being harvested in the country north of Erzerum at an altitude of at least 7500 feet (Reise im pontischen Gebirge, Weimar, 1846, p. 267). Telfer (Crimea and Transcaucasia, London, 1876, vol. i. p. 278) quotes from reports issued by the Tiflis Observatory which establish the following limits for the Southern Caucasus:--Barley, 8100 feet; corn, 7906 feet; wheat, 7400 feet; vine, 3500 feet. Radde estimates that on the northern slopes of Alagöz corn ripens at 8300 feet (Petermann's Mitth., 1876, p. 147).

[57] Lukeria Vasilievna Kalmakoff was given to me as her full name.

[58] Count Tolstoy's informant says: "To Christ, as to an historical personage, the Dukhobortsy do not ascribe much importance" (The Times, loc. cit.). He goes on to tell how, when the Quakers visited them in 1818 and heard their opinion about Jesus Christ (that he was a man), these pious people exclaimed, "Darkness!" I cannot reconcile this account with what I learnt at Gorelovka, except by the reflection that the Christian world itself holds many opinions upon this subject.

[59] As a sequel to these events, the Dukhobortsy have emigrated in large numbers from their seats beyond Caucasus. Once the flower of the peasantry in Russia, and afterwards the special pride of Russian Governors in their seats of exile, they have now lost their hardiest spirits in a fresh exodus. And it is the British Empire which receives them! Their choice was at first bestowed upon the island of Cyprus; but the warm climate was unpropitious, and they lost some 100 souls in about eight months. The bulk of the emigrants appear to have taken ship from Cyprus for Canada and British North America during the spring of 1899.

[60] The official statistics, based on the census of 1886, give Alexandropol a population of 24,230 souls, of whom 22,920 are Armenians. Only 200 of these are Armenian Catholic.

[61] Ritter (Erdkunde, vol. x. pp. 438-39) identifies the modern name Shuragel with the country designated in Armenian literature as Shirak.

[62] Ker Porter, Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, etc., London, 1821, vol. i. p. 168.

[63] Wilbraham, Travels in the Transcaucasian Provinces, London, 1839, p. 277.

[64] For the explanation of this term see the chapter on Erivan.

[65] Fragments of the walls of this building alone survive.

[66] So the inscription on the south wall, as rendered by Brosset (Voyage archéologique, 3me rapport, p. 86; and Ruines d'Ani, p. 64).

[67] Brosset, loc. cit.

[68] Radde in Petermann's Mitth., 1876, p. 147.

[69] "...contemplate the company of the stars by night, and them that bring winter and summer to mortals, the radiant potentates conspicuous in the heaven" (Æschylus, Agamemnon, ls. 4-7).

[70] Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat, 4th and revised edition, London, 1896, p. 312.

[71] At Aralykh the thermometer ranged between 60° and 70° Fahrenheit between the hours of 6 A.M. and 9 A.M. on the several mornings. At mid-day it rose to about 80°.

[72] The temperature at 6.30 P.M. was 50° Fahrenheit, but it sank rapidly in the cold wind.

[73] Temperature 10.15 A.M., 72° Fahrenheit.

[74] It is alluded to by some travellers under the name of Tash Kilisa.

[75] Madame B. Chantre, À travers l'Arménie Russe, Paris, 1893, p. 219.

[76] Markoff, Ascension du Grand Ararat, in Bulletin de la Soc. Roy. Belge de Géographie, Brussels, 1888, p. 579.

[77] Temperature at 8 P.M., 18° F., and next morning at 5.45 A.M., 28° F.

[78] See the photograph of the summit region (Fig. 36, p. 180), which clearly shows these various features.

[79] Yet it looks a mere streak in the illustration (Fig. 36). The lower end of the snow slope was not well seen from the standpoint of that photograph. Actually it resembles a magnificent river.

[80] Abich (Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1882, part ii. p. 455) ascribes to it an elevation of 14,600 feet.

[81] The temperature of the air a few feet below the summit out of the gale was 20° F. The height of the north-western elevation of the south-eastern summit of Ararat is given by my Hicks mountain aneroid as 17,493 feet. The reading is no doubt too high by several hundred feet. The Carey aneroid gives a still higher figure, and the Boylean-Mariotti mercurial barometer entirely refused to work.

[82] The readings on the prismatic compass were 310° and 105° respectively.

[83] Sophocles, OEdipus at Colonus, l. 610 seq.

[84] Abich, Besteigung des Ararat, in Baer and Helmersen's Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches, St. Petersburg, 1849, vol. xiii. p. 63. He supports this suggestion by the fact that neither Parrot nor Spasky Avtonomoff mentions the existence of such a fissure. But whether you may be able to see any trace of it or not must depend upon the state of the snow.

[85] Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, Paris, 1717, vol. ii. pp. 357 seq. See also Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 507.

[86] I refer my reader to the works of Tournefort (already cited), Parrot (Reise zum Ararat, Berlin, 1834), and Dubois de Montpéreux (Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris, 1839-45, vol. iii.).

[87] The measurements are my own. Dubois speaks of Akhury as being five leagues distant from the Kara Su.

[88] Parrot says the same thing, op. cit. p. 108.

[89] For a discussion of the name see Parrot, op. cit. p. 110. Ritter (Erdkunde, x. 508) also refers to Brosset (Bulletin de l'Acad. de Sc. de St. Pétersbourg, 1841, vol. viii. p. 43), but is in error when he says that Brosset spells it Aghuri. He actually spells it Acorhi, and throws doubt upon the popular derivation of the name. It would appear that the old Armenian name for the place was Akuri or Agguri, and that later Armenian writers turned the word into Ark-uri in order to extract the signification which I have given in the text. I have adopted the spelling of the Russian official map, which practically reproduces the old word. Dr. Belck has made the ingenious suggestion that the Adduri of the Assyrian inscription of Shalmaneser II. (859-824 B.C.)--a name which is applied to the mountains whither Arame, king of Urardhu or Ararat, fled before the armies of the Assyrian monarch--may be represented by the Armenian Akuri or Agguri (Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1893, p. 71). That the ancient name of a district often survives in that of a town in these countries is proved by the analogy of the town of Van, which bears the name of the kingdom of which it was formerly the capital, the Biaina of the Vannic texts.

[90] Wagner (op. infra cit. p. 166) says that at the time of the catastrophe the Armenian inhabitants numbered nearly 1600 souls, besides Kurdish labourers.

[91] Von Behagel (apud Parrot, op. cit. 2nd part, p. 183) says 1000 feet. I quote Parrot p. 147.

[92] Parrot, op. cit. p. 147. Von Behagel (loc. cit.) says that it was 3258 Paris feet, or 3472 English feet, above the plain of the Araxes.

[93] Parrot, op. cit. p. 135; Dubois, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 471. Most travellers tell this story with amplifications and variations. It is to be found in its earliest form in Faustus of Byzantium (book iii. chap. x.).

[94] Parrot, op. cit. p. 205.

[95] Von Behagel, apud Parrot, loc. cit.

[96] Tournefort, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 368 seq.

[97] The testimony of these witnesses is given by Abich, Geognostiche Reise zum Ararat, with two drawings of the chasm, in Monatsberichte der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, series 2, vol. iv. 1846-47. The account is reproduced in his Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1882, part ii. pp. 395 seq., and illustrated by a fine geological view of the chasm in the Atlas, plate vi. It can best be understood in the reprint. See also Wagner, op. inf. cit., and Ritter, Erdkunde, x. pp. 507 seq.

[98] See the summary of this report in Ritter, Erdkunde, x. pp. 509 seq.

[99] See Moriz Wagner (Reise nach dem Ararat und dem Hochland Armenien, Stuttgart, 1848, contained in Widermann and Hauff, Reisen und Landesbeschreibungen, Lieferung 35), and Abich in op. cit.

[100] Consult the argument in Wagner, op. cit. pp. 176 seq.

[101] See Ritter, Erdkunde, x. 510; and for former earthquakes see Dubois, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 474; Abich, Geolog. Forsch. part ii. pp. 390 seq. with map.

[102] "5 versts in a direct line" are Abich's words, op. cit. p. 413.

[103] Ritter, Erdkunde, x. pp. 512, 513.

[104] Abich, Geolog. Forsch. part ii. p. 412.

[105] Abich, op. cit. pp. 413, 414. It is evident that he had Wagner's objections in his mind.

[106] This was the reading of my Hicks mountain aneroid, which was working well, and it agrees with Parrot who says that the shrine stood about 1000 feet above the cloister, i.e. at about 7400 English feet. I fear, therefore, that Madame Chantre is in error in ascribing to the site of the cloister, much lower down, an elevation of 2250 metres or 7382 feet (L'Arménie Russe, p. 238). Monsieur Chantre, in his monograph on Ararat, confuses the site of the shrine with that of the cloister, an error which was also made by my Armenian guide (Annales de Géographie, Paris, 1893-94, vol. iii. pp. 81-94).

[107] Abich, Geolog. Forsch. part ii. p. 412, and see for the glacier, etc. pp. 397, 399, 400. The illustration is contained on Table VI. of his atlas. Parrot appears to be silent on the subject of this glacier; but Von Behagel, his companion, offers some remarks upon it (Parrot, 2nd part, p. 184). I may also refer my reader to Dr. Markoff's article in the Bulletin de la société royale Belge de géographie, 1888, p. 589.

[108] Feodoroff, the companion of Parrot, measuring from the valley of the Araxes, estimated the difference at 7 feet; Khodzko at 120 feet; Bryce at "some 50 feet or so," all in favour of the more westerly elevation. My reader will notice that in the photograph (Fig. 37) the more easterly, viz. on the left hand, appears to be slightly higher; but this circumstance is due to the fact that it stands out a little in advance of its neighbour, when seen from the side of the country between Erivan and Aralykh.

[109] In estimating the level of the zone of perpetual snow on Ararat I am leaving out of account those smaller or greater collections of snow which owe their subsistence all through the summer to special circumstances, such as shelter from the sun.

Mr. D. W. Freshfield (Exploration of the Caucasus, London, 1896, vol. i. p. 55) gives 10,000 feet as a fair figure for the snow-level in the central chain of Caucasus.

[110] The account of an ascent in 1897 has quite recently come into my hands. It is written by Herr A. Oswald, whose attempt was crowned with complete success (Eine Besteigung des Ararat in Jahrb. schweiz. Alpenclub, Berne, 1899-1900, vol. xxxv. pp. 157-183).

[111] For Artaxata, Dvin, Khor Virap, etc., see Ker Porter's Travels (vol. ii. pp. 619 seq.); Morier (Second Journey, p. 316 and pp. 339 seq.); Dubois (op. cit. vol. iii. pp. 382 seq.); Smith and Dwight (op. cit. pp. 273 seq.). Dubois mentions, but was unable to visit, the grottoes of Okhtchapert on the direct road between Erivan and Garni, p. 402. They are mentioned by Telfer (Crimea and Transcaucasia, vol. i. p. 210), who passed by them on his way to Garni from Erivan. Telfer's book should be consulted by English readers for an account of these various antiquities. I would also recommend to the archæologist who is desirous of investigating the question of the site of Artaxata a reference to Dubois (vol. iii. p. 449).

[112] Op. cit. vol. iii. p. 480.

[113] According to the Jesuit, Père Monier, who wrote an account of the mission at Erivan in the eighteenth century, there were only 4000 inhabitants of the town proper in his day. Of these only one-fourth were Armenians (Lettres Édifiantes, Mémoires du Levant, Paris, 1780, vol. iii. p. 25). In the thirties of last century the usual estimate seems to have been 2500 families or at least 10,000 souls, of whom some 700 to 1000 families were Armenian (Smith and Dwight, Missionary Researches, p. 279; Sijalski, Aufenthalt in Erivan, Das Ausland, Augsburg, 1839). The Armenians are rapidly turning the tables upon the Tartars.

[114] Chardin, edit. Paris, 1811, vol. ii. p. 169.

[115] "Erivân, apparens, quia regio ista prima apparuit Noe cum descenderet ex monte Ararat" (Villotte, Dict. Arm. p. 273, quoted by Langlès ap. Chardin, loc. cit.).

[116] Moses of Khorene, vol. ii. p. 46.

[117] Lane Poole, Mohammedan Dynasties, London, 1894, p. 259.

[118] For the Mohammedan tradition see Travels of Evliya, translated by Von Hammer, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 150. "In the year 810 (A.D. 1407) Khoja Khan Lejchani, a rich merchant of Timur's suite, settled here (at Erivan) with all his family and servants, cultivating plantations of rice, by which means a great Kent was soon formed. Five years later Shah Ismail gave to Revan Kul, one of his khans, an order to build a castle here, which, being finished in seven years, was named after him Revan or Erivan." The five years of Evliya are incomprehensible to me. Erivan is mentioned by John Katholikos, who wrote in the eleventh century, as having been a considerable place in the seventh (Saint-Martin's translation, Paris, 1841, p. 80).

[119] Dubois de Montpéreux, Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris, 1839, vol. iii. pp. 346 seq. When Morier, secretary to the British Embassy to Persia, visited the sirdar or governor of Erivan in 1814, he was told by his host with great gravity that "if three or four of the kings of Fireng (Europe) were to unite to take this castle, they might just take the trouble of going back again, for their labours would be in vain" (Morier, Second Journey, London, 1818, p. 319). The sirdar's view was not held by British officers, one of whom, in giving an account of his visit in 1837, says, "I had expected to find the castle almost impregnable from the honours which were heaped upon the Marshal Paskevich for its capture, and was quite surprised to find a mere Turkish fort, strong indeed by nature on one side, but on the other three defended merely by a mud wall, and commanded from all the adjoining hills" (Wilbraham, Travels in the Transcaucasian Provinces, etc., London, 1839).

[120] "In dieser abermahligen Veränderung seynd auch alle Türkische Moscheen der Stadt übern Hauffen geworffen ... also das etliche dergleichen Tempel bis zum Fundament erniedriget und übel ärger von Persianen verwüstet als jemahl die Kirchen der Christen von Türcken zugerichtet worden seynd. So züchtiget Gott die Mahumetaner mit Mahumetanern" (Schillinger, Persianische und Ost-Indianische Reise vom Jahr 1699 bis 1702, Nürnberg, 1707).

[121] Tavernier, edit. of Paris, 1679, vol. i. p. 37; Père Monier, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 24.

[122] Von Hammer, Geschichte des Osm. Reiches, vol. vii. p. 321.

[123] Morier, Second Journey, p. 320.

[124] Dubois de Montpéreux, op. cit. vol. iii p. 452.

[125] Dubois, ibid. pp. 339 seq. and Atlas.

[126] Dubois, ibid. p. 346, and Morier, Hajji Baba.

[127] Chapter viii. of the Polojenye of 1836.

[128] I was informed by a competent authority that, including Tiflis and the whole of Russian Transcaucasia, there were not less than 400 Armenian schools in existence at the time of my visit. About one-third of the number would be schools for girls.

[129] Müller-Simonis (Du Caucase au Golfe Persique, Paris, 1892, p. 62), speaking of the celebration of the ceremonies in honour of Ali and Hoseyn at Erivan, says: "Le soir les fanatiques qui devront représenter les martyres à la grande procession, font une promenade aux flambeaux, armés de sabres et de gourdins. Ils agitent en mesure leurs flambeaux et leurs armes, criant en même temps à tue-tête: 'Hussein, Ali, Hussein, Ali.' Les reflets rouges des torches, ici découpant les blanches silhouettes des maisons, là plongeant en lueurs étranges sous la verdure des arbres, puis éclairant en plein les figures hideuses de ces dévots, forment un spectacle sauvage et fantastique." The picture is true to life. I have little doubt that such a procession may still be witnessed at Erivan.

[130] According to Dubois de Montpéreux the fortifications of Edgmiatsin were restored by the Katholikos Simeon between 1763 and 1780 (Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris, 1839-43, vol. iii. p. 360).

[131] The true inwardness of this policy did not escape the notice of the French traveller Boré, who, writing in 1838, says: "En s'avançant vers l'Asie Centrale la Russie cherchait à réaliser une pensée politique habilement conçue, qui lui promet pour l'avenir des résultats avantageux. Comme puissance chrétienne, elle se déclare la protectrice de tous les chrétiens assujétis à la double puissance Mahométane qu'elle combattait.... Voilà pourquoi l'on tenait beaucoup encore à enclaver dans l'empire le monastère d'Echemiazin; attendu qu'étant le siège du chef principal de la communion arménienne, on devait tenir dans les liens de son pouvoir spirituel la majeure partie des Arméniens répandus dans les royaumes limitrophes" (Correspondance et Mémoires, Paris, 1840, vol. ii. pp. 36, 37).

[132] Monteith, Kars and Erzerum, London, 1856, p. 38. During the campaigns against Persia the convent of Edgmiatsin obtained declarations from both belligerents that their territory should be considered neutral ground. The Russians, however, appear to have made use of it as a base (ibid. p. 133). While at Edgmiatsin I was told that in 1804 the Persians erected a battery upon the roof, which naturally suffered, although I am not aware that the Russians came to any harm from the battery.

[133] Morier's Second Journey, London, 1818, pp. 323 seq. According to Von Haxthausen Russian influence had already become preponderant in the election of a katholikos as early as 1768, when the Katholikos Lukas sought and obtained the sanction of Russia upon his elevation (Transcaucasia, English edition, London, 1854, p. 307). We learn from another source that the Katholikos Ephraim (1809-31) was accorded the special protection of the Tsar, and that he did not assume his functions before receiving the imperial assurance at St. Petersburg that the pontificate of Armenia would ever receive such protection. This same Tsar, Alexander I., loaded the bishops and priests who accompanied Ephraim with honours and presents (Avdall's continuation of Chamchean's History, Calcutta, 1827, pp. 519-20).

[134] Melikoff is said to have had under his command a body of 2000 Armenian volunteers as well as some 400 officers of the same nationality. See the Reminiscences of a Delegate to the Congress of Berlin in the newspaper L'Arménie for 15th August 1892 (published in London).

[135] Nine articles of the Polojenye deal with the election of a katholikos. Upon a vacancy of the Chair it is the duty of the synod to issue invitations to all Armenian dioceses, whether in Russia or elsewhere, calling upon them each to name two deputies, one clerical and one lay, who shall repair to Edgmiatsin after the lapse of a year. These deputies, should they be unable to attend in person, may signify their vote by letter. In addition to the deputies the members of the synod and seven of the oldest bishops of Edgmiatsin have votes ex officio. The election takes place in the church of the Illuminator. Four candidates are chosen by vote in the first place. A second ballot narrows the selection to two. The assembly then appoints three delegates who repair to the Governor-General of the Caucasus and officially communicate the result. The Governor-General transmits the two names to the Emperor through the Minister of the Interior. The Emperor confirms the katholikos and gives him the ukase. After he has taken the oath of allegiance to the Russian throne he is consecrated according to the rite of the Armenian Church.

In Russia there are at present only six dioceses of the Armenian Church; they are specified in the Polojenye. They are:--1. New Nakhichevan and Bessarabia; 2. Astrakhan; 3. Erivan; 4. Tiflis; 5. Karabagh; 6. Shirvan. Kars is at present a vicarate, dependent upon Erivan. In Turkey there are, I am informed, usually no less than fifty-two dioceses; but there are not always bishops to every diocese. In Persia there are two, namely New Julfa and Tabriz. It will thus be seen that the Armenians of Turkey have the preponderant vote, and that the clergy have a small majority over the lay members, to the extent of the synod and seven of the bishops of Edgmiatsin.

At the last election, which took place on the 17th of May 1892, there were present in the church of St. Gregory 72 electors, including the synod and the 7 bishops. The number might have been about 135. But several dioceses appointed the same delegate. The vote for Mgr. Khrimean was unanimous, the second candidate being only nominal.

Other articles of the Polojenye to which I should like to call attention are to the following effect:--The usual Russian provision forbidding proselytising is inserted. The katholikos alone is permitted to make the holy oil. The synod is to consist of four bishops and four archimandrites, all resident at Edgmiatsin. It is to assemble at least twice a week. The katholikos is ex officio a member of synod and presides when he is present. It is not said whether the procurator has a right to be present at the deliberations; but the minutes and decisions must all be submitted to him. All monasteries are to be regulated according to the rule of St. Basil, and to become a monk it is necessary to obtain the sanction of the synod upon the recommendation of a bishop. A married man may become a monk if he have no children under age and if his wife agree to enter a convent. The Church schools are recognised; but their rules and curricula must be submitted to the synod. The synod must in turn submit them to the Minister of the Interior. Finally it is stated that the Armenian clergy are supported by the gifts of the Armenian people, and the nature of these gifts is specified.

[136] According to Von Haxthausen (journey in 1843) the synod took the place of the general council of the Church, which it was impossible to assemble. He adds that in 1783 the Patriarch Lukas decreed that it should not consist of fewer than seven members; in 1802 there were nine members (Transcaucasia, English edition, p. 305).

[137] Captain Richard Wilbraham, Travels, etc., London, 1839, p. 98. At the time of his visit in 1837 the procurator was actually an Armenian, but quite Russianised.

[138] Transcaucasia, German edition, Leipzig, 1856, vol. i. pp. 256 seq.; English edition, pp. 284 seq. Von Haxthausen speaks of the "Grobheit des Procurators." It is only just to add that the katholikos was absent during his visit.

[139] I was shown the documents in the library. The method of the election of the Katholikos Makar affords great sport to the Jesuit Vernier. He hails with delight the constitution of Edgmiatsin into a state prison "où l'élu de la nation demeure sous la garde d'un gêolier Moscovite. Cet élu a fini par déplaire au despote couronné de St. Pétersbourg; le czar vient de rejeter avec mépris l'oecuménique qui avait réuni la majorité des suffrages, et de lui substituer arbitrairement un Russe qui n'a d'Arménien que le nom. Dans quelques années de par le knout, ce nom même disparaîtra, et quelque pape cosaque remplacera l'Arménien russifié et occupera à Edgmiatsin le trône de saint Grégoire. Terrible et juste vengeance de Dieu...." The italics are mine (Histoire du Patriarcat Arménien Catholique, Paris, 1891, p. 285).

[140] Sophocles, OEdipus Tyrannus, 1. 58.

[141] The new catalogue, which has not yet been printed [September 1900], will contain some 3500 titles. So far as I have been able to ascertain, there already exist two catalogues--(1) that published by the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1840, and (2) that by Caréniantz, Tiflis, 1863, 4o [in Armenian].

[142] For a description of this book and its ivory panels see Strgygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, Vienna, 1891.

[143] The institution of the twelve bishops, who reside in the palace of the katholikos and fulfil various offices about his person, dates from the commencement of the Armenian State Church. See Faustus of Byzantium, vi. 5, and Gelzer (Die Anfänge der Armenischen Kirche, in Berichte der K. S. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzic, Phil.-Hist. Classe, 1895).

[144] I was informed that the notes are those of the fifth century; but there appears to be no sufficient historical evidence for this belief. The historians, however, speak of this or that vartapet as having been a musician (erajisht). The Katholikos George IV. (d. 1882) transcribed the original notes from the Armenian manuscripts, but brought them into consonance with European methods.

[145] So it is known to all the early travellers. Cp. Poser, 1621; Evliya, 1647, "the Three Churches, a great convent built by the Greek emperors"; Rhodes, 1648-49; Tavernier, 1655; Chardin, 1673; Jesuit Missionaries, seventeenth century, Letter of Père Monier; Schillinger, c. 1699; Tournefort, 1701, who notices the inappropriateness of the name.

[146] It is given at length by Agathangelus, and may be found in that portion of the treatise to which I shall hereafter allude as "the Acts" (see note on p. 291, infra). There can be little doubt that the legend of the Ripsimians took the place of an old heathen legend, associated with the site at Vagharshapat. There seems to have been a local tradition that the cathedral and the chapels of Ripsime and Gaiane stand upon three rocks, whence in pagan times voices would be heard coming from underlying cavities and returning answers to questions addressed to them.

[147] This is probably an anachronism.

[148] I interpret him in the sense of there and back.

[149] It appears to have been the custom among the Armenians down to comparatively recent times for pious people to place large blocks of stone in front of the entrance to a church by way of offering. Dubois de Montpéreux saw a number of such stones, 6 or 7 feet high, covered with crosses and arabesques, in front of the portal of the cathedral at Edgmiatsin. I do not know what has become of them.

[150] Chardin (ed. Langlès, Paris, 1811, 8vo, vol. ii. p. 175). See also Tavernier (book i. ch. iii.). The Jesuit missionaries, however, later on in the seventeenth century, speak of a structure resembling a mausoleum and having four stone columns and an altar in the centre. There can be little doubt that this is an allusion to the erection of Eleazar.

[151] Chardin, ibid.

[152] History of Architecture, book i. ch. iv. Neo-Byzantine style. His remarks have reference to the shape of the dome and not to the pointed arches of the false arcade, which perhaps argue a much later date.

[153] Dubois de Montpéreux, Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris, 1839-43, vol. iii. pp. 372 seq.

[154] Ibid. Atlas, series iii. plate 7.

[155] See Telfer, The Crimea and Transcaucasia, London, 1876, vol. i. p. 222, and Dubois, op. cit. vol. iii. pp. 382 seq.

[156] Strgygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, Vienna, 1891. I read the large inscription thus:--Iêsou boêthei pantas tous euchomenous en tê ekklêsia Zibithain (?)--kyrie eleêson ton doulon sou Archian--kai kyrie Eleêson Elpidin (for Elpida or Elpidian, the variation of the accusative of Elpis into -pidin being not unusual)--Daniêl, Tirer, Garikinis. The word Zibithain is taken as a proper name by Brosset (Voyage Archéologique, St. Petersburg, 1849-51, 3me rapp., p. 16), and by Strgygowski, who supposes it to be the same as Zuithai, found in Armenian writers, e.g. in Faustus of Byzantium, who speaks of a Zuithai as priest of the town of Artaxata during the persecution of Shapur (Faustus, iv. 56). Zuithai would be the priest in whose church the memorial had been placed. As for the three proper names at the end, that of Tirer has been found in an inscription of the thirteenth century. Garikinis denotes the proper name Garegin.

[157] It is a matter of surmise that Nerses I. restored the sacred buildings of Vagharshapat after the destruction of that city by the Persian armies in the fourth century (see Faustus, v. 1); but the first restoration of the cathedral of which I can find any certain mention is that of the great Armenian chief Vahan Mamikonean in or about the year 483 (Lazar Pharpetzi in Langlois' Collection des historiens de l'Arménie, Paris, 1867-69, vol. ii. p. 352. And see Saint-Martin, Mémoires sur l'Arménie, Paris, 1818, vol. i. p. 328). Armenia was at this time struggling to rid herself of the Persian (Sasanian) yoke, having lost her Arsakid dynasty. The katholikos no longer resided at Edgmiatsin, the pontifical seat having been transferred to Dvin in A.D. 452 (Saint-Martin, ibid. vol. i. p. 437); nor does he return until A.D. 1441. In 618 it was again restored by the Katholikos Komitas (Saint-Martin, i. 116, quoting John Katholikos; and cp. Sebeos, Hist. of Heraclius, iii. 25 (in Armenian)), who substituted a dome in stone in place of the earlier wooden one. Certain repairs are attributed to the Katholikos Nerses III., surnamed the builder, A.D. 640-661, I know not upon what authority. After this there ensues a long period, for which we appear to have no records. The katholikos often changes his residence. After the destruction of the Cilician kingdom and in the year 1438 the right arm of St. Gregory, a relic which had become the palladium of the pontifical office, was transferred from Sis, the capital of that kingdom, to Edgmiatsin (Gelzer, article Armenien in Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie, Leipzic, 1896). Saint-Martin places the transfer thither of the seat of the pontificate in the year 1441. In 1442 the Katholikos Kirakos undertook the necessary repairs (Thomas Metsobatzi). We now leap to the reign of Shah Abbas of Persia, who, as is well known, transported a whole colony of Armenians from the valley of the Araxes to the outskirts of his capital, Ispahan. In 1614 this monarch carried off a number of the venerated stones of the church to New Julfa to form the nucleus of a new Edgmiatsin (Arakel of Tauris, ch. xxiv.). The famous monastery fell into woeful neglect. The Katholikos Moses (1629-33) restored it, but added no new feature. His successor Philip renewed the roof (inscriptions, records, etc.). I think I have mentioned subsequent additions. The steps which run round the church were added or extensively restored by the Katholikos Lukas (in 1784). But they have been modified by Makar I. Repairs are ascribed to the pontiffs Astvatsadur, Simeon and Ephraim, the last of whom repaired in 1816 the damages which the Persians had done to the roof by placing a battery upon it. For more detailed information I may refer my reader to a work entitled: Description of the Mother Church of the Armenians, by Vahan Vardapet Bastamean, Edgmiatsin, 1877 (in Armenian and Russian).

[158] See the translation of the De Edificiis by Stewart, annotated by Sir Charles Wilson, London, 1896, pp. 73 seq. (Palestine Pilgrims Text Society).

[159] John Katholikos, c. xii. And see Sebeos, Hist. of Heraclius, iii. 33.

[160] They bear the monograms of Nerses Katholikos and are reproduced by Strgygowski (op. cit.), to whom I refer my reader. I only saw one of them during my stay.

[161] Brosset (Bull. Scient. de l'Acad. de Sc. de St. Pétersbourg, vol. ii. 1837) has transcribed the letters and published a valuable little notice on the subject.

[162] The circumstance appealed to Brosset as a rare example of religious tolerance (Voyage Arch., rapp. 3, p. 19).

[163] Dubois, Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. iii. p. 371. But see Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, p. 287.

[164] I was unable to measure each apse; but I was assured that they were all of the same or nearly the same size. The portal is of course not included in the above measurements.

[165] Telfer (Crimea and Transcaucasia, London, 1876, vol. i. p. 231) seems to refer to this throne, which he ascribes to Pope Innocent XI., a gift to James IV. (1655-80).

[166] See Morier, Second Journey, pp. 323 seq.

[167] See Dubois de Montpéreux, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 213, and Neale's Holy Eastern Church, vol. i. p. 296. The former of these writers informs us that our church of St. Ripsime "a servi de type à une foule d'autres églises," and the latter has improved upon this statement by asserting that it is "the norm of all Armenian ecclesiastical buildings" (Dubois, vol. iii. p. 380, and Neale, vol. i. p. 293). Leaving Georgia out of account, both these statements are incorrect.

[168] Unless we accept Neale's hypothesis that they served as a narthex. But the narthex is not a feature of the churches of Great Armenia.

[169] According to Brosset (Voyage Arch., rapp. 3, p. 82) the diameter of the dome is not less than about 35 feet. The height is given by Neale, op. cit. p. 296, as 104 1/2 feet to the top of the cross.

[170] Sebeos, History of Heraklius (in Armenian), part iii. ch. xxv.

[171] For the theft and recovery of these relics see Smith and Dwight (Missionary Researches, London, 1834, p. 280), and Brosset (Voyage Arch., rapp. 3, p. 83).

[172] Brosset, ibid. p. 82. The date reposes upon the authority of the historian, John Katholikos.

[173] According to Agathangelus the third chapel was built upon the site of the wine-press. Further on we are told that it was situated north of the town, and that in it was buried the unfortunate nun who was left behind owing to sickness.

[174] Brosset (Bull. Scientifique Acad. Sc. St. Pétersbourg, 1840, pp. 46 seq.) quotes a letter from Nahabet to this effect.

[175] Brosset, ibid.

[176] Belck, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, 1893, Heft ii. p. 77.

[177] Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, p. 295.

[178] Schillinger, Persianische und Ost-Indianische Reise, Nürnberg, 1707. I do not credit the statement of Evliya, who visited Edgmiatsin in A.D. 1647, to the effect that at that time the monastery was inhabited by about 500 monks.

[179] Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat, note to 4th edition, London, 1896, p. 314.

[180] It is interesting to place together the two following passages, the first taken from a modern and representative Armenian source, the second from the work of a German scholar. I translate both from the German. Dr. Arshak Ter-Mikelean, professor of theology in the Academy at Edgmiatsin, writes (Die Armenische Kirche in ihren Beziehungen zur byzantinischen, Leipzic, 1892, p. 9): "The mother church of Gregory was not founded by him nor even by the apostles, who are only mortal men; but the everlasting Founder, the only Head of the Church, Himself descends in glory from Heaven and commands him to build a church after His plan and His directions on a prescribed site in the royal city, Vagharshapat. Christ Himself appears to Gregory in a vision and instructs him what he shall do ..."; and Professor Gelzer draws the inference (Die Anfänge der armenischen Kirche, in Berichte über die Verhandlungen der K. S. Gesell. der Wissenschaften zu Leipzic, Phil.-Hist. Classe, 1895, p. 127): "The ancient capital Vagharshapat ... bears at the present day the name Edgmiatsin, 'the Only Begotten descended from Heaven,' in everlasting remembrance that Christ Himself founded the Armenian Church and thereby established her as autokephalous and completely independent of every patriarchate, whether of the East or of the West."

[181] Moses of Khorene mentions St. Bartholomew and St. Simon (ii. 34, in Langlois, Collection des hist. de l'Arménie, Paris, 1867-69, vol. ii. p. 98), and says that the former suffered martyrdom in the town of Arevban, while the other was reputed to have met the same fate in Veriospora. According to Gelzer (article Armenien in Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie, Leipzic, 1896) the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew in Urbanopolis, a town of Great Armenia, was known to Greek writers as early as the fifth century. Urbanopolis, Albanopolis, or Korbanopolis (Armenian, Arevbanos or Arebonos-Kaghak) may perhaps be identified with Arabion castellum, where in fact Vardan (c. 1270) tells us that the saint was murdered. Arabion castellum was a fort on the Stranga, or Great Zab, which Mr. F. C. Conybeare (Key of Truth, Oxford, 1898, p. cii.) connects with the modern Deir, where at the present day the monastery and church of St. Bartholomew stand. I surmise that nothing is known of the site of Veriospora. Moses, following the Edessene tradition, speaks of St. Thaddeus as one of the seventy disciples, relates at length his mission to King Abgar of Edessa (Urfa in Mesopotamia), and speaks of his conversion of King Sanatruk, successor of Abgar, and of his martyrdom in the canton of Chavarchan, called in his day Ardaz, as well-known facts. For St. Jude I rely on Issaverdens (Armenia and the Armenians, Venice, 1878, vol. ii. p. 21), who relates that he was put to death and buried in the city of Urmi in Azerbaijan.

[182] Moses of Khorene, ii. 30-36, in Langlois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 95 seq.; and Saint-Martin, Mémoires, etc. vol. i. p. 127.