With the Russian Expedition
Their belief is probably a slightly corrupted form of the ancient Persian cult, which conceived of the universe as controlled by the two gods of good and evil, continually warring with each other.
On July 25th I reached Echmiadzin, where the Catholicos of the Armenians kindly gave me a room in the hostel. Next morning I had an interview with his Holiness, who was much perturbed about the news which had come through from Turkey, where the deportations were just then beginning. I made the acquaintance of Archdeacon Haloust, one of the most intellectual of the Armenians at Echmiadzin. He showed me the ancient Armenian book, "The Key of Truth," which is supposed to prove that the Armenians before the 3rd century came under the influence of the earliest forms of Christianity. But it must be borne in mind that the conversion of the Armenians is generally attributed to Gregory the Illuminator in the 4th century. On July 27th I left by train for the Persian frontier at Djulfa, where I was passed over the river by the frontier guards into Persian territory. The heat of Djulfa is very great at this time of year, and I accepted with much pleasure the kind invitation of M. le Jeune, the Belgian chief of the Persian customs, to rest and sup with him in his cool house. At midnight I set out in a phaeton, which M. le Jeune had hired for me from a Persian, and in the early hours of the morning I was on the road for Tabriz. The Russians were constructing the Djulfa-Tabriz railway, and gangs of Persians were hard at work making deep cuttings in the hills that run east and west across the Tabriz table-land. After Marand I passed Sofian, where the Russians defeated a
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