'A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809, in which is included some account of the proceedings of his Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart., to the Court of the King of Persia. With twenty-five engravings from the designs of the author; a plate of inscriptions; and three maps.' [‎333] (414/524)

ARZ-ROUM TO AMASIA.
33S
office, which is the common mode of investiture in Turkey. On
the present occasion we were told by the Tatars that the pelisse was
actually on the road.
The Aga or Governor of Caraja was a Turk of a very fierce appear
ance, but of a behaviour more agreeable than his looks. He accom
modated us with the upper part of his own house, an open room
looking over a beautiful plain, and in the evening treated us with a
dinner. The greatest and best ingredient of the entertainment was a
large lamb roasted whole ; round this were seated twelve person^
mostly the farmers of the place, among whom however I could dis
tinguish the Imaum, or parish priest, and the Hodja or schoolmaster.
All these gentlemen arrived with very good appetites to the feast;
for no sooner were they seated and the lamb placed before them, than
every one had his right hand in the dish at orice, tearing off as large
pieces from the animal, as his strength and dexterity would admit.
This species of attack did not finish, until there remained nothing but
the bare bones of the lamb; when every man very deliberately retired
to smoke his pipe in a corner of the sofa, and to drink a cup of coffee,
that was then handed round to each of the guests. Although such a
meal may be repugnant to the delicacy of those, who have been ac
customed to a civilized mode of eating, yet there was a species of wild
and generous hospitality in the manners of these people, that I could
not help admiring; and a few ingredients of which would add ex
tremely to the delights of a modern tableoill '
27th. We proceeded from Caraja, and halted at the distance of
twenty miles, on a bearing of N. 60 W. Our station was on the
banks of a stream in a beautiful valley, and we reached it through a
country, which (almost above that of the preceding march) was finely
wooded, and in the intervals among the mountains richly cultivated.
Among the forests the pines were of an -uncommon size. Whilst we
were eating our dinner under a tree, a heavy storm 5 of thunder and
lightning and rain, from the Westward, came over us. In this situa
tion we were joined by a Persian who was coming post from Constant