At the village of Hullukluk, near Sivas, was born in 1676 Mekhitar,
founder of the well-known Armenian Order, which has convents at Venice,
Vienna, and Trieste. - H. C.]
CHAPTER III.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GREATER HERMENIA.
This is a great country. It begins at a city called ARZINGA, at which they
weave the best buckrams in the world. It possesses also the best baths
from natural springs that are anywhere to be found.[NOTE 1] The people of
the country are Armenians, and are subject to the Tartar. There are many
towns and villages in the country, but the noblest of their cities is
Arzinga, which is the See of an Archbishop, and then ARZIRON and
ARZIZI.[NOTE 2]
The country is indeed a passing great one, and in the summer it is
frequented by the whole host of the Tartars of the Levant, because it then
furnishes them with such excellent pasture for their cattle. But in winter
the cold is past all bounds, so in that season they quit this country and
go to a warmer region, where they find other good pastures. [At a castle
called PAIPURTH, that you pass in going from Trebizond to Tauris, there is
a very good silver mine.[NOTE 3]]
And you must know that it is in this country of Armenia that the Ark of
Noah exists on the top of a certain great mountain [on the summit of which
snow is so constant that no one can ascend;[NOTE 4] for the snow never
melts, and is constantly added to by new falls.
