Saaderut was the first place of any importance through which our road led us. It is a large village, through the very centre of which the caravan-road passes. Part of this main street is loosely roofed over, forming the village bazaar, which, poor as it is, wears a somewhat flourishing appearance, from the fact that most of the houses are two storeys in height. The bazaar presented the usual scenes of an oriental village-little box-like shops with their platforms in front of them, on which were exposed the cheap commodities of oriental life, varied by ropes of black goat's hair and hobbles for tethering the caravan animals, &c. One larger shop exposed to view the end of an oven. Here a smooth polished counter lay covered with the flat pancake - like bread of the country, while from the dark depths of the furnace a couple of swarthy long-haired Turkis, stripped to the waist, were extracting a further supply of the same indigestible stuff. But it was only for a few minutes that our way was varied by the village scenes, for the place is but a small one, and we did not linger. Then the open plain again, green with the rising corn, and here and there dotted with gardens of fruit and poplar trees. Life stirred on all sides. Ragged soldiery were returning from an abortive expedition to the Kurdish provinces, many mounted on donkeys and still more trudging barefoot, ill-kempt and half

starved, walking with weary faltering steps, the first half a mile ahead of the last, with no officers and no attempt at order. Flocks and herds grazed by the roadside, the brown fat-tailed sheep and picturesque scared-looking goats, while from bush to bush, or on the open fields, hopped grey crows, hoopoes, and magpies, cawing and chattering and whistling. Then a long strip of uninteresting plain brought our little caravan to the khan of Yanok, a solitary betowered and bewalled building, enclosing a large courtyard, surrounded by tiny rooms. Here we rested for the refreshment of man and beast.. A picturesque scene it was within the walls of the caravanserai, for our little party of Turki, Arab, and Englishman were by no means the only travellers who were resting at this Government half-way house, as a number of Turki caravan-men, in their strange mushroom-like hats and dirty skirted coats of soiled cloth, were seated or lying asleep in the vicinity of their tethered pack-horses, and one entire corner was occupied by a score of camels with jingling bells and head-gear of red cloth, feathers, shells, and mirrors, the whole bedecked with embroidery and tassels.

After an hour's rest we set off again, and as sunset was nearing reached a dreary caravanserai, a mile to the north of the little town of Mamerghan. Finding that, owing to having delayed in Tabriz, it would be

impossible for us to reach Gogan, we sought quarters in this inhospitable-looking ruin, and found to our relief that there was a tolerably comfortable room with a verandah over the arched doorway, and ample stabling for our horses. The whole building was constructed of mud, which, owing to the climate, is tolerably durable. The roof of our room consisted of mats of coarse reeds laid over poplar poles, the whole covered outside with a thick coating of the same kind of native mud as the building was made of. Fortunately this spot does not form a common resting-place for caravans, so that we had the entire building to ourselves, and the uninterrupted service of the two or three poverty-looking Turkis in charge. From the verandah in front of the one guest-room of the place a fine view was obtained of the surrounding country. To the east lay Mount Sahend, covered with snow, and to the west the mountains of the promontory of Shahi, or Shahu, which at this time of year forms an island in the lake of Urmiyah. Near as was this great sheet of water it was not visible, though its surrounding marshes of dark mud, green reeds, and incrustation of salt, formed a strange and desolate panorama in that direction. On one of the spurs of Sahend to the east lay, only a few miles distant, the little town of Mamerghan, a blot of yellow mud amongst the green corn - fields. Day