foreground we overlooked the soft foliage of the village of Surb, with fertile fields and a little bay of U-shaped curve. It caught the light from the western sky, and reflected the tender tints on the very threshold of the pale water and gloomy rocks. I was informed that it is inhabited by Armenians and Moslems. We left it on our right hand as we descended by a precipitous path. West of Surb the mountains descend to the immediate border of the lake, and the track is taken at no great height above the water along their steep and rocky sides. It follows every bend in the outline of the shore. This characteristic was new to us, a crowning variety of the manifold features which rendered memorable our journey along the coast. As we advanced along this path we opened out the majestic Sipan, seen from foot to summit in the failing light. Night was closing when we arrived at a recess in the barrier, harbouring some fine chestnut trees. There is situated the village of Garzik, with thirty small tenements, of which twenty are inhabited by Armenians and ten by Kurds. The Kaimakam had sent forward a horseman, and our arrival was expected; a stable of unusual loftiness had been prepared. Hay had been laid on crates, and rugs spread upon this primitive mattress, destined to be our bed. Our horses rested near us, my colt and the Kaimakam's show-horse munching peacefully side by side. Our kind friend of Kindirantz related stories to us, while we watched the smoke wreathing upwards to the central aperture in the roof of logs. One of these stories was suggested by a question which I put to him, whether monogamy was strictly practised by the Christians. He told me--and his statement was confirmed from Christian sources--that the possession of several wives was not an infrequent occurrence among them, in spite of the ban of the Church. Not that the priests were a model of chastity according to his experience, which agreed with the conclusion arrived at by a bishop of Rumelia, his friend and countryman. That prelate had told him that four wives were allotted to a Mohammedan, one to a Christian and all to a bishop. I asked whether the Armenians intermarried with the Kurds in a village of mixed population like Garzik. His answer, which was in the negative, explains the stories of abduction which make such a show in our Blue-books. A Kurd sees a pretty Armenian girl of his own village, and, as often as not, a mutual passion arises between them. The lady is not always an unwilling victim, as our Armenian friends would lead us to suppose.