DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0459
426
SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES.
[Chap. xxiv.
nowhere to be found, and I lost the opportunity of examining
this curious relic of ancient times, and of enjoying the exten-
sive view from the castle. However I entered one of the pas-
sages in the town, and found it arched over with bricks, but
being blocked up with loose stones, I had no means of seeing
how far it extended. I could not subscribe to the credulity of
Dr. Riga, who declared that some of them were coiitinued for
several miles outside the town. One of the Armenian priests
whom I met at the Catholic bishop's said that they were eight
leagues long, and another, warming with the excitement of this
mysterious subject, immediately added, that there was one
which extended two days' journey. The doctor assured me
that the passage which I had visited was blocked up in con-
sequence of a bull, which had lost his way, and had entered
the other end several miles off, suddenly making his ap-
pearance in the cellar, to the horror and alarm of the
proprietor and his family, who, seeing this huge horned
beast in the cellar, took it for his satanic majesty in person,
and forthwith blocked up the entrance. In short, the tales
which they related respecting these passages were as extra-
ordinary as the fables, which both Armenians and Turks
believe, respecting hidden treasures. These latter far ex-
ceed what we generally hear respecting the credulity of
savages, and can, I think, only be accounted for on the
supposition that, as their waking thoughts are constantly
occupied with the subject, their dreams also are not unfre-
quently tinctured with the same ideas, and that by con-
founding the two, they mix up the results of their dreams
with the facts of daily life.
I was detained at Angora longer than I had intended
by a slight illness, and spent one evening during my stay at
the house of another European physician, Dr. Leonardi.
He has been many years in this country, has married an
Armenian wife, and wears the Oriental dress. He has
a large family, and several young and beautiful daugh-
ters; I was much struck with the richness and elegance
of their costume; for they were dressed in all their finery
SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES.
[Chap. xxiv.
nowhere to be found, and I lost the opportunity of examining
this curious relic of ancient times, and of enjoying the exten-
sive view from the castle. However I entered one of the pas-
sages in the town, and found it arched over with bricks, but
being blocked up with loose stones, I had no means of seeing
how far it extended. I could not subscribe to the credulity of
Dr. Riga, who declared that some of them were coiitinued for
several miles outside the town. One of the Armenian priests
whom I met at the Catholic bishop's said that they were eight
leagues long, and another, warming with the excitement of this
mysterious subject, immediately added, that there was one
which extended two days' journey. The doctor assured me
that the passage which I had visited was blocked up in con-
sequence of a bull, which had lost his way, and had entered
the other end several miles off, suddenly making his ap-
pearance in the cellar, to the horror and alarm of the
proprietor and his family, who, seeing this huge horned
beast in the cellar, took it for his satanic majesty in person,
and forthwith blocked up the entrance. In short, the tales
which they related respecting these passages were as extra-
ordinary as the fables, which both Armenians and Turks
believe, respecting hidden treasures. These latter far ex-
ceed what we generally hear respecting the credulity of
savages, and can, I think, only be accounted for on the
supposition that, as their waking thoughts are constantly
occupied with the subject, their dreams also are not unfre-
quently tinctured with the same ideas, and that by con-
founding the two, they mix up the results of their dreams
with the facts of daily life.
I was detained at Angora longer than I had intended
by a slight illness, and spent one evening during my stay at
the house of another European physician, Dr. Leonardi.
He has been many years in this country, has married an
Armenian wife, and wears the Oriental dress. He has
a large family, and several young and beautiful daugh-
ters; I was much struck with the richness and elegance
of their costume; for they were dressed in all their finery