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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
142
the handsome woman of the house willingly showed me how
the butter was made by filling the vessel with cream and
rocking it to and fro like a cradle.
We set off again. Channels of running water were now to
be seen on all sides, with buffaloes in them, and boys bathing,
and sometimes men as well ; but we never saw any women
bathing.
Then we reached the northern limit of the irrigated region,
and drove on into the desert which extends northwards towards
Alagoz, with occasional ridges of lava and tuff here and there,
looking at a distance like old crater-cones. We struck the
main road to Echmiadzin, and saw strings of big bullock-carts
laden with bamboos going to the town.
ZVARTHNOTZ.
When we had got a little way beyond Echmiadzin on the
road to Erivan> we turned off southwards from the main road
to see the place where important excavations and investigations
have been carried on in recent years under the direction of the
Archimandrite Khachik Dadian, the Bishops Mesrop Ter-
Movsessian and Thoros Thoramanian, and where they have
found the ruins of the historie Armenian church of Zvarthnotz
—a nåme said to mean the same as Zvarthunk, or " the angels’
increasing powers," i.e. " the angelic hosts."
Arrived at the site of the excavations we found it to be a
large area covered with ruins, where we saw foundations and
remains of large buildings, and ranged on all sides the most
beautiful fragments of capitals, reHefs, cornices, etc, which
once adorned the arches and pillars, sculptured in stone,
lava, tuff, and some in basalt.
The first thing that caught one’s eye was the remains of
three huge pillars, towering above the other ruins. They
were three out of the four piers which had supported the high
middle dome. Outside these could be seen the lower portion
of the outer wall of the church, which was circular. This
shows that the exterior of the church was round, but its
fundamental plan was quadrangular, like the church on the
cliffat Mtskhetha, being marked by the four big piers. Between
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