Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map . subsist. Finally,in the forenoon of Saturday, March 14, I reached Julfa, on theAras, the ancient Araxes. In the classic writers this river wasproverbial for its swift current, whose rushing descent from theArmenian mountains carried away the bridges in the wintertime, so that Vergil calls it the stream intolerant of any span—pontem indignatus Araxes.^ The river is now the boundarybetween Persia and Russia, although historically the confinesof Iran have always extended far beyond the Ara
Persia past and present; a book of travel and research, with more than two hundred illustrations and a map . subsist. Finally,in the forenoon of Saturday, March 14, I reached Julfa, on theAras, the ancient Araxes. In the classic writers this river wasproverbial for its swift current, whose rushing descent from theArmenian mountains carried away the bridges in the wintertime, so that Vergil calls it the stream intolerant of any span—pontem indignatus Araxes.^ The river is now the boundarybetween Persia and Russia, although historically the confinesof Iran have always extended far beyond the Aras. At Julfa an incident occurred in connection with the Rus-sian export customs for which I was not prepared. The cus-toms ofiicers when examining my baggage kept asking only one 1 Ptolemy, Qeog. 5. 13 (941). s Ibn Haukal, p. 165 ; Yakut, tr. 2 See Wilson, Persian Life, p. 47 ; Barbier de Meynard, pp. 561, 565,Perkins, Eight Terns in Persia, p. 134, n. 1. Andover, 1843 ; and, on the fanciful * Cf. Lynob, Armenia, 1. 345. etymology, consult Htibschmann. IF. • Vergil, JEneid, 8. 728. 16. 455. ??i. CROSSING THE ARAS 23 question, but I did not understand Russian, nor did theyknow either French, German, or English. The inspectioncame to a standstill, therefore, until old Rustom, who had notpreviously been allowed to enter the customs lines, was sum-moned. In answer to the inspectors query he promptly as-serted that I was not carrying arms, to which I responded aspromptly that I had a revolver at my belt. My straightforwardreply cost me the pistol, as a new tariff law forbade the export-ing of firearms to Persia; but my honesty was repaid by mynot having to see the weapon confiscated, and permission wasgranted me to send it back to Tiflis by Rustom. The personto whom I consigned it afterward presented the weapon to anAmerican missionary whose revolver had been stolen on ajourney. I parted with the pistol with regret, and afterwardwhen alone in remote places in Persia I several ti
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