Note 5 — Chapter XIX · ASCENT OF SIPAN

I remain about three hours upon this summit, and then proceed to the highest eminence on the eastern margin of the circular figure, in order to overlook the eastern arm of Lake Van. On my way there a strange incident occurs. My Circassian has told me that there exists a ziaret, or place of pilgrimage, in the vicinity of this cairn. Curious, and half doubtful, I ask him to show me the spot, which he says is close by. What is my amazement when, opening out a slight hollow of the snowy surface, we see before us a group of Mohammedan women, standing upon the ice with bare feet and ankles, and prostrating themselves before a pair of stag’s horns! Indeed the antlers are so thickly covered with little bits of rag that it is impossible to say for certain to what species of animal they belonged. Stranger still is the fact that a band of women—I count twelve—should have risked their lives in this way. Tantum religio!... And yet the Kaimakam of Melazkert is quite unshaken in his belief that only one man, and he in exceptional circumstances, has ever trodden the sacred summit of Sipan!5