Note 5 — Chapter VIII · FROM MUSH TO ERZERUM

I must regret the loss of a great portion of my notes, made during the course of this day. The monastery is one of the oldest in Armenia, and was certainly founded by the Illuminator himself. He came hither after his famous conversion of King Tiridates, when many of the princes of the land had espoused his religion and his sacred cause. But that cause and religion had become divested of their peaceful character; and it was rather with torch and sword than with the lamp of the teacher and the staff of the missionary that the Christian saint appeared on the threshold of this beauteous plain. He had been apprised of the existence of two heathen temples, standing on the spot where now the cloister stands. They were an object of especial reverence by a colony of Hindu refugees, long since established under the sceptre of the Armenian kings. They worshipped two idols, which were made of brass, with colossal proportions, and were known in the country under the names of Demeter and Kisane. These interesting figures, with the ancient cult which they represented, were doomed to destruction at the hands of the Christians. The attendant priests raised the alarm among their lay brethren, and St. Gregory and his friends were obliged to reckon with a hostile force. But the Hindu warriors with their Armenian allies were defeated in two battles, and their sanctuaries were razed to the ground. A Christian church was erected upon the site which they had occupied; and the body of St. John the Baptist, translated from Cæsarea, took the place of Demeter and Kisane. These events are related by the Syrian Zenobius, an eye-witness and a lieutenant of the Saint. I had perused his narrative overnight in the pages of Ritter, and I was anxious to know whether it were known to my companion. I found him conversant with every particular of the story, and he expressed his conviction that these heathens were Hindus. He was equally certain that the gypsies, who may still be met with in the country, were descendants of this colony. He told me that their language was known as Sanskrit among the Armenians.5 He led me within the enclosure, and showed me a little chapel situated upon the west of the church. In that chapel he assured me that St. Gregory had said his first mass, and it stood on the site of the temple of Kisane. That of Demeter had been, he said, the larger of the two shrines.6