But The Exact Legend Here Reported Is Related (As M. Pauthier Has Already
Noticed) By Wilibrand Of Oldenburg Of A Stream Under The Castle Of
Adamodana, Belonging To The Hospitallers, Near Naversa (The Ancient
Anazarbus), In Cilicia Under Taurus.
And Khanikoff was told the same
story of a lake in the district of Akhaltzike in Western Georgia, in
regard to which he explains the substance of the phenomenon as a result of
the rise of the lake's level by the melting of the snows, which often
coincides with Lent.
I may add that Moorcroft was told respecting a sacred
pond near Sir-i-Chashma, on the road from Kabul to Bamian, that the fish
in the pond were not allowed to be touched, but that they were accustomed
to desert it for the rivulet that ran through the valley regularly every
year on the day of the vernal equinox, and it was then lawful to catch
them.
Like circumstances would produce the same effect in a variety of lakes,
and I have not been able to identify the convent of St. Leonard's. Indeed
Leonard (Sant Lienard, G. T.) seems no likely name for an Armenian
Saint; and the patroness of the convent (as she is of many others in that
country) was perhaps Saint Nina, an eminent personage in the Armenian
Church, whose tomb is still a place of pilgrimage; or possibly St.
Helena, for I see that the Russian maps show a place called Elenovka
on the shores of Lake Sevan, N.E. of Erivan. Ramusio's text, moreover,
says that the lake was four days in compass, and this description will
apply, I believe, to none but the lake just named. This is, according to
Monteith, 47 miles in length and 21 miles in breadth, and as far as I can
make out he travelled round it in three very long marches. Convents and
churches on its shores are numerous, and a very ancient one occupies an
island on the lake. The lake is noted for its fish, especially magnificent
trout.
(Tavern. Bk. III. ch. iii.; J. R. G. S. X. 897; Pereg. Quat. p. 179;
Khanikoff, 15; Moorcroft, II. 382; J. R. G. S. III. 40 seqq.)
Ramusio has: "In this province there is a fine city called TIFLIS, and
round about it are many castles and walled villages. It is inhabited by
Christians, Armenians, Georgians, and some Saracens and Jews, but not
many."
NOTE 7. - The name assigned by Marco to the Caspian, "Mer de Gheluchelan"
or "Ghelachelan," has puzzled commentators. I have no doubt that the
interpretation adopted above is the correct one. I suppose that Marco said
that the sea was called "La Mer de Ghel ou (de) Ghelan," a name taken from
the districts of the ancient Gelae on its south-western shores, called
indifferently Gil or Gilan, just as many other regions of Asia have
like duplicate titles (singular and plural), arising, I suppose, from the
change of a gentile into a local name.
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