Armenia and its sorrows

i8
ARMENIA AND ITS SORROWS
country suffers much from the cold north winds,
against Avhich it has no protection ;
and these, meeting
the south and east winds, give rise to the storms
which render the navigation of the Black Sea coast
so dangerous.
During the long and bitter winter, however bright
the sky may be, the sun's rays give little heat, and
only pain the eyes with the glare upon the snow.
This glare has a very marked effect, sometimes bringing
on a blindness called snow-blindness, and raising
blisters on the face precisely like those which are
produced by exposure to extreme heat. Another
inconvenience is somewhat absurd : the breath, out
of doors, congeals upon the moustaches and beard, and
speedily produces icicles, which prevent the possibility
of opening the mouth. Those who wear long beards
are sometimes obliged to commence the series of
Turkish civilities in dumb show ; their faces being
fixtures for the time, they are not able to speak till
their beards thaw. A curious phenomenon may also
be sometimes observed upon the door of one of the
subterranean stables being opened, when, although the
day is clear and fine without, the warm air within
immediately congeals into a little fall of snow ;
this
may be seen in great perfection on the first opening
of the outer door in the morning, when the house is
warm from its having been shut up all night.
At the melting of the snow the wolves often come
even into the towns, and devour the dogs, which are
everywhere numerous. There are gruesome stories
of their carrying off' the little peeping children, who
creep out of the houses at the beginning of spring,
and who are occasionally washed away in the torrents
of melted snow. Wolves are not very infreiiucntly
started out of the inside of one of tlic many dead horses
whose wornout bodies have been frozen as hard as
Hint during the winter, and which form savoury