The ascent of the mountain by Dr. Parrot, and afterwards by a Mr. Antonomoff, is stoutly denied by the natives, and especially by the in mates of the neighboring convent of Echmiadzin, who have a firm persuasion that in order to preserve the ark no one is permitted to approach It. This is based on the tradition that a monk, who once made the attempt, was, when asleep from exhaustion, unconsciously carried down to the point whence he had started; but at last, as the reward of his fruitless exertions, an angel was sent to him with a piece of the ark, which is preserved as the most valuable relic in the cathedral of Echmiadzin.
(7) Earthquake Effects. Since the memora ble ascent of Dr. Parrot, Ararat has been the scene of a fearful calamity. An earthquake, which in a few moments changed the entire as pect of the country, commenced on the loth of June (o. s.), 184o, and continued, at intervals, until the 1st of September. Traces of fissures and landslips have been left on the surface of the earth, which the eye of the scientific observer will recognize after many ages. The destruction of houses and other property in a wide tract of country around was very great ; fortunately, the earthquake having happened during the day, the loss of lives did not exceed fifty. The scene of
greatest devastation was in the narrow valley of Akorhi, where the masses of rock, ice, and snow, detached from the summit of Ararat and its lateral points, were thrown at one single bound from a height of 6,000 feet to the bottom of the valley, where they lay scattered over an extent of several miles. (See Major Voskoboinikof's Report, in the Athena= for 1841, p. 157.) (8) Cuneiform Characters. "The cuneiform characters of Assyria were introduced into the kingdom of Ararat in the ninth century B. C. The syllabary was greatly simplified, each char acter having only a single phonetic value at tached to it, and the greater number of charac ters expressing closed syllables being rejected. The vowels were usually denoted by separate characters, and a good many ideographs were borrowed. It is to the use of these ideographs that the decipherment of the Vannic inscriptions is mainly due. The inscriptions are carved on rocks, altar-stones, columns, and the like, and are in a language which shows little resemblance to any other with which we are acquainted, though it may be distantly related to modern Georgian." (Hastings' Bib. Dirt.).