At night the Red Elephant Tusk boomed and groaned among the hills, and the faithful waked and said: ‘The God of Things as They Are matures revenge against the backsliders.’

A magnet for leaf-peeper pilgrimages, the color is brilliant in autumn, sweeping over the knolls and rises of the landscape.

Vesuvio groans through all his echoing caves, / And Etna thunders o'er the insurgent waves.

He recalled the heated discussions at the monastery and the monk who had insisted that the kyamancha and tar were native Armenian musical instruments, that modulation was typical of Armenian songs which were always soulful and mournful.