TIFLIS AND ITS INHABITANTS 65 



of a most alluring kinjal, and commenced a protracted 

 haggle over its price with an old Armenian, whose 

 cunning eyes, always the same and yet ever changing, 

 kept glancing at his Famihar, a tawny Persian — whose 

 moustache and beard were dyed to the music-hall 

 comedian shade of red — as though for encouragement 

 to doughtier deeds in the way of extortion. 



Cecily, picking her words, for her Russian seemed 

 to grow rustier, bargained Scotch-fashion for three- 

 quarters of an hour so successfully that, after a make- 

 believe to quit the shop for ever, a proceeding which 

 sent both Shjdocks after us to the door, she stood 

 possessed of an elaborate kinjal, in an inlaid sheath, 

 and a handsome belt, for a quarter the price asked. 

 Our Armenian extortioner seemed quite unable of his 

 own volition to count the amount due him, and flew 

 in frenzied haste to a rickety frame, the abacus of the 

 Chinese, with wooden balls set on wires, and had a 

 tremendous game with this contraption, knocking the 

 bobbins about hither and thither. Then, as he got 

 weary of it, with a far-away smile he announced that 

 we owed him so much, exactly what we had made it 

 out to be before the fun commenced. We paid the bill 

 in rouble notes, notes so dirty and worn that we were 

 almost glad to be rid of them. 



Luxuries are expensive in Caucasia. Fruit is cheap 

 enough and food generally ; the ubiquitous cucumber, 

 most popular of eatables, may be had almost for the 

 carrying away, but indulgences, the (what one of our 

 generals in the late South African War, " the Sybarite," 

 called) "little comforts," are heavily charged for, or 



F 



