194 TIFLJS. 



mar the uniformly Asiatic nature of the scene, 

 while in the streets splendid carriages run into 

 rough log- carts on huge wooden wheels dragged 

 slowly along by half- tamed buffaloes. Camels 

 look pityingly down at you with mild, sad eyes, 

 as they stalk past ; Cossacks and gentlemen in the 

 latest Parisian costume jostle each other on the 

 pavement ; at the street corners sit ferocious figures 

 with moustaches several inches long, in sheepskin 

 headgear, literally one-fourth the size of them- 

 selves, engaged in the peaceful occupation of em- 

 broidering slippers or cushions, which are after- 

 wards exposed for sale in Abkhasian serais stand- 

 ing side by side with shops wherein the wares are 

 fresh from the boulevards of Paris ; and every- 

 where throughout this strange scene glide the 

 Georgian women in their white mufflers, which 

 resemble nothing so much as a sheet wound round 

 their persons, showing only their faces and a few 

 inches of many-coloured skullcap at the top. Here 

 and there you see a Tiflis water-carrier with his 

 skins of precious fluid carried on his horse's back ; 

 a Persian selling hawks, or a band of Swanetian 

 minstrels in skullcaps of white felt. However, 

 when I first looked out from my lofty post of 

 vantage on the morning after my arrival, Tiflis 

 was but barely awake, and the sights I have 

 described above were only partly visible ; the rest 

 gradually appeared as the day got older. 



