196 TIFLIS. 



rapidly forgetting everything but the scene in the 

 streets we were passing through. A more perfect 

 melange than Tin 1 is is impossible. There are no 

 two houses alike ; there are no two groups of gos- 

 sipers by the way speaking the same dialect ; in 

 every street there are a score of costumes belonging 

 to different nationalities ; and, as I afterwards found 

 out, you can, by leaving these main thoroughfares, 

 dive into yet another world and a worse Babel, by 

 turning down towards the river and entering the 

 bazaar. 



Shops there seemed to be many and good ; one 

 of the best in the place being kept by a Scotch- 

 man. The most attractive to the European are 

 those in which they sell Persian work, cushions, 

 carpets, and arms. In making purchases in these, 

 it is as well, however, to take a friend with you, 

 who knows something of the wares offered for sale, 

 as well as their approximate value, and the tricks 

 of their vendors. By doing this I certainly in pur- 

 chasing things to fit up a smoking-room at home 

 spent barely 100/. in place of about 250/., the sum 

 to which the original demands of the tradesmen for 

 each separate item would have amounted. Nothing 

 annoys a foreigner more, I think, than this enforced 

 haggling over the price of every purchase. 



But to hark back to my cabman. After driving 

 me all over Tiflis, through the main street, up 

 back slums that finally ended in waste hillside, 



