298 FROM GOKTCHA1 TO LENKORAN. 



imposing stream, with the post-house on this side, 

 that is to say, on the eastern bank. To our dis- 

 gust, hungry as we were, we were detained at the 

 post-house for an hour, by the rascally Asiatic who 

 presided there, under the pretence that our papers 

 must be first examined by the authorities on the 

 other side before we were allowed to cross. So 

 well did the fellow impose on us, that though both 

 my man and myself were as puzzled as we were 

 angry, we submitted, until a Russian coming upon 

 the scene, informed us that the fellow was only 

 trying to extort black- mail from us for his supposed 

 services in getting our papers in order ; and our 

 new acquaintance, having a fellow-feeling for his 

 countryman my servant, took the Asiatic by his 

 beard, spat in his iace, and with many abusive 

 epithets ordered him to see to our immediate 

 transport to the other side, unless he wished to be 

 placed in charge of the police. Our courtesy and 

 civil speeches the brute had answered with all 

 possible rudeness, attributing our politeness, as all 

 these people do, to a sense of our own weakness ; 

 but to the greater brutality of the Russian the 

 weaker nature of the Asiatic yielded at once, and in 

 a few minutes we were waving adieux to our timely 

 helper from the other side the Kur. 



Our first business was to inquire where the 

 hotel was, and our next where caviare might be 

 bought, resolving mentally to purchase sufficient 



