MINGKELIAN HEADPIECES. 87 



locality) is a well named after St. Jolin, wliicli is venerated 

 even by tlie Kurds. When tlie locusts eat up the land, a 

 child — too young" to have committed any deadly sin — is 

 let down into the well, and brings up a cup of water. The 

 holy water thus procured is scattered over the fields, and 

 in a few hours a miraculous flight of birds arrives, and 

 eats up the locusts. 



The public garden at Kutais is a j^lot of ground the 

 size of a large London square, with walks down the 

 middle, and a few trees, but no flowers ; it is, in fact, 

 like an unkempt piece of the Eegent's Park. On Sun- 

 day afternoons, when a military band ijlays, it becomes 

 a most amusing promenade, owing to the immense variety 

 of costumes which meet the eye. In this part of the 

 world fashion runs wild in head-dresses. There is first 

 the hideous Russian military cap, white, bulging at the 

 top, and much like a baker's, which some of the in- 

 habitants have the bad taste to adopt : then there is 

 the taU sheepskin hat, like a lady's muff set on end, 

 with a round cloth cap, generally scarlet, to crown the 

 edifice ; this has a smaller and humbler relative of the 

 pork-pie order, of the same family is the Tartar cap, 

 conical in form, like a sugarloaf. Besides these the poorer 

 peasants are to be seen in every variety of felt wideawake, 

 from a bell-shaped fancy article, with gilt braid and a 

 button on the top, which looks as if it had been stolen 

 froDi the great Panjandrum himself, to an almost shapeless 

 piece of battered material. But the two most characteristic 

 headpieces have yet to be mentioned — the ' baschlik,' and 

 Mingrelian cap. The first is a cloth hood "with long 

 flappers attached, and is used by both sexes. The men 

 wear them plain, but for the ladies they can be made as 

 gorgeous, with gold embroidery, as the fair owner pleases. 

 When worn with the hood over the head, and the flappers 



