TIPLIS. 99 



some greedy Georgian or Armenian, whose wares had 

 previously taken onr fancy in the bazaars. 



On this our first visit we spent a week at Tiflis ; but after 

 our return from Persia, and again ere setting out on our 

 homeward journey, we made short halts in the same com- 

 fortable quarters. I must now endeavour to throw together 

 the impressions which were the result of our several visits. 

 Our first feeling was, undoubtedly, one of disappointment. 

 We had heard one way and another, while in the East, a 

 good deal ofthe attractions of Tiflis, and now we found a 

 town, which consists of a Russian quarter roughly hand- 

 some, and ostentatiously European, and two strangely in- 

 congruous suburbs, Persian and German. The covered 

 bazaars of the one are small and, after Damascus and Con- 

 stantinople, comparatively commonplace ; the other is neat 

 and snug, with its 'biergarten' and band, where the German 

 mechanic and ' madchen ' promenade together, fondly and 

 dully, as if in their native archduchy. The environs of 

 the town are certainly not commonplace, but no one 

 can call them beautiful. Bare green downs lie on the 

 left bank of the Kur, and over the town on the right rise 

 steep cliffs of clay, dried and parched up by the suns of 

 many summers. 



A better acquaintance, gained by many drives and 

 rambles through the town, greatly modified these first 

 impressions. We found that the Russian quarter contained 

 many well-built private houses and excellent shops, and if 

 the bazaars did not make the outward show of Damascus 

 or Cairo, there was no lack of temptation to spend money 

 within. 



The first thing which struck us in the business quarter of 

 the town was the eagerness to sell shown by the occupants 

 of the various stalls. In the East you may generally stop, 

 and turn over one piece of goods after another, and their 



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