ERIVAN. 123 



lime and acacia — a pleasing contrast to the bare plain 

 around. We were driven throug-li its wide streets, which 

 have the unkempt air of most provincial Eussian towns, 

 to the post-station ; but not liking the quarters there, we 

 insisted on returning to the ' Gostenitza Ararat,' where we 

 found a tolerable room, clean beds, and excellent food, 

 including even such luxuries as coffee-ices. Erivan is a 

 place which belongs to no one nationality, but shows 

 in its buildings, and still more in the crowd in its 

 streets, the traces of several. Two-storied stone houses, 

 wide streets, an abundance of town-carriages, and an 

 untidy public garden, where a military band performs 

 every evening, mark the presence of Russian rulers. The 

 bazaars are thoroughly Eastern, and a stroll through them 

 will be sure to afford some amusement. The large open 

 space between tlie public garden and the fortress was 

 always crowded with camels and bales of merchandise. 

 The principal mosque, standing on one side of a quad- 

 rangle, is covered externally with blue tiles, which give its 

 minaret a very bright appearance. There is a certain 

 Persian element about the place, which manifests itself 

 most prominently in the paintings with which any blank 

 space of wall was decorated: here of a company of high- 

 capped horsemen, there of strange wild beasts, amongst 

 which the Persian lion — a near relation of our red lions at 

 home, with a sword in his paw, and the sun rising out of 

 his back — took the first place. Eussian, Persian, Ar- 

 menian, Kurd, and Tartar jostle one another between the 

 stalls, and it is strange to reflect on the different pasts, 

 and probable futures, of the races they represent. Now 

 you pass an Armenian priest or merchant, distinct in type 

 from the Russian — like the Greek clever and successful as 

 a man of business, and renowned throughout the East for 

 his sharp practice, and yet, also like the Greek, incapable of 



