TABREEZ. 141 



CHAPTER YI. 



TABEEEZ, ARARAT, AND THE GEORGIAN HILL-COUNTRT. 



The City — Brick Architecture — The Shah's Birthday — The European 

 Colony — A Market Committee — Eeturn to Djulfa — A Dust Storm — Ford of 

 the Araxes — Aralykh — Start for Ararat — Refractory Kurds — A Moonlight 

 Climb — Failure — A Lonely Perch — Vast Panorama — Tucker's Story — A 

 Gloomy Descent — Eeturn to Erivan — Etchmiadzin — The Armenian Patri- 

 arch — A Dull Ride— Hammamly — The Georgian Hills — Djelaloghlu — 

 A Moist Climate — Sehulaweri — Tiflis again — Moore joins us. 



Tabreez, May 2Sth to June 2nd. — We had come thus 

 far to see a Persian city, which, we might hope to find 

 more beyond the reach of European influences than the 

 towns of the Levant, or even Damascus, the romance of 

 which is fast yielding to the frequent invasions of Cook's 

 tourists, Tabreez far exceeded our expectations. In 

 roaming about its bazaars, we felt the same sensation of 

 unreality as on our first arrival at Cairo, which, con- 

 sidering what we had seen in the intei-val, is saying a 

 great deal. I will begin by describmg the view gained 

 from one of the house-roofs, which form the favourite 

 lounging-places of the inhabitants. Thus viewed, the city 

 seems to divide itself into three portions. In the centre 

 are the domed roofs of the bazaars ; round these is a broad 

 zone of dwelling-houses, the grey of their fiat roofs and 

 walls enlivened by the bright-green of the courtyards, and 

 in the nearer ones by the woodwork of the window-blinds ; 

 outside stretches a ring of walled gardens, beyond which 

 is the bare country, characteristic of this part of Persia. 

 There are no minarets, and the only conspicuous building, 



