Old Post-Road from Tiflis to Erivan 301 



Our Guard of Mounted Cossacks 



money. Nor did the tales related to us 

 of recent exploits of brigands along this 

 road lead us to regard these g3'psies with 

 very high favor. 



We had entered the home of the Ori- 

 ental rug — in fact, we were on the bor- 

 ders of the Carabagh countr}' — and we 

 soon began to understand the process of 

 making them "antique." Beautiful 

 rugs are used in fastening loads on to 

 camels and donkeys, leaky roofs are 

 mended with them, and people use them 

 in place of chairs or beds in the houses, 

 on the streets, and while on a journey. 

 At Caravan-Sarai, in the Anti-Caucasus 

 Mountains, we espied an especially 

 prett}^ one on a bench, and asked the 

 man who w^as sitting on it how^ much he 

 would take for it. Twenty roubles ($i i ) 

 was his price. On general principles we 

 offered him ten, but he shook his head. 

 His neighbors at once perceived a chance 

 for a trade and flocked around us, each' 



one offering his rug for sale and des- 

 canting upon its merits — at least, we 

 took for granted that that was what 

 they were doing, for we could under- 

 stand scarceh^ a word of what was said. 

 Indifference is the price of success in 

 this kind of bargaining, and we walked 

 through the village apparently paying 

 little attention to the numerous rugs 

 held out to our view. The first man, 

 who had the rug we wanted, kept fol- 

 lowing us in the crowd, deducting a 

 rouble every time we made a move to 

 look at an attractive rug, but our invari- 

 able reply to him was ' ' Desyat roubli ' ' 

 (ten roubles). Not until we started for 

 our carriage did the other people despair 

 of selling us anything, and then they all 

 turned upon number one, urging him to 

 accept our offer. It was funny to watch 

 the men, for they are so excitable and 

 use gestures to such an extent that one 

 can almost understand them by these 



