Old Post-Road 



FROM 



TiFLIS TO ErIVAN 307 



congregate to smoke, sip coffee, gossip, 

 and bathe. 



The khans are great courtj^ards, sur- 

 rounded by barren rooms or alcoves, in 

 which, on payment of a small sum, a 

 traveler may make himself and his 

 camel or donkey as comfortable for the 

 night as his resources of bedding will 

 permit. A small open cistern in the 

 middle of the space receives the drain- 

 age of the courtyard, and at the same 

 time furnishes water to the occupants 

 of the khan for washing, cooking, and 

 drinking. I have seen a man wash his 

 face and hands in the reservoir while 

 another was drawing water from it with 

 which, apparently, to do his cooking, 

 this, too, in spite of the presence of the 

 pump beside the cistern. 



In the hotels it seemed impossible to 

 put down hat, umbrella, or gloves and 

 find them in their place again. Articles 

 would disappear, and when the propri- 



etor was sent for and told that the things 

 must be found at once, there would be 

 great running hither and thither, with 

 the resulting report that they could not 

 have been left where you said the}' were. 

 At the suggestion of police assistance, 

 however, the articles would be forth- 

 coming, a servant bringing them up and 

 asking naively if these could be the 

 missing articles, at the same time re- 

 marking that he had found them in a 

 place not at all that in which the}" act- 

 ually had been left. One gentleman of 

 our party who had a dress hat with him 

 besides his traveling cap had it taken 

 from his room four times in two days, 

 and, although he left Erivan at last with 

 it in his possession, had not traveled far 

 before he discovered that it was gone, 

 and that time for good. 



It was interesting to watch the natives 

 baking bread. The dough is rolled out 

 into sheets three or four feet long, about 



The Village of Kijhi Akht}^ on the I^ava Plain 



