332 Journal of a Tour through Georgia, [July,' 



can read the Zendavesta in the original. I should fancy a reference 

 to the article Alphabet in any of the Encyclopedias would exhibit 

 the value of the Zend and Pehlevi characters. I note in a memoran- 

 dum the equivalent characters of the Greek Bactrian coins to five 

 Greek names and cognomens, and could have carried the subject far- 

 ther, did time allow*. 



Your messenger brought a letter for the Nuwab from Osman, and this 

 caused his detention to-day. I visited the biirjes or topes in hand : the 

 one I noted as expecting something from is not yet got through : in 

 the centre was a kind of structure in form [as in Plate xxii. Fig 27], the 

 bottom has not yet been reached. I hope to-morrow will produce 

 something. The topes with tbese forms of inferior gumbazes or domes, 

 &c. in the centre, are very suspicious ; I fear in some instances these 

 are the only tokens they contain, and they do not give much information. 



23rd March, 1834. C. M. 



IV. — Journal of a Tour through Georgia, Persia, and Mesopotamia. By 



Capt. Mignan, Bombay European Regiment, Fellow of the Linncean 



Society of London, and M. R. A. S. 



[Continued from p. 280.] 



Speaking to Prince Galetzin of the Russian Cavalry, who had been 

 attached to the Count's staff in Turkey, he said, " We do not lose half 

 so many men as you are inclined to believe ; since on the instant a man 

 is infected, we plunge him in iced water, wash all his linen, and on the 

 second day he is sure to be convalescent." That the soldiers of the 

 Russian army should be infected, can create no surprise whatever. 

 Their filthiness is proverbial. I once saw a regiment paraded to per- 

 form (as I imagined) their evolutions. On being drawn up in line, a 

 serjeant stepped out to the front with a long broom, and rubbed down 

 the men, as our grooms do horses. Had I been on the parade ground, 

 I might have been murderedby an attack of lice — a second plague which 

 has smote this land. A punishment parade succeeded this novel scene, 

 and several offenders were brought forward. The drum-major passed 

 down the line, and actually spat into the mouths of the prisoners. The 

 reader is tired of a narrative so disagreeable. I can assure him, that my 

 disgust to this nation is founded on practices that exist not amongst 

 the most barbarous people. I leave them to their admirers. 



On the morning of the 8th of February, we quitted Ganja forZodi, 

 distant four leagues. On leaving the town, my attention was attracted 



* We shall take an opportunity of introducing these in a subsequent plate, with 

 as many more of the same character as are now within our reach from the collec- 

 tions of Shgkh Kera'met Ali, and Munshi Mohan Lal. — Ed. 



