403 
TO AZOF AND TAGANROG. 
of Armenian merchants. They are not naturally 
a lively race ot men. The Armenians are almost 
as grave as the Turks, and they have all the 
boorishness of Dutchmen ; insomuch, that this is 
a common saying with European merchants in 
Constantinople; “A sportive Armenian is as awk- 
ward as a dancing bear.” Yet, instigated by 
commercial speculations, these men traverse all 
countries, and overcome surprising obstacles; 
frequently making journeys to India, and to the 
most distant regions of the earth. Their com- 
modities and their manufactures, as far as we 
were enabled to judge of them, appeared to be 
Turkish, and of a nature to find a ready sale in 
Axay and in Tcherkask. They supply all the 
fairs of the neighbouring provinces ; and these 
fairs afford the most extraordinary sights in 
Europe, because they are attended by persons 
from almost every nation. There is scarcely a 
nation, civilized or barbarous, which has not its 
representative at the fairs which are held along 
the Sea of Azof, and upon the Don ; but parti- 
cularly at the great fair of Nakhtshivan. The 
Hamaxobii of Herodotus then make their appear- 
ance, as in the days of the historian ; travelling- 
in vehicles, the coverings of which are their tents 
by night, and tilts for their cars by day' * 2 . Such 
CHAP. 
XIV. 
(2) See the Vignette to this Chapter. 
2 D 2 
