404 VOYAGE DOWN THE DON, 
chap, moveable dwellings may be noticed in all the 
— t territories of the Tahtars. 
We entered the quarter where the shops are 
stationed. It is a very lofty covered street, or 
cloister, surrounding a square, after the manner 
of the Palais Royal at Paris. Every trade has 
its peculiar station assigned, as in the bazars of 
Constantinople ; and, according to the rule ob- 
served in Oriental bazars, the floor of each shop 
is made level with the counter; the dealers 
sitting at their work, as in Turkey, with their, 
legs crossed beneath their bodies. The shops 
were all well stored, and a rapid sale was going 
on. Their owners, in many instances, were really 
Mohammedans, who manufactured slippers, san- 
dals, and boots, in coloured leather. Among other 
tradesmen, we observed tobacconists, pipe- 
makers, clothiers, linen-drapers, grocers, butch- 
ers, bakers, blacksmiths, silk-mercers, dealers 
in Indian shawls, &c. Their bakers make bread 
of a very superior quality. According to a salu- 
tary Asiatic custom, it is publickly made, and 
publickly baked ; so that the whole process of 
preparing the most important article of food 
is open to the inspection of every one. 
The crowd passing before their shops re- 
sembled a masquerade, where the costly 
embroidered vestments of rich Armenian mer- 
