118 
TIFLIS. 
not merely to pedestrians, but to horsemen, to asses with bur¬ 
thens, and even droves of buffaloes are not excluded. Hence it 
is often both disagreeable and dangerous to the foot-passenger; 
yet we never find it but full of people and bustle from morning 
until dusk. Not far from the bazar is the public caravansary, 
where merchant-travellers take up their quarters. Here you see, 
exposed on the stone or earthen floors, of dark and vaulted 
apartments, whatever goods the merchants who inhabit them 
may possess. The owner of each heap, sits cross-legged, in 
grave attendance, waiting the appearance of customers, or bar¬ 
gaining with those who arrive; and in one of them, I discovered 
an old fellow-traveller, an Armenian merchant, who had passed 
the Caucasus with me. He was pleased with the encounter, 
and treated me with a kaleon, sweetmeats, and some brandy, 
made at Erivan. This building is circular, three stories in height 
with a sort of gallery running in front of each range of doors, 
from whence stone steps descend, to conduct passengers above 
or below. The centre of the court is filled with the horses and 
mules of the merchants in the caravansary. 
At one extremity of the bazar we find a small bridge over a 
deep ravine, at the bottom of which flows a mountain-stream; 
pure and cold at its fountain-head, but mingling here with the 
hot-springs, which take their rise in the adjacent heights, it be¬ 
comes warm, and derives all the medicinal properties, whose 
fame gave birth to Tiflis. Over this steaming flood we find the 
public baths erected. They form not only a resource in sick¬ 
ness, to the natives, and to travellers visiting them with the 
same object, but they are the daily resort of both sexes, as places 
of luxury and amusement. On one side of the bridge stand those 
appropriated to the men ; and on the other, immediately below 
