There were four of us—two Frenchmen, an Italian, and an Englishman. We had ridden from Damascus to Baalbek, and had seen the ruins; after dinner, we were lying on heaps of cushions on the floor, in a hostelry little known to Europeans. For some minutes the bubbling of our narghilés was the only sound that broke the stillness of the night. Then the ex-cuirassier spoke out in a strong voice—the voice of a man accustomed to command—“Gentlemen! I propose that we solemnly pass a vote of censure on th

The only daily train leaves at eight o’clock in the morning; the station, although it is a terminus of so much importance, is a wretched wooden building, a striking contrast to the one at Baku, which would not disgrace our own metropolis. The railway skirts the sea for about thirty miles, and on the right lies a range of hills covered with a luxuriant growth of fine forest-trees and thick undergrowth gay with blossoms; in the neighbourhood of the town there are already many pretty villas. The ra

Only those who have lived the life of the people in Trans-Caucasia know what a terrible curse the money-lending community are. A local proverb says, “A Greek will cheat three Jews, but an Armenian will cheat three Greeks,” and the Georgian, straightforward, honest fellow, is but too often cruelly swindled by the artful children of Haïk. When the fraud is very apparent the Armenian often pays for his greed with all the blood that can be extracted from his jugular vein. During my stay in Tiflis, a

Mtzkhet, if we are to believe local traditions, is one of the oldest cities on earth, for the story goes that it was founded by a great-grandson of the patriarch Noah. Be that as it may, there are unmistakable signs that a Greek or Roman town existed here at a remote date, and antiquaries generally agree in identifying Mtzkhet with the Acrostopolis of the Romans, the headquarters of Pompey after he had defeated Mithridates and subdued Iberia and Albania. No better spot could have been chosen, fo

AN ARBA Page 73. The sun had now reached the meridian, and beat down upon us with terrible force, for our carriage was an open one; we were half-choked with the dust, a thick white layer of which covered us from head to foot; on either side lay bare, brown fields, baked hard as stone, and deeply fissured; no water anywhere; the only thing which broke the monotony of the scene was the occasional passage of a train of arbas , laden with huge, bloated-looking ox-skins, full of wine. The arba is the

Altogether, Signakh is a dirty but highly picturesque little town; its streets are narrow, crooked, and ill-paved, the shops, as is usual in the East, are small, open rooms, in which saddlers, tailors, and smiths may be seen plying their respective trades; all round about the town are beautiful hills covered with oak, walnut, and other tall forest-trees. The only other place it reminded me of was Amalfi, and even in this case the resemblance was but slight. On one of the neighbouring hills, at B

Emerging from the glen, we joined the post road at Anaga, and our impatient horses set off at a gallop. On we sped through the well-kept vineyards of a Russian capitalist, Count Sheremetiev, who threatens to ruin all the poor squires of the district by selling his wines under cost price. At a little village, about half-way between Signakh and Bakurtsikhe, two of us had far outstripped the rest, and were racing neck to neck when my companion’s horse cast a shoe; so leaving him at a roadside smith

Meanwhile the Lesghians were nearer than was imagined, and the flames from burning villages in the neighbourhood soon warned the family that no time was to be lost. First of all the peasants came and begged the princess to fly to the woods with them; then the gentry of the district offered their aid for the same purpose, but these offers were declined; her husband had told her to stay there, and there she would stay. At length, the advance of the enemy had proceeded so far in the direction of Ts

Not contented with driving the Mahometans out of her own land, she sent ambassadors to the Christian communities in Alexandria, Libya, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Greece, and Rumania, to offer them help if they needed it; and in order to secure orthodoxy in the theology of her people, she commanded that a great disputation should be held between the doctors of the Georgian and Armenian Churches. Her private life was not free from trouble. Three years after her accession she was prevailed upo

During the stormy times that soon followed, the countless lyrical pieces which were produced were nearly all lost, but the epic which is now looked upon as the greatest masterpiece in the language has escaped with but a few mutilations. This is “The Man in the Panther’s Skin” (Vepkhvis Tkaosani) by Shota Rustaveli . History tells us very little about Shota Rustaveli. We only know that he was born in the village of Rustavi, near Akhaltsikhe, that he received his education in Athens, returned to h

The latter total is made up as follows:— There are also many Georgians in Turkey, and a few in Persia. The numerous local appellations given above mean no more than Yorkshireman, Cornishman, or Aberdonian do to us. If I succeed in impressing upon my readers the fact that there is a politically homogeneous region stretching from the steppe of Baku to the Black Sea , my labour will not have been fruitless. It is a significant fact that the pure Georgian language is now far more generally spoken th

Stephanus Byzantinus , Massudi , Abulfeda . Defrémery , Fragments de géographes et d’historiens arabes et persans inédits, relatifs aux anciens peuples du Caucase. In Nouv. Journ. Asiat., 1849–1851. Paris. Rubruquis (1253) in Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca , by John Harris, D.D., continued by J. Campbell. 2 vols. in fol. London, 1764. In this collection will be found other records of travel in Georgia. Barbaro (Josafat), Viaggio alla Tana e nella Persia (1436). In Ramusio’s Raccolta

Baratov (Prince Sulkhan), Istoriya Gruzii. S. Pbg., 1865, &c. 8vo. David (Tsarevich of Georgia), Kratkaya istoriya o Gruzii. S. Pbg., 1805. 12mo. Barataiev , Numizmatichskie fakti Gruzinskavo tsarstva (Georgian numismatics). S. Pbg., 1844. 8vo. Villeneuve (de), La Géorgie. Paris, 1870. 8vo. Breitenbauch (Georg Aug. von), Geschichte der Staaten von Georgien. Memmingen, 1788. Thin 8vo. Reineggs (Jacob), Kurzer Auszug der Geschichte von Georgien. Published in P. S. Pallas’s Neue Nordische B

Witsen , Nord en Oost Tartarye II., 506, 526. Firalov , Samouchitel, soderzhashchii v sebé Grammatiku, Razgovori, Nravoucheniya i Lexikon, na Rossiiskom i Gruzinskom yazikakh (Grammar, Dialogues, Moral Precepts, and Dictionary in Russian and Georgian). S. Pbg., 1820. 8vo. Vater (J. S.), Vergleichungstafeln der Europaeischen Stamm-Sprachen ... Grusinische Grammatik, nach Maggio, Ghai und Firalow ... Halle, 1822. 8vo. Klaproth (H. J. v.), Kaukasische Sprachen. Halle and Berlin, 1814. 8vo. —— ——, V

Total trade of Transcaucasia (value in roubles at, say 22 d. per rouble):— Trade of the interior of Russia and Transcaucasia with Persia:— Transit trade through Transcaucasia:— Total weight of goods carried, 58,000,000 puds (Ton = 62 puds). To Batum and Poti, for export, 32,000,000 puds. Goods imported from abroad and despatched from Batum and Poti by railway, 5,000,000 pd. Bread stuffs produced in Transcaucasia:— Wine. —The total annual production of wine In Transcaucasia was about 25,000,000 g

Total weight of goods carried, 58,000,000 puds (Ton = 62 puds). To Batum and Poti, for export, 32,000,000 puds. Goods imported from abroad and despatched from Batum and Poti by railway, 5,000,000 pd. Bread stuffs produced in Transcaucasia:— Wine. —The total annual production of wine In Transcaucasia was about 25,000,000 gallons, of which about 15,000,000 gallons in the government of Kutais. The Transcaucasian Rwy. carried a weight of 247,000 puds from stations in the government of Kutais; 173,00

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