. All the Russias; travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. emarkable that I wrote and asked for seeds, which weresent promptly by official post and are now germinating underthe surprised eyes of a Hampshire gardener. In matters likethis, let me remark once for all, the Russian authorities arecourtesy itself to foreigners who approach them courteously andare genuinely interested in what they are doing. Finally, theHotel de Londres is the first really civilised and comfortablehotel I have found in Russia—and this is in Asia ! I dwell u
. All the Russias; travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. emarkable that I wrote and asked for seeds, which weresent promptly by official post and are now germinating underthe surprised eyes of a Hampshire gardener. In matters likethis, let me remark once for all, the Russian authorities arecourtesy itself to foreigners who approach them courteously andare genuinely interested in what they are doing. Finally, theHotel de Londres is the first really civilised and comfortablehotel I have found in Russia—and this is in Asia ! I dwell uponthese matters because the striking fact about Tiflis is thatRussian rule has made a handsome, clean, safe, civilised, and TIFLIS OF THE CROSS-ROADS 205 merry little town out of a jumble of dirty, jarring Eastern races,outside her European frontier, and far from anywhere. But one does not go to Asia to see Europe, and Rostom, theguide, in Circassian costume, with long poniard and war-medal,haunts the hall of the hotel. To test the German philologist, Iask him how many languages he speaks. He does not remember,. TIFLIS AND THE RUINS OF THE CITADEL but proceeds to count them upon his fingers. Russian, Mingre-lian—his native tongue—Georgian, Armenian, Persian, Lesghian,Gruznian—I cant remember them, and I dont know how tospell them, but it is an extraordinary list. And he needs themall in an hours stroll through the bazaar. Ten minutes in atramway from the hotel door transports you into a piece ofBaghdad or Tehran, and one of the very few Eastern bazaars Ihave seen which has not its eye fixed, so to speak, upon theWestern purchaser. A few things in the silversmiths shops are 2o6 ALL THE RUSSLVS for the foreigner, hut otherwise, if you go there, you go as thenative goes, you see what the native sees, you haggle as thenative haggles, and you get what the native gets. This is re-freshing when one remembers the bazaar in Cairo, for instance,where the tourist buys with solemn
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