. A visit to the Russians in central Asia. ose who care for exercise in the Eng^lishsense of the word. I saw something of thewide expanse of bare and somewhat drearymountains, but a caution about brigands fromofficial quarters restricted my wanderings. The dress of the women of Tiflis is notpleasing. They wear across the forehead astiff band of black velvet with a small broochin front, which reminded me of pictures of ourgreat-grandmothers ; from it falls a white netveil, over that another veil or shawl of cashmerein black or brown, not altogether covering it,and having a very untidy appearanc
. A visit to the Russians in central Asia. ose who care for exercise in the Eng^lishsense of the word. I saw something of thewide expanse of bare and somewhat drearymountains, but a caution about brigands fromofficial quarters restricted my wanderings. The dress of the women of Tiflis is notpleasing. They wear across the forehead astiff band of black velvet with a small broochin front, which reminded me of pictures of ourgreat-grandmothers ; from it falls a white netveil, over that another veil or shawl of cashmerein black or brown, not altogether covering it,and having a very untidy appearance. Thedress of the men is much more attractive ; theyhave the monopoly of ornaments, their beltsare richly adorned with silver. Silver toppedrows of cartouches across the breast look hand-some on the brown kaftan worn by Kossaksand Armenians with the high head-piece of Georgians generally wear black. The beltis in some places a mark of office. There are many handsome private houses aswell as good shops in Tiflis; cakes and bonbons. in Central Asia 21 will satisfy those whose taste lies in that direc-tion, and objets de luxe from Paris of almostevery description are to be found. The princi-pal modern street is planted with trees like aboulevard, but it is so unnecessarily wide thatcrossing on foot is disagreeable in dry weatherfrom clouds of dust, and on rainy days fromthe pools of water that are not easily avoidedwhen you are endeavouring to escape from thesplashes of the galloping droskies. In the smaller shops at Tiflis I found thatGerman was more generally understood thanFrench ; this fact is accounted for by the ex-istence of a colony of Germans, who cameoriginally from Wurtemburg and taught thepeople to cultivate the vines that produce verygood light wine in the Caucasus, Game ofall kinds is abundant, and we are interestedto be reminded that the river Phasis gives itsname to the bird (pheasant) now so familiarin Western countries. The English travellers were hospit
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