Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/83

 front of the ' stanzia,' and we gallop away to the Hotel de I'Europe.

The streets are dusty, and the hurrying tram-cars and a crowd of vehicles of every description add to the cloud of powdery sand that is swept into our eyes by the ever blowing wind — a wind that justifies the popular etymology of Baku in Persian as Bdd-kubah, ' Wind-beaten.' ^ We wish at the moment that the streets had an extra sprinkling of the ever convenient oil, though in general the thoroughfares are cleanly kept and give the impression that the town is well looked after. Shops line either side of the way, and their lettered signs, in Russian, Arabic, and, sporadically, Hebrew, are supplemented by rudely painted pictures of boots, hats, clothing for men and boys, and what not. The styles represented must wait for a reincarna- tion in a far-distant cycle before the fashion comes round to them again. Yet these crude drawings help business, as the masses cannot read. Grotesque though they are, I fancy that some of our own show-window wax models or cigar-store wooden Indians could hardly afford to ridicule their far-off compeers on the Caspian! Anon we are at the door of our hotel — a fairly comfortable domicile, with attentive service and an excellent Russian-French cuisine.

As I have been in Baku a number of times, I feel fairly at home in the city and am even familiar with the odor of oil that one cannot forget in its suburbs. But, though perhaps over-sensitive on that point, I look back with pleasure to each visit ; and I shall gladly welcome the chance to see this busy metropolis again if another opportunity takes me to the Cas- pian.

Old and new, ancient and modern, past and present, com- mingle in the make-up of Baku. It is the same repeated story

1 There are several ways of spell- The etymology is uncertain ; d'Herbe-

ing the name of Baku in the Eastern lot, Bibliotheque Orientale, 1. 320,

languages, such as Bdkuh, Bdkuyah, Paris, 1777, gives no ground for his

Bdkhui ; of. Kazem-Beg, Derbend derivation of the name from an epony-

Ndmeh, p. 142, St. Petersburg, 1851. mous hero called after a constellation.

�� �