Page:Maud, Renée - One year at the Russian court 1904-1905.djvu/118

94 It is wiser for a woman not to venture alone into this quarter, in spite of the amiable smiles and brilliant and inviting eyes of the Turks and Persians, who try to attract you into their pretty little shops so full of cachet. Many make carpets, some of which are very beautiful. The Persian bakers' shops are full of originality with their different loaves, not resembling ours in the least, and their large and flat pastry cakes which they hang on cords in their shop fronts, even several layers of these cakes one on the top of another where the glass front of the shops would be with us; glass does not exist with them.

In the houses of the Caucasians there is always a vast divan covered with a sumptuous carpet; which makes a very comfortable seat on which often five or six people crowd themselves, some sitting on the top after the manner of tailors. In the study or little drawing-room there are often besides great carpets hung on the wall which gives to the room a warm, furnished and comfortable look. The silver-work in the Caucasus is also very good, somewhat in the style of what you find in India. The country silks are of a beautiful colouring and are of a solidity beyond all question, even the taffeta, which is not the case with us.

This indeed is the East, the East beneath a sky perpetually blue and a climate which would make our Riviera green with envy.

Merchandise in this district was conveyed for the most part by camels and it was a common occurrence to see them in the streets of Tiflis.