IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Overland to India : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
44 OVERLAND TO INDIA
CHAP.
and movement after the quiet of the country hamlets. After the first dwellings, a small suburb, we drive through the burial-ground with its gravestones standing on both sides of the road, and beyond we plunge into the heart of
Baiburt, following the narrow streets, mean but rich in colouring, full of black stinking refuse which dogs can eat,
for it contains various fragments of organic origin. Lively
children play on the roofs where it is cleaner, and women trudge about with pitchers, all closely veiled. But they
cannot refrain from standing and peeping through an
opening in the red veil and provoke one's curiosity. One is consoled on seeing a pair of large red feet in torn
slippers, though small neat ankles are also seen tripping about in those dirty streets. At the corners stand groups of bearded Turks, in fez, binder, or turban, in red picturesque costumes, sunburnt, and powerfully built.
Another small street leads to the meidan or market-
place, which is packed full of people and goods, ox-carts, caravans, and horsemen, and where my guard of soldiers
rides in front to clear a passage for the carriage. Here
there is an odour of cabbages, root vegetables, apples, and grapes, of grocers' shops, and slaughtered sheep, and
here sit potters and offer their decorative wares for sale.
Altogether the scene is fascinating, full of oriental life, and one could stay here all day, pencil and sketch-book in
hand, but the carriage hurries me inexorably on over a wooden bridge on two stone piers across the river Chorok, which enters the sea immediately to the south of Batum.
Close to the bridge-head, on the right bank, the newest hotel of the town is erected. My room has quite
a European, or rather a Russian stamp, is furnished with an iron bedstead and chairs, a lamp stands on a table and a water bottle, the door has a lock, and the window panes of
glass and curtains. If all were clean and free from vermin it would be quite comfortable, but wherever the Turk goes
he carries all kinds of uncleanliness with him. It is also characteristic that the article of furniture which Europeans consider most important, and where the basin and jug are wont to stand, is always absent. When one wishes to
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