Almost every store has three or four signs in different languages—Russian, Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Tartar, and German also over in “the Colony,” which makes the sign boards look very odd. Armenian and Georgian lettering is different from Russian, but each is quite similar to the other.
The shops are unattractive. There are one or two large department stores filled with modern goods, but in the bazaars and native shops there is little worth buying. The native goods are rudely made, although sometimes of artistic design. Rug shops are innumerable and some of them in the Persian quarter have a large variety of stock, but the quality is inferior and prices are high. Friends explained that we must be patient and wait for the dealers to come down; because a Persian, like all Orientals, never expects the buyer to pay his first price; but life is too short to haggle over such bargains, particularly as we can get better goods of the same kind in the shops of Chicago and Washington at prices quite as low as are charged here. I doubt if there is a single thing in Tiflis that any American would want which cannot be purchased to equal advantage at home. But, as I have said, there is very little that any American would want. The merchants select their stock to suit the tastes of their local customers, as everywhere. At a curio shop we picked up some curious old pieces of silver, but they are valuable only because they are unique.
There are many fine buildings in Tiflis and several handsome residences. Some of the Armenian merchants are said to be very rich and they live in costly houses, which are said to be handsomely furnished, but the Russian officials have the most attractive homes.
CHAPTER VI
MOUNT ARARAT AND THE OLDEST TOWN IN THE WORLD
You can go to the foot of Mount Ararat by railway nowadays, and although you cannot see the ark, you will be able to meet many venerable Armenians who will remind you of Noah, for they look exactly as that old mariner must have looked. And you can visit what is claimed to be the oldest town in the world, the Armenian village of Nakhikheban—an Armenian word which means “he descended first”—which, according to local tradition, was founded by Noah when he landed after his memorable experience with the flood and doves. This railroad is due to the military enterprise of the Russian government. It is intended for strategic purposes, in anticipation of another war with Turkey, and must not be attributed to any benevolent disposition toward tourists. As a matter of fact the Russian government does not encourage tourists, and every stranger who comes within range is an object of espionage so long as he remains, which is often disagreeable.
If you will take your map of Turkey in Asia and the Caucasus you can see for yourself where Ararat is situated, just across the boundary of Turkish Armenia and very near the corner where the territories of Russia, Turkey, and Persia meet. North and east of Ararat is the Russian province of Georgia with the river Aidaraaras, which is the Araxes of the Bible, separating it from the Persian province of Azerbaijan. The famous river flows into the Caspian Sea about sixty miles south of Baku, the centre of the Russian petroleum interest. South of Armenia is Kurdistan, a Turkish province, whose inhabitants, nomadic and half civilized, claim to be descended from the concubines of Solomon. Beyond Ararat, to the southeast, is the city of Bayazid, and still further is Lake Van, a very interesting body of water, with two cities called Van and Bitlis upon its banks, both of which are important commercial centres of Armenia. Lake Van is 5,907 feet above the level of the sea and is one of the sources of the famous Tigris River. Another source of the Tigris is Lake Urmi, in Persia, which is 4,100 feet above the sea, and near it is Tabriz, the most important city in northern Persia.
South of Kurdistan is the Turkish province of Mesopotamia, lying between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which was once the centre of the world and as important to mankind as London or New York is to-day. Somewhere there the Garden of Eden is supposed to have been located, although it is very far away from anything like a paradise now. It is a sandy waste, producing very little vegetation, supporting a few goats, sheep, and camels and practically uninhabited except by roving tribes of half-savage Kurds. It is confidently believed, however, that Mesopotamia can be reclaimed, and Sir William Willcocks, an English engineer, who built the Assouan dam in Egypt, has laid before the new Turkish government a plan for the irrigation of that historic province.
Mount Ararat