dikavkas, where we stayed one night rather enjoyably at
a smelly hotel, and the following day we got a motor-car and started at
7 a.m. for the pass. The drive did us all good. The great snow peaks
were so unlike Petrograd and gossip! I had been rather ill on the train,
and I got worse at the hotel and during the drive, so I was quite a
poor Sarah when I reached Tiflis. Still, the scenery had been lovely
all the time, and we had funny little meals at rest houses.

When we got to Tiflis I went on being seedy for a while. I finished
Stephen Graham's book on Russia which he gave me before I left home. It
is charmingly written. The line he chooses is mine also, but his is a
more important book than mine.

_Batoum. 22 December._--We have had a really delightful time since I
last wrote up the old diary! (A dull book so far.) We saw a good many
important people at Tiflis--Gorlebeff, the head of the Russian Red
Cross, Prince Orloff, Prince Galitzin (a charming man), General Bernoff,
etc., etc.

Mrs. Wynne's and Mr. Bevan's cars are definitely accepted for the Tehran
district. My own plans are not yet settled, but I hope they may be soon.
People seem to think I look so delicate that they are a little bit
afraid of giving me hard work, and yet I suppose there are not many
women who get through more work than I do; but I believe I am looking
rather a poor specimen, and my hair has fallen out. I think I am rather
like those pictures on the covers of "appeals"--pictures of small
children, underneath which is written, "This is Johnny Smith, or Eliza
Jones, who was found in a cellar by one of our officers;
weight--age--etc., etc."

If I could have a small hospital north of Tehran it would be a good
centre for the wounded, and it would also be a good place for the others
to come to. Mr. Hills and Dr. Gordon (American missionaries) seem to
think they would like me to join them in their work for the Armenians.
These unfortunate people have been nearly exterminated by massacres, and
it has been officially stated that 75 per cent. of the whole race has
been put to the sword. This sounds awful enough, but when we consider
that there is no refinement of torture that has not been practised upon
them, then something within one gets up and shouts for revenge.

The photographs which General Bernoff has are proof of the devildom of
the Turks, only that the devil could not have been so beastly, and a
beast could not have been so devilish. The