British traders do not enjoy. Still,
considering all the difficulties British trade has to contend with in
order to penetrate, particularly into Ghilan, it is extraordinary how
some articles, like white Manchester shirtings, enjoy practically a
monopoly, being of a better quality than similar goods sent by Russia,
Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy or Holland.

Loaf sugar, which came at one time almost entirely from France, has been
cut out by Russian sugar, which is imported in large quantities and
eventually finds its way all over Persia. It is of inferior quality, but
very much cheaper than sugar of French manufacture, and is the chief
Russian import into Ghilan.

Tobacco comes principally from Turkey and Russia. In going on with our
drive through the bazaar we see it sold in the tiny tobacco shops, where
it is tastily arranged in heaps on square pieces of blue paper, by the
side of Russian and Turkish cigarettes.

[Illustration: Persian Wrestling.]

And now for the Resht Hotels. Here is an Armenian hotel--European style.
From the balcony signs and gesticulations and shouts in English, French,
and Russian endeavour to attract the passer-by--a youth even rushes to
the horses and stops them in order to induce the traveller to alight and
put up at the hostelry; but after a long discussion, on we go, and slowly
wind our way through the intricate streets crowded with men and women and
children--all grumbling and making some remark as one goes by. At one
point a circle of people squatting in the middle of a road round a pile
of water-melons, at huge slices of which they each bit lustily, kept us
waiting some time, till they moved themselves and their melons out of the
way for the carriage to pass. Further on a soldier or two in rags lay
sleeping flat on the shady side of the road, with his pipe (kalian) and
his sword lying by his side. Boys were riding wildly on donkeys and
frightened women scrambled away or flattened themselves against the side
walls of the street, while the hubs of the wheels shaved and greased
their ample black silk or cotton trousers made in the shape of sacks, and
the horses' hoofs splashed them all over with mud. The women's faces were
covered with a white cloth reaching down to the waist. Here, too, as in
China, the double basket arrangement on a long pole swung across the
shoulders was much used for conveying loads of fruit and vegetables on
men's shoulders;--but least picturesque of all were the