We passed on through lanes so narrow and tortuous, that the clumsy pereclodndya was made to turn the comers with some difficulty, in my search after a merchant to whom I had brought a letter of introduction. Many lanes are rendered even more narrow by reason of raised foot-paths on both sides, and to evade the mire which in wet weather is very great, stepping-stones are placed at the crossings, an example that might be imitated to the infinite advantage of pedestrians in most Russian towns, where the streets are unpaved, and deep in dust or mud,
Kira-sou-bazar, which takes its name from the Kdra-sou, ' black water ' river, on which it is built, is the largest town in the Crimea, and having been assigned by Catherine II. to the exclusive occupation of the Tatars, has preserved in most respjects a purely Oriental character. The town somewhat resembles the native quarter at Erivan, except that the long lines of walls, that have seldom a door and never a window, enclose pleasant gardens and shrubberies, together with the miserable habitations that are constructed, like the walls, of mud and sun-dried bricks, with which by Google
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
the indolent Tatar in content to put up, though he has such excellent stone for building purposes as that at Ak-Kiya within easy reach.
The city was destroyed by fire in 1737, by Lieutenant-General Douglas, leader of the vanguard of an army of 40,000 men under Marshal de Lacy, who was intrusted with the supreme command on the invasion of the Crimea by Russia, after the defeat in 17-5 of Lieutenant-General Leontin, who lost 9,000 men, and at least as many horses, oat of a force of 28,000. and the failure of Marshal Munich, who in 1736 had to retire from the peninsula minus 30,000 men out of an army of 52,000, and the loss of nearly all his horses.*
We visited the places of interest in a droghy, no droshky being available. The Tash khan and Armenian khan are both good examples ofthe^urai'ffwjiirrti'' or 'inn' in the East, the former being for the accommodation of Mahomedans, the latter for Christians. The Tash khan was erected in 1656 by the minister of Mahomed Khan, the ally of Poland and vanquisher of Rakoczy, prince of Transylvania, at the battle of Medzybc^h. The Armenian khan
' History of the Irish Brigadts, &c.; (yCallaghan, 1870, p. 486. ' What a dillemin of conduct between the two Marshals Lacy and Munich, in this war against the Turki I It produced at length such an eFTect at Couit, from the complaints wbich had bFcn made to it, of the hurdaliips endured by the armjr, and the little care taken of it by the leaving it to moulder away, at the precise time Lacy did not lose a man but by the enemy, ihil the Empress charged the former to inspect the conduct of the latter. Lacy's dtliacy, however, refused the invidious task; but Miinich having had intelligence of such com' mission, reproached the meritorious Lacy on the occasion. Marshal Lacy, however, did not give hiimelf the pains to inform his accuser that he had declined the office impulnl to him as a crime, an office which impugned the frankness and amiablcness of his character, until after having taken arms in Iheir hands as atitagonists. they were sepaialol by General Lewachef, who hearing swords clashing in Aliinich's chamber, ran in to srjarate them, declaring be would put them both under nnairest in the name of the Emjirtu.' Note by an Austrian officer to the Journal of Marshal Count Peter de Licy. SH/isi MilHary Library, January >799. vol. ii. No. xvi. p. 151.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
t, Google is of comparatively modern construction. At both, four lofty walls enclose a large court entered at one gateway only; on the ground floor, stores and stalls occupy the entire length of the four sides, and over them are two tiers of apartments with covered galleries as a means of communication to each chamber; at dusk the gate is closed, and ingress cannot be obtained until daylight.
In the middle of the court of Tash khan, there b a coffeehouse, the interior of which is divided by rails into separate stalls, each fitted with loui^es, rugs, a small table, and a stove; a tambourine and a kind of guitar are the musical instruments played upon every evening, to attract the lodgers out of their rooms.
The principal mosque is that of Khan Djymatt, enclosed in its pretty garden, but it is in no way remarkable. The Grefeks and Roman Catholic Armenians have their large churches, which, however, do not call for any special notice.