Late in the evening, I arrived, wet through and covered with mud, at the station, two wersti from Kutais.  It is remarkable that the post-houses are generally one or two wersti from the villages or towns.  A traveller, in consequence of this custom, is exposed to the inconvenience of making a special journey if he has anything to attend to in those places.

9th September.  Kutais contains 10,000 inhabitants, and lies in a natural park; all round is the most luxuriant vegetation.  The houses are neat and ornamental; the green painted church towers and barracks peep invitingly from between.  The large river Ribon {314} separates the town from the large citadel which very picturesquely occupies a neighbouring hill.

The dresses of the people are as various as round Tiflis; the headgear of the Mingrelian peasants appears truly comic.  They wear round black felt caps, in the shape of a plate, fastened by a string under the chin.  The women frequently wear the Tartarian schaube, over which they throw a veil, which, however, is put back so that the face is seen.  The men wear, in the mornings, and in rainy weather, large black collars (called burki) of sheep’s wool, or felt, which reach below the knees.  I must here mention that the beauty for which the Georgians are so famous must not be sought for among the common people.  I did not find them particularly handsome.

The carts which the peasants use are remarkable, the front part rests upon curved pieces of wood, or sledge-bars; the hinder part upon two small thick discs of wood.

My stay in Kutais was caused by the want of horses; it was not till 2 o’clock in the afternoon that I could continue my journey.  I had two stages to reach the village of Marand, which lies on the river Ribon, where the post-cars are changed for a boat, by which the journey to Redutkale, on the Black Sea, is made.

The first stage passes chiefly through fine woods, the second presents an open view over fields and meadows; the houses and huts are quite buried beneath bushes and trees.  We met a number of peasants who, although they had only a few fowls, eggs, fruits, etc., to carry to the town for sale, were nevertheless on horseback.  There was abundance of grass and willow trees, and consequently of horses and horned cattle.

At Marand I stopped, for want of an inn, with a Cossack.  These people, who also live here as settlers, have pretty wooden cottages, with two or three rooms, and a piece of land which they use as field and garden.  Some of them receive travellers, and know how to charge enough for the miserable accommodation they afford.  I paid twenty kopecs (8d.) for a dirty room without a bed, and as much for a chicken.  Beyond that I had nothing, for the people are too lazy to fetch what they have not by them.  If I wanted bread, or anything that my hosts had not got, I might seek for it myself.  As I have said before, it is only for an officer that they will make any exertion.