LETTER XXXI

GROWING TRADE

339

name frequently into conversation—indeed she is men-
tioned as familiarly as Queen Elizabeth is among us!

The town, which is walled, is not particularly attract-
ive, but there is one very handsome mosque, and a very
interesting Armenian church, eleven centuries old, dedi-
cated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The houses are mean-
looking, but their otherwise shabby uniformity is broken
up by lattice windows. The bazars are poorly built, but
are clean, well supplied, and busy, though the trade of
Van is suffering from the general insecurity of the
country and the impoverishment of the peasantry. It is
very pleasant that in the Van bazars ladies can walk
about freely, encountering neither the hoots of boys nor
the petrifying Islamic scowl.

Fifty years ago Vene-
tian beads were the only
articles imported from
Europe. Now, owing to
the increasing enterprise
of the Armenians, every
European necessary of
life can be obtained, as
well as many luxuries.
Peek and Frean's biscuits,
Moir's and Crosse and
Blackwell's tinned meats
and jams, English patent
medicines, Coats' sewing
cotton, Belfast linens, Ber-
lin wools, Jaeger's vests,
and all sorts of materials, both cotton
abound. I did not see such a choice

KURDS OF VAN.

and woollen,
abundance

of European goods in any bazar in Persia, and in the city
of Semiramis, and beneath the tablet of Xerxes, there is
a bazar devoted to Armenian tailors, and to the clatter