We dismissed the Khivan with a substantial _pour-boire_.

He had certainly behaved extremely well for one of his race.
Enzelli is an uninteresting place.

It has but two objects of interest (in Persian eyes)--the lighthouse (occasionally lit) and a palace of the Shah, built a few years since as a _pied-a-terre_ for his Majesty on the occasion of his visits to Europe.

It is a tawdry gimcrack edifice, painted bright blue, red, and green, in the worst possible taste.

The Shah, on returning from Europe last time, is said to have remarked to his ministers on landing at Enzelli, "I have not seen a single building in all Europe to compare with this!" Probably not--from one point of view.
The Caspian may indeed be called a Russian lake, for although the whole of its southern coast is Persian, the only Persian vessel tolerated upon it by Russia is the yacht of the Shah, a small steamer, the gift of the Caucase-Mercure Company, which lies off Enzelli.