'•'•'( 1)K 17/ Ms- Q-XL ^■1 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 9i«nvg M. Sage 1891 J^:.m.JM islirliA 5931 CORNELL UNIVERSnY LIBRARY 3 1924 082 469 242 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924082469242 THE MEEV OASIS VOL, I. ^ .■^-/^/'i^aycS'i^icH^i^^. THE MEEV OASIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES EAST OF THE CASPIAN DURING THE YEARS 1879-80-81 raOLUDING FIVE MONTHS' RESIDENCE AMONG THE TEKKES OF MERT BY EDMOND O'DONOVAN" SPECIAL COBHESFOHDBNT OF THE 'DAILT NEWS ?itit^ portrait, Paps, anJ> (farsimiUs of ^hU Jotumtnts IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON SMITH, ELDEE, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1882 [All rights reserved} s i\xn\s^^- TO J., E. EOBINSON, ESQ. of tJie * Daily News * WITHOUT WHOSE SUOGESTION THE TRAVELS NAEKATBD IN THBSI'. VOLUMES WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN UNDERTAKEN, AND BUT FOR WHOSE GENEROUS SUPPORT THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO A SUCCESSFUL ISSUE ^is Witnk is Jtbuafeb- BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND THE AUTHOR PEEFAOE. These pages contain a simple record of my wander- ings around and beyond the Caspian, including a five months' residence at Merv, during the three years 1879-1881. I had at first purposed confining my narrative to Merv itself and its immediate surround- ings ; but my friends suggested that it would in such case be too circumscribed in scope, and not fully ap- preciable by those who had not previously paid con- siderable attention to Central Asian matters. Accord- ingly, I have related my experiences of the Eussian settlements on the Eastern Caspian littoral, and touched very slightly upon the mihtary operations directed against the Akhal Tekke tribes and their stronghold at Geok Tepe. I have also entered into the border relations existing between Russians, Tur- comans, and Persians, in order that the subsequent description of the attitude of the Merv Turcomans might be the better understood. The main interest of the book, however, centres in that portion of it which relates to Merv itself ; and in narrating what I viii PREFACE. have to say about that place and its people, I have, as far as possible, sought to confine myself to what I actually saw and heard among them. All information contained in these volumes relative to the oasis and its population is derived directly from the fountain-head ; and I have carefully abstained from quoting the recol- lections and opinions of other writers. Apart from pure narrative, the reader will occasionally meet with some expressions of opinion as to future political pos- sibihties, and an appreciation of the present and coming military situation. The Oriental documents added in the Appendix will serve as examples of the caligraphy and epi- stolary style of the country, and will at the same time show the nature of the aspirations and ideas of the chiefs, as well as the estimation in which I was myself held when I quitted their territory. The general map is based upon that published, in con- nection with the report of his travels in North- Eastern Khorassan, by Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. Stewart. On this I have grafted my own correc- tions, and my surveys of the territory lying eastward of the point at which his travels in the Attok ceased, viz. near Abiverd. The plan of the Merv oasis and its water system is purely original, and, as far as I am aware, the first ever based on an actual survey. Of the plan showing the old cities and their relative positions the same is to be said. PREFACE. ix I have on every possible occasion introduced illustrative anecdote and personal adventure, not only to lighten the general narrative, but also as the best possible method of conveying to my readers the nature of the surroundings amidst which I was placed, and the character of the people with whom I had to deal ; but the space allotted to me for the description of three years' experiences scarcely allows me the latitude I could have desired in this regard. StiU, as a record of the almost unique circumstances in which I was placed, I trust that the following pages will meet with the indulgence, if not with the approval, of the reading public. E. O'D. CONTENTS OP THE FIEST VOLUME. CHAPTEE I. FROM TEEBIZOKD TO. THE CASPIAN. PAGE Trebizond to Batoum — ^Poti — ^Delays in landing — Eion river — Turcoman pilgrims^-Eailroad — Tiflis — ^Life in Tiflis — Travelling by troika — De- scription of vehicle — ^Easterly plains — Camel trains — Wild pigeons — Post-houses — Samovar and tea^drinking — 'Across country' — Troglo- dytic dwellings — Wild eats and boars — Fevers — Tartar thieves — Tartar ladies — Old Persian fortiiicatious — Elizabethpol — Hotel there — Limited accommodation — Tahle-d'hote — Caviare — Prince Chavcha- vaza — Nevps of Trans-Caspian Expedition — General Lazareff — His history — Armenian villages — Salt incrustations — Automatic raft over Kur — Abandoned Camels — Tartar funeral — Tartar tombstones — Cir- cassian horse-trappings — ^Waggons from Baku — Crossing the moun- tains — Eed-legged partridges — Field mice and ferrets — Shumakha — Xorezsafen — Obstinate driver — First sight of Baku and the Caspian — Tartar carts — Burden-bearing buUocks — Petroleum vrell-houses of Balahanfe and Sulahan^ — Tying up troika bells 1 CHAPTER II. BAKU. Baku — Apscheron promontory^-Country roimd Baku — Armenian emi- grants from Turkish territory — Eussian town — Old Baku — Ancient Tartar town — Old fortifications — Citadel — Bazaars — Mosques — Palace of Tartar Khans — Caspian steamers — ^Municipal garden — Mixed population — Bazaar held in aid of victims of Orenburg fire — CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. p National costumes .and types— Nature of population— Banished Christian sects— Malakani and Scopts— Mercurius Company— Bus- sian girls' dress— Origin of name of Baku— Bituminous dustr— Laying it with ffisfa^Ai— Boring for petroleum— Distilling and purifying- Utilization of refuse for steamers — Probable adaptation to railroads —Island of Tcheliken— Fire temple— Guebre fire-worship . 20 CHAPTER III. ACROSS THE CASPIAN TO TOHIKISLAE AND CHATTB. Interview with Lazareff— Voyage to Tehikislar— Keception by Tureo- mans- Their Costume and Dwellings — Fort of Tehikislar — Presents to Yamud chiefs— Akhal Tekke prisoners — Journey to Chatte — Eassian discipline — Eain pools and mirage — ^Wild asses and ante- lopes — Fort of Chatte — Atterek and Sumbar rivers — ^Banks of the Atterek — Diary of Journey — Bouyun Bache — ^Delilli — ^Bait Hadji — Yagbli Olum — Tekindji — ^Review of Lazareff 's regiment — Flies at Chatte — Tile pavements — Eemnants of old civilization . . .40 CHAPTER IV. KRASNAVODSK. Lazareff's opinion about Tehikislar — Difficulties of traversing desert — Chasing wild asses and antelopes — ' Drumhead ' dinner — A Khivan dandy — Desert not a sandy one — On board ' Nasr Fddin Shah ' corvette — En route for Krasnavodsk — Gastronomic halt — Zakouska — Eussian meal — Arrival at Krasnavodsk — ^Description of place — Dis- tillation of sea-water — Club — Caspian flotilla — Lieutenant Sideroff — An ex-pirate — Trans-Caspian cable — Avowed object of Akhal Tekke expedition — Colonel Malama's explanation — A Trans-Caspian ball — Khirgese chiefs — Caucasian horsemen — Military sports — Lesghian dancing 60 CHAPTER V, KARA-BOGHAZ SULPHUR DISTRICT. Gypsum rocks — Odjm — ^Natural paraffin — Post of Ghoui-Boumak — Camelthorn and chiratan — Large lizards — Ghoui-Sulmen — Nummu- litic limestone — Salty water — ^Method of drawing it up — Effect of washing — Turcoman smoking — ^Waiting for dawn — Shores of Kara- Boghaz — Searching for sulphur — ^Black and red lava — ^Kukurt-Daghi — Ghoui-Kabyl — Argillaceous sand — Turcoman and Khirgese horses — An alarm and retreat — Back to Bournak 76 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER VI. A TURKOMAN RAID — A VISIT TO TCHIKISLAR. p [TtiToomans in view — Preparing to attack — In a predicament — Retiring on Krasnavodsk — General panic — Lomakin's advance — Result of skirmish — Russian military funeral — A trip to Tchikislar — Island of Tcheliken — Demavend — Ak-Batlaouk volcano — Difficulty of land- ing — Description of camp — ^Flies — Turcoman prisoner — Release of captive Persian -women — Water snakes — Stormy voyage to Baku — Conversation with Lazareff — ^Russian recruits — Prince Wittgenstein — Cossack lieutenant's story — Off to Tchikislar CHAPTER VII. TCHIKISLAR SKETCHES — ATTEREK DELTA. Khirgese and Turcomans at Tchikislar — Cossack and Caucasian horse- men — Peculiar customs with regard to dress — Samad Agha — The Shah's cousin — Hussein Bey and Kars — Nefess Merquem— Turco- mans in Russian service — Camp police — Tailless camels — The knout — Baghdad muleteers — Decorating soldiers— Camp customs — Soldiers' games — Races — Tchikislar bazaar — ^Night alarm — ^The pig and the pipe — ^Military ideas about Asterabad — Turcoman graves — Bouyun Bache — ^Foul water — Smoking out the flies — Horse flies — Sefid Mahee — Abundance of fish — Running down partridges — ^Waterfowl and eels — ^Wild boar hunting — Atteiek delta — Giurgen — Ak-Kala — A Turcoman and his captive wife — Lazareff's decision . . .11)3 CHAPTER VIII. HASSAN- KOULI — DEATH OF LAZAREFF. Hassan-Kouli lagoon —Incursions of sea- water — Old piratical station — Buried melons — Turcoman cemetery — Subsidence of graves — loyun- vuskha — Courtesy of the desert — Turcoman character — Battle tombs — Turco-Celtic derivations — Open-air mosques — An ex-corsair — Bad treatment of an envoy — A Turcoman interior — A native dinner — Polite attentions — Armenian fishing-station — Deserted Camel — Thirsty sheep — Khirgese and Turcomans — Dysentery at Tchikislar — Lazareff's iUness and death — A burial at sea — A stormy voyage — General Tergukasoff— Back to Tchikislar and Chatte— Rainpools in the desert — Failing camels — Commissariat errors — ^Water-pits , . 123 PAOK xiv CONTENTS OF TliE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER IX. FROM TCHIKISLAR TO ASTBEABAD. Banished from Tehikislar— Colonel Shelkovnikoff— Starting for the Atterek— A night at Hasaan-Konli— Turcoman lady— Her costume- Primitive flour-miUs— Ovens— Sulphide of iron small-shot— Sea-birds —Crossing the Atterek mouth— Sleighing on a mud bank— Across country- Nomad shepherds— Goklan Tepessi— A dervish moullah— An «sto-a A fiery, white spirituouB liquor, largely consumed in Kussia. TIFLIS RAILWAY. 3 and Batoum. The latter possesses a deep and well- sheltered, though small harbour, where the largest vessels •can anchor within a few fathoms of the beach, and where they are perfectly sheltered from winds, whether •off or on shore. It is true that under Turkish rule, owing to the blocking of the mouths of several minor mountain streams, swamps had formed in the neighbourhood of the town, which rendered it to a certain extent a feverish Jocality. Still, the smallest engineering effort would serve to remove this drawback, and I believe that at this mo- ment such effort is being made. Among my fellow- travellers who crowded the luggers were Trans-Caspian Turcomans, on whom I now laid my eyes for the first time. They were pilgrims returning from Mecca; for, notwithstanding the never-ceasing hostility between the nomads and the Eussians, the former invariably adopt the route by Baku, Tiflis, Poti, and Constantinople, when ■going to the Sacred City, instead of the land route by Persia and Baghdad. Before we were permitted to leave the precincts of the landing station, the usual tedious examina- tion of baggage, and then of passports, had to be under- gone, and fully four hours elapsed after our landing before we were allowed to enter the town. About Poti itself "there is little to say. It is a rambling kind of place, largely composed of wooden shanties, and, but for its phaetons, low-crowned-hatted coachmen, and its unmis- takeable gendarmes, might pass for a town of almost any nationality. From Poti there is a railroad to Tiflis, the journey to the latter place occupying about twelve hours by ordinary train. During the first two hours, the country •one traverses is indescribably dreary, rotting forest growth and stagnant overflows of the river being its main charac- teristics. Then a steep gradient is arrived at, by which the train mounts to the crest of an outlying spur of the B 2 4 TIFLIS—PADAROSJNA. Caucasus, whence a commanding view is obtained over the vast expanse of country lying in the direction of Tiflis. Leaving Poti late in the afternoon, one arrives at the capital of the Trans-Caucasus early on the following- morning. The first thing that strikes the eye is the semi-Asiatic, semi-European aspect of the place — the old town, with its narrow streets, its old-fashioned booths,, and artisans plying their trades in full view of the- public, together with Tartar head-dresses and fur-lined coats, contrasting violently with the palatial houses, wide prospects, and great open gardens, thronged with persons of both sexes, wearing the ne plus ultra of Western Emropean. fashionable attire. I was unfortunate enough to miss seeing Prince Mirski, the governor of the town, he being- absent in the interior ; so, after a couple of days' delay at. the Hotel Cavcass, I prepared for niy journey across the steppes which separated me from the Western Caspian border. During the two nights which I remained in Tiflis, I had ample opportunity of witnessing the remarkably ' fast ' rate of living which usually obtains in better-class. Eussian society. Everything seemed at fever-heat.. Theatres, music-halls, and ckcuses were nightly thronged,, and petits sovpers and select dinner parties seemed the order of the day. As for myself, the thing I least liked about Tiflis was the very excessive charge made at the- hotel, and I was glad when the morning for my departm-e arrived. We are told that up to the end of the seventeenth century ia France, a traveller setting out from Lyons for Paris, in view of the state of the road, considered it his duty to draw up his last will and testament. If the roads in France at that date bore any resemblance to those I have traversed on my way from Tiflis across the Trans-Cau- casian plain, 1 must say the travellers were perfectly TROIKA. 5 justified in their precautions. I had heard and read a good deal about travel in this part of the world, but my ■wildest anticipations fell very far short of the sad reality. When one has to do with officials in Eussia, especially those of a subordinate class, he is certain to be worried almost out of his existence by needless and seemingly endless delays before the simplest matter of business can be effected, or the inevitable official documents procured. After a good deal of trouble I succeeded in securing the all- important padarosjna (this is the nearest approach I can make to the name in our alphabet), which entitles the holder to carriages and post-horses. It is a large sheet of paper bearing the Eussian double-headed eagle, with paraphernalia, in the water-mark, and having several double-headed eagles and ornamental panels all over it. It bears many numbers of registration, and a still greater amount of signatures and counter-signatures, and is not unlike a magnified reproduction of some of the earlier American paper dollars. On the strength of this docu- ment, the people of the Hotel Cavcass undertook to find me an orthodox postal vehicle, with the due number of horses and the official conductor. The vehicle in which one ordinarily travels by post in this part of the world is termed a troika. There is a more luxurious kind of conveyance — which, to tell the truth, is not saying much for it — named a tarentasse ; but though one may pay the increased rate demanded for such a carriage, he is not always sure of finding others at the changing-places on the route, should, as is generally the case, his own <3ome to grief. The experienced traveller generally chooses the troika, for at each station at least half a ■dozen are always in readiness to supply the almost inevi- table break-downs which occur from post-house to post- iouse. At the moment of which I speak I had never seen 6 TROIKA. either tarentasse or troika. I had a kind of preconceived idea about four fiery steeds and a fur-lined carriage, in which the traveller is whirled in luxury to his destination. Judge of my surprise when, on a raw winter's morning, just as the grey dawn was stealing over the turrets of the old Persian fortress, I saw a nameless kind of thing drawn up before the door of the hotel. Though I had just been sum- moned from bed to take my place, I had not the slightest- suspicion that the four-wheeled horror before me was even intended for my luggage, so I waited patiently for the- arrival of my ideal conveyance. The hall porter and-some chilly-looking waiters were standing around, impatiently awaiting a ' gratification,' and evidently believing that I was all the time buried in deep political or scientific thought. I was beginning to get stiff with cold, and at length I asked, ' Where is this coach ? ' ' Ifour Excellence,' said the porter, ' it is there before you.' When I shall have described a troika, no one will wonder at the exclama- tion of amazement and terror which burst from my lips at the bare idea that I had to travel four hundred miles in such a thing. Imagine a pig-trough of the roughest pos- sible construction, four feet and a half long, two and a half wide at the top, and one at the bottom, filled with coarse hay, more than half thistles, and set upon four poles, which in turn rest upon the axles of two pairs of wheels. Besides these poles, springs, even of the most rudimentary kind, there are none. Seen from the outside, the trdika has the appearance of a primitive lake-habita- tion canoe, just drawn out of a mud bank; anything in the shape of washing, either for vehicles or drivers, being considered in this part of the world entirely a work of supererogation. The driver, clad in a rough sheep-skin tunic, fitting closely at the waist, the woolly side turned inwards, and. Russian Passport _ Tiflis to Baku. 4 no JKASy ETO BEJIiraEOTBA rOCYJIAPJI HMHEPATOPA OAMOIEPllIA BCEPOCClltCKArO ''-'» =■«?» j!?,' :-. 3* \ A Omt, i-**! '»■*>- ^y^< a upoiia, H upo'iAa, k hpohah. ^'0 C^^ ^-z^^' (S^-rJ^^^z^-^^^jta^^-^ ■•1 - m^^^-/r*yr *' 'is ■ f ■'• I if ■ .*', ' r^ /f^^^^^.^ ^.c^^ ^^^*^^^^^.,^^J daeamh no -^^y^- sadepMOHiA ^(^^t j!'^^ a* / — Mnuad ^ c« npoeodnuK ^^^^^ , 3a yxasHBie npoeonu, 663% C-b ccn noAopoatHOH aa i^yC^ . ^jxeojimept^c^,^,'^^ .,_,^_,, , ^^^^ Russian Passport _ Tiflis to Baku. 4 no JKASy ETO BEJIiraEOTBA rOCYJIAPJI HMHEPATOPA OAMOIEPllIA BCEPOCClltCKArO ''-'» =■«?» j!?,' :-. 3* \ A Omt, i-**! '»■*>- ^y^< a upoiia, H upo'iAa, k hpohah. ^'0 C^^ ^-z^^' (S^-rJ^^^z^-^^^jta^^-^ ■•1 - m^^^-/r*yr *' 'is ■ f ■'• I if ■ .*', ' r^ /f^^^^^.^ ^.c^^ ^^^*^^^^^.,^^J daeamh no -^^y^- sadepMOHiA ^(^^t j!'^^ a* / — Mnuad ^ c« npoeodnuK ^^^^^ , 3a yxasHBie npoeonu, 663% C-b ccn noAopoatHOH aa i^yC^ . ^jxeojimept^c^,^,'^^ .,_,^_,, , ^^^^ LEAVING TIFLIS. J ■wearing a prpdigious conical cap of the same material,, sits upon the forward edge of the vehicle. With a com- bination of patched leather straps and knotted ropes by- way of reins, he conducts the three horses. The centre animal is between the two shafts, which are joined by a high wooden arch of a parabolic form. From the summit of this arch a leather strap, passing under the animal's, chin, keeps his head high, while two pretty large bells, hung just where he ought to keep his ears, force him tO' carry the latter in a painfully constrained position, while during the whole of the stage he must be almost deafened. by the clang. The horses on either side are very loosely harnessed ; so much so, that while the central one is, with the vehicle, running along a deep narrow cutting, the flankers are on the top of high banks on either side, or vice versa. Once for all, I give a description of a troika as the species of carriage in which I made my journey to the Caspian. As the stations at which relays are usually found are but twenty-seven or twenty-eight miles apart, they are gone over, almost the whole time, at full gallop. In such guise, mingled with heterogeneous portions cf luggage, and wallowing in thorny hay, I was whirled out of Tiflis, across a long wooden bridge over the Kur, and then up a long, zig-zag, dusty, stony road, leading to the plateau east of the town. Arrived on the plateau, a sud- den undulation of the road shuts out the last glimpse of the city. Henceforth, for many a weary league, all is bleak. There are sandy rolling expanses where the glaring gravelly surface is varied only by scant olive-green patches and clouds of dun-red dust. On the right are a couple of sad-looking ttirbes, or Mahometan tombs — dreary square structures of earth-coloured, unbaked brick, sur- mounted by broken cupolas, amidst whose crumbling walls nomadic goat-herds cower around a scanty fire. A 8 OUT ON THE PLAINS. compound flock of small, active sheep, mingled with wiry, long-haired- goats, with an occasional diminutive donkey, the whole conducted by a scriptural-looking person with primitive shepherd's crook, crosses the way. Then comes a string of shaggy, supercilious-aired camels, each bearing a couple of slimy casks of petroleum from Baku, every member of the string growling and groaning in true c^mel fashion. Now and then a blue cloud starts up from the gravelly track. It is composed of wild pigsons. "What they can possibly find to attract them to that dusty :gully it is not easy to understand. Yet they look plump and strong, notwithstanding the apparent unproductive- ness of the sm'roundings. Meanwhile the driver, with many an Asiatic whoop and shout, plies his long whip, and we tear along, one side of the troUici occasionally a ■couple of feet higher than the other, scaring dozens of white-backed scald-crows from something they, like the pigeons, find in the dust. They fly on a hundred yards, and then, with a curious obstinacy, settle again and again before us, to be driven on again. Away to the left the giant range of the Caucasus trembles in ghastly whiteness athwart the cloudless sky, and at its base stretches widely a blue mirage that mocks the Kur, alongside of which we go. To the right, farther off still, fainter and more visionary than the Caucasus, are the Persian mountains. Between, a vast dun expanse, fifty or sixty miles across, -the horizon ahead, clear and uninterrupted as that of mid- ocean. It is not surprising that Eastern imagination has conjured up so many Gins and Ghouls to haunt its day- dreams. Out on these plains one feels more lonely and abandoned at mid-day, than in the grizzliest, most un- canny churchyard at home at the witching hour of night. It was with a real sense of relief that I at length perceived, slightly on my side of the horizon, a cloud of smoke. My POST-HOUSES— SAMOVAR. 9 conductor informed me that in a couple of hours after reaching this smoke we should arrive at the first station. A station on this route is not like a railway station. The latter exists because of certain pre-existent surround- ings ; in the former case the surroundings exist because of the station. In other words, out on these steppe-like expanses, certain stages are measured off along a given line, and the people employed there have created what there is of cultivation, and attracted the small population which clusters round the post-house, which, except in the ■case of villages few and far between, consists simply of rude farm buildings. The station, which I found behind the horizon, comprised three small buildings of a single :story, some barns, and a few enclosm-es for fowl and ■cattle. The station-master, with his military uniform and flat regulation cap, was the only sign of officialism about the place. As a rule, I found these station-masters ex- ■ceedingly obliging, and ready to afford the traveller every .assistance. At each station-house is a ' guest-chamber,' as the Mohammedans style the apartment in their houses which is appropriated to the reception of strangers. It is generally a small room containing two wooden camp-beds, ;a table, a fire-place, and sometimes a couple of chairs. No bedding is provided, the traveller being supposed to bring this with him, as well as his food, tea, sugar, &c. A petroleum lamp burns all night within the chamber, ;and another is attached to the blue and white striped post at the door, which indicates the station, with its distance from the last centre of Government, in versts. Usually it is difficult to procure food, unless some of the women of the establishment can supply a few eggs and some sheets of the peculiar leathery bread, rivalling in :size and consistency a cobbler's apron, which seems to j)ervade the entire East. The only thing the traveller can 10 TRAVELLING BY TROIKA. be certain of finding is the redoubtable samovar. This, instrument is to be found in the humblest Tartar hovel, for tea — morning, noon, and night — seems an absolutely indispensable necessity of Eussian populations. This samovar is a large cylindrical brass urn, mounted on a, short column and broad pedestal, having a movable cover, from the centre of which projects a vertical chimney, six. inches high. This chimney connects with a central, tubular furnace, which is filled with lighted charcoal. The water occupies the annular space outside, and is drawn off by means of a stopcock. The chimney is bell-mouthed, and supports a small metal or porcelain tea-pot, which- contains what we should consider pretty strong tea, kept at alinost boiling-point by the heat of the chimney. It is- an almost universal custom here to drink tea in glass- tumblers. Each glass is filled one-third, or in some cases. one-half, with the liquid contained in the small tea-pot, and the remainder with boiling water from the samovar. Some persons dissolve their sugar in the tea, but many prefer to hold it between their lips and suck the tea through it. Milk or cream as an adjunct is a thing un- heard of, though sometimes rum or cognac is added. On. the arrival of a troika with travellers, the samovar is im- mediately brought into the guest-room, and tea is prepared while the horses are being changed. This description will answer for the vast majority of postal stations on the Caspian route. Weak tea swallowed, the traveller again, mounts his chariot, which at once dashes away in the most reckless fashion, utterly regardless of the nature or- state of the road. Over bad portions the jolting of the springless vehicle is terrific, especially as, after the first, ten minutes, one finds his way through the hay to the boards beneath. During the first hours of the journey from Tiflis, one forgets the physical inconveniences of the TROGLODYTIC DWELLINGS. ir system of travelling, wrapt in admiration of the wonderful mountain and plain scenes ; but the eternal sameness at length, notwithstanding its magnificence, palls upon the eye ; and the traveller falls into a dreamy state, which is broken only by some marvellous jump of the troVca over an irrigation trench three feet deep, drawn across the road. The postal conveyances do not always follow the great high road. The drivers make all kinds of short cuts, choosing their way very much as a rider after the hounds would.' After the first two stations from Tiflis, I can only compare our mode of progress to a headlong steeplechase over a violently accidented ploughed field, with continually occurring mad dashes across steep-sided torrent beds filled with large boulders — the banks on either side having a slope of thirty or forty degrees, some- times more. The great high road is, as a rule, very good except in low-lying parts, where it is apt to be inundated at times. But the drivers of the post troikas laugh con- ventionalities to scorn, and would not go a quarter of a mile out of their way to follow the best road on earth ; and their pace over hill and dale is the same as on the highway. Under ordinary circumstances the jolting is bad enough, but ' across country ' must be left to the imagination. I remember once going into action seated on the tumbril of a field-gun, galloping over a rough, stony plain. It was luxurious ease compared to the sensa- tions experienced in a troika when the driver takes it into his head to make a short cut. At the third station from Tiflis the traveller may be said to bid farewell for the time being to civilisation. It is a kind of village on the right bank of the Kur. The • Since these lines were written, the Trans-Caucasus railroad has been com- menced and nearly completed ; so that the experiences related above are, for the traveller to Baku, things of the past. 12 WILD ANIMALS. postal station and the houses of three or four well-to-do Tartar families were the only buildings, strictly speaking, above the surface of the ground. The other dozen or so of habitations are even more troglodytic than those of Central Armenia. In the latter place there is, at least, something like a slightly raised tumulus to suggest to the experienced eye that a dwelling exists, or did so formerly. Here advantage is taken of some scarped bank, into which a broad deep trench is cut. This is covered over with hurdles and branches, and the earth which covers all is scarcely, if at all, above the level of the surrounding sur- face. Here and' there a wooden cask-like construction acts as chimney ; but in most instances this last is simply a hole in the ground, with stone coping, and a small wooden fence erected round it to prevent human beings or cattle from falling through. Buffaloes and goats wander at will over these singular house-tops. A stranger is often startled, while strolling over what he considers solid ground, to come upon an oblong opening, through which he can hear human voices. This is one of the venti- lation holes which abound; and I wonder that they are not a more frequent source of accident than they seem to be. Huge wolf-like dogs prowl about, causing the stranger to pass them by a kind of sidelong, edging movement, by way of precaution. Here and there are large rectangular enclosures seventy or eighty feet square, girt by walls of stout hm'dle, within which are the farm sheds and habita- tions of the better class of the population. The hurdle wall is meant as a protection to the flocks at night, against the depredations of wolves and wild cats. These latter are really formidable creatures — little less in size than a leopard, of a lion-tawny coloured stiff fur, with flat heads and noses, half-way between those of an otter and a bull- dog. One had just been shot by a peasant close to the THIEVES— TARTAR LADIES. 13, station. It was one of the ugliest-looking beasts I had ever seen. For twenty mUes round, the country is infested by all manner of wild animals. The village or station is situated on a sloping bank, one side of which descends vertically to the Kur, often going sheer down two hundred feet to the water's edge. The river, spread out into a network of channels and swamps, studded with marshy islands overgrown with brushwood and lesser forest trees, is nearly a mile wide. Close by are patches of primaeval forest, the haunts of wUd boars, lynxes, and all the other savage animals of the locality. Wild boars' flesh is the only meat one can reckon on, but that, with occasional wUd ducks and partridges, is in abundance. Owing to the marshy ground, the neighbourhood is very unhealthy, ague largely prevailing. I myself suf- fered from the renewal in the locality of an old complaint. Hot and cold sweats, trembling, and violent accesses of vomiting are the symptoms. At one time I feared that I had caught the much-dreaded Astrakan plague, but I recovered after a couple of days and a good deal of quinine.. A stUl worse mishap, however, occurred at this station. I had a small leather writing-case, closed by a lock, and containing all my maps, notes, and writing material. There are always prowling round a large station a number of thievish Tartars, and while seeing to the transfer of my baggage to the place where I was to pass the night, one of these itinerant gentlemen, evidently mistaking the article for a money-box, made oif with it. On missing it I at once called on the officer of the station to despatch men to pursue the thief. Everything possible was done, but in vain, and in the interim my sword-belt disappeared. The station officers had warned me against these gentry, but I could not imagine that they would carry on their- depredations at the very door of the post-house. 14 ELIZABETHPOL. It would be tedious to recapitulate the scenes of each day's journey ; one day was like another, save that at each mile the road grew worse. At last it seemed to have totally disappeared. We promenaded at will over long brown expanses, and over water-worn torrent-beds, the driver seeming always to have the most implicit faith in the impossibility of upsetting his vehicle. Sometimes long trains of camels glided by us in spectral fashion, the huge loads of lengthy osiers with which some of them were laden, the branches trailing behind on the ground, giving them the air of gigantic long-legged porcupines. Then we would meet a Tartar cavalcade, with indigenous ladies on horseback, clothed as usual in staring red garments, and much more effectually veiled than the Turkish ladies generally are. From time to time trains of twenty or thirty huge waggons, each drawn by four or five horses all abreast, came by from Persia. The trade from the latter country on this side is evidently far greater than that by the Bayazid and Erzeroum routes. On, on, across burnt-up, grey-looking expanses, the Caucasus and Persian mountains always looming right and left, amid the glare of an Eastern day. Elizabethpol, the next station, is a kind of half-way house between the last traces of Europe and the Caspian shores. It is approached by a steep road descending towards the western bank of the Kur. You cross a water-worn, boulder-strewn channel, descending at an angle of 45°. You are dragged through the water before you have time to appreciate the fact that your feet are flooded in the vehicle, and up an equally abrupt slope along the border of ancient fortifications taken by Shah Abass from the Turks 250 years ago; and then, plunging among the brick-fields and ruined mud-walls, all white in the glaring sun, you suddenly make your appearance in the modern TRANS-CAUCASIAN HOTELS. 15 town of Elizabethpol. On the right are gardens, with stately trees, centennial elms, and chenars ; there are never-ending suburbs, as there usually are to Oriental towns, as nobody seems to wish to occupy a site on which a predecessor has lived. Half a verst is got over, and we are in the midst of the town of Elizabethpol. Like Tiflis, it is half Asiatic, half European. There are Tartar shops in the bazaar, there are Tartar minarets on the mosques, there are kalpaked Tartars in the streets ; the latter contrasting with the patrols of from thirty to forty soldiers, with long grey coats and fixed bayonets, marching slowly along the public ways. There are Turkish cafes— holes in the wall, as we should pro- bably call them — mere niches, within which the pro- prietor crouches, nm'sing his charcoal fire wherewith to light water-pipes for his customers. Those who speak of * more than Eastern splendour ' should go to Elizabethpol to have their ideas corrected. I do not know how it is that the East is always connected with splendom- in European minds, but I venture to think that in the mind •of anyone who has practically visited the East the idea will be reversed, and, even in traversing the Trans-Caucasus, "the ground over which one goes will show even a more violent contrast between Eastern and Western civilisation than can be noticed in crossing the Bosphorus itself. My battered conveyance drew up at the door of what I should be tempted to call' a caravanserai, but which, in view of the fact of its being in Eussia, I suppose I must style an hotel. Mud-spattered and weary, I descended from my nest of straw in the troika which had carried me so far, and, limping under a horse-shoe archway, found myself in a spacious courtyard, surrounded by two tiers of galleries. I was in the Grand Hotel of Elizabethpol. It was some time before I could attract the attention of any 1 6 TABLE-DHO TE—CA VI ARE. of the employes, but after awhile I was shown into what they were pleased to call my bedroom. Its fm-niture con- sisted of a bedstead, guiltless of mattress or anything else which we are accustomed to associate with the name of bed. I was wearied to death, and could scarcely summon energy to cry aloud for the attendants, for bell there was not. After some parley I understood that it was the custom for travellers in these parts to bring beds with them, and that hotel-keepers were not expected to pander to the luxury of ordinary people like myself. However, by dint of bribery, I secured a kind of feather-bed, and prepared to make up by a night's sound repose for the fatigues endured since leaving Tiflis. I thought that a wash would be the best preliminary to this ; but no such thing as a basin-stand seemed to exist. I summoned the attendant, and learned that . the basin was still in use. From this I gathered that in the Grand Hotel of Elizabethpol only one basin was allowed for the service of the guests. A very solid-looking individual finally made his appearance -with a basin full of water which had already been used, the con- tents of which he flung over the balcony into the centre of the yard. In this yard was already a stagnant pool, which stank horribly ; and I may add, en parentliese, that more than wash-basins were emptied into it over the balcony. There was an attempt at a table-d'hote, and a very poor one it was. The bill of fare was apparently drawn up rather for the amusement of the guests than with the view of pointing out to them in what guise they should satisfy their appetites. After having enumerated in vain several articles the names of which were written very plainly upon the carte, I was forced at length to say, ' What have you got ? ' Then I discovered that ther6 were ham and caviare, the two never-failing articles of diet to be met with in the most out-of-the-way Eussian PRINCE CHAVCHAVAZA. 17 town. Perhaps most of my readers are unacquainted with this Eussian luxm'y — I mean caviare. It is the roe of the sturgeon. When the fish is freshly caught, and its roe (caviare) consumed, I am told that it is a delicacy such as the world elsewhere cannot produce. The black, salted specimens which reach Europe are, it is said, nothing in comparison with the caviare as Eussians eat it at home. For my part, if the caviare as Eussians eat it have any resemblance whatever to the black salted caviare famUiar to us, 'I'll none of it.' I once, by accident, tasted it at Constantinople, and it seemed to me that, inadvertently, a spoonful of cod-liver oil had been administered to me. It would be tedious to enumerate the disadvantages of hotels under such circumstances. They can be better imagined than described. According to Eussian courtesy, when a traveller of any distinction passes through a district, he is supposed to call upon and pay his respects to the local governor. Accordingly, I donned the best suit which the slender wardrobe carried in my saddle-bags afforded me, and pre- sented myself at the palace of the Government, where Prince Chavchavaza resided. I was graciously received, but the Prince, a Georgian of the old school, unfortunately did not understand French. The secretary, more than polite, as secretaries usually are in Eussia, interpreted our discourse. I was received in a chamber hung with ancient tapestry, the walls of which were garnished with arms of different periods, captured during the protracted struggle in which Schamyl led the Caucasians. Our con- versation at first took a general turn, and after a while we began to speak of the future of the Eussian Empire over these vast plains. I observed that nothing but means of communication and transport were wanting to make Eussia the Eome of to-day. He bowed his head in VOL, I. c l8 GENERAL LAZAR^FF. assent, and gave me many examples, which space does not allow me to recapitulate here, especially as the present is only a chapter introductory to my adventures beyond the Caspian. And then, suddenly turning to me, he fixed his dark eyes upon my face with a piercing glance, and said, ' Do you know that we expect an army corps shortly, bound for the shores of the Caspian ? ' ' My prince,' I replied, 'I was unaware of the fact. Where are they going to ? ' ' There is an expedition against the Turco- mans,' he said, ' commanded by General Lazareff.' This was news for me, and I resolved, instead of proceeding on my original mission, to follow the operations of the Eussian columns. Having thus determined, nothing was left but to await the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, General Lazareff, and to ask his permission to accompany iis expedition. I waited several days, amid the usual ispendthrift extravagance of Eussian border towns, and at length the colossal old general made his appearance. General Lazareff was no ordinary man. In stature he was over six feet high, and broadly made in proportion. A mass of jaw was surmounted by a more than Caesarian nose, and the large grey eye, half hidden by the heavy eyelid, denoted the amount of observation which as a specialty belongs to his race, the Armenian. Up to the age of twenty years he worked as a journeyman tailor in the town of Baku, upon the Caspian edge. Later on, he was a sergeant in the twenty-first regiment of the line; and when years had gone by, it was Lazareff who captured Schamyl in his stronghold amid the Caucasus. Eelegated to obscurity by political intrigues, he remained, living upon his modest allowance, until the outbreak of the Eusso- Turkish war called him again into action. He sent for- ward a petition to the Emperor, asking to be employed in the humblest capacity, and was immediately sent to the GERMAN COLONISTS.— BAD ROADS. 19 front before Kars in the capacity of Lieutenant-General. He "took an active part in the siege of that place, and it was ■owing to his exertions, to his intrigues, and to his intrepidity, ■that Kars became a Eussian citadel instead of a Turkish one. Two days elapsed before I was able to leave Eliza- bethpol. At half-past six in the morning I started in the postal troika. To describe the scenes and incidents along ihe route would be but to repeat what I have already written, for each section of the road is, physically, pre- cisely like the other, so is each post-house, so are the ■ofi&cials, and the occurrences of each day and hour. There are the same undulating plains, with the Kur on the right, and Persian mountains to the left ; the same clouds -of blue pigeons and crows, the same dust, the same groaning camels. As the road descends towards the Kur, ■trees begin to appear, and there are occasional large •expanses of jungle, which, to judge fi-om the frequent iappearance of animals of all descriptions, must be a happy hunting-ground for those who are addicted to field sports. Occasionally, too, one meets with a lonely farmhouse, or two or three buildings grouped together. These are for the most part inhabited by German colonists, and partially also by Fins. Around these dwellings are large vineyards. Wine is usually to be had in abundance, but it is of poor •quality ; nor do I ever recollect discovering in situ any of ihe wine which, under the name of kakatinski, is pur- chasable at all the hotels throughout the Trans-Caucasus. From time to time, also, one meets with the semi-subter- ranean Armenian villages to which I have already alluded. 'On the whole, the population is exceedingly sparse, and, considering the excellence of the soil, and the abundance 'of water, the country may be said to^be almost unin- habited. There are great tracts of giant bulrushes and rotting jungle through which the driver continues his c 2 20 AUTOMATIC RAFT OVER KUR. way with the same mad pace as ever, making rushes at all the dangerous points, such as bridges more or less at right angles to the road, and innocent of such a thing as. a parapet. Sometimes, to avoid the deep sloughs along the regular postal track, the troika is driven along the side of a hill so steeply sloping as to induce strong fears, of a momentary upsetting. Over and over again I pre- ferred to dismount from my rough chariot and pick my way through the miry loam sooner than run the risk of broken bones at this, the commencement of my journey. Soon the banks of the Kur are reached — a deep, broad river, hemmed in on either side by domelike masses of brown magnesian limestone, running into each other. In many places the soil is covered with a white saline in- crustation, in appearance exactly resembling a new snow fall. From hence to the Caspian shores and beyond them the earth is impregnated with this saline matter, which, mingling with the water of the streams and wells, renders it all but undrinkable. At the crossing point is the straggling village of Mingatsur. No such thing as a bridge exists, and the stream is far too deep, even when the water is scantiest during the dry season, to allow of an attempt to ford. It is here some hundred yards wide, and is traversed by means of a raft propelled backwards and forwards by the force of the current itself. A very thick cable, supported on either bank by a tall, stout framework, is drawn as tautly as possible across the stream. This passes between two rollers on board the raft, which, accordingly as the traject is to be made in one direction or the other, is set with its side obliquely to the current, which thus drives it along the rope ta the opposite side. This raft is capable of transporting a couple of large waggons and a half dozen camels simul- taneously. Along the river marge, owing to frequent TARTAR FUNERAL. 21 inundation, the ground is rich in the extreme, on account of alluvial deposits ; but as, going eastward, we leave the river behind us, bleakness again comes on, and these same eternal expanses of plain, covered with short, burnt-up herbage, reach away right and left to the Cau- casus and the Persian frontier. Here and there is to be seen a solitary camel, abandoned by some passing caravan, his depleted hump hanging over like an empty sack, and indicating an eiitire state of exhaustion. Towards sunset, as we drew near the fourth station from Elizabethpol, and about 79| versts from that town, I had an opportunity of witnessing a Tartar funeral pro- cession. First came a body of horsemen, armed to the teeth, and some twenty or thirty in number. Then a single horseman, bearing in front of him, across his saddle bow, the body, sewn up in a litter of Persian carpet, similar to that used in removing the wounded from the field of battle. The side poles had been brought together above the body, and fastened with rope. Then followed a long cavalcade composed of the friends of the •deceased, moving at a very stately and funereal pace. There is a peculiarity in Tartar tombstones which now first came under my notice. They are quite unlike the turban stone of the Osmanli Turks, or the flat-lying slabs one sees among the Shiia Persians in the great bm-ying- grounds in and around the sacred city of Meshed. The Tartar headstones are about eighteen inches high, and represent lance-heads sculptured in stone, or I might more aptly compare them to gigantic decanter stoppers. After this station the mud was so deep, and om- progress :so slow — the wheels sinking frequently axle deep into the .stiff brown mud — that I took horse and rode some twenty versts. As none but Circassian horse-trappings were available, the stirrup leather being little over eighteen 22 MOUNTAIN ROAD.— WRETCHED POST-STATION. inches long, I suffered frightfully from the cramped position which I was obliged to adopt. At this point the- plain is traversed by an elevated mountain chain, along: whose sides the road proceeded in the most tiresome zig- zag manner, to enable the huge waggons plying between Baku and Tiflis, with then fom* or six horses abreast, to traverse the steep incline. My conductor would not follow this road, but went boldly up the side, from angle to angle, of the zigzag thoroughfare. Soon we got into the- region of clouds, where all around us was a rolling waste of mist. Here and there, when wind gusts broke the wall of vapour, we caught below us occasional glimpses of the vast plain traversed by the Kur and its numerous tribu- taries. In ordinary weather, when the roads are in a tolerably good condition, by travelling hard one is sup- posed to arrive at Baku in twenty-four hours from the westward foot of this mountain; but the weather was so severe, the snow lay so deep, and the roads were in such exquisitely bad condition that we were unable to cover more than a third of the way within that time. There was a lonely station where the postmaster understood nothing but Persian. It was exceedingly cold, and I passed a wretched night sleeping upon one of the bare wooden camp beds with which the guest-rooms of the post-houses are supplied. I bought some red-legged', partridges for a penny each, but found them so tough that I was glad to abandon them to a hungry-looking cat who glanced at me from the corner. Next morning I started on horseback for the town of Shumakha. We were five hours in traversing the most dreadful mountain tracks, often along the top of some great landslip which the torrent at. its base had sapped from the mountain side. The country seemed ahve with field mice, rats, and ferrets. Never do I recollect seeing so many of these SHUMAKHA. 23 animals together. Great flocks of wild geese marched •waddlingly on either side, and scarcely took the trouble to make way before our horses. Falcons and kites, too, were to be seen in incredible numbers, doubtless owing to the abundance of provision which they found at hand. Leaving the mountain, with its snow and fog, behind us, it was an inexpressible relief to issue upon the dry, warm plain stretching eastward to Shumakha. This place has the appearance of having been once a flom-ishing town, but bwing to a violent earthquake which took place here some years back there is scarcely an edifice which is not in a ruinous condition. There are two large-sized mosques, one belonging to the Shiia Mussulmans, the other to the Sunnites of the town, for the population of Shumakha is almost exclusively Mussulman. The few Christians that there are, live in a quarter by themselves. The church tower, crowned with its green kiosk, rises in strong contrast with the crimson dome and minarets im- mediately in front. Considerable as the town is, at the postal station neither horses nor troikas were to be foimd for the moment, and I was obliged to spend another night upon the rude benches of the guest-chamber, starting again early on the morning of Wednesday, the 27th, and passing another exceedingly disagreeable and difficult series of mountains deeply covered with snow. Passing through Maraza, the station of Xorezsafen, thirty-one versts from Baku, is reached. Here the postal station consists of an antique castellated structure, in the old Moorish style, coeval with the days of Tartar inde- pendence, and known as Sheik Abass' house. At the next station, some sixteen versts farther on, my patience was sorely tried. The station itself consisted of a series of extensive farm-buildings, and there seemed no lack of troikas and horses standing about in the muddy places 24 FIRST SIGHT OF CASPIAN. which represented stable-yards. A wedding was in pro- gress, and the driver whose turn it was to conduct the vehicles could on no condition be induced to turn his back to the good cheer and xodka of the festivities. After a prolonged and wearisome debate among the company it was finally agreed to send a driver, but I had scarcely made two or three versts across a most disagreeably rocky ground when I perceived that my conductor had not the slightest intention of pushing on to Baku, and was trying every possible ntse in order to make out that it was im- possible to reach my destination that evening. It was far better, he said, to tm-n back' and partake of the good things which were being distributed at the marriage feast, and to pass the night in comfort, instead of pushing across the uncomfortable ground which lay between us and Baku. There were, he said, deep rivers to be crossed, and brigands were notoriously numerous along their banks. Finding me inexorable, he first upset one of the horses, and then managed to smash his harness. After a long halt in the cold, and bitterly cold it was, a com- bination of knotty straps and rotten ropes was rigged up, and we went forward, at as slow a pace as it was possible for a troika to move at without standing still altogether. The horses had, apparently, as great an objection to go forward as the driver, and wandered incontinently all over the ground in any direction but that required of them. At length the fellow declared that with these horses it was impossible to go on, and I was obliged to sit waiting for two hours while he returned to the last station for others. It was seven o'clock in the morning when, after a weary night drive, we came in sight of Baku, lying some ten versts off; the Caspian, glittering beyond, being seen at intervals between the low hills that flanked its border. The country at this point is inex- TARTAR CARTS.— ENTERING BAKU. 25 pressibly dreary and volcanic-looking; the salt incrusta- tions which I have already mentioned are thicker and more extensive than ever. Here and there were straggling Tartar villages, with their flat houses and preposterously large conical chimneys, looking like gigantic mushrooms. From time to time we passed along the road the peculiar- looking carts characteristic of the country. The wheels were not less than eight feet in diameter, and very close to each other, the body of the cart being but two feet wide, a structure like a pulpit rising in front, gaudily painted, and probably intended for the use of the con- ductor. The centre of gravity of the vehicle was pitched so high, the wheels were so tall, and by their proximity afforded such a slender base, that it was a matter of wonder that at each jolt over the stony ground the entire contrivance did not turn over. It bore no bad resem- blance to a great grass-spider with his long legs. Small cows, too, were to be met, with burdens strapped upon their backs, as one sees them among the nomad Kurds of Persia ; and at length, driving at breakneck pace down the steeply-winding road, the troika jostling and reeling ■over the rocky surface streaked with the wheel-marks of ages, we dashed into the outskirts of Baku. Away on the left, crowning the heights, and scattered in apparently unlimited numbers over the country northwards, were to be seen strange-looking constructions resembling enormous .sentry-boxes, and some twenty-five feet in height. These were erected over the petroleum wells of Balahane and Sulahane. Entering Baku itself, the driver descended for a moment from his seat to tie up the bells hanging from the wooden arch above the central horse, the municipal regula- tions forbidding the entry of postal vehicles accompanied by their usual jangling uproar, lest the horses of the town phaetons should take fright. Baku merits a chapter of its own. 26 BAKU. CHAPTEE II. BAKU. Baku — Apscheron promontory — Country round Baku — Armenian emigrants from Turkish territory — Kussian town — Old Baku^Ancient Tartar town — Old fortifications — Citadel — Bazaars — Mosques — Palace of Tartar Khans. — Caspian steamers — Municipal garden — Mixed population — Bazaar held in aid of victims of Orenhurg fire — National costumes and types — Nature of population — Banished Christian sects — Malakani and Scopts — ^Mereurius- Company — ^Kussian girls' dress — Origin, of name of Baku — Bituminous dust — Laying it with astatki — Boring for petroleum — Distilling and purifying — Utilization of refuse for ' steamers — -Probable adaptation to railroads — Island of Tcheliken — ^Fire temple — Guebre fire-worship. Baku, a few years back little if at all known to Europeans, is a place full of interest, and one destined to play an important part in the future of the Caspian regions. It is situated on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, on the promontory of Apscheron, which juts out eastward, and is the point nearest to Krasnavodsk, on the opposite littoral. The surroundings are of the same bleak and desert kind which characterises almost the entire circuit of the sea. In fact, the Steppes commence far west of the latter. For leagues around not a blade of grass is to be seen, and not even a shrub breaks the arid expanse of broken strata and scorched marl. Here and there, at long intervals, is a Tartar village, or the crumbling remains of some ancient Persian town. At midday not a living thing- is visible, and the white glare of an Eastern sun reveals- with painful distinctness every detail of the ghastly desola- tion. The houses are all of one story, flat-roofed, and built BAKU. 27 of great slabs of kneaded clay dried in the. sun. Were it not for the huge conical chimneys, which rise like watch- towers from the flat roofs, at a distance it would be impos- sible to distinguish these clay-coloured dwellings from the surrounding soil. Occasionally one sees a semi-subterranean Armenian village inhabited by emigrants from Turkish territory. These people adhere to their old system of con- struction, living in bmrows covered over by low mounds of earth, and entered by a descending staircase. It is quite possible for a stranger, unaccustomed to these dwellings, to ride or walk across an entire village without being aware of its existence. A semi-circle of rugged scorched hills of grey sand- stone, highest towards the south, and dying away north- ward into the plain, encloses Baku on the land side. The northern portion of the town is altogether European in appearance, with yellow stone-fronted houses precisely similar to those of a Western Eussian town. There is a large square, round which are planted a few stunted bushes and acacias. The orthodox Eussian Church, of severely simple architecture, occupies the south-western side, just within the old fortifications ; while on the northern side is an equally stern-looking Gregorian Armenian place of worship. Close by this square is the ancient Tartar town, the old fortifications still quite perfect, save where a couple of bastion towers show the yawning breaches effected by the Eussian artillery some fifty years ago. The walls are lofty, solidly constructed, and flanked by numerous circular towers. A fmisse-hraye, or lower exterior rampart, adds to the strength of the place. The northern gateway is covered by a heavy stone ravelin, evidently of much later construction than the town walls. In the midst of the sea-front of the town, its eastern side, rises an immense circular tower, with massive outlying flank of 28 OLD PALACE.— GARDENS. oblong plan, over one hundred and fifty feet high, and which at present serves as a lighthouse. Around its base are the ruins of the old bazaar, part of which is now converted into a school for children, and close by is the modern thoroughly Oriental bazaar, where, in a series of vaulted passages, opening in the roof, Armenian and Persian mer- chants sit cross-legged in the midst of an infinity of articles of almost every conceivable kind — bowls of spice, packages of starch and candles, rolls of calico, boxes of tea, cases of scissors, combs, brushes, ammunition, pipes, tobacco ; m fact, it would be hard to think of a merchandise which these dealers do not each and all offer to the public. This tower is of considerable age, and was built during the reigns of the old Tartar Khans of Baku. Not far from it are some very old and solidly built mosques of bluish-grey stone, profusely ornamented with Cufic inscriptions, and bearing palpable marks of the Russian artillery fire. The streets are narrow, and the houses of the genuine ogive-windowed, flat-roofed Persian type. The old Tartar town, that lying within the ramparts, slopes up the hill on whose eastern side it is built, and at the top rises the palace of the former Tartar Khans, stUl in a state of excellent preservation, and now made use of as a Eussian artillery depot. For a mile along the water's edge are numerous piers, alongside of which steamers of a thousand tons can lie to discharge their cargoes. There are usually eight or ten merchant steamers in port, besides a couple of steam corvettes belonging to the Caspian flotilla. At the southern extremity of the town, immediately outside the old walls, a garden has been planted, which, owing to the entire absence of water and the bituminous nature of the soil, requires the most assiduous care to keep it in existence. The environs of Baku itself being entirely destitute of trees and flowers those of the public garden GUEBRE PRIEST. 29 had to be brought from Persia at a great expense. There are the yellow flowering broom {Planta genista), which in this climate attains the dimensions of an ordinary apple tree ; large rose trees, and twenty others for which I know no name. Every Sunday and Thursday a military band plays from sunset untU ten o'clock in the evening. In the most cosmopolitan town in Europe it would be hard to match the mixed population that throng these gardens. Shortly after my arrival, a kind of bazaar was held in aid of the victims of the fire at Orenburg ; and, perhaps, in prospectu for the victims of the coming cam- paign. The Eed Cross Society presided. There were few nations in Europe unrepresented. All the more strange that few even know of this town of Baku — separated but by the Caspian's breadth from the borders of the vast desert reaching far away to the limits of Cathay and the regions from which Marco Polo brought back his tale of wonders. The expedition which was to penetrate into hitherto unknown regions away across the Steppes was represented at the gathering. Long white-robed Cos- sacks and blue-vested dragoons thronged the green alleys with training sabres, and mingled with an Eastern popula- tion. The eye is attracted by a reverend form reclining on a bench, under the shadow of the clustering trees. His long blue robe, coal-black plaited hair, and white turban bespeak him a priest. But he is one of a sect long passed away. He is the last priest of Zoroaster's creed that lingers yet in a region once all its own. He sits gazing dreamily at the shifting throng before him, thinking, perhaps, of the past glories of Iran, ' quenched with the flame in Mithra's caves.' Close by is a group of young men whose blue, green, or brown robes, and spot- less white turbans, show them to be Softas, theological students, priestly aspirants of the Shiia Mussulman sect. 30 NATIONAL COSTUMES.—RELIGIOUS SECTS. Their faces are handsome and well cut, but bear the unmistakable stamp of dissipation. In the throng which saunters, along the leafy alleys under the twinkling lamps suspended from the trees are to be seen the costumes, all of them strongly contrasting, of Germans, Swedes, Geor- gians, Jews, Persians, Armenians, Poles, Eussians, and Tartars, not to speak of those of the different religious sects which obtain in Baku. There is the Jew with his black cloth cap, sombre robe, and long staff; the Armenian, with sleek black sUk tunic, flat-peaked cap of the same colour, and belt of massive pieces of carved enamelled silver ; the Georgian, vested almost like the Circassian, with silver mounted cartridge tubes in horizon- tal rows on either breast, and guardless Caucasian sabre, the richly-mounted hilt entering with the blade up to the pommel in the leather sheath. The Eussian peasant at all seasons wears the usual long sheep-skin tunic, the wool within, the amber yellow-tanned skin outwards, long leather boots, and a fur hat. The Tartar has his great woolly hat, like that of the Grenadier Guards, and a curious nondescript flowing robe of various colours. The Persian has one invariable, distinctive mark : his tall hat of black Astrakan wool, oval in section, the top often modified at the taste of the owner to a more or less mitred shape. The Swedes, Germans, Eussians, and others of a superior class, all wear a strictly European costume. The couple of American engineers present wore a strictly Yankee garb. Among all the frequenters of the garden promenade, by far the most curious were those belonging to different Christian sects. From what I have learned from different sources it seems there was a moment when the efforts dn-ected towards national unity of creed per- mitted of no departure from the strictly orthodox faith. Poles and Eussians who held fantastic Nonconformist RELIGIOUS SECTS. 31 ideas were relegated to the borders of the Caspian. In the case of the Poles there was probably also a certain mixture of political ideas. Among these religious sects, after the fire-worshipping priest, I shall mention but two — the Malakani and the Scopts. The first differ but little from the orthodox creed, save that they insist upon making use of milk and butter during the Lenten period. I was unable to distinguish any difference in dress between the male members of this congregation and the same sex of similar nationality. The ladies wear old-fashioned gowns with wide skirts of the brightest possible colours, emerald gr^en and scarlet, lilac or blue. On the head is a hand- kerchief of variegated hues, knotted under the chin in Scandinavian fashion, the point falling between the shoulders. This sect is sub-divided into two sections. One considers it lawful to sing during Divine service, the other confines itself to slow dancing to the accompaniment of a monotonous drumming executed by some members of the congregation. I believe that in other respects both sub-divisions accept the usual dogmas. Of the Scopts, owing to their very peculiar ideas, I must say but little. They have curious notions about the possibilities of exces- sive population before the arrival of the Day of Judgment. They devote themselves to the production of capital and the limitation of offspring. One child is allowed to each married couple. Both sexes then undergo a peculiar and barbarous mutilation. This sect lies under the special ban of Eussian law. It is a curious fact that all its com- ponent members inhabiting Baku, the only place in which I ever had an opportunity of seeing or inquiring about them, live in the same street, and are mostly bakers. The men are easily recognised in the streets by their melancholy, downcast air, and pale, shrivelled faces, as well as by then' semi- Judaic garb. The German inhabitants 33 ORIGIN OF NAME BAKU.— BITUMINOUS DUST ' are few in number, either belonging to large commercial houses, or to the extensive petroleum works near Baku, about which I shall have something to say later on. The Swedes are mostly employed in connection with a steamship company founded by their countrymen, and which rivals the Mercurius, the Eussian shipowners' company on the Caspian waters. Among the brightest and most graceful costumes in these garden promenades was that of some young Eussian girls of the higher classes, who on gala occasions don the typical dress of the peasantry. This consists of a black or red skirt, with broad blue, red, and white parallel lines around the lower edge, turning sharply square at the corners like those patterns one sees in old Pompeian frescoes. A small black apron with the same border is added. A white muslin handkerchief crossed on the breast, knotted and pendant behind, and a wide-leafed straw hat with pendant edges, complete the costume. The name of Baku means ' a place beaten by the winds.' Never did any locality better merit the appella- tion. Even in these hot summer months, when at times we lie gasping for a breath of air, sudden storms arise, sometimes from the seaward, sometimes from off the land. These storms raise clouds of dun-yellow dust, whirling in columns like the sand before the simoom. This dust has a particularly disagreeable nature, all its own. All around Baku the ground is sodden with natural issues of naphtha. In some places the earth is converted into a natural asphalte, hard during cold weather, but into which the foot sinks a couple of inches at midday in summer. Add to this that, owing to the scarcity of water, the streets are moistened with coarse black residual naphtha, a treacly fluid which remains after the distillation of the raw petroleum, and termed astatki in Eussia. It effectually lays BORING FOR PETROLEUM. 33 the dust during fifteen days. After this period a thick brown dust lies four or five inches deep in the roadway, over which the numerous phaetons, or street carriages, ghde so softly and noiselessly that the foot passenger is frequently in danger of being run over. When a north or west wind arises, the air is thick with impalpable marly earth, combined with bitumen. The least glow of sun- shine fixes this indelibly in one's clothes. No amount of brushing or washing can remove it. Perhaps I cannot here do better than enter on a short description of the sources of mineral oil lying around Baku, which weU 'merits the title of the ' Oil City ' of the East. The shores of Baku bay north of the town trend towards the east, and some five or six miles distant are the petroleum, or, as they are termed, the naphtha springs of Balahane and Sulahane, the former fifteen, the latter eighteen versts from the town. The surrounding district is almost entirely destitute of vegetation ; and in its midst are some black-looking brick buildings, interspersed with those curious wooden structures, which I have mentioned in describing the approaches to Baku, twenty feet high, and resembling Continental windmills or gigantic sentry boxes. These latter are the pump or well houses covering the borings for oil, and in which the crude liquid is brought to the surface. The odour of petroleum pervades the entire locality, and the ground is black with waste liquid ' and natural infiltrations. Boring for naphtha is conducted much in the same manner as that for coal. An iron bit, gouge-shaped, is fitted to a boring bar eight or ten feet in length, which is successively fitted to other lengths as the depth of the piercing increases. This depth varies from fifty to one hundred and fifty yards, this difference existing even at very short horizontal distances, some- times of not over forty yards. Layers of sand and rock VOL. I. D .34 DISTILLATION OF PETROLEUM. have to be pierced. It is in the sand that often the greatest •difficulties are to be met with. A loose boulder will meet the boring tool, and, displacing itself, leave the passage free. But when the rods are withdrawn to allow the introduction of the tubes which form the lining of the well, the boulder falls back to its place, and baffles all attempts to continue the orifice. This boulder difficulty- is the great terror of those commencing to bore. Some- times, after a lengthened discharge of light carburetted hydrogen, the naphtha rises to the surface, and even flows 'Over abundantly, occasionally springing fountain-like into the air to a height of eight or ten feet for hours at a time, as in the case of the artesian well. In such cases the ground around the boring is often flooded to a depth ■of six inches with the mineral oU, which, to avoid the danger of a conflagration, has to be let off by channels ■constructed so as to lead out to seaward. Under ordinary •circumstances, it has to be drawn up from a considerable depth. The boring is generally ten, or at most eighteen, inches in diameter. A long bucket, or rather a tube .stopped at the bottom and fifteen feet in length, is lowered into the well, and drawn up full of crude petroleum — fifty gallons at a time. This, which is a blue-pink trans- parent liquid, is poured into a rudely constructed, plank- lined trough at the door of the well house, whence it flows by an equally rude channel to the distillery. The distilla- tion is conducted at a temperature commencing with 140 degrees — much lower, I am told, than the first boUing point for that from Pennsylvania. When no more oil comes over at this heat, the result is withdrawn and the temperature increased by ten degrees. This second result is also laid aside, and, the heat being again increased, a third distillation is carried on until no further easily evaporated liquid remains. This last is the best quality JISTATKL— ADAPTATION TO STEAM NAVIGATION. 35 -of petroleum for lamps. That which preceded it is the ;Becond quality ; and the first, or highly volatile liquid, is ■either thrown away or mixed with the best and second best as an adulteration. The thick dark brown treacly fluid remaining after distillation is termed astatki, and is that used for the irrigation of the streets. The distilled petroleum, if used in lamps, would quickly clog the wick with a carbonaceous deposit. With a view to obviating .this, previous to being offered for sale it is placed in a reservoir, within which revolves a large paddle-wheel. 1 Sulphuric acid is first added, and, after being allowed to ; settle, the clear top liquor is drawn off, and similarly treated with caustic potash. After this it is ready for ;sale. Up to the present, the residues, after the acid and potash treatments, have not been utUised. I have no ■doubt that valuable products will ultimately be derived from them. With the astatki, or remnant after the first • distillation, the case is different. For years past this has been the only fuel used on board the war ships and mercantile steamers of the Caspian. At Baku its price is • only nominal, vast quantities being poured into the sea for lack of stowing space or demand. It is used in cook- ing apparatus, and for the production of gas for light- ing purposes. In the latter case it is allowed to trickle .slowly into retorts raised to a didl red heat, pure gas with little graphite being the result. Weight for weight, this waste product gives four times as great a volume of gas as ordinary coal. By distillation at a high temperature and treatment with an alkaline substance, a product is ■ obtained which is used as a substitute for oil in greasing machinery. Apart from the local use of petroleum for lighting purposes, and its exportation for a similar use, is its appli- -cation to steam navigation. With the old-fashioned D 2 36 ASTATKI FUEL. boilers in use, which have a central opening running longi- tudinally, no modiiication is necessary for the application of the new fuel. A reservoir, containing some hundred pounds' weight of the refuse (astatki), is furnished with a small tube, bearing another at its extremity, a few inches- long, and at right angles with the conduit. From this- latter it trickles slowly. Close by is the mouth of another tube, connected with the boiler. A pan containing tow or- wood saturated with astatki is first introduced to heat the water, and, once the slightest steam pressure is produced, a jet of vapour is thrown upon the dropping bituminous, fluid, which is thus converted into spray. A light is. applied, and then a roaring deluge of fire inundates the central opening of the boiler. It is a kind of self-acting blow-pipe. This volume of fire can be controlled by one man, by means of the two stop-cocks, as easily as the flame in an ordinary gas jet. This I have repeatedly witnessed on board the Caspian steamers. As regards th& expense, I give the following data on the authority of a merchant captain who has used naphtha fuel for years. His steamer is of four hundred and fifty tons, and of one hundred and twenty horse-power. He burns thirty pood per hour of astatki to obtain a speed of thirteen nautical miles in the same time. One pood is about thirty-three English pounds (16 kilogrammes), and costs on an aver- age from five to six pence. Thus a twenty hours' voyage- at full speed for such a vessel costs about twelve pounda. sterling. The fuel is as safe as and occupies much less- space than the amount of coal necessary to produce a similar effect, not to speak of the enormous difference in price and the saving of manual labour. Two engineers and two stokers suffice for a steamer of a thousand tons burden. In view of the immense supply of natural petro- leum, as yet only very sKghtly developed, and its application CARBURETTED HYDROGEN.— FIRE TEMPLE. 37 "to the already guaranteed railway from Tiflis to Baku, and to the inevitable future ones beyond the Caspian over the "plains of the far East connecting with that already con- structed from Krasnavodsk to the new Eussian possessions of the Akhal Tekke, I think this subject is worthy of every attention. Yet there are proprietors of large tracts of petroleum-bearing ground whose capital rests unproductive because of a want of demand. The island of Tcheliken, not far from Krasnavodsk, teems with the precious liquid. The seaward cliffs are black with its streams flowing idly into the sea ; and a natural paraffin, or ' mineral wax,' is found abundantly in the island and in the low hills a hundred versts west of Krasnavodsk. All round Baku the ground is full of naphtha. In hundreds of places it exhales from the ground and burns freely when a light is applied. Only a couple of months before my visit its volatile pro- ducts produced a remarkable effect a few miles south of Baku. A large earth cliff fronting the sea was tumbled over as by an earthquake shock, and, as I saw myself, huge houlders and weighty ships' boilers were thrown a hundred yards. In some places I have seen fifty Or sixty furnaces for burning lime, the flame used being solely that of the carburetted hydrogen issuing naturally from fissures in the earth. This brings me to one of the most curious features of Baku and its environs. It was one of the last strong- holds of the 'Fire-worshippers,' and lam sure that had Thomas Moore ever travelled so far eastward he would have made ' Hafid ' figure rather on the top of the gigantic double citadel-tower (150 feet high) than on the peak of an imaginary mountain overhanging the waters of the Sea of Oman. In the midst of the busy petroleum works of Sulahane and Balahane, where the chimneys of the distilling works no doubt far surpass in height the fire towers of old, is a 38 FIRE TEMPLE real specimen of the religious architecture and practices- of ante-Mussulman days. After stumbling through the- black naphtha mud, and over uneven foundations, a hole- roughly broken in a modern wall gives entry to a small chamber, twenty feet by fifteen, adjoining which is a smaller one to the right. In the opposite wiall and to the- left is another low door opening on a semi-circular yard,, fifteen feet wide at its greater diameter. It is the re- maining half of a once celebrated fire temple, or rather of the small monastery connected with it. The exterior wall, eleven or twelve feet high, on which is a parapeted walk, is composed of rough stone. From the courtyard one can enter thirty-five roomy cells, accessible by as many doors. These were the cells of the former devotees of fire, or perhaps the accommodation for the pilgrims who came to visit the shrine, such as we see at celebrated religious tombs in Persia to-day. These cells formerly enclosed a circular space, one-half of which has been demolished or has fallen to ruin, and a modern wall through which one enters is the diameter of the circle. Looking northward, and sup- ported by three double sets of pillars, is the ancient chief entrance, above which the parapet walk is continued. This entrance has been long walled up, and the only access is given by the hole broken in the modern wall behind. The cells formerly occupied by the monks or pilgrims are now rented at a moderate price to some of the workmen who belong tO' the factories immediately surrounding, by the priest, the- last of his race, who still lingers beside his unfrequented altars. Near the western wall of the semi-circular enclosure- is the real fire shrine. It is a square platform, ascended by three steps, of a little over one foot each in height. The upper portion of the platform is about sixteen feet square, and at each angle rises a monolith column of grey stone, some sixteen feet high and seven feet broad at the. GUEBRE WORSHIP. 39. tase, supporting a gently sloping stone roof. In the centre of the platform is a small iron tube, where the^^saered fire once burned. North, south, and east of this shed-like temple are three wells with slightly raised borders, the contents of which could at a previous period be lighted at will. Now, owing to the drain on the subterranean gases, this is no longer possible. In the chamber which we enter through the rough hole in the modern wall we find the only remnants of the old worship. The priest is called for. He is the same we have seen lounging meditatively in the gardens of Baku. He dons a long white robe, taken from a rude cupboard in the white-washed waU, and, drawing near a kind of wide altar tomb at the south- western corner of the chamber, railed off from the outer portion of the apartment by a low wooden balustrade, applies a lighted match, which he has previously sought for in a most prosaic manner in his breeches pocket, to a small iron tube. A jet of pale blue lambent flame is produced, rising to the height of eight inches or a foot. Seizing the rope of a bell hung over his head, he rings half a dozen strokes upon it, then takes in his hand a small bell, and, ringing it continually, proceeds to bow and genuflect before the altar, ' muttering o'er his mystic spells.' The lights wane gradually, and go out. And then, advancing towards the curious spectator, the priest proffers on a small brass. dish a few grains of barley or rice, or, as I once saw, three or four pieces of candied sugar, which the envelope indicated had been manufactured in Paris ! A person in the East always gives a present with the view of receiving at least fifty times its value in return ; so we present the last of his. race with a couple of roubles, and retire. 40 INTERVIEW WITH LAZAREFF. CHAPTEE III. ACEOSS THE CASPIAN TO TCHIKISLAR AND CHATTE. Interview -with Lazareff — Voyage to Tehikislar — Reception by Turcomans — Their Costume and Dwellings — Fort of Tehikislar — Presents to Yamud chiefs — ^Akhal Tekki prisoners — Journey to Chatte — Russian discipline — Rain pools and mirage — Wild asses and antelopes — Fort of Chatte — Atterek and Sumhar rivers — Banks of the Atterek — Diary of Journey — Bouyun Baehe — Delilli — Bait ;Hadji — Yaghli Olum — Tekindji — Review of LazareiF's regiment-^Flies at Chatte — Tile pavements — Remnants of old civilization. I CALLED upon General Lazareff at Baku, when I learned that he was about to start for the Eastern Caspian shore and the camp of Tehikislar, the immediate base of opera- tions of the expeditionary columns destined for service against the Akhal Tekke Turcomans. On my asking permission to go with him, he very kindly said he would be glad of my company, but that the formality, at least, •of requesting the consent of H.I.H. the Grand Duke commanding at Tiflis, must be gone through. In two days the requisite permission arrived, and I was directed to hand my papers to Colonel Malama, the chief of staff of the expeditionary forces. On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 2, 1879, with the General-in-Chief and his staff I went on board the Eussian war steamer ' Nasr Eddin Shah,' bound for the camp on the south-eastern shore of the Caspian. Nothing could exceed the old General's kindness to me. I was his guest on board, and he took every opportunity of distinguishing me. On the following Friday, AprU 5, we anchored in front of the long, low- lying sandy shore off Tehikislar, but, owing to the extreme LANDING AT TCHIKISLAR. 41 shaHowness of the water, we were obliged, at a distance •of two and a half miles from it, to land in men-of-war's boats at the extremity of a rude pier, at that time reaching but some hundred and fifty yards out into the shallows. It was originally a kind of sand-spit, used by the Turcomans when discharging the cargoes of their lodkas. The General was received by some score of Yamud elders, who, drawn up- at the extremity of the pier, offered him, as he landed, a cake of bread, a plate of salt, and a large fish newly caught ; meantime, the guns in the small redoubt adjoining the camp thundered out their salute. The Tm-comans of the entire surrounding neighbourhood had assembled to do honour to the General, and were drawn up on either side of the pier along which he passed to the .shore. At its landward extremity, a number of Turcomans held prostrate on the ground half a dozen black-haired .sheep, and, as he passed, a knife was drawn across the throat of each animal, the blood streaming, hot and smoking, across his path, and flooding the gi'ound to such an extent that our shoes were all ensanguined as we walked in procession across it. It was the first time I had had a good opportunity of seeing genuine Turcomans. Each wore the enormous sheepskin shako affected by the in- habitants of Central Asia, and a long tunic of some bright colour, tightly girt at the waist by a broad white sash, knotted in front, a long dirk thrust through it. Over this was an exterior garment of some sombre tint, with long .sleeves, which the wearers were continually pulling back- wards in order to leave their hands free. Each, together •with his poniard, wore a curved, leather-sheathed sabre, with -cross guard. One might have imagined them a battalion -of the Foot Guards, robed for the nonce in dressing .gowns. Some, also, wore the enormous pelisse of .sheepskin so common among the dwellers in Central 42 CAMP OF TCHIKISLAR.—LAZAREFF'S SPEECH. Asia, and which, doubtless, has been worn in those far-off lands from time immemorial. . A person of an imaginative turn of mind might see in these primitively-clad Turco- mans so many resurrected bodies of Cyrus's or Zenghis Khan's camp followers or soldiers. The camp was partly composed of regular Eussian military tents, and partly of the circular, bee-hive-shaped Turcoman dwellings known as aladjaks, hibitkas, or evs. These are some fifteen feet, in diameter, and twelve feet high to the centre of the dome-like roof, covered with felt an inch in thickness, the- vertical portion of the walls being further bound round with a kind of reed matting. As I shall afterwards have occa- sion, in describing my visit to Merv, to speak of these circular dwellings more in detail, I shall now confine myself to a brief allusion to them. The fortifications of Tchikislar were, in themselves, but very trifling. A low parapet of sand and a shallow beach surrounded a quadrangular space about two hundred yards, square. In its centre was the kibitka of the Commandant ; and not far from this latter was a tall signal station, composed of a platform elevated on a very tapering- pyramid of poles to a height of sixty or seventy feet. This- served the double purpose of a light^house at night and a look-out station during the day. Immediately on his arrival. General Lazareff gave an. audience to a number of chiefs of the Yamud Turcomans, and delivered to them a short and characteristic speech.. He said that he had come among them as a friend, that he- hoped they would offer no opposition to his march through their territory, and hinted, more or less vaguely, that the true objective point of the expedition lay far beyond their- bounds. Among his audience were fifteen or sixteen Akhal. Tekke prisoners captured during some recent skirmish in the direction of the entrenched camp of Chatte. The- EN ROUTE FOR CHATTE. 45 majority of them were keen, intelligent-looking men, but. among them were some faces of as ruffianly a cast as it has ever been my lot to see. With a view of propitiating their companions of the distant oasis, the General ordered the immediate release of these prisoners, and sent them away to their homes, giving to each some trifling present in money or articles of European manufacture. To them, as well as to the Yamud chiefs and elders, he gave silver watches, silver-mounted handjars, pieces of bright-coloured cloth, and such like articles, as he thought might be pleas- ing to them. On the following morning, April 6, a little before daybreak, we started for the advanced post of Chatte, at the junction of the Atterek and Sumbar rivers. The General led the way in a carriage drawn by four horses, his chief of staff following in another ; then came half a dozen troikas, exactly similar to those which I have described in relating my journey from Tiflis to Baku, carrying various members of his household, as well as the personal baggage. We were escorted by some two hundred Cossacks. Half a sotnia (fifty) rode a hundred yards in advance of the General's carriage, bearing the great black and white standard of their regiment ; whUe the remainder, at a dis- tance of two or three hundred yards on either flank of the cortege, rode in single file. Other detachments of horse had been sent forward to scour the plain, and to see that the road was clear, as well as to put the detachments of infantry, posted at various intermediate points along the road, on the alert. For upwards of four miles the road was an excessively disagreeable one, for the waters of the Caspian, under the pressure of a wind from the west, are often forced over the plain to the distance of more than a league. All over the first section of the road were deep accumu- lations of sand, into which the wheels of the vehicles sank deeply, and all the force of traction of the horses was 44 EN ROUTE FOR CHATTE.— MIRAGE. requii'ed in order to drag them slowly along. Two milea inland I saw the bleaching skin of the Caspian carp ; and multitudes of sea anemones lay around. Far inland, too, we met with Turcoman tdimuls, or dug-out canoes, lying about over the plains in the places where they had been left stranded by the retiring waters. Beyond this sandy zone the road became better and better with every mile of our advance, and ultimately we were careering along at the rate of ten miles an hour over a hard, white marly plain, as level as the best kept high road in the United Kingdom. As the day grew on, the heat became intense, and there continually stretched before us, to the eastward, one mag- nificent mirage, which made us imagine that we were but crossing some isthmus between one sea and another. Un- dulations and irregularities of ground showed in the midst of the silvery expanse like so many headlands and islands, and the atmospheric effects magnified the most trifling objects at a distance to extraordinary dimensions, a tama- risk bush or clump of camel thorn not more than eighteen inches high often assuming to our eyes the proportions of a crouching camel. Nothing could well be more picturesque than our long procession of carriages and troikas, flanked by galloping Cossacks in their wild, semi-Eastern garb, as we dashed along over the burning plain towards the appa- rently unreachable water expanse stretching away eastward. The plain was, for the most part, dotted with scrubby, thick-leaved plants, belonging to the order of Grassulacece, or Chiratan, as the Turcomans call it, mingled with the ever present camel thorn (yandak), and a kind of lichen-like vegetable growth. Now and then we passed wide areas of ground entirely destitute of the smallest trace of vegetation of any kind. These were sometimes two or three miles in extent, and marked the spots where the winter rain-falls had lodged in immense sheets of water until over- KARA/ A BATUR.— CAMEL BONES. 45 powered by the great mid-day heats of the spring and early summer. At other periods of the year I have seen these great shallow lakes undried by the sun ; but so used had I become to the mirage that, when first I espied the glitter- ing of the sea afar off, I could scarce bring myself to believe that it was not the oft-repeated atmospheric delusion which had so frequently beguUed me into a bootless ride of many a league in search of the wished-for water. On this present occasion, the spaces of ground upon which the water had lain during the period at which vegetation usually springs up with the little vigour it ever possesses in these dusty plains, presented a glaring white surface, as if the marl had been calcined in some mighty furnace, the water having, in fact, as effectually prevented germination as the fiercest, sun-rays could have done. At two o'clock in the afternoon we reached the first station, Karaja-Batur, about thirty miles distant from Tchikislar . Here we found two companies of soldiers entrenched within a small rectangular redoubt, and a water party busy in excavating wells for the future use of the expeditionary force. Close by us was an old sepulchral tumulus, indicatmg the spot where a celebrated Turcoman leader, killed in some forgotten combat, was. buried. Within the redoubt were a few aladjaks for the use of the soldiers, ordinary regulation tents being almost, entirely useless as a protection against the sun. After an hour or two's rest we again set forward, the apparently interminable plain always presenting the same characteristic features. Camel and mule bones, bleaching in the sun, strewed every foot of the way — ghastly evidences of the dangers awaiting the traveller across these silent tracts. Save ourselves, not a living being of any description was in sight. Not even a prowling Turcoman was to be seen. In some places, where the great rain-pools were not yet quite dried up, the muddy soil bore the foot-prints of immense 46 TEKINDJI.—CHATTE. numbers of antelopes and wild asses, the only creatures, •excepting tortoises, lizards, and tarantulas, seeming capable of existence in this horrid desert. During all our journey we had not once caught sight of the river Atterek, for we were moving in a direct line along the cord of the circular sweep described by the river, which, besides, has excavated its bed to such a depth below the surface that it is entirely invisible until you arrive upon its very edge. Evening had long closed in, and we still continued our headlong course, some of the vehicles going astray in the darkness, and having to be sought for by Cossack pickets lest they should by chance fall across parties of Turcomans in the dark. It must have been two hours after sunset as we reached Tekindji, the last station before Chatte. Here, again, were a small redoubt, and some kibitkas, on the floors of which we were glad to sleep until morning. Sunrise again saw us on our way, and we halted but once in a shallow ravine for breakfast. This ravine, apparently the bed of some considerable stream which once swelled the volume of the Atterek, is now destitute of a single drop of water. Here we were met by some Cossacks, sent forward from Chatte, "who were supplemented by some three hundred auxiliary Yamud cavalry. By mid-day we were in sight of Chatte itself, with its signal and look-out station, precisely similar to that at Tchikislar, and surmounted by the Eussian flag, towering above the whity wilderness around. Beyond Chatte, and across the plain to the southward, we could see ranges of low, rocky hills— spurs thrown off by the Persian mountains. The name Chatte, which signifies in Turkish a fork, implies that it is situated at the junction of the river Atterek with its tributary the Sumbar, which has its rise in the Akhal Tekke mountains. Chatte is one of the dreariest places imaginable. It is a moderately-sized entrenched camp, occupying a kind of peninsula, bounded CHATTE.—ATTEREK AND SUMBAR. 47 •on two of its sides by the steep earth cKffs forming the sides of the Sumbar and Atterek respectively, and on the third, or western side, by a number of ravines and spaces of earth, honeycombed by running streams, which effectually protect it in that direction. In fact, it can only be entered hy making a long detour to the northward, and then to the south, so as to avoid the many pitfalls around, and gain the narrow causeway which leads to its only available ■entrance. At the time of my visit the garrison consisted •of two battalions. The heat was intense ; and the ceme- tery, not far off, and ominously large for so small a :garrison, spoke ia eloquent terms of the unhealthy nature ■of the locality. Fully eighty feet below, in the midst of their tremendous raviaes, ran the canal-like streams of the Atterek and Sumbar, at this time shrunk to comparative ihreads of water, all white with suspended marl, and almost tmdrinkable from the quantity of saline matter held in solution. This salty water, as well as the entire absence of vegetable food, seems to explain in a sufficiently satis- factory manner the disastrous prevalence of scorbutic affections among the troops and garrison at Chatte. Myriads of flies rendered life unbearable by day, as did gnats and mosquitoes by night ; and the intense heat, aggravated by the simoom-like winds sweeping across the burning plain, made Chatte anything but a desirable abiding-place. ' I would ten times rather be sent to Siberia than left here any longer,' I once heard an officer of infantry exclaim to one of his newly-arrived comrades. Indeed, were not some other goal in view, it would be hard to imagine why life and gold were squandered in securing the possession of such a hideous wilderness. As I have stated, during our two days' journey from Tchikislar we had not an opportunity of seeing the Atterek ■until the moment of our arrival at Chatte; but as on 48 ALONG THE ATTEREK. another occasion I followed its banks from near the point where it forms its delta up to its union with the Sumbar, and as I do not intend again to recur in detail to this par- ticular portion of the Trans-Caspian plains, I cannot do better than here subjoin the diary which I kept on the occasion alluded to, and which will give an accurate idea of the course and nature of this stream, about which so much has of late been said and written in connection with the Eussian advance in Central Asia and the question of the Eusso-Persian frontier. I was accompanying a battalion of troops, escorting a large train of provision and ammuni- tion waggons, which was proceeding to Chatte, and which, occupying seven days in transitu, were compelled, in order to secure a constant water supply for the horses, to follow the very edge of the river. ' September 30, 1879. — I reached the station of Bouyun Bache this evening, after thirteen hours' march across a singularly barren expanse of desert. The battalion es- corted a convoy of some hundred waggons laden with stores for the army, and was obliged to adapt its rate of marching to that of the heavy-laden, badly-horsed arabas. The soil of the desert ceases to be sandy ten miles from the Caspian shore. It is a heavy white loam resembling pipeclay, and, owing to the recent heavy rains, the wheels of the vehicles sank deeply, an occasional wag- gon sometimes sticking fast for twenty minutes before it could be disengaged. The horses' hoofs were laden with great masses of adhesive mud, which in no slight way im- peded the march. I myself dismounted for a time, but was shortly obliged to give up walking, the mud masses attached to my boots making me feel like a convict with cannon-shot chained to my heels. Slowly as my horse plodded his way through the sticky mire, he made rapid progress in comparison to the main body, and at length I LOST IN THE DESERT. 49 pushed forward alone for our halting-place. In half-an- hour I was far out of sight of the column. Around, the miry waste was studded with bunches of wild sage, and a kind of plant of the botanical order crassitlacece (in Turcoman chiratan), which even my Turcoman horse refused to crop. My sole companion was an Armenian servant ; but he having, when leaving Tchikislar, indulged in too much vodka with his compatriots, took fright at the sight of half- a-dozen tall bushes which he supposed to be so many fierce Tekke horsemen, and I found myself alone in the desert. My only guide was the telegraph line to Asterabad, but there was a certain point at which I should diverge to the left. This point I could not distinguish, and so naturally I went astray. Night falls rapidly in the desert, and it was with no pleasant feelings that I vainly stretched my glance through the gathering gloom for some glimpse of a camp fire to indicate the station of Bouyun Bache. At night, especially when it is a starless one, to hesitate for a moment, to let your path deviate but a degree from the true course, is to lose the road hopelessly. Such was my case, and, recognising the situation, I made up my mind to wait for dawn where I was. I dismounted and lay down in the damp loam, trying to compose myself to sleep. An hour passed, and a faint bugle note came across the night air. I rose immediately and followed the sound. Then I heard voices singing, and so I stumbled into Bouyun Bache. The column had not arrived, and no one knew when it was likely to do so. It ultimately arrived towards midnight. ' The station of Bouyun Bache is situated on a gentle slope beside a marshy lake, surrounded by tall cane brakes, the haunt of wild, fowl and wild boars. The lake may possibly be the summer remnant of the Atterek winter inundations, and never thoroughly dries up, for I VOL. I. E so RUSSIAN DISCIPLINE. have seen fish and small turtles hooked by the soldiers on its banks. During the summer heats the district is ex- tremely feverish. A company of infantry is permanently camped here ; no cavalry save the daily Cossack patrols. The principal use of the post seems to be the holding in check of the Persian Turcomans at present occupying the "winter pastures of the Atterek delta, and who have of late engaged in hostile descents on small Eussian convoys going to Chatte. ' October 1. — We left Bouyun Bache an hour before daybreak this morning, en route for our next halting- place at Delilli. I had spent but a wretched night, trying to shelter from the heavy rain under a waggon. Hot as the days stUl are, the nights are wretched, and one welcomes the scalding hot weak tea which is invariably forthcoming at every halt if there be any possibility of lighting a fire. At the moment of starting I witnessed an example of the rather rude system of discipline occasionally enforced in the Eussian service. The advanced guard, consisting of two companies, had fallen in, and were about to be sent off in advance of the first detachment of waggons. The major commanding the battalion noticed some awkwardness and confusion as the men took their places, and by way of see- ing who was in fault, immediately ordered them to go through their facings. An unfortunate sergeant appeared not to be well up in his business, aind bungled at every step, going exactly where he ought not to go at a given moment. I saw wrath gathering in the major's eye, and in another instant he dismounted from his horse, took off his overcoat with the greatest deliberation, handed it to his orderly, and then, providing himself with an exceedingly heavy horse- whip, beckoned to the unlucky sergeant to come towards him. The man, like his comrades, was, notwithstanding the rawness of the early dawn, dressed only in a light linen DELILLI. 51 tunic. When he stood to attention before the major, the latter proceeded to belabour him with all his might ; and so rigid is the discipline of the Eussian army, that the man dared not even run away or attempt to defend himself from the tremendous plaited leather thongs that went twisting around his all but naked shoulders. The beating, which lasted half a minute, terminated, the major restored the whip to its owner, put on his overcoat, and again mounted his horse, not a single remark having passed the lips of anybody. ' The sergeant took his place again in the ranks as if nothing had happened. Our march to-day has been a slow, dragging one. As usual after the first couple of hours' march, lingering along with the heavy-laden waggons, we were obliged to halt during half-an-hour to let the horses rest a little. At mid-day we had another halt, this time of over two hours, to cook dinner. It was close on sunset ere we reached Delilli, our halting-place for the night. There is no dwelling-place or camp of any kind. A wide marsh, partly covered with immense reed growths, reaches away to the Atterek, part of whose flooded delta it constitutes — like ■our last evening's halting-place, very unhealthy, the air reeking with the smell of decaying organic matter. Bent, the point at which the Turcomans dammed up the river to turn it further south, is some versts further on. ' October 2. — A little after leaving our last station we commenced crossing an undulating country seamed with immense rugged gashes, torn in the earth by winter rains. Four Turcoman guides rode some hundreds of yards ahead, carefully picking out practicable ground for the immense waggon train, which, when possible, advanced in three columns, and so avoided straggling, but sometimes was obliged to pass certain spots in single file. In this latter case the rearguard remained till all had passed, lest a p 2 52 GUDRI. sudden swoop of the enemy might be made. I remarked great numbers of sepulchral tumuli scattered over the plain^ some very large, other smaller ones grouped in their vicinity ; some evidently very ancient, others mai'king the resting-places of Eussian and Turcoman soldiers dead only a few months or even days before. About the middle of our day's march we began to remark palpable signs of th& presence of the Atterek itself, streaks of verdure and un- usually tall bushes making their appearance far off on the^ I'ight-hand side. About four in the afternoon, turning by a sweeping path to the right, we arrived on the banks of the river. We camped in a wide leTel piece of ground, which gave evidence of being, under favourable circumstances,, more or less of a pasturage. It was now, however, cropped quite bare by the great trains of cattle and horses which were continually passing. Above us, on two gently swelling hills, in an angle of the river, were camped two squadrons, of Cossacks ; for this point, at which the convoys pass, is quite close to the winter pasturages of the Turcomans on the Persian bank. It is at this station, named Gudri, that the banks of the Atterek suddenly assume that precipitous cawon-like form which they preserve up to and beyond Chatte. Immediately below Gudri they vary in height from three to seven feet; above it they suddenly rise to. fifty or seventy feet. At the lower level, and on the south- ern bank, the ground partly enclosed by the numerous and very tortuous sinuosities of the river is densely overgrown with brushwood and tamarisk, the latter sometimes attain- ing the height of eight or ten feet. The antelope, wild boar, and colon, or wild ass, frequent the locality in great numbers. I saw some scores of large black hawks wheeling high in air. I beheve they subsist on the mice which abound, and on stranded fish. The most objectionable frequenters of the place are scorpions and enormous- BAIT HADJI. 53 tarantula spiders. The latter, known here as the falang, or perhaps phalange, is as large as an ordinary mouse, of a chocolate colour, marked with black stripes and patches. One is obliged to look carefully into one's coat sleeves, boots, Ac, before dressing, lest some of these ugly and really ■dangerous creatures have found lodging there. They fre- quent the tents and kibitkas, where the flies gather largely, and seem to be most active at night, especially when a camp fire or candle has been lit. ' October 3. — Eeached Bait Hadji at sunset, after a fatiguing but very instructive march, during which the desert presented a completely new appearance, and indicated the vast difficulties of transport in autumn and winter, as well as in summer. We got into movement at about half- past four o'clock, the morning being very dark. The ground, too, was in many places so heavy that considerable ■deviations from the usual track had to be made. At first the desert presented the usual appearance — a white earth ex- panse dotted with bunches of scrub. Not a single blade- of grass of any kind. Towards seven in the morning there were a couple of light showers ; and the soldiers, who wore their white linen blouses and blue calico summer marching trousers, were obliged to run hastily to the waggons for iheir grey greatcoats. At length rain set in steadily, and it was with difficulty the troops could drag their mire-laden feet along. In expectation of hot dry weather they had doffed their heavy long boots, and wore instead linen rags -tied round the foot and leg in the Italian peasant fashion, a, leather sole or tight shoe being added. In fine weather this system is well adapted to marching. Now, however^ the rags became saturated with muddy water, and from the enormous quantity of adhesive earth sticking to his feet each soldier had the air of a North American Indian wearing snow-shoes. They laid their saturated greatcoats 54 DIFFICULT MARCHING. aside, preferring walking mid the downpour in their hght- linen blouses to carrying unnecessary and useless weight. The arabas and great four-wheeled fourgons, some drawn by four horses all abreast, were usually one-third the wheel's diameter buried in the soil through which they slowly crej)t, usually halting every ten minutes. The rain kept on steadily, and by ten o'clock in the forenoon, far as the eye could reach, was an expanse of water, broken here and there by slightly raised undulations of ground and tufts of brush. I had gone over this ground in the early summer, and, crossing the then scorched and bm-ning waste, could never have imagined such a spectacle as the desert under water. Close as we were to the river, there seemed to be absolutely no surface drainage, the water lying motionless around. By mid-day the soldiers were mid-leg deep in water ; and the waggons, often down to the axle, had to be forcibly spoked forward by the men. The camels alone seemed to get on at nearly then- usual pace, though they splashed and slid about a great deal with their great splay feet, and groaned and gi-umbled even more than ordinarily. ' When the time for the two homes' halt arrived it was impossible to make soup or tea, for the usual fuel — the generally scorched-up sage brush — was saturated with water, and no dry spot could be found for a fire even if fuel were forthcoming. To start again seemed impossible ; but, as a night's halt in such a place was out of the question, and would hardly better matters in the morning, we again set out, the front and rearguard men picking their way across the slime like so many flies over a treacly surface, and the waggons, urged slowly forward by the combined efforts of men and horses, resembling a fleet of barges crossing a marshy lake. During all this misery the troops were most cheerful, singing and laughing as they YAGHLI OLUM. 55 waded along or spoked the waggons through the mud. I know it is a generally received opinion at home and else- where that Eussian soldiers are kept up to their work by the distribution of unlimited rations of vodka. On the occasion to which I allude they certainly had no stimulants given them,, nor have I ever witnessed the distribution of any to the soldiers. Yet, neither during that day's wet march, nor afterwards, was there a single case of illness arising from those twelve hours' continuous hardships. Towards sunset we neared the flank of a long escar-like sand ridge, where some drainage existed, and the ground, though cut up by deep channels, was still, on the whole, much firmer. Our night's camping-ground. Bait Hadji, is on the slope of a high earth-swell overhanging the Atterek bed. The place was entirely without garrison, and we found there only some two dozen waggons halted during the return journey to Tchikislar. On the top of the earth slope is an ancient turhe, or saint's tomb, partly earth and partly stone, where the individual from whom the name of the locality is taken is interred. Around are many large tumuli. The river bed, or rather the immense ravine through the midst of which the deep, narrow, canal-like water channel winds, is here nearly half a mile wide and seventy to ninety feet deep, the vertical flanks being torn into a thousand rugged and fanciful pinnacles. ' October 4. — Yaghli Olum, the fifth station from Tchi- kislar, is directly on the river's edge. It was formerly occupied by two companies of infantry — now it is deserted, an old redoubt alone marking the camp. To-day, unlike the preceding one, was extremely hot and dry, and the greater portion of the journey was on dry firm ground. Great quantities of bones and offal of all kinds lay about, on which over one hundred vultures and other large birds were preying. The river scenery here is imposing, but 56 HEARING CHATTE. the water is exceedingly bad, quite as white as milk with suspended marl. In fact, one would think that the tea or coffee made with it were rgixed with milk. At this season, too, the water is more strongly impregnated with saline matter than earlier in the season, and is very unwhole- some. The desert on both sides of the river is bare and arid, without a shred of vegetation. The first Persian hills lie southward, about six oi: seven miles off. Up to their slopes everything is utterly barren. ' October 5. — Another very hot day's march without incident to Tekindji, the last station before Chatte. The river banks steeper than ever. Wild pigeons in abun- dance. At night troops of jackals come shrieking into the very midst of our camp. In view of the absence of troops along the line, and of the bulk of the army beyond Chatte, a sudden attack by cavalry from the northward being possible, great military precautions were taken, a com- pany of skirmishers moving far out to observe the approaches. ' October 6. — Being within twenty versts of Chatte I rode on quickly before the convoy, and arrived at my desti- nation at about eleven o'clock. Between Tekindji and Chatte is a large deep ravine, crossing the road at right angles, and which must be very difficult of passage in wet weather. Close to Chatte I met troops of hundreds of camels, led by Yamud Turcomans, slowly making their way to Tchikislar, for provisions and general stores.' Such are the notes I jotted down along the way just as I wrote them. It will be seen that at times the desert becomes impassable at certain places, for other reasons than want of water. The route which I have described, and which during the dry season is the only one practi- cable between Tchikislar and Chatte for wheeled vehicles, horses, and troops, becomes entirely closed during three BED OF ATTEREK. 57 ■or foiu" months of the year (November, December, Janu- ary, and February), owing to the flooding and softening of the ground. What I have seen of the Atterek at different seasons leads me to believe that even as far as Chatte it is entirely useless as a means of water transit. In autumn it is .shrunk to a miserable, muddy ditch, at some places not over •eight feet wide, and almost everywhere fordable to horses. That it occasionally assumes more respectable dimensions is evident from the various water-level marks on its banks. It must sometimes have a depth of over twenty feet, and an average width of thirty, without overflowing its regular ■channel, which is cut as even as that of any canal, winding in the centre of a vast ravine, with vertical sides. At places this ravine has a breadth of three quarters of a mile. On neither the north nor south shores is the Atterek available for irrigation purposes, the great depth to which it has cut its bed precluding such a possibility. Hence the entire barrenness of the desert on either side, reaching from the commencement of its delta to over a hundred miles above Chatte. The extreme percentage of sediment makes its water unfit for human consumption without filtering or deposition ; and for the supply of ■camels and horses it has to be fetched with gi-eat labour by zigzag steep paths cut in the huge earth cliffs of the ravine from the centre channel to the plain above. As a frontier line the Atterek has the advantage of being, except at its ■delta, exceedingly well defined and unmistakable. Were its depth at all seasons so gxeat as to render it unfordable, that, taken in connection with the depth and steepness of its ravine, would render it as well a formidable barrier to the incursions of hostile nomads. As it is, its use from a military point of view, and that of its confluent the Sum- 58 LAZAREFF'S OLD REGIMENT. bar, is simply that of a water supply of the main line of communication between Tchikislar and Chatte. On the evening of the day of our arrival at Chatte, the irrepressible old General, notwithstanding the fatigues of the journey, was on his legs again, reviewing the old regi- ment to which he had formerly belonged, and in which he had once served in the capacity of sergeant — the Shir- vanski. When the requisite manoeuvres had been gone through, he called forward the 10th Company, that in which he had once served in a humbler grade of military life. He recalled to them the glorious feats performed by the regiment in the Caucasus during the old Circassian war, reminded them of his having been a non-commissioned officer in their ranks, pointed to the crosses upon his breast, and told the soldiers that by gallantly doing their duty each one might aspire to the position which he himself had gained. Tremendous cheers followed this harangue, and, as an inevitable result, the contents of a cask of xoAka were distributed to the men, in which to drink to the health of the Commander-in-Chief. After two days' experience at Chatte, I felt quite of the same mind as the officer who had said that he would rather be sent to Siberia than remain there any longer, for be- tween heat and flies by day, and mosquitoes by night, I never passed such a miserable time in all my existence. There was a curious featm-e about the officers' aladjaks at Chatte. They were paved with large square tiles, a foot broad, which had been brought some thirty miles, from a place called Dusolum, situated higher up the Sumbar river, the site of a former town, but now desolate and bare as any spot which I have described. In view of the domed edifices and extensive foundations, spreading far and wide, there can be no doubt that a poj)ulous community once flourished there. Now, owing to the fact that the river , CAUSE OF BARRENNESS. 59 has cut its bed low down in the marly soil, and that irri- gation is [^impossible, civilisation has perished from the spot. Very' possibly, too, Zenghis Khan and his hordes had something to do with laying waste what are now trackless solitudes. 6o A TALK WITH LAZAREFF. CHAPTEE IV. KEASNAVODSK. Lazareff's opinion about Tchikislar — Difficulties of traversing desert — Chasing -wild asses and antelopes — ' Drumhead ' dinner — A Khivan dandy — Desert not a sandy one — On board ' Nasr Eddin Shah ' corvette — En route for Krasnavodsk — Gastronomic halt — Zakouska — Bussian meal — Arrival at Krasnavodsk — Description of place — Distillation of sea-water — Club — Caspian flotilla — Lieutenant SiderofF — An ex-pirate — Trans-Caspian cable — Avowed object of Akhal Tekk6 expedition — Colonel Malama's explana- tion — A Trans-Caspian ball — Khirgese chiefs — Caucasian horsemen — Military sports — Lesghiau dancing. I WILL not trouble my readers with the details of the return journey from Chatte to Tchikislar, which was almost precisely similar to the first journey. General Lazareff had satisfied himself as to the state of his advanced posts, and had m^de a reconnaissance as to the nature of the ground. This done, he resolved to return to the western Caspian shore, and, provided with the information which he had gathered, take the necessary steps to meet all exigencies before finally committing himself to a forward movement into the heart of the enemy's territory. We stayed but a few hours in the camp at Tchikislar, during which time I had much conversation with the old general. We spoke at length about the eastern Caspian sea-ports, and canvassed the relative importance of Tchikislar and Krasnavodsk ; the latter being the earliest Eussian settle- ment on that side of the sea. He seemed altogether in favour of -Tchikislar, notwithstanding its execrable anchorage. In his view the banks of the Atterek afforded BACK TO TCHIKISLAR. 6i the only available route to Southern Central Asia. ' Tchi- kislar,' he said to me, ' will one day play a great i^art in the destinies of Central Asia.' At this period, the cable from Baku to Krasnavodsk had already been contracted for, but there was a question as to whether it should not be lengthened, and one station be at Tchikislar. From the moment that the ' Nasr Eddin Shah ' anchored three miles off the coast, and I became aware of the nature of the anchorage, I had made up my mind that Tchikislar never could be an emporium between the Trans- Caspian and the opposite shore. I hinted at this to the General, but he smiled and nodded his head as if to imply that he entirely understood the situation, and I conceived that engineering works of great magnitude would probably be undertaken to render the place available for serious embarkation and dis- embarkation. It would have needed much to do this, and time has shown that my appreciations of the moment were correct. Tchikislar has been abandoned for Krasnavodsk, the military Eussian settlement near which the Trans - Caspian railroad has its western terminal. I was' not sorry to find myself at the sea-shore again, for the backward journey had, if possible, been more dis- agreeable than the forward one. In the middle of one of the stages, the horses of the General's carriage, broken down by the rapid pace at which we were proceeding, had foundered, and we had to leave them behind us, gasping on the dusty plain. To replace them, Cossacks of the escort were ordered up. Each horseman, taking one of the ropes which served as traces, placed it under his left thigh, held the extremity in his hand, and then galloped forward with the surviving horses of the team. Even though the men were frequently relieved, we got on but slowly, and our journey back had been far more tedious than the one to the front. Utterly tired out with sitting in a troika, I ex- 62 DRUM-HEAD SUPPER— A KHIVAN DANDY. changed places with a Cossack, who, doubtless, was glad to get into the vehicle, and who, with his officer's permission, gave me his horse. The advanced guard, now that all danger was over for the moment, amused themselves with chasing the wild asses and antelopes which constantly came in sight as we topped some undulation of the ground, the horses seeming to enter into the sport quite as thoroughly as their riders, though we never had a chance of coming within shot. One of my last reminiscences of this journey was having supper with General Lazareff and his second in command. General Lomakin. We sat upon the edges of three drums, and bayonets stuck point downwards in the ground served us as candlesticks. In our company was the Caravan Bashi, a Khivan, whose dress merits description. He wore a silk tunic, of the brightest possible emerald green, with lavish gold embroidery; sky-blue trousers, of semi- European make ; a purple mantle profusely laced ; and, contrary to all Mussulman precedent, his fingers were covered with massive rings of gold. A gold-embroidered skull-cap was stuck upon the back of his head, and, perched forward, the brim almost upon the bridge of his nose, was a cylindrical cap of black Astrakan, which allowed almost the whole of the elaborately decorated skull-cap to be seen behind. As I have mentioned, the plain, or rather flat valley of the Atterek, is exceedingly dreary and desolate, but it must not be understood as being in any sense of the word a desert, as we speak of the sand-strewn wastes of Arabia Petrea. The ground is excellent, and, if it be to-day in the condition I have depicted, it is only because water is not available. I have no doubt that if some enterprising engineer, under happier auspices than those existing at the time I visited the ground, were to construct dams upon the Atterek and Sumbar rivers higher up, near their sources, NAVAL ILLUMINATION— ZAKOUSKA. 63 iso as to bring the waters once more back to the Trans- Caspian steppes, we might again see the fertihty and prosperity amidst which were reared the walls and domes which now stand ghastlily amid the waste. We arrived in Tchikislar about six o'clock in the evening, and I hoped to obtain a good night's rest, so far as such was consistent with the presence of great red-bodied, long-legged mosquitoes, but to my dismay an aide-de-camp announced to me that I must be ready to go on board the ' Nasr Eddin Shah,' the steamer which brought us over, at nine o'clock the same evening. We were to proceed, he told me, to Krasnavodsk. Far out to sea the yards of the ships were gleaming with lamps, for the naval officers had got up an illumination in honour of the Commander-in- Chief. The man-o'-war's boats took us half a mUe out from shore, where we were met by a small tender, a kind of tug-boat, which conveyed us on board the war steamer. At ten in the evening, when Lazareff and Lomakin, with their respective staffs, had come on board, we got under weigh. At half-past eleven we came to a sudden halt, for -which I was at a loss to account, as we were going steadily. I soon discovered that we had run in as close to land as was prudent, and let go the anchor in order that Lazareff and his staff might take supper undisturbed by the qualms of sea-sickness. We mustered pretty strongly at table. The General, who was especially sensitive to this plague of landsmen, was too sick to take his place with us. There is one peculiarity about a Eussian meal of which I may speak here. Immediately before seating themselves the guests proceed in groups to a sideboard, where what is called a zakouska is laid out. Caviare, cheese, pickles, butter, and a multitude of things the names of which I do not know, are placed around in saucers. In their midst stand two bottles, one of vodka, another of balsam. Vodka 64 RECEPTION AT KRASNAVODSK. is a kind of rude whisky, colourless as water. Balsam is an alcoholic solution of various aromatic herbs, and of intensely fiery quality. Each person fills out for himself a glass of vodka, flavours it with a few drops of balsam, and, having swallowed the mixture, proceeds to help himself to the various viands around, to such an extent that one would think an after meal entirely superfluous. Then one sits down to a more than solid meal. There is sturgeon soup, thickened with horje, a mixture which can best be described by stating that it is like stiff porridge made from blackish brown oatmeal ; a spoonful of it is mixed up with one's soup. Then there are cutlets, which, at least on board a Caspian steamer, mean minced meat, massed round a bone, and made to do duty for mutton chops. A Eussian dinner is a long affair, so that I will not enter into further gastronomic details. Kakatinsld wine flows freely, and everyone is generally in good humour before he retires to rest. It was eight in the morning when, after having rounded the island of Tcheliken, we cast anchor in the bay of Krasnavodsk, than which no better could be found in the world. It is sheltered on all sides by rising ground, and has a depth of water which allows heavily laden ships of deep draught to anchor close in shore. It affords every protection against the treacherous westerly winds which so often sweep across the Caspian. Nearly the whole of the Caspian flotilla was at anchor, every ship gaily dressed with flags. The shore batteries fired a salute, and all the naval commanders, en grande temie, came on board to pay their respects to the General. Among them was a Captain Schultz, who spoke English with that marvellous correctness of grammar and accent to be found, apart from the inhabitants of these islands, among Eussians alone. Krasnavodsk is literally a town * made to order.' Every- thing is in the exact place that it should be in, from the KRASNAVODSK— DISTILLATION OF SEA-WATER. 65 long rows of colonnaded villa-like residences on the margin of the bay, to the Governor's palatial mansion, symme- trical rows of barracks, and the orthodox Eussian church in the middle of the great square. Krasnavodsk means, in Eussian, ' red water.' In Tartar its name is Kizil Su. The Turcomans, for one reason or another, call it Shah Kaddam, 'the footmark of the King.' It is purely and simply a military colony. Three battalions occupied the place when I visited it. It is surrounded by an embattled wall, the ramparts mounting half-a-dozen field guns. A semicircle of scorched-looking hills forms a curve to the northward, each extremity of the arc resting upon the sea- shore. It would be impossible to conceive anything more bleak or desolate-looking than the scarped, scraggy cliffs of rose-colom-ed alabaster which face the town. Did it lie in the bottom of a volcano crater, the barrenness and dryness could not be greater. The natural water of the place, very limited in quantity, is absolutely unfit for human use. The position of the town had been fixed upon for strategic reasons, and as drinkable water was a necessity it has been supplied by artificial means. On the sea-shore, close to the extremity of one of the two piers, is an establishment for the distillation of sea-water. The wood fuel is brought, at an enormous cost, from Lenkoran, on the opposite Cas- pian shore. The distilled water is supplied regularly to the troops, and the few civilians within the place can obtain it at a trifling cost. Later on I dare say that engineers, by digging wells to an extreme depth, may possibly procure water fit for human consumption. In this regard as well as in all others connected with the sustaining of human life, Krasnavodsk is an entirely artificial place, and I must only suppose that in maintaining a military colony there the Eussian Government attaches much importance to this particular position. VOL. I. F 66 CLUB— PUBLIC GARDEN. As I have already stated, the surroundings of the place are desolation itself. There are no resources whatever within hundreds of miles. Flour and other necessaries come from Baku, and wine, beer, and spirits are sold at a preposterous price. As is usual in even the tiniest and newest Eussian military settlement, an extensive club- house is conspicuous at the upper end of the town. Here is a bar, looked after by a canteen sergeant, and a ball- room floored with wood mosaic, which in dimensions and style would not yield to many an older and more westerly town. Here, once or twice a week, is a gathering of the officers of the garrison and their wives and families. A military band plays in front of the terrace, and the even- ing is passed in the midst of gaiety and amusement that we should little expect to find in a desolate, rock-bound spot on the north-eastern Caspian shore. There has been an attempt at creating a public garden ; but, owing to the nature of the soil and to the natural water, nothing save a few scrubby-looking tamarisk-bushes have been able to hold their own in the midst of the sandy soil and the scorching sun-glare. The greatest care is necessary in order to foster even these few bushes, which would look faded and miserable beside the most withered furze-bush that ever graced a highland mountain-top. Beyond the hills which guard the town stretches the boundless, weary ■desert, death and desolation written upon its scorched face. There is as yet no town clock, but a soldier of the guard on duty beside the wooden chm-ch in the centre of the great square, each hour pulls at the bell-rope the neces- sary number of times. Apart from this, the bells have but little rest. The Eussians are notoriously fond of bell- ringing, and as the Muscovite Easter happened to occur during my stay, I found that during that period scarcely CASPIAN FLOTILLA— SIDEROFF. 67 ten minutes elapsed between the different soundings. In the well-sheltered bay, and close in shore, were half-a- dozen Eussian war-ships, which, as I have already men- tioned, were decked out with flags in honour of the General's visit. These vessels are of about the dimensions of middle-sized Channel service steamers, and are armed with four to six twelve-pounder guns each. They were •originally set afloat to check the piratism of the Turcoman maritime populations, for up to ten years ago the inhabi- tants of the eastern Caspian littoral acknowledged no ■central sway whatever. Now that all this is at an end, ■and the sea is practically a Eussian lake, the war- vessels serve only to represent Eussia, to convey troops and mili- tary stores, and to aid in keeping up postal communica- tions. In the early days of Eussian naval enterprise in these waters, there were many exciting scenes in connec- tion with the chasing of the Turcoman luggers which were in the habit of carrying off Persian slaves from the southern Caspian coast. I once crossed the Caspian on board the Ural war-steamer, commanded by Colonel of Marine Sideroff, who, at the time of the occurrence which I am about to relate, was a lieutenant commanding a small corvette. Not far off the mouth of the Atterek he sighted two hdkas containing a number of Persian captives in transitu for the slave markets of Khiva and Bokhara. Lieutenant Sideroff fired a shotted gun athwart their bows, ■and made them bring to. He transferred to his ship ten captive Persians. The luggers were manned by seventeen Turcomans. Then the lieutenant withdrew a little, and, putting his vessel at full speed, ran down both the slave ■ships. Seventeen pirates perished. After this example piracy entirely ceased, and the addition of new war-ships to the Caspian flotilla rendered its revival impossible. For -this prompt, and, as it proved, salutary act, the Shah of F 2 68 MOULLAH DOURDI— FORTIFICATIONS. Persia conferred on M. Sideroff the decoration of the ' Lion and the Sun,' of the second class. M. Sideroff is now an old man, and the anecdote I relate I heard from his own lips, as he sat at the head of the table on board the Ural war-steamer, which he commanded. The same even- ing he told me anecdotes about a certain old MouUah Dourdi, a renowned pirate of the Caspian littoral. He was a famous corsair, and his name carried terror with it. I had previously made the acquaintance of this gentleman at Tchikislar and elsewhere, and on those occasions had not the least notion of what he had been. At the time of which I now speak he was one of the principal commis- sariat contractors for the Eussian camp ; and to see him now, with his long robe of blue broadcloth; his coffee- coloured trousers of European cut ; his European shoes showing immaculately white stockings ; his black fur shako, a trifle less gigantic than those of his compatriots; and his well-cut face of grave though kindly expression, few would dream of what his antecedents had been. Though the fortifications of the town are in themselves- but trifling, against a Turcoman attack they might be ac- counted impregnable. A loopholed wall of brick, flanked by square towers armed with field guns, surrounds the settlement. At the date of its foundation a number of German colonists were introduced here, and one is occa- sionally somewhat startled at hearing the Teutonic language flowing glibly from the tongue of an individual brown as an Arab, and wearing the genuine Turcoman or Khirgese dress. I have entered so far into details about Krasnavodsk partly because it is comparatively unknown, and yet des- tined to play an important part in the future history of Central Asia ; and partly because I wish to have done with the place and enter into other matters more nearly con- nected with the • title of this book. There is a postal OBJECT OF LAZAREFF'S EXPEDITION. 69 steamer once a week to Baku, and despatches can occasion- ally be sent by a war-ship starting on Government business. Two years ago the laying of the cable from Baku to Krasna- vodsk was successfully accomplished, so that every day, for intelligence from Europe, the people of the settlement are no worse off than any other denizens of the Eussian Empire. At this point in my narrative I cannot do better than give the substance of a conversation which, on the occasion ■of a ball given by General Lomakin, the then Governor of the Trans-Caspian district, I had with Colonel Malama, the chief of Lazareff's staff, and with several of the superior officers. They were explaining to me the motives of the expedition against the Akhal Tekke Turcomans, and the ends which it was desu-ed to secure. ' Krasnavodsk, having no raison d'etre of its own, was founded specially as a maritime emporium of trade with Khiva, and Central Asia generally, in connection with the proposed railway from Baku to Tifiis, and that already exist- ing from the latter town to Poti, whence Persian and other merchandise is conveyed by steamer to Odessa and other Black Sea ports. Khivan and other merchants have already crossed the Kara Koom (Black Desert) with then- caravans, to Krasnavodsk ; but so often have they fallen a prey to forays of the independent Tm-coman hordes of the interme- diate districts that commerce by this route has long since ■entirely ceased, and goods coming to Eussia from Khokand, Tashkent, and districts bordering on China, are sent by the longer but more secure route of Fort Alexandrow and the Sea of Aral. The Turcomans who interrupt trade and •carry on a systematic brigandage on every side, seizing in- differently Eussian and Persian subjects, as well as their neighbours to the eastward, and retaining them as slaves, or holding them till ransomed, inhabit the district known as 70 OBJECT OF LAZAREFF'S EXPEDITION. the Tekke country. Its western boundary is close to the eastern Caspian shore, its eastern frontier is ill defined, and it stretches from the Persian frontier as far north as Khiva. These Tekke Turcomans are a most untameable, predatory race, and have existed from time immemorial in the same state of independence and aggressiveness. Their country is a savage wilderness, in which they shift to and fro accord- ing as the pasturage, such as it is, fails, or the wells become dried up. The object of the expedition was to break up the power of these hordes, establish military posts along the line of communication between Khiva and the Caspian, and otherwise guarantee the security of transit in the interior. The readiest means of effecting this would be an expedition du'ect from Krasnavodsk across the Kara Koom to Khiva,, leaving entrenched camps at intervals. To make head against the Turcomans, however, a very large force was necessary, and the direct transit across the " Black Desert " for such a force is out of the question. The few wells which exist, situated at intervals of .from ten to twenty hom-s' march one from the other, are entirely inadequate to supply water for any body of troops over a thousand in number, and the water is moreover of such a character as to be undrinkable by any one save Turcomans habituated to it from childhood. I have often heard of the " brackish water of the desert," but I had no idea it was so bad as it really is. It is strongly impregnated with common salt, sulphate of soda, and different other matters. On the stranger it has a strongly purgative effect, producing spasms of the stomach and intestines, and when it has become warm in the casks carried by the camels it is an emetic as well. Diarrhoea, always a serious evil in campaigning armies, becomes here of terrific prevalence. Apart from this lack of water there is no vegetation sufficient for cavalry horses, -though camels seem to thrive tolerably well ; RUSSO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 71 and, besides, a direct march to Khiva from this would leave untouched the main strength of the Tekkes, whence a con- tinued war would be waged against the necessarily small military stations, and raids organised against the caravans and convoys passing over the long intervals between them. The first move, then, must be a purely aggressive one, and aimed against the hostile centres of power : the next, the establishment of posts along the route. It was at first intended that the expedition of twenty thousand men of all arms starting from Tchikislar, a little north of Asterabad, and situated on the Persian frontier, should, for the sake of water, follow the course of the Atterek river to Chatte, and thence continue along its banks as far as possible towards Merv, then turning northward and attacking the centre of the Tekke district. With a view to this, negotiations were opened with the Persian Government, for, by the treaty signed ten years ago between Persia and Eussia, though the Atterek was agreed upon as the mutual boundary, it was only as far as Chatte; the Eussian boundary then following the Sumbar river in a north-easterly direction. The negotiations having failed, it had been decided that the expeditionary force should, on arriving at Chatte, make its way along the Sumbar to the Akhal Tekke. The route is a difficult one ; the river water is scanty, and charged with marly clay ; but in any case the supply is better and surer than if the salt wells of the desert were depended on. Besides opening up a commercial route to Khiva and other Central Asian provinces, the expedition had, another important object, that of enforcing the acceptance of Eussian paper money as an intermedium of exchange. The Turcomans have little or no coinage of their own, their currency con- sisting of a heterogeneous mixture of Persian, Afghan, and other money, the value of which is but ill defined, and so fluctuating as to render large commercial transactions all 72 TRANS-CASPIAN BALL—KHIRGESE COSTUMES. but impossible. It was proposed, after the happy result of the expedition, to force the acceptance of the Eussian paper rouble ; and, by way of beginning, large contracts were entered into with leading Turcoman chiefs for the meat supply of the army, to be paid for with paper money,' Such was the explanation of the objects of the expedition and its intended route, as given to me by the chief of staff and other military authorities. During Lazareif's brief stay at Krasnavodsk, the festive gatherings of the officers of the garrison, especially at General Lomakin's residence, were unintermitting. Dinner succeeded dinner, and ball succeeded ball. Within this period occurred the twenty-fifth anniversary of General Lomakin's marriage, which he celebrated, as is usual on such occasions, by 'a ball to the officers of the garrison, and the visitors staying in the town. To this were invited several Tmxoman and Khirgese chiefs, who happened to be in the place contracting with the Eussian commanders for camels. Never before had they been eye-witnesses of a European ball, and it was most amusing to see the expres- sion of unconcealed wonderment depicted upon their faces, as they viewed the ladies in ball costume whirling round, in waltz and polka, with the military officers with clanking spurs and sabres. A Tm'coman presents a sufficiently droll appearance to the eyes of a European, when seen for the first time, but a Khirgese is a still more extraordinary spectacle. Apart from his fur-trimmed robes, which are not unlike those of an alderman, his general appearance is Chinese. His hat resembles a stunted extinguisher of brown leather, round which is a bordering of lamb's wool or sable. This is the hat of a magnate. The ordinary Khirgese hat is a very remarkable head-dress indeed. It is like the other, save that at the back and sides it is pro- longed into a kind of cape, a fur border following its edges. GENERAL LOMAKIN—DAGHESTANI HORSEMEN. 73 As a rule the Khirgese are the reverse of handsome, and one of the nation wearing his usual head-gear would irre- sistibly remind a stranger of a baboon who had donned a fur night-cap. Towards the end of the evening, or rather morning, supper was enlivened by a very characteristic incident. General Lazareff had proposed the health of his colleague's bride, and General Lomakin was returning thanks, when from the assembled company burst forth a demand that the old warrior should testify his affection for his partner by embracing her at the head of the table. In the midst of all this merriment the poor old General little foresaw the cata- strophe which was so shortly to overtake him far away under the walls of Yengi Sheher, in the Akhal Tekke oasis. Some- times we had reviews of the garrison, or of the irregular horse passing through Krasnavodsk on their way to Tchikislar, for it was by this route that the entire cavalry arrived at the latter camp. As I have already stated, the water for three miles off the coast is so shallow as to pre- vent a troop-ship from coming within that distance of the landing pier ; consequently horses coming direct to the camp had to be transferred to Turcoman fishing-boats from the transport-ship, then conveyed to within half a mile of the shore, when it was necessary to hoist them over the side, and make them go ashore through the shallow water. At Krasnavodsk, on the contrary, the troop-ship can lie along- side the pier, and the greatest facilities are afforded for the debarkation of cavalry and artillery, which then proceed over land along the coast by Michaelovo to Tchikislar. One evening, as we were lounging on the terrace outside the club doors, General Lomakin afforded us an opportunity of witnessing the peculiar method of fighting of the Cau- casian and Daghestani horsemen who happened to be in Krasnavodsk for the moment. They are natives of the 74 THROWING THE HANDJAR. north-eastern portion of the Caucasus, and are esteemed among the best cavalryin the Eussian service. Their uni- form is almost precisely similar to that of the Circassians, save that the Daghestani have their long tight-waisted tunics of white flannel instead of the usual sober colours affected by the Circassian horsemen. Hanging between the shoulders, and knotted around the neck, is the bashlik, or hood, worn during bad weather, and which is of a crimson colour. On either side of the breast are one or more rows of metal cart- ridge tubes, now worn simply for ornament, for I need scarcely say that these horsemen are armed with modern breech-loading carbines, and carry their cartridges in the orthodox regulation pouches, instead of after the fashion of their forefathers. Their sabres are of the usual guardless Circassian pattern, almost the entire hilt entering into the scabbard. Hanging from the front of the waist-belt is a handjar, or broad-bladed, leaf-shaped sword, very similar to the ancient Spanish weapon adopted by the Eoman soldiery, or resembling perhaps still more those bronze weapons found upon the old battle-fields of Greece and within early Celtic barrows. These weapons they are accustomed to use as projectiles, much as the North American Indians use their long-bladed knives. On the evening in question, a squadron of these Daghestani horsemen were paraded, in order that we might witness their skill in throw- ing the liandjars. A large wooden target was erected, in front of which was suspended an ordinary black bottle. Then, one by one, the horsemen dashed up at full speed, hurling their liandjars, as they did so, at the mark. It was intended to plant the point of the knife in the target, so close to the bottle that the flat of the blade should almost touch it. One after another the knives of the whole squadron were thrown, until they stuck like a sheaf of arrows round the mark, and so good was the aim that in no one case would LESGHIAN DANCING. 75 there have been the sHghtest possibility of missing so large a mark as a man's body. After this exhibition of skill, the Lesghi, as the Daghe- stani are occasionally called, performed some of their national dances, to the music of the pipe and tabor. Two dancers at a time stepped into the circle formed around them by their comrades. Each placed the back of his right hand across his mouth, holding the elbow elevated in the air; the left arm was held at its fullest extent, sloping slightly downwards, the palm turned to the rear. In this somewhat singular attitude they commenced sliding round the ring with a peculiar waltzing step ; then, suddenly confront- ing each other, they broke into a furious jig, going faster and faster as the music increased in pace, and when, all breathless, they retired into the ranks, their places were immediately taken by another pair. Occasionally one of the more skilful would arm himself with two Jiandjars, and, placing the points on either side of his neck, go through the most violent calisthenic movements, with the view of showing the perfect control he had over his muscles. 76 AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. CHAPTER V. KAEA-BOGHAZ SULPHUR DISTEICT. Gypsum rocks — Odjat — Natural paraffin — Post of Ghoui-Bournak — Camel- thorn and chiratan — Large lizards — Ghoui-Sulmen — Nummulitie lime- stone — Salty water — Method of drawing it up — Effect of washing — Turcoman smoking — Waiting for dawn — Shores of Karar-Boghaz — Search- ing for sulphur — Black and red lava — Kukurt-Daghi — Ghoui-Kabyl — Argillaceous sand — Turcoman and Khirgese horses — An alarm and retreat — Back to Bournak. During my stay at Krasnavodsk, I made the acquaintance of an Armenian gentleman who had come there with the intention of scientifically exploring the neighbourhood, and discovering what its mineral resources might be. He was especially in search of certain sulphur mines reported to exist upon the shores of the Kara Boghaz, the great expanse of shallow water lying to the north of Krasnavodsk. He had succeeded in obtaining from General Lomakin a guard of fifteen Yamud Turcomans, acting as Russian auxiliary u-regular horse, and, gathering from some conversation with me that I was interested in geological researches, asked me to accompany him on his expedition. We started early in the morning, and, mounted upon hardy little Khirgese ponies, climbed the horrid-looking, burnt-up ravines that lead through the amphitheatre of hills which guard Krasnavodsk, to the plain beyond. These rocks, as I have said, are of rose-coloured gypsum, though sometimes a blue and yellow variety is to be met with. Once outside the rocky, girding scarp, the Turcoman sahra, here afford- OLB WATER-COURSES— ' MINERAL WAX; 77 ing an unusually luxuriant supply of coarse bent-grass, reaches away in one unbroken tract to the banks of the Sea of Aral. Here and there it is furrowed by great shallow ravines, their sides overgrown with tamarisk — odjar, as the Turcomans call it ; and from the manner in which they run into each other I have little or no doubt that they formed some of the channels by which the Oxus traversed its delta when it flowed into the Caspian Sea. Even still some slight traces of moistm-e linger about their bottoms, sufficient to produce pasturage for the sheep, goats, and camels daily conducted thither from the town. The Yamud shepherds, perched upon every slight elevation around, kept watch and ward lest a party of Tekke Turco- mans should sweep down upon them and bear both them- selves and their charges into captivity. At the time of which I am writing some four or five thousand camels, destined for the transport service of the Akhal Tekke expedition, were concentrated in the neighbourhood of Krasnavodsk, the greater portion of them having been most unwisely sent to pasture at a distance of some twenty mUes from the garrison. Though it was early in the year, the heat of the sun was overwhelming ; and as in the midst of our wild-looking escort we rode across these naked, bm-ned-uj) plains, I could well appreciate how welcome was the ' shadow of a great rock in a weary land.' Far, far off, on either hand, loomed, faintly violet, some minor hills, which, my com- panion assured me, were replete with mineral treasures, especially with a very pure kind of natural paraffin, or mineral wax {osocheryte), as it is commonly called. Apart from the stray camels and flocks, the only living things to be seen were huge spotted lizards, who stared eagerly at us as we went by, and tortoises, crawling about over the marly surface, nibbling away the stunted chiratan around them. 78 GHOUI-BOURNAK, It was two o'clock in the afternoon as we reached the Eussian military post of Ghoui-Bournak, some sixteen miles distant from Krasnavodsk, and situated in the midst of a desolate plain. It consisted of a small rectangular redoubt, garrisoned by two companies of infantry and about twenty-five Turcoman horse. It was a frightfully desolate spot. There was absolutely nothing in the scenery on which the eye could repose itself after gazing over the illimitable wastes. Still, the garrison and their commander looked healthy and happy enough, owing, doubtless, to the cheerful insouciance and light-heartedness which characterise the ordinary Eussian, and which serve him so well in a soldier's career. The captain shared with us his not very luxurious meal of dried Caspian carp and almost equally dry sausage, washed down by the never- failing glass of vodka, and then we again started on our forward journey. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon as, utterly overcome by the heat, we drew bridle for a short repose. There was abundance of scraggy, scorched-up vegetation around, in the shape of camelthorn and chiratan, but not a drop of water was to be had save what we brought with us in our leather sacks. Our halt was but a short one, for it was impossible to sleep, or even to rest, in the scorching heat of the sun, though none of those pests of the east, flies, were present — the spot was too inhospitable even for them. Though the country was for the most part bare and desolate, it was strangely accidented by shallow ravines, which were, indubitably, old watercourses, along whose bottoms and sides bushes of various kinds grew thickly. We varied the monotony of the journey by racing, and dangerous work it was, for the ground was everywhere burrowed into by great chameleon-like lizards — sometimes two feet long — and every now and then a horseman came tp grief, owing to his steed involuntarily thrusting a leg into GHOUI-SULMEN— SALTY WATER. 79 •one of these pitfalls. At ten o'clock in the evening we Teached a kind of basin, situated in the midst of low hills, if I may call elevations of fifty feet or so by that name. This basin might have been a mile and a half across. Near its centre were half-a-dozen wells, which gave the place the name of Ghoui-Sulmen. Each well was surrounded by a low parapet" of yellowish-grey nummulitic limestone, and •close by the mouth stood a couple of rude troughs of the same material. The workmanship of these was of the rudest description, and I have no doubt, from the present condition of affairs on these plains, and the utter absence of public enterprise, that these traces of man's handiwork mu^t be of great antiquity. The water lay at least forty feet below the level of the well-mouth, and could only be procured by being fished up in the nose-bags of our horses, let down by the united tethering-ropes of several of the party. This water was execrable in the extreme. I under- stand that it contains a large percentage of sulphate of soda and common salt ; but whatever be the matter which gives it its peculiar taste and flavour, it is very nauseous, especially when it has become heated from being carried in the leather bags in which water is stored during long journeys in these parts of the world. It then becomes emetic, as well as strongly purgative. Coming from the great depths at which it lies beneath the soil, it is icy-cold when brought to the surface, but even then it is intolerable to any one who has been accustomed to different water elsewhere. Not being able to drink, I tried to assuage my thirst by bathing my face and hands, but I soon discovered what a mistake I had made, for when the moisture had evaporated I .found the surface of my skin covered with an extremely irritant saline matter, the eyes and nose especially suffering. The Turcomans prepared their tea with this water, and seemed to enjoy it, though after the first mouth- 8o A NIGHT HALT— PRIMITIVE SMOKING. ful I was obliged to cease drinking. The horses were watered by the contents of the nose-bags being poured into their troughs, but, as at least one-half of the water escaped through the porous sack while it was being hauled to the surface, the supplying of twenty horses with sufi&cient to satisfy their thirst, after our long and trying march, was slow work. We collected enough withered scrubby plants and roots to keep up half-a-dozen camp fires, around which our escort gathered, their horses being tethered close to them. I tried to put up my tente d'ahri, but found that the pickets would not hold in the loose marly soU, so with my friend the geologist I was compelled to encamp a la belle etoile, like our neighbours the Tm-comans. I trie4 in vain to sleep, for the u-ritating saline matter which my attempt at washing had lodged in my eyes, nose, and ears, rendered any effort in that direction quite unavailing ; so I lay awake during our halt, gazing out into the solemn starlit sUence of the desert, where not even a movement like that of the horizon-girded waters or the murmur of a ripple broke the unearthly stillness. Glimmering camp- fires shed fitful gleams upon the swarthy features and strange tuft-like hats of the Turcoman escort, bringing out all kinds of Eembrandt-like effects as they sat conversing around — for notwithstanding our fatiguing ride they did not seem in the least inclined to take any rest — or indulged in smoking after the curious fashion which they adopt on such expeditions as the one which is now being described. The Turcomans rarely smoke anything but a water-pipe, or kalioun, as they call it, but as this is too cumbrous an article to be carried about on horseback, a simpler expedient is resorted to. An oblong steep-sided hole is dug in the ground, some five inches wide, and a foot deep. Some red-hot charcoal is taken from the camp-fire, and placed in the bottom of the cavity. A handful of tumbaki, a coarse THE KARA-BOGHAZ. 8r kind of tobacco used in these regions, is thrown in, and the smoker, kneeling beside the hole, places his expanded palma on either side of his mouth, stoops over the orifice, and inhales the fumes of the tobacco, mingled with air. Three or four whiffs from this singular smoking apparatus seem quite sufficient for the most determined smoker among them, and I am not surprised at it. I nearly choked myself with the first when I tried it. "When I first witnessed this method of smoking I was some distance off,, and as the tobacco smoke was too faint to be noticed, I was under the impression that the Turcomans had somehow or other discovered water, and were engaged in drinking. We broke camp about half-past one, and continued our journey towards the shores of the Kara-Boghaz (Black Gulf), on the borders of which lay the sulphur mines which it was the mission of my friend to explore. The stars gave but feeble light, and as the edges of projecting strata now began to make their appearance the road became so dan- gerous that after two miles we were obliged to halt again and wait for dawn. As the sun was rising we found our- selves on the margin of a vast creek reaching inland from the Kara-Boghaz. The waters lay still and death-like, and the entire surroundings were more lifeless and ghastly than any I had hitherto witnessed. Not even a bird of any de- scription was to be seen, far or near. To reach the level yellow shore at the water marge it was necessary that we should scramble down the almost vertical face of the cliff, some sixty or seventy feet in height. It was composed of terraced layers of whitish-yellow stone, similar to that which I have described as being found at the well-mouths ; in some places tossed and tumbled in the wildest possible confusion. Dismounting from our horses, and leading them by the bridles, we proceeded to scramble, as best we could, down the cliff, being often obliged to hold on by the VOL. I. G .«2 KUKURT-DAGHI— SULPHUR 'POCKETS.' tamarisk bushes, and at last reached the shell-strewn beach below. Following the strand in a north-easterly direction, we reached a ravine which pierces the cliffs in an easterly one. This was the spot of which we were in search. It is called by the Turcomans the Kukurt-Daghi, or Sulphur Mountain. My friend commenced his search immediately, for there was not a moment to be lost. We were on very ■dangerous ground, and where the unfriendly nomads were frequently to be found encamped preparatory to one of their forays in the neighbourhood of Krasnavodsk. Strewn around were fragments of black and red lava, and the en- tire place bore unmistakeable signs of a more or less recent volcanic disturbance. Lumps of sulphur were to be found in every direction, and here and there were nodules, em- bedded between the stone layers, and in the indurated beds •of detritus. Though we found tolerably large ' pockets,' however, nowhere could we discover any real vein. There was no considerable deposit of the substance — at least, such was the opinion of my friend, the geologist. After an hour and a half s search, we mounted for the return jour- ney, and I was not sorry to leave the spot. The following brief extract from my note-book, written at the time, will ■express what I thought of the place : — ' Kukurt-Daghi. An hour after sunrise. A cursed-looking place. Hideous de- solation. Not a drop of drinkable water anywhere.' The waters of this Kara-Boghaz, which is an immense expanse almost entirely shut out from the Caspian, with which it is connected only by an exceedingly narrow strait, are an almost saturated solution of various sea-salts, mingled with an excess of sulphate of soda. No fish of any kind can Jive in them, and, as I have said, not even a solitary crow could be seen along its horribly desolate shores. It would be no inapt subject for the study of an artist engaged upon some landscape which was in itself meant to convey an FRESH-WATER WELLS. ?>i -utter abnegation of life. After an hour and a half's examination of the sulphur deposits we rode back without further rest to the Sulmen wells, partook of some dry bread and salty tea for breakfast, and were able to sleep a little before the fierce midday sun put an end to our rest. "We took a new route on our return journey, and, riding across a country exactly similar to that of which I have ■spoken, two hours Hefore sunset we got into a sandy, undu- lating area. The tamarisk bushes grew high and close, and were even mixed with a peculiar kind of osier. This infallibly denoted the presence of water. ' We were, in fact, at the Ghoui-Kabyl, or sweet-water wells, the only place in the whole district where such a thing as really drinkable -water is to be obtained. Here, again, the wells were so very deep that the nose-bags and tethering ropes had again to be put into requisition. The sweet water was welcome indeed. To me it seemed nectar after the burning thirst of so many hours. No one who has not been similarly placed can fully appreciate the force of the poet's words, ' The first sparkle of the desert spring.' One thinks him- «elf passing through another phase of existence when he actually feels the cold water trickling down his parched throat. Our evening meal was as scanty as before. We had bread and water, but considering that the latter was fresh, the meal was a welcome one. We washed the salt from our hands and faces, and then, finding it utterly im- possible, for the same reason as at the last halting-place, to put up our tent, lay down to rest upon the soft, yielding sand. This is the only place where anything like sand has come under my notice in these deserts. It is argillaceous, not silicious, and, unlike the latter, when moistened turns into mud. So fine is it, that when grasped in the hand it escapes between the fingers, notwithstanding every effort to retain it. Streaks and patches of it are to be found in all o 2 84 KEEPING WATCH— QUARRELSOME HORSES. directions, and I apprehend that they represent the beds of ancient watercourses. A bank of this yielding substance afforded as comfortable a couch as the softest feather bed, for it adapted itself perfectly to the form of the sleeper and was entirely free from saline particles. I am unable to understand the phenomenon of these three or four sweet- water wells existing in the midst of the desert, where all the other water to be found is of the nature of that which; I have described as obtaining at Ghoui-Sulmen. As usual, several camp fires were lighted, for the pre- paration of the inevitable tea, without which no true Central Asian or Eussian can get through a day's journey. The fires smouldered dimly around us, for the Yamuds. were too cautious to allow a blaze to be seen in such a place . As before, they did not go to sleep, but sat crouch- ingly around the fires, chatting to each other. The horses, each tethered by one fetlock at the full extent of its tethering- rope, ran round in circles, screaming at and trying to kick each other. I have remarked this peculiarity about Turco- man horses, that while towards human beings they are the gentlest and most tractable of creatures, among themselves they are the most quarrelsome that it is possible to imagine. There is a second peculiarity which I may as well mention here. On these steppes two principal varieties of horses- are found — one the long-legged Turcoman, the other the- stout Khirgese, which latter closely resembles an overgrown and extra-shaggy Shetland pony. Turcoman and Khirgese horses invariably fraternise, and live together on the kind- liest terms, and I do not recollect ever having found an exception to this rule. Notwithstanding the noise which the horses were mak- ing — and it was very aggravating, when after the fatigues of the past two days we were trying to snatch an hour's repose — I was sinking gradually into slumber. A calm AN ALARM AND RETREAT. 85 seemed to come over the bivouac, and everything appeared tranquil. liturned over on the sand to make myself com- fortable, when I became aware that an unusual agitation prevailed among the ordinarily calm and taciturn Turco- mans. They were whispering eagerly together. I raised myself upon my elbow, and looked round. Some were hastily saddling their horses, and before I had time to de- mand the reason of this proceeding, several of them came hurriedly up to where myself and my friend lay. There was something wrong, they said. The horses were sniffing the wind, with necks outstretched towards the east. Either strangers were approaching, or there was some ■other encampment near, and if this latter were the case, the encampment could only be a Tekke one. We held a council of war, and decided that the most advisable course to adopt was to move on immediately. Sand was heaped upon the camp fires, horses were rapidly saddled and packed, and, like a party of spectres, we stole silently away. Several Turcomans, with the apparently innate perception of locality, even in the dark, which is acquired by the habits of life of their race, led the way. For myself I had not the faintest notion towards what point of the compass we were directing our steps. During half-an-hour we forced our path among the bushes, and gained open ground. Four Turcomans were thrown out to reconnoitre in the supposed dangerous direction, and, anxious though I felt over the situation, I could not help wondering how they would ever find their way back to the main party, in view of the intense darkness, for , a mist had veiled the thin lustre of the stars which had hitherto lighted us on. We rode as fast as the nature of the ground, with its lizard- burrows and old watercourses, would permit, and it was not easy to grope our way across all these obstacles. In .an hour we were joined by the reconnoitring party. They 86 BACK- TO BO URNAK— CAPTAIN TER-KAZAROFF. reported a large camp to the eastward. They estimated the number of its occupants at some hundreds, and be- lieved they could be no other than Tekkes, inasmuch as na friendly force could possibly be in that direction at that particular hour. It was curious to note how these Yamud Turcomans feared their congeners the Tekkes. Only a few years previously both were banded together in common hosti- lity to the invading Muscovite. A few years of Eussian domination on the East Caspian littoral had transformed the former not only into friends, but into allies, and thrown them into the balance as a make-weight against their wilder Eastern brethren. The sun was well above the horizon as we sighted several hundreds of camels browsing, on a rising ground, on the scanty herbage, and tended by some scores of Khir- gese nomads. We hastily communicated to them the news of the proximity of the Tekkes, and rode forward, as swiftly as might be, after our protracted journey, towards the Bournak post, which we reached about two hours after sunrise. We reported our intelligence to the Commandant, Captain Ter-Kazaroff, who took the necessary precautions for the safety of his redoubt by placing men at the parapets, for he had not the slightest idea of what was coming, or that the Tekke horsemen would dare to execute the cmnp' which they were preparing. He then proceeded to entertain us most hospitably, for it appeared that during our absence a provision convoy had arrived. He gave us wine, vodka, and ham, refreshment which we much appreciated after the starvation and fatigue of the preceding forty-eight hours. A RAPID MUSTER. 87- CHAPTEE VI. A TUKCOMAN BAID A VISIT TO TCHIKISLAE. Turcomans in view — Preparing to attack — In a predicament — Retiring on Krasnavodsk — General panic — Lomakin's advance — Eesult of skirmish — Eussian military funeral — A trip to Tchikislar — Island of Tcheliken — Demavend — Ak-Batlaouk volcano — Difficulty of landing — Description of" camp— Flies — Turcoman prisoner — Eelease of captive Persian women — Water snakes — Stormy voyage to Baku — Conversation with Lazareff — Eussian recruits — Prince Wittgenstein — Cossack lieutenant's story — Off" to Tchikislar. I HAD slept a couple of hours at the shady side of the Captain's tent, and was in the act of making some notes of the day's adventures, when scouts came galloping up in a headlong fashion with the news that the Tekkes were ad- vancing in force, and that not a moment was to be lost if the camels were to be saved. Notwithstanding that a border post like that of Bournak is constantly on the alert, the rapidity with which the men were got under arms was surprising. The captain rushed from his tent, the bugle sounded, and in less than two minutes after the alarm the first company was moving to the front at the double. As the day was exceedingly hot, the men marched in their shirt sleeves — at least I suppose it was on account of the heat ; in all probability an order to that effect had been issued, as everyone in the company was without his coat. The irregular Yamud cavalry, some fifteen in number, together with the Khirgese shepherds, were driving in the «8 TEKKtS IN VIEW— A PREDICAMENT. ■camels, which could not, however, be got to accelerate their usual slow and dignified pace. Owinig to this fact, many of the Khirgese were cut down by the foremost Tebke horsemen. I believe that in all there were about four thousand camels. So rapid was the preparation that the captain had not even time to load his revolver, and I lent him mine for the occasion. The promptitude with which he marched to the relief of the camel drivers was beyond all praise. Within ten minutes after the departure ■of the first company, the second, in reserve, marched with the camels carrying the spare ammunition, leaving only half-a-dozen men to garrison the redoubt. The first com- pany was scarcely five hundred yards distant from the parapets when the leading Tekkes appeared in sight, gallop- ing along the summit of the long undulation of the plain, and in a few minutes many hundreds of them were in view. Some affrighted Khirgese drivers who came in said that the greater number of their companions had been kOled, a large proportion of the camels taken, and at least two thousand sheep swept away. They reported that the Tekkes were at least two thousand strong, and that a large number of them were horsemen, the remainder being infantry mounted upon camels and asses. Firing had already commenced, and myself and my friend were sorely puzzled as to what course we should pursue. The position, for us, was an exceedingly dif&cult one. I much desired to go forward and witness the skirmish, but the condition of our horses, after two days' hard riding, with little or no food save the few handfuls of corn which we had in our saddle-bags, rendered it excessively dangerous for us to proceed into the press of combat, especially as it was as likely as not that the slender Eussian infantry force would be compelled to retreat, even if it were not annihilated. In the latter case, and with our jaded horses, we were A HASTY RETREAT. 89 ■certain to be captured, and mutilation, if not death, would have been our portion. To await the result of the fight in the redoubt, with its few defenders, was equally precarious, for in the event of the Tekkes being victorious they would have little difficulty in overwhelming the few men who remained behind. To retreat was fraught with danger also, for as the Tekkes were in great force a party had probably been detailed to cut off communication with Krasnavodsk. Further, as they seemed for the moment to be retiring before the two companies of infantry, we thought it best to make good our retreat, while there was yet an opportunity, as fast as our fatigued horses could carry us. Our baggage was rapidly packed, and we retired as swiftly as we could. Half a mile to the south of the post of Bournak is another reach of ground commanding an extensive view over the plain, and from this, though at a pretty long distance, I could, with the aid of my field glass, follow the movements of the Tekkes. It was not easy, however, to make out which way the combat was going, for the entire plain was covered with groups of horsemen, and it was impossible to detect to which side they belonged. Once outside of the protecting parapets of the redoubt, our most prudent course was to make the best of our way to Krasnavodsk. Our worn-out horses took at least three hours to cover the eighteen miles which intervened between us and that town. I had serious reason to believe that a turning movement would be attempted, this being a favourite Turcoman tactic ; and we were more than once scared by the appearance of groups of horsemen, driving camels and sheep before them, and spreading all over the plain between us and Krasnavodsk. If they were enemies it was useless to attempt to escape, so we pushed on, and found that we had been alarmed by the shepherd popula- 90 LOMAKIISPS ADVANCE— MILITARY PRECAUTIONS tions, who were hastily retiring on the town with all their flocks and herds. The panic was universal, for the news, had spread that the Tekkes were in very great force indeed. The heat was terrific, our horses were rapidly failing us, and I was in a general state of weariness. We entered the rocky circle of hills which shuts off Krasnavodsk and its immediate surroundings from the plains, and as we debouched from one horrid gorge, with its gaunt cliffs of burnt red rock, we met General Lomakin, the commander of the- town, advancing with all his available forces. He. had a battalion of infantry, several squadrons of Khirgese lancers and Cossacks, and one field gun. He could not, in the whole, have had less than twelve hundred men. I very much wished to turn back and accompany the advancing- forces, but the condition of my horse rendered such a proceeding entirely out of the question. I had a short, conversation with the General, explained to him all I knew about the situation, and once more pushed on to- Krasnavodsk. I found the garrison under arms upon the ramparts, and the artillerymen standing by their guns. The naval officers on shore had been hurriedly summoned on board their respective war-ships, and everything showed that a serious attack was deemed possible. As I entered the town the people crowded round me, anxiously question- ing me as to what was the matter, and where the General and his troops were going. A little later I met one of the Yamud horsemen who had formed part of the escort of myself and my Armenian friend. He gave it as his decided opinion that we must have been under the direct protection of Allah as we got off from the Ghoui-Kabyl that morning. Had we remained an hour longer on the spot, he said, we should certainly have been captured by the Tekkes. I was really very much knocked up by the ex- pedition. The heat, want of sufficient food, salty water,. RESULT OF SKIRMISH. 91 and, above all, the absence of sleep, had quite prostrated me, and I find in my note-book the following entry, which is very descriptive of the situation : — ' I am very ill, and my back is nearly broken. My nose is almost burned off, and my breeches are torn from hard riding. I must go to bed.' My readers may be curious to know what the upshot of the whole affair was. I give a brief account, as taken from the lips of various persons who were present at the engage- ment. The Tekkes gave battle twenty-five versts beyond Bournak, losing fifteen men killed. The Eussians lost four irregular horsemen. The Tekkes captured some hundreds of camels, but could only carry off about two hundred of the swiftest. They were also forced to leave the captured sheep behind them. The captain of the Bournak post did not venture with his slender force to pursue the enemy further. General Lomakin, on his arrival at Bournak, halted for the night, and on the next day re-commenced the pursuit. The enemy retreated before him, occasionally halting within a circle of captured camels, which they made to kneel down, using them as a rampart, and firing over their backs. Occasionally the range was only fifty yards. They fired, from their smooth-bore muskets, spherical leaden bullets, split in four pieces, and wrapped in paper. These missiles are admirably adapted for use on horseback, and inflict very uncomfortable wounds indeed. In the end they withdrew so far into the desert that the General thought well not to follow them any further. The Eussian loss on this occasion was four men killed and twelve wounded. One dead soldier was discovered with six sabre gashes on his head, his nose had been cut from his face, and he had undergone other mutilations. A woman who had been captured by the marauders, but who slipped through their hands, said that they sacked several aoulU 92 CONCILIATION OF TURCOMANS. (villages), carrying off women and children and murdering the men. Thus ended the first of the series of combats with the independent Turcomans which culminated in the capture of their strongholds at Geok Tepe and the conquest of the Akhal Tekke tribes. These same tribes, who fought so fiercely against the Eussians but three years ago, have, now, to all appearance, become as much their obedient servants as the Yamuds of the Caspian littoral, who but seven years previously were themselves among the fore- most opposers of Muscovite aggression. Few governments like that of Eussia would know how to conciliate these newly conquered Asiatic peoples ; as an example of this I may mention that there are many Turcomans who are already decorated with the cross of St. George. This cross, which is of silver, and in form not unlike the Victoria Cross, ordinarily bears on a central medallion a ' George and /the Dragon.' The Turcomans objected to receive a decoration bearing a strictly Christian emblem, and accord- ingly a number of crosses were manufactured especially for them, bearing a double-headed eagle instead of a ' George.' The Turcomans are under the impression that this strange- looking fowl is a cock, as they themselves often told me. This cross, charged with a ' cock ' — as well as neck medals hung by variously coloured silk ribbons — has been largely distributed among the reconciled nomads. Two days after my arrival at Krasnavodsk, I witnessed there the obsequies of three of the four regular troops killed in the skirmish beyond Bournak. The fourth, being a Mussulman, did not share in these ceremonies. They took place within the wooden church standing in the centre of the square. Like most Eussian church-singing, the chant- ing on this occasion was exceedingly sweet, and the rites were of the most impressive character. All the officers MILITARY OBSEQUIES. 93; and most of the soldiers of the garrison were present, each one holding a slender lighted taper in his hand. When the cof&ns were about to be closed, each of the comrades of the deceased came forward to kiss the foreheads of the corpses, at the same time dropping a few grains of rice into the folds of the shroud. A sergeant then approached, and placed across the brow of each a slip of gilt paper, on which was written some inscription which I could not decipher. The coffins were then closed, and carried outside the church. A procession, headed by military music, was formed, and marched to a distance of about two miles, outside the town, and around a rocky promontory to the cemetery. The ' pope ' of the garrison, with long dark robes, violet velvet ' toque,' and silver-tipped staff, walked beside the coflSns. The interment concluded, the three customary salvoes were fired by a squad of the battalion to which the deceased had belonged. The dead Mussulman soldier was buried far apart, on the bleak hill-side. As we turned again for Krasnavodsk, I noticed, at intervals, many an old earthwork and trench, with an occasional soldier's grave, surmounted by its lonely wooden cross, marking the gradual progress of the Eussian arms from the first settle- ment within the Krasnavodsk hills to the present outlying stations. Immediately outside the walls was quite a colony of soldiers' wives and children, and camp followers of one kind or other. They were not allowed to occupy ground within the place itself, for in Krasnavodsk the dwellings are either barracks or the quarters of officers and their families. It is only in the bazaar, as one of the great squares is named, that any civilians are to be found, and these are traders from Baku. The people who live outside the walls inhabit semi-subterranean houses like those of the Armenians to which I have previously alluded. I remained at Krasnavodsk up to the first of May,