slavery. I say the surprise must have been extraordinary; it discarded all fear, nay, turned to a certain extent into sympathy for the new cause.

It was Merv, in particular, that sent a large contingent of trading and sight-seeing guests to Ashkabad! Merv, the head-quarters of the yet independent and larger portion of the Tekke Turkomans; for it must be borne in mind that whilst the number of the Akhal-Tekke Turkomans is computed to be about 150,000 souls, that of the Merv-Tekkes is estimated at 250,000. I spoke about sight-seers from Merv, but I must add at the same time, that the Russians were no less anxious to get a peep at Merv, and to see the " Queen of the World," this being the pompous title given to the miserable heap of ruins by Oriental writers. In antiquity, or properly speaking during the pre-Mongolian era, Merv really was a great centre of culture and trade in this outlying part of Persia; and old Arab geographers speak of hundreds of gates, of hundreds of mosques, of thousands of palaces, baths, of miles of bazaars, of spacious caravansaries, etc., for which Merv was famous. Abstracting the poetical flavour of Oriental geographers, we may assume that Merv had really been a large town in bygone times; for, situated on the banks of the Murghab river, and richly watered, it was the best halting place for caravans trading

between Bokhara and Persia. But its splendour, as I said before, has long since passed away; the army of Djenghis turned it into a heap of ruins; and all later efforts to rebuild it have proved hopeless and futile.

Yet Russia, always alive to her interests, very well knew what Merv was worth. Soon after having settled at Ashkabad, she coveted it, for it was in her line of policy, and only to avoid the charge of greediness she thought it advisable to adopt quiet measures and to feign moderation. In the beginning the rumour was propagated that Merv, having been in olden times an integral part of the khanate of Khiva, which had been really the case, this last stronghold of the Turkomans would be handed. over to the Khan of Khiva; and it was even added that the Turkomans themselves were longing after their former state of suzerainty to the khanate on the lower course of the Oxus. I read this news in a Persian paper, and was highly amused at the ingenious idea the Russians entertained, of using the Khan of Khiva as a catspaw in the troublesome affair of Merv. Soon afterwards this rumour turned out to be untrue. · Röhrberg was removed on grounds which have remained unknown to us, and General Komaroff took his place; the latter a genuine Russian of unadulterated Muscovite extraction, a man certainly fitter

for the task of throwing out the line and hook in the dark waters of Turkoman affairs than the aforesaid German officer, who, in spite of his long services to the Czar, must have retained too much of European honesty to work successfully in the Asiatic gangway of plots and intrigues.

To us, the lookers on from a distance, the relations between Ashkabad and Merv were utterly unknown, and we were prepared for a solid resistance on the part of the Mervians. The Russian authorities at Ashkabad, however, had a better insight into that matter. They saw the continually increasing number of Mervians coming to Ashkabad for shopping, and the idea naturally occurred to them to persuade these people that, if they liked, the Russian merchants themselves would come to Merv, and bring with them the goods they had a hankering after. Whether the Turkomans of Merv agreed to that act of politeness we do not decidedly know; but it is a fact that a caravan was soon got ready, and started in February, 1882, for Merv, not, however, before Fazil Beg, an Uzbeg of Khiva, Russianised in consequence of his repeated journeys to Russia, had been sent to explore the place, and to secure protection for the caravan.

Alikhanoff, known by his family name Avarski, which means an Avar, a tribe of the Daghestan, was at the head of this caravan. He belonged to that

class of Russian officers who, without forsaking their religion, become thoroughly Russianised, partly through the education they get and partly through long intercourse with their fellow-officers. By placing an "off," which corresponds with the English "son," at the end of their names, they adopt the Russian nationality officially; and combining, as they do, a smattering of European education with Asiatic astuteness, they generally turn out very clever men, and have often rendered essential services to the Russian State. Such Russianised Tartars were, amongst others, Velikhanoff, the famous traveller in Kashgar, the Naziroffs, Tahiroffs, Muratoffs, etc., and such is. the Russianised Kalmukian Dondukoff Korsakoff, who, in spite of parading his French eloquence, had a Kalmukian grandfather, Donduk Korsak.

As to the biography of Alikhanoff, whose fame has recently spread all over the western world, I would refer the reader to Charles Marvin's "The Russians at the Gates of Herat," a cleverly written book, full of information gathered from Russian sources. Suffice it to say that Alikhanoff went in the disguise of a trader, and, acting as the interpreter and clerk to the Russian merchant Kosikh, he succeeded in entering Merv, and was, together with his Russian colleagues, pretty well received by Makhdum-Kuli Khan, the very Turkoman chieftain who led the defence of

!

Geok-Tepe, and escaping, together with Tekme Serdar, has since, by dint of Russian gifts, entirely changed his mind by becoming a secret friend of his former deadly enemy. As to the wares the so-called Russian traders brought with them, they must have been disposed of in a way not dissimilar to that used nearly forty years ago by Conolly on his journey across the country of the Yomuts; with this only difference, that whilst the British officer tried to buy his way through plundering nomads, the Russian traders in disguise aimed at, and succeeded, in purchasing a place of strategical and commercial importance, with the sole object of hoodwinking Europe and more particularly England.

After having remained a fortnight in Merv, the pseudo-merchants returned safely to Ashkabad, taking with them the conviction that Merv would not have to be bought with torrents of blood like Geok-Tepe, and that it wanted only some time and patience to make the half-ripe apple drop into the lap of the Russian Emperor. Among the acquisitions made by Alikhanoff, belongs the promise of Makhdum-Kuli Khan to be present at the coronation of the Emperor Alexander II. at Moscow, where his presence greatly raised the splendour of Oriental pageantry, affording besides ample opportunity to the wild nomad to relate wonders on his return among his countrymen