The Poly

The warp is merely a piece of canvas pegged out on the ground, with the transverse threads removed. The weaver, who crouches over her handiwork, takes a pinch of coloured wool and, with a deft twist of her fingers, attaches it to one of the horizontal threads, pressing it afterwards into position with a heavy wooden comb. It is a curious fact that the intricate patterns are never committed to paper, and have been handed down from mother to daughter from generations unnumbered. marriage customs of the Turkomans are unique. gamy is permitted by the Mohammedan law, but rarely can a Tekke afford the separate kibitka and establishment which any wife is entitled to demand. Wedded life begins early-at fourteen or fifteen for males, and in the case of girls before the age of puberty. As married women wear no veils, a youth has little difficulty in selecting his future bride. When a damsel has found favour in his eyes he waits on her father and offers a given price for her-slaves, horses, or cattle to the value of £40 to £80. This essential once agreed upon, the father-in-law presents the young couple with a new kibitka, āk ev, untarnished by smoke, in which the relatives assemble. Then a mulla recites a few verses from the Koran-and the wedded pair are left to themselves.1 Should the price agreed on be not paid, at once the bride returns to her parents after a brief honeymoon. In old times her absence stimulated the youthful husband to prowess in distant raids, which afforded the only opportunity of gaining the needful wealth.

are essential parts of a Turkoman maiden's dowry. Those of the second grade, but coloured with honest native dyes, fetch 13s. a square yard.

1 Marvin, quoting Vambéry and Conolly, mentions more ancient forms of marriage customs-the simulated abduction of the bride and the pursuit of her on horseback. These, however, are obsolete. For a considerable time after the fall of Geok Teppe the price of Tekke spouses sank to a low ebb, owing to the fearful slaughter of eligible males.

CHAPTER V

THE LAST STEP IN ADVANCE

THE ignominious campaign of 1861 was the last organised effort put forward by Persia to protect her northern provinces. Secure in a splendid strategic position,1 the Tekkes extended their devastations far and wide. When, in 1871, a fearful famine more than decimated the population of Khorasan, bands of Tekke horsemen took advantage of their neighbours' weakness to sweep the entire province with their marauding parties. It would have been an easy task to check the aggression which depopulated the richest province of Persia and caused incredible misery to the people. But so utterly corrupt was the administration of the Shah that the governing class found its account in encouraging the perpetrators. Troops were paid for by Government which existed only on paper, and the local authorities shared in the Tekkes' booty. The first effectual blow struck at this gigantic machinery for plunder and oppression was the direct result of the Khivan campaign of 1873. General Kauffman had encountered some opposition from the Yomud

1 The Merv oasis is a wedge driven between Persia and Afghanistan. Meshed is only 150 miles from the centre, Herät about 240; and the Paropamisus range which intervenes was no deterrent in the eyes of Tekke horsemen.

According to the agents employed by a London relief committee, a fifth of the population perished (Petrusevitch, quoted by Marvin, Merv, p. 326).

Turkomans who ranged the desert of Khiva, and he was not a man to tolerate half-measures. He waged a war of extermination against this once powerful tribe, and the ruthless cruelty that attended it struck terror throughout the southern steppes. The Gokhlan Turkomans, inhabiting the estuary of the Atrak and the rich valleys behind it, had been brought to heel by an energetic governor of the Persian province of Bajnard in 1869,1 and their piracies on the Caspian had been put down with a strong hand by the Russian naval authorities.2 With the pacification of Khiva, too, came the formation, in 1874, of a Transcaspian military district, subordinate to the Caucasus,3 which was placed under the governorship of Major-General Lomakin. On the north-west the Tekkes saw an iron wall arise which checked their aggressions and was a standing menace to their independence. Nor were the prospects in the west of their habitat more encouraging. The Russian treaties with Khiva and Bokhārā forbade slavery, and closed the principal markets for the captives of their bow and spear. In 1877 the Tekkes turned to Persia, and made her an offer of their allegiance in return for support against the white man's encroachments. This contingency was not to be regarded with equanimity by the Russians, for they rightly considered the Turkomans as within the sphere of influence of the Transcaspian district. Nor were commercial considerations wanting. Russia was by this time the virtual mistress of the Khānates, and was directly interested in the development of their trade; but caravans were unable to cross the Turkoman Desert while the nomads remained untamed, and were driven to

1 Petrusevitch, quoted by Marvin, Merv, p. 321.

2 Astrabad Consular Report for 1879.

3 Provisory Ordinance of the 21st March 1874, quoted by Ney, p. 225.

4

• Ney, p. 225.