212 On the Yamud and Gokldn Tribes of Turkomania, 



the Kazan Tartars, formed once the Golden Horde, under the 

 sway of Mogol or Tartar Chiefs. It was in consequence of the 

 Mogol dominion that the name of Tartar extended to them, 

 although they reckon themselves of the same extraction as the 

 Turks of Constantinople ; and the Turkomans pretend to be 

 of the same origin. It is affirmed, however, by those who 

 have studied the several Turkish dialects, that there exists a 

 material diflference between the language spoken at Constanti- 

 nople, and that by the Kazan Tartars, or the Turkomans, who, 

 together with the Usbeks and others, speak the Jagataii 

 Turkish. The language in use among the wandering tribes 

 of Turkish origin in Persia is diiferent from both the former, 

 and is reckoned a corrupted dialect. That of Constantinople 

 is the most elegant and the best cultivated of the three. 



The more intimate connection of the Astrakhan and Kazan 

 Tartars with the Mogols can be traced in their features ; with 

 the Nog ay it is less visible. In like manner, the Turkomans 

 further off in the desert, and the Uzbeks of Khive, have more 

 of the Mogol expression than the Turkomans who encamp 

 near the Persian frontier. The frequent intercourse of the 

 Nogay, in latter years, with the Cherkess, seems to have im- 

 proved their race ; and notwithstanding the enmity that exists 

 between the Turkomans and the Persians, it is still not un- 

 likely that their close vicinity should have produced on the 

 former a similar effect in a lapse of several centuries. The 

 fact we have seen, that the Turkomans marry Persian women, 

 when they take them as prisoners. The Turkoman women 

 are, like the men, tall, and when young, well-shaped ; their 

 faces are rounder than those of the men ; the cheek-bones less 

 prominent ; the eyes black, with fine eye -brows, and many 

 with fair complexion ; the nose is rather flat ; the mouth small, 

 with a row of regular white teeth . In a word, a great number 

 of the younger part of the community might be reckoned as 

 fair specimens of pretty women. 



I hope I may not he accused of partiality if I do not draw 

 an equally advantageous picture of the old Turkoman ma- 

 trons ; for they are downright hideous, to say the least of it. 

 Their ugliness is, however, cast in a different mould from that 

 of the old women among the wandering tribes of Persia. The 



