260 By Mo^lnta^n, Lake, and Plain 



hours; and in Malcolm's history we read that 

 when engaged in a raid they covered 150 miles 

 daily, and incredible as these tales may seem, 

 they are eclipsed by the stories the Turkoman 

 themselves relate of their steeds' powers. 1 There 

 can, at any rate, be no doubt that their staying 

 capacity is something altogether out of the ordin- 

 ary. This must be so when one considers the 

 distances they travelled. Even so far south 

 as Neh, some 400 miles as the crow flies from 

 the Turkoman country, the flat fields surrounding 

 villages are still dotted with little round " Turko- 

 man towers," the refuges which cultivators in the 

 fields took to on the first appearance of one of 

 the dreaded alamans, and which thus answered 

 the same purpose as martello towers on the pirate- 

 ridden coast of Italy. The practice was to block 

 up the little entrance hole at the bottom by a 

 huge stone, the raiders apparently being in too 

 much of a hurry to knock the towers down or 

 otherwise bolt the occupants. These wonderful 

 forays are now almost things of the past. The 

 Yamut and Goklan raid but little if anything 



1 They were, of course, specially trained, their diet at the con- 

 clusion being what in India is called a "nahari" ("never get 

 weary ") of flour and fat. In the long-distance trials held in '92 

 from Vienna to Berlin, the distance of 360 miles was covered by 

 the winning horse in 71^ hours, by the second in 73 hours, and by 

 the third in 74^ hours, but all died from their exertions ! 



