302 FROM GOKTCHAI TO LENKORAN. 



neighbourhood, and were being sold at from 30 to 

 50 copecks apiece. 



Never had we such difficulty in procuring 

 horses as we had now. None of the Tartars or 

 other peasants would take us, late as it was, across 

 this first strip of the Mooghan desert to the next 

 post-station. It seemed that all the steppe was 

 covered by nomad Tartars, who descend every year 

 from the hills and winter in the Mooghan. These 

 men bear (probably with justice) an extremely 

 bad reputation, and, although we at last persuaded 

 a young Tartar of Salian to convey us in his ' arba,' 

 it was only after we had spent all our persuasive 

 powers upon him, showing him how well armed 

 we were, and promising that we would keep our- 

 selves out of sight, in order not to excite the 

 cupidity of any of the wandering gentry we might 

 meet ; in addition to which he stipulated that a 

 place should be provided for himself and ' arba ' 

 within the protection of the Avails of the post-station 

 until next morning. 



Under these conditions we stowed ourselves 

 away in the bottom of his cart, which resembled 

 nothing so much as a huge oblong wicker-basket 

 on solid wooden wheels, some eight feet high. 

 This edifice was drawn by one horse, through rather 

 than over eighteen versts of villanous road, the 

 consequence being that we proceeded at a foot's 

 pace for the whole distance. Far and near in 



