256 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



being yourself raised at least five inches from the 

 backbone of the horse, and your knees being forced 

 out from his sides by the pad on which the saddle- 

 tree is placed, you feel at once the utter impossibility 

 of governing your horse ; and to one accustomed to a 

 light-mouthed Arab, well on his haunches, the first 

 touch of the mouth of a Turkoman horse is sickening. 

 You feel at once that the case is hopeless, and that 

 you must progress in a straight line. Xow, as this 

 peculiarity of mouth and saddle is universal, the 

 result may be imagined when a body of men on such 

 saddles, and horses with such mouths, charge. It is 

 impossible, as a friend of mine observes, to change 

 " the direction of the headlong impetus ; " and if the 

 flank is turned, the whole are thrown into deplorable 

 confusion. I should say that one of Skinner's Horse, 

 with sword and spear, would master three Turkomans 

 similarly armed ; and I will answer for it that H.M. 

 4th Dragoons cut up 5000 Turkoman horse, ;/ the 

 latter presumes to charge, or will venture to wait 

 for a charge. A good deal is said in neighbouring 

 states of Turkoman valour ; but I cannot hear that 

 they ever attack parties of equal numerical strength, 

 and in a fair open plain. Their assaults are some- 

 thing like those of the valorous cat on the feeble 

 mouse. If a road has not been chapowed (plundered) 

 for a year, and caravans are constantly passing on it, 

 twenty or thirty of the Turka Turkomans, or some 

 other tribe perhaps 300 miles distant^ will train their 



