278 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and I wish him all luck and happiness. I have 

 exalted his head by having a tukti rowan, or travel- 

 ling litter, made for him. The affair is painted green, 

 with two golden balls, and carried by two ponies in 

 shafts ; it has much the appearance of a meat-safe, 

 but in the eyes of all people here it is considered a 

 very elegant travelling carriage, and Brutus is de- 

 lighted at the prospect of this passage through the 

 chartoo, or centre market-place of Herat ! 



I moved out to Zaca, a village about nine miles 

 X.W. of Khiva, the first five miles being through 

 very rich cultivation, and the remainder across a 

 spur of the sandhills. I am pitched in a garden 

 belonging to H.M., and am to receive charge of the 

 prisoners to-morrow. 



August 4cth. Busy all day paying the unfortunate 

 prisoners. There are as yet 325 males, eighteen 

 females, and eleven children ; the latter were all born 

 here. The average number of years of slavery of 

 Turkistan is thus : males, ten years and a half ; 

 females, nearly seventeen. One of the males has 

 been sixty years ii* slavery, and some of them only 

 six months. With one exception they were all in 

 fine health, and appear to be strong, stout men. 

 They are all Christians of the Greek Church. The 

 poor women are small and plain ; their husbands and 

 children are with the party. The women were all 

 seized near Orenburg. The men were seized thus : 

 256 males fishing on the eastern shores of the 



