ON THE NOMAD TRIBES OF ASIA MINOR. 185 



several nomad families who dwell in the villages during the winter 

 months and go up to the yaela or mountain pasturages daring the 

 summer. The legend in the tribe is that once they beat a combined force 

 of four other tribes and took the name of ' four governments,' Chehar- 

 dowleh, but this I should imagine to be a fable ; from their physique and 

 also South Persian origin I should imagine the tribe to be of Arabian 

 descent. Norooz Khan himself, with thick lips and stunted stature, might 

 have some negro blood in his veins. His meal was excellent, served up 

 for us on a table, whilst the others ate on the floor, and performed feats 

 of wonderful dexterity in feeding themselves with their fingers. All 

 around the palace are mud houses and underground abodes ; there is also 

 a bazaar, and a general air of prosperity about the place. 



The banks of the Checkatoo, especially as Mianduwab is approached, 

 are very fertile. At the village of Karyagdeh we first came across a 

 wheeled vehicle consisting of a cart, a triangular plateau 15 feet long, at 

 the apex of which bufi'aloes are fastened and the whole supported by an 

 axle joining two wheels without spokes, in many instances plain, circular 

 pieces of wood. For threshing corn they use a spiked cylinder attached 

 to a pole which is drawn round and I'ound by buffaloes, and acts the 

 part of a flail. Buffaloes are here in constant use; they wallow and swim 

 in the river, and naked urchins may be seen washing and scraping their 

 backs to prevent a cutaneous disease to which these amphibious animals 

 are very liable if not properly cared for. The valley of the Checkatoo 

 produces tobacco in small quantities, corn, and castor-oil, this latter com- 

 modity being used here for lamps and all household purposes. In each 

 village there is a large stone, generally an old gravestone, put up near 

 the mosque, which is public property, and where women take their turn 

 in bruising the castor-oil pods for their use. By the side of the river 

 where there is no cultivation, we passed the tents of several nomads, 

 waiting here with their flocks for the season to go up to the mountains. 

 Before the tent of the chief stands the lance, the emblem of authority, 

 reminding one forcibly of Saul (1 Sam. xxvi. 7) sleeping in his tent with 

 his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster. The family here is the 

 basis of society, the chief is the head of the family ; they are strong, 

 powerful individuals, capable under a good government of great develop- 

 ment, and could Turkey or Persia ever reform its rnliiig classes, they 

 would find the wandering tribes a new and powerful backbone to the 

 nations. 



By the banks of the Checkatoo, north of Mianduwab (which, by the 

 way, means the place between two rivers, the Tatoo and the Checkatoo), 

 there are many curious underground villages inhabited by the nomads in 

 the extreme colds of winter, the thatched roofs of the houses alone ap- 

 pearing above ground ; they reminded us forcibly of Xeuophon's account 

 of this part of the world, when returning with the 10,000 through the 

 wild mountains of the Karduchi or Kurds. ' The houses are under- 

 ground,' he says, ' the mouth resembling that of a well, but spacious 

 below ; there is an entrance dug for cattle, but the inhabitants descend 

 by ladders.' 



On crossing the Checkatoo by a boat shaped like half a barge, we 

 came across a large plain running between the Seehend range and Lake 

 Urmia. The inhabitants here are chiefly sedentary members of the Afshah 

 tribe, with very fertile gardens around their villages ; most of them keep 

 pigeons for the dung, which is used in the production of melons and 



