218 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



rods, which form very convenient pins for tlie pur- 

 pose. 



The folks who hve in these portable villages are 

 strange people. If they should catch you in one of 

 their robbing expeditions — for they are a nation of 

 robbers — they would take away everything, even your 

 freedom, and treat you with the utmost cruelty ; but 

 if you should come to them as a visitor, even though 

 a perfect stranger, they Avould entertain you as a 

 brother, feed you, perhaps clothe you, give you a 

 horse to ride, and provide as far as they could for 

 the rest of your journey. 



Their villages are generally square, inclosing an 

 empty space or forming a broad street, the houses 

 being placed on either side, with their doors toward 

 each other. 



But although these portable houses of the Turco- 

 mans are so skillfully contri\'ed, they can scarcely be 

 said to be as light and handy for their occupants as 

 the shells used by the hermit crab, who, instead of 

 having to employ other animals, as the Turcoman 

 uses camels, to carry his house, seems to find little 

 trouble in taking it with him, wherever he goes, on 

 his own back. 



