Dervishes and Hadjis. 247 



robust figure and dark curly hair, whom I met at Maymene, 

 told me that a Tekke Turkoman, prompted by the thirty 

 ducats which his athletic figure promised to fetch in the slave 

 market, made him a prisoner, to sell him a few days after- 

 wards. " I pretended," my colleague continued, " to be quite 

 unconcerned, and repeated the Zikr and Tesbih, whilst shaking 

 my iron chains. The time was fast approaching when I was 

 to be taken to the market, when suddenly the wife of the 

 robber of my liberty and person was taken ill, and prevented 

 him from starting. He seemed to see in this the finger of 

 God, and began to be pensive, when his favourite horse, 

 refusing to eat his food, showed signs of illness." This was 

 enough. The robber was so frightened that he removed the 

 chains of his prisoner, and returned to him the things he had 

 robbed him of, begging him to leave his tent as soon as 

 possible. Whilst the Turkoman impatiently awaited the de- 

 parture of the ominous beggar, the latter fumbled about his 

 dress, and pretended that he had lost a comb, which his chief 

 had given him as a talisman on the road, and without which he 

 could not go a single step. The nomad returned in great 

 haste to the place where the plunder had been kept, and as 

 the comb did not turn up he became still more frightened, and 

 promised the dervish the price of twenty combs if he would 

 only take a single step beyond the boundary of his tent. The 

 cunning Bokhariat saw he was master of the situation ; he pre- 

 tended to be inconsolable about the lost property, which he 

 kept in his pocket, and did not lose at all, and declared 

 that he now would have to remain for years in the tent. 

 Imagine the confusion of the deceived and superstitious 

 robber ! Like a madman, he ran about asking his neighbour 

 for advice. Formal negotiations were now commenced with 

 the dervish, to whom, finally, a horse, a dress, and ten ducats 

 were presented, to make up for the loss of the comb, and on 

 condition that he should leave a tent, whose proprietor will 

 probably think twice before he ventures again upon molesting 

 a travelling dervish. 



Besides the dervishes, who, as physicians, miracle-working 

 saints, or aimless vagabonds, are wandering about in Central 

 Asia, there is a class called Klianka neshin, or convent 

 dwellers, who always wish to appear as the poorest, and are, 

 without doubt, the most contemptible fellows in the world. 

 Generally speaking, they are opium eaters, who by their exces- 

 sive filth, skeleton-like body, <and frightfully distorted features, 

 present a most repulsive appearance. The worst is that they 

 do not confine themselves to practising this fearful vice them- 

 selves, but, with a singular persistency, endeavour to make 

 converts amongst all classes, and, supported by the want of 



