294 



Manners and Habits of the Torkoman Tribes. [No. 112. 



north of Meshid; it is perhaps as strong as any hill fort defended by- 

 natural works can possibly be. It has all the advantages of scarped 

 rocks, which form an invincible barrier to an enemy, and must be 

 nearly impregnable to a force destitute of shells. It has, moreover, ex- 

 tensive pasturages and cultivated fields, together with water in great 

 abundance, which probably would never fail. Of all natural defences 

 this is the strongest situated within or near the Torkoman Desert. 

 In this stronghold an army of many thousands might remain secure 

 against every attack of their enemies. It has three gates, one on the 

 north, another on the east, and the last on the south; by these alone it 

 can be entered. 



The same mode of warfare, and the same manners of these wild 

 tribes exactly tally with those given by Arrian and Quintus Curtius. 

 Omnes equites, etiam in pace latrociniis assueti, tarn ferocia ingenia non 

 bellum modo sed etiam venise desperantes asservant.* Their perfidy, 

 villany, and barbarity, are as conspicuous now as in the days of Alex- 

 ander. The Torkomans and the Usbecks are guided by the same 

 principles and sentiments; are the same lawless, restless, and ungovern- 

 able race as the Sogdians, the Dana?, the Massagetes, and the Scythians. 

 The introduction of the religion of Mahomed has wrought little change 

 in their morals, manners, customs, and socialities. Attached to no prin- 

 ciples of moral rectitude themselves, they cannot conceive the existence 

 of them in others. From their infancy accustomed to wander and to 

 change their abodes ; habituated to scenes of violence and bloodshed, 

 in the perpetration of which no justifiable reason can be assigned, 

 and restrained by no sense of order, reason, and humanity, they 

 aspire to independence, and shun all subjection, whether of a moral 01 

 physical nature. Self-defence and preservation are their first consi- 

 deration ; self-aggrandisement and self-exaltation, the next ; and in 

 pursuit of this latter object, any and every means, even unto parricide, 

 fratricide, infanticide, and regicide ; but even the magnitude of such 

 crimes are exceeded, frequently in the extermination of whole commu- 

 nities of people and extirpation of nations. 



The Oxus is a river of considerable magnitude ; it has a course of 

 upwards of nine hundred miles from its source; its width and depth 

 have not been exactly ascertained, it is however considered unford- 



* Quintus Curtius, p. 231, 



