May 1, 1885. 



SCIENCE. 



363 



out of Herat, and became sole ruler of Af- 

 ghanistan. 



North of the Hindu Kush, and between that 

 range, the Oxus River, and the Turkoman 

 Steppe, are situated Badakshan and Afghan 

 Turkestan, as the provinces of Kunduz, 

 Khulm, Balkh, Sir-i-pul, Shibirkhan, Andkhui, 

 and Maimana are conveniently called now- 

 adays. The great mass of the population 

 belongs to the Usbeg race, who are of the same 

 Turki stock as the Usbeg inhabitants of Rus- 

 sian Turkestan. The best account of this part 

 of the world, in recent times, is ' Gen. Grode- 

 koff's ride from Samarkand to Herat,' trans- 

 lated from the Russian by the indefatigable 

 Charles Marvin. 



Before 1872, Balkh, near the ruins of the 

 ancient Bactra, was the capital of Afghan Tur- 

 kestan. But in that year the cholera raged 

 there with such virulence that the seat of gov- 

 ernment was removed to Mazar-i- Sharif, a few 

 miles to the east, where is situated, according 

 to the Usbegs, the tomb of Ali. Balkh is now 

 an insignificant village. Gen. Grodekoff spent 

 a couple of weeks of enforced idleness at Ma- 

 zar-i-Sharif in 1878 ; and to his Russian eyes 

 the Usbegs seemed read}* to fall into the arms 

 of the czar, the advance of whose armies, 

 however menacing to Afghanistan and India, 

 has certainly brought order and law to central 

 Asia, and especially to the Usbeg countries of 

 Bokhara and Khiva. Almost nothing is known 

 of the condition of the country at the present 

 time ; but the Usbegs assisted Abdurrahman 

 Khan in his struggle against the sons of Shir 

 Ali. That they are more trusted by the Ka- 

 bulites now than in 1878, is shown by the fact, 

 that, while they were then disarmed, an Usbeg 

 corps formed part of the amir's escort to the 

 recent conference at Rawal Pindi. 



The origin of the Turkomans is veiled in 

 obscurit}' ; but it may be stated as certain, that 

 in 1830 the Tekke Turkomans occupied the 

 Akhal oasis, the Sarik Turkomans lived amidst 

 the ruins of Men*, and the Salor Turkomans 

 resided in and around Sarakhs. They were 

 all robbers and slave-stealers, but the Tekkes 

 seem to have been b} r far the most savage and 

 energetic. They flourished, and outgrew the 

 capabilities of the Akhal oasis. A portion 

 split off, and, advancing to the east, settled 

 down on the Tajand. The Persians, in 1833, 

 fell upon the Salors at Sarakhs, and all that 

 escaped took refuge among the Sariks at 

 Merv. The Tekkes then moved on to Sar- 

 akhs, and, as they gradually acquired strength, 

 extended their forays to Khiva, Bokhara, and 

 to every part of Persian Khorassan. This 



brought upon them the vengeance of the Per- 

 sians, who, in 1857, drove them from Sarakhs 

 to Merv. As there was not room on that oasis 

 for such a large population, the Tekkes com- 

 pelled the Sariks to move farther up the Murgh- 

 ab. They established themselves at Yulatan 

 and Panj Deh, driving out the Salors, and ac- 

 cording to the Russian general, Petrusevitch. 

 some Afghan nomads who fed their flocks near 

 the latter place. The Tekkes, now masters of 

 Merv, built an enormous dam at Benti, and b}* 

 means of lateral canals greatly increased the 

 cultivable area of the oasis, until it became 

 capable of supporting a population of not less 

 than a quarter-million souls. From this secure 

 retreat, the Merv Tekkes raided the frontier 

 provinces of Persia and Afghanistan, until 

 whole districts became desolate. In 1861 a 

 Persian army thirty thousand strong, accom- 

 panied by artillery, was sent against them ; 

 but instead of defeating the Merv Tekkes, the 

 Persians were overthrown, and fully one-half 

 captured and sold into slavery by the Mervli. 

 After the Russians had brought Khiva and 

 Bokhara under their dominion in 1873, they 

 abolished slavery in those places, and, by clos- 

 ing their great slave-markets, took away from 

 the Tekkes the incentive to the capture of 

 slaves. 



The ground put forward by Russia to justify 

 her occupation of Panj Deh and Sarakhs is 

 now clear ; that is, if we allow that the Sariks 

 were tributary to the Merv Tekkes. Those of 

 Yulatan undoubtedly were ; the}* could not 

 very well help it, living as they did on the oasis. 

 But the case is not so clear as to the Panj Deh 

 Sariks, who, according to the English and 

 Afghans, pay tribute to Herat. The Russians 

 reply that no tribute is paid except at the 

 point of the bayonet, and therefore, on ethno- 

 logical grounds, Panj Deh should go with Merv. 

 That compulsion is necessar}*, is certainly true. 

 It is admitted by the Afghans. But the soldier 

 is the tax-gatherer not onty of Panj Deh, but 

 of central Asia. In conclusion, it will not be 

 amiss to again point out that all of Afghanis- 

 tan north of the Hindu Kush and its outlying 

 spurs belongs, both geographically and ethno- 

 graphically, to Russian Asia, rather than to 

 Afghanistan. Edward Channtng. 



THE LEGAL LANGUAGE OF INDIA. 1 



In the higher courts of justice and in government 

 administration in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the 

 English language is coming into general use. In 



1 Translated from the Oesterreichische monatsschrift fur det\ 

 orient. 



