70 



SCIENCE. 



[Yoiu VL, No. 12a 



mains of large towns at Penj Deh, Killa-i-Maur, 

 Meruchak, and Karawal Kbana indicate a state of 

 prosperity once existing in these valleys which has 

 long passed away. 



Passing from the physical features of the country 

 to describe the character and mode of life of the pop- 

 ulation, he said there was a marked difference be- 

 tween the Afghans and Turcomans. In Penj Deh, 

 the principal valley of Bagdis, they scarcely ever saw 

 an armed man, and found the Sariks, instead of being 

 the dreaded alaman-sweeping and slave-dealing peo- 

 ple they came to see, an industrious, hard-working 

 race, at that time busy from morning to night in the 

 excavation and clearing of their canals, always mov- 

 ing about with a spade having a somewhat triangular- 

 shaped blade continually across their shoulders. The 

 Sariks were stalwart men of good physique, resem- 

 bling very much in character the Turks. A shrewd, 



from 4 s. 6 d. to 6 s. With regard to the Turcoman 

 horses, the conclusion arrived at by the officers with 

 him, and he believed also by the Kussians, was that the 

 Turcoman horse has altogether been overrated, and 

 that in many respects he is inferior to the numerous 

 herds bred in more mountainous tracts, such as the 

 Kuttighanie of Afghan Turkestan. The Turcomaik 

 women do a vast' amount of work : they fabricate car- 

 pets, purdahs for doors, work-bags, horse-clothing,, 

 nummads, and blankets; and, when a young woman 

 is engaged, it is thought to be the right thing for her 

 to work all the kibitka domestic carpets and other 

 household requisites before she is married. When, 

 however, they do marry without having completed 

 this task, it is expected from them, that as soon a& 

 practicable, by their own labor, they may refund in 

 cash or kind, to their husbands, the dowry paid to 

 parents on marriage. Such dowry generally consists^ 



Jamshedi. 



Hazara. 

 SOME TYPES OF AFGHAN TRIBES. (111. Londoii graphic.') 



Sarik Turcoman. 



hard-headed, practical people, they continually ex- 

 pressed their desire for security and permanent settle- 

 ment. These Sariks, along with their brethren of the 

 Tekke, Salor, and other Turcoman tribes, had been 

 for a century the scourge of northern Persia: they 

 had swept the inhabitants away from valley after 

 valley down the Hari-Rud, almost as far as Seistan 

 and westward, within a hundred and fifty miles of 

 Teheran itself. From the slave-trade and plunder 

 secured in these raids they had amassed comparatively 

 great wealth, and they certainly seemed better off 

 than most Asiatic races. The slave-trade and raiding 

 having been entirely abolished, owing to the action of 

 Russia and the closing of the markets, these Turco- 

 mans now eagerly seek for a source from which they 

 can secure wealth, and maintain their present pros- 

 perity. They own great herds of sheep, amounting 

 in 1884 to an aggregate of 194,250, divided into flocks 

 of from 700 to 1,500 each. They have hitherto gen- 

 erally disposed of their sheep in the Bokhara and 

 Oorgunj markets. On the spot the price of sheep is 

 from 4 s. to 8 s. 6d., according to age and quality, the 

 latter sum being the price for a four-year-old ; camels 

 fetch about £6 10 s.; horses, from £13 to £25; bul- 

 locks, £2 10 s. to £3 ; cows, £2 to £2 10 s. ; and goats, 



of 100 sheep and 40 tillas, which the bridegroom' 

 either pays down in a lump sum to the parents of the 

 bride or by stipulated instalments. The trade of 

 Penj Deh is carried on entirely by Jews, of which 

 there are some twenty families settled here : they are 

 offshoots from the Jewish colony at Herat. They 

 number something like three hundred and fifty fami- 

 lies, and have in their hands most of the trade with 

 Balkh, Bokhara, Khiva, and Merv. 



After quoting copious extracts from Capt. Mait- 

 land's description of the hitherto little-known tract 

 lying between the Murghab and Hari-Rud Rivers 

 along the Gumbegli route, as well as Capt. Yate's 

 account of the interesting natural feature of the No- 

 maksar, or salt lakes of Yar-oilan, he summed up by 

 saying that the country was one capable of great 

 resources. The climate is good; the winter is cold; 

 and great storms are not unfrequent during the win- 

 ter months, indeed the commission experienced one 

 as late as the 2d of April ; the spring and autumn, 

 however, are beautiful ; and the summer, though hot, 

 is nothing to the extremes of heat to which one is 

 accustomed in the plains of India. It is possible even 

 to live in tents, or kibitkas ; and, under the shelter of 

 a roof, such luxuries as punkahs would be superfluous- 



