THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



261 



Photograph by M. O. Williams 



YEARS OF CARE ARE REPRESENTED IN EACH OF BOKHARA S RUGS 



Around the Merv Bazg.ar are small sheds to which the wholesale buyers remove their wares 

 and store them or display them to those who were not lucky enough to see them first 



treasures of a conquered race. The skill 

 of the Tekke woman began to win its re- 

 ward. Her genius had caused the art 

 world to wear a path to her hut and her 

 open-air loom. But there was the un- 

 happy side. 



THE TURKOMAN TAKES AN INFERIOR WIPE 



Only the rich young Turkomans could 

 afford to buy a wife at the exorbitant 

 price her skill made possible. Parents 

 raised the price of their daughters, con- 



soling themselves with the fact that if 

 they could not produce offspring they 

 could at least produce valuable rugs. 

 The age of marriage became higher. 

 Caught in the trap which skillful women 

 had woven, the young men revolted from 

 the exaggerated demands of the avari- 

 cious and unromantic parents and sought 

 cheaper wives elsewhere, while Tekke 

 women, robbed of love and enmeshed in 

 their own skeins of fine wool, dragged 

 out busy lives of hated spinsterhood. 



