290 
TABRIZ. 
not the want of corn, and are content therefore to live upon the 
flesh of horses, camels, and sheep, and on the milk of mares and 
camels. They excavate a large hole in the ground, in which they 
make a fire; and, placing the meat in the embers, cover it up until it 
be baked. To the Northward of Turcomania are the Kamchauks , 
who inhabit a desert, and are reported to be most ferocious and 
warlike, and hitherto unconquered. All these inhabit the Eastern 
borders of the Caspian Sea, called by the Persians Dereea-Kulzum * 
The Persians are at present at peace with the Turcomans , although 
they are still equally liable to be surprised by their Chappow par¬ 
ties. In the time even of Shah Abbas these depredations were 
carried to an inconceivable extent. Aga Mahomed Khan, the 
late King, made several attempts against them without any profit; 
and particularly indeed against the Kamchauks , where he met with a 
defeat. In former times the Turcomans used to make their attacks on 
the coasts of Ghilan and Mazanderan in boats. Now they are not so 
depredatory; because the country is more inaccessible, and the people, 
according to my informer, are more dextrous in their match-lock guns 
and bows; so much, indeed, are they improved, that, in the true Persian 
style, he added, “Twenty men of Mazanderan will beat one thousand 
Turcomans 
We recommenced our journey on the 1st of June; and on that day 
waited upon Mirza Bozurk to pay our respects to him on leaving 
Tabriz. He told us that we were now departing at a most lucky hour, 
* (( The sea of Kiilzum is more appropriated by the generality of Eastern authors to 
the Arabian Gulph, to which, indeed, it is said to be attached, from the place of the same 
name on the shores; yet it is applied to the Caspian in a Persian map copied in the 
Oriental Collections, Vol. III. p. 76: and Kho jeh Abdulkurreem, while he states that 
“ the proper sea of Kulzum is in the Turkish empire,” admits that “ the people of 
“ Ashrejf ” affix the name to the Caspian, p. 94. London Edit. 1793: and in a note to 
Abulghazi Khan’s History of the Tartars, the French Editor mentions it as the genera 1 
designation among the Persians, p. 645. 
