DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15174#0039
CHAP. XII.
A TOORKMUN CAMP.
23
camels, emptied the wells ; and it would be easy to
hide, or even fill up these scanty reservoirs. Where
water lies within thirty feet of the surface, an ener-
getic commander may remedy his wants, since we
have an instance of it in the advance of the Orgunje
Khan to the banks of the Moorghab. But after I
have written, and, perhaps, diffusely, on the passage
of such a desert, I may ask myself, who seeks to
cross it, and in the line of what invader it lies ? It
is not in the route between India and Europe ; and
if the descendants of the Scythians and Parthians
wish to invade and tyrannise over each other, they
may do so without, perhaps, exciting even the
notice of the " fierce Britons."
The Toorkmun camp, or " oba," at which we
halted, presented to us a scene of great novelty. It
consisted of about 150 conical movable huts, called
" khirgahs," which were perched on a rising ground.
There was no order in the distribution, and they
stood like so many gigantic beehives, which, if they
had not had black roofs, might not be a bad com-
parison ; and we might also take the children as
the bees, for they were very numerous. I wondered
at the collection of so many rising plunderers. See-
ing the Toorkmuns in a body, it may be certainly
distinguished, that they have something Tatar in
their appearance; their eyes are small, and the
eyelids appear swollen. They are a handsome race
of people. All of them were dressed in the "tilpakj?
a square or conical black cap of sheep-skin, about a
foot high, which is far more becoming than a
turban, and gives to a party of Toorkmuns the
c 4
A TOORKMUN CAMP.
23
camels, emptied the wells ; and it would be easy to
hide, or even fill up these scanty reservoirs. Where
water lies within thirty feet of the surface, an ener-
getic commander may remedy his wants, since we
have an instance of it in the advance of the Orgunje
Khan to the banks of the Moorghab. But after I
have written, and, perhaps, diffusely, on the passage
of such a desert, I may ask myself, who seeks to
cross it, and in the line of what invader it lies ? It
is not in the route between India and Europe ; and
if the descendants of the Scythians and Parthians
wish to invade and tyrannise over each other, they
may do so without, perhaps, exciting even the
notice of the " fierce Britons."
The Toorkmun camp, or " oba," at which we
halted, presented to us a scene of great novelty. It
consisted of about 150 conical movable huts, called
" khirgahs," which were perched on a rising ground.
There was no order in the distribution, and they
stood like so many gigantic beehives, which, if they
had not had black roofs, might not be a bad com-
parison ; and we might also take the children as
the bees, for they were very numerous. I wondered
at the collection of so many rising plunderers. See-
ing the Toorkmuns in a body, it may be certainly
distinguished, that they have something Tatar in
their appearance; their eyes are small, and the
eyelids appear swollen. They are a handsome race
of people. All of them were dressed in the "tilpakj?
a square or conical black cap of sheep-skin, about a
foot high, which is far more becoming than a
turban, and gives to a party of Toorkmuns the
c 4