The Merv Oasis: Travels and Adventures
East of the Caspian During the Years 1879-80-81,
Including Five Months' Residence Among
the Tekkes of Merv
By
Edmund O'Donovan
Published by G. P. Putnam's sons, 1883 Volume II
Page 55
INDULGENT VIEWS ON RAIDING. 55
me with sufficient personal courtesy, declined absolutely
to let me pass his frontier towards the Akhal Tekke, in
respite of the passport obtained with so much difficulty.
A guard was placed over my movements, to prevent me from
slipping off, and it was only after fresh negotiations
with Teheran
that I finally succeeded in getting liberty to depart.
Meanwhile, I
was able to keep up pretty regular communication with the
Tekke camp, by means of the visitors coming thence to
Muhammedabad. I
also had an opportunity of examining the state of affairs
in the Deregez itself. It may seem strange that the Tekkes
should come freely into the Persian territory, in view of
the incessant cattle raids to which I have referred, but
these were looked on as a sort of legitimate
international pastime, not particularly interfering with
the public peace. Thus the raid by
which fifteen thousand Turkmen sheep and cattle were
brought into Deregez at the time I left Meshed,
though
organized by the Khan of the province himself, was not
regarded, either by his own people or the Turkmen, as an
act of open war, but simply as a private enterprise
of quite an ordinary kind. An Akhal
Tekke chief, to whom I spoke on the subject shortly
afterwards, treated it with the utmost indifference, and
highly praised the dexterity with which it had been
managed. He looked on it, apparently, much as a
merchant in Europe would regard the successful enterprise
of a rival in trade, but with no feelings of indignation,
nor, apparently, did he think there was any moral wrong
involved in the transaction. In accordance with this
state of public sentiment, I had no
trouble in maintaining close relations with the
belligerent Turkmen, though I was not permitted to visit
their territory.
The Deregez,
which may yet assume considerable importance, in view of
the establishment of the Russians on its borders, is an
irregular oval plain, running north
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