Merv, the Queen of the
World;
and the Scourge of the Man-stealing Turcomans. With an
Exposition of the Khorassan Question:
By Charles Thomas Marvin, Published by W.H. Allen, 1881
CHAPTER III. THE ORIGIN OF THE Turkmen.
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MINOR TRIBES.
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This number of tents, derived from
verbal inquiries, appears to be excessive. At any rate,
we may place it as being not less than 30,000 tents. The
Sakars, Sayats, Eskis and Ersaris give tribute only to
the extent of a Kokcan (6 pence) per tanap of land (7 and
2/5 acres), the former three rendering J the harvest
where the soil is irrigated direct from the irrigation
canals, and & if the husbandmen have to use a wheel
(tchigeri). The Ersaris
are also bound to furnish horsemen in time of war. Russia
has no relations with these people, who are separated
from her southernmost Turkestan frontier by 240 miles of
Bokharan territory. Sometimes they address themselves to
the Turkestan authorities with demands for intercession
on account of oppressions experienced; but, nevertheless,
we have no regular intercourse with them, and if we take
notice of their demands, it is only for the purpose of
sustaining our influence in Central Asia. "
Along the shore of the Caspian Sea,
near Krasnovodsk, on the islands of Cheleken and
Ogoortchensk, and on the Mangyshlak peninsula live the
Shiktsi (Shikhliari) Ogoordjalintsi, and Turkmen
of various tribes, numbering in all 2,000 families, and
owing allegiance to Russia. More to the south, alongside
the Caspian, and
to the north of the Gorgon, and also between that river
and the Atrek,
and to the north of the Atrek, are disposed the
Yomuds of the Kara-Tchook division. The Yomuds, in the
aggregate, are divided into two great divisions —
the Bairam-Shali and Kara-Tchook. The first live all of
them on the borders of the oasis of Khiva; the latter,
with the exception of 1,000 kibitkas dwelling in
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