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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THE CASPIAN Turkmen.
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ing from place to place with their camels, horses, and sheep. Each
occupation is distinct, but none the less the two classes
commingle, and it is not uncommon to find one brother a
Chomoor and the other a Tcharva. Nomad economy in
general, and in the steppe in particular, demands a
frequent change of locality; otherwise the cattle
degenerate and become sickly. In consequence of this, the
Jafarbai and Atabai migrate in the summer from the Atrek
to the north: the former to the region adjacent to the
Caspian and south of Balkan Bay (almost half-way between
the head of that bay and the mouth of the Atrek); and the
second to the country lying adjacent to the Sumbar, the
principal tributary stream of the Atrek. In the winter
the whole of the Kara-Tchook Yomuds migrate to Persian
territory, where they group themselves between the
extremities of the rivers Gorgon,
Atrek, and
Kara Su ; the Jafarbai occupying the very coast of the
Caspian, and the Atabai contiguous localities. The winter
season, characterized in the Atrek region by rains, and
rarely by snow and frost,* lasts four months, commencing
in November and ending with the early days of March, when
the Tcharva migrate to the steppes with their herds,
leaving the Tchomoor still in their winter quarters. In
this manner the Tcharva Yomuds of the Kara-Tchook
division pass about eight months of the year on Russian
territory to the * "The cold rarely attains 6° or
7° Reaumur. The winter of 1877-78 was particularly
severe, yet the frost did not exceed 7" Reaumur and
that only for a day or two, while the snow did not lay on
the ground a week. This I was
informed of by our consul at Astrabad, Gospodin
Bakouline." — PETROOSEVITCH.
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