Turkomen people

“ Further north, on the banks of the Oxus river, the border line that divides Afghan from Russian Turkestan, are Turkoman and Usbàk tribes. The Turkoman is, as the name implies, of Turk descent. This people lived to the south of the Thian Shan or Celestial mountains, and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries overran Bokhara, Armenia, and Georgia. Physically they are immensely strong men, taller than the Hazara, of rough manners and coarse fibre, seeming more or less insensible to pain or sorrow: their cold insensible nature contrasting strongly with the more amorous nature of Afghan and Persian. ”

“ They say a mass of people have been arrested in the town. You can fancy how I feel. It is well Nikander Vavilitch did not live to see it! He was taken just in time. Advise me what I am to do. For myself I am not afraid—I shall not die of starvation—but the thought of Paramon Semyonitch gives me no rest. Come, please, if only you are not afraid to visit people in our position.—Yours faithfully,
MUSA BABURIN.’
Half an hour later I was with Musa. ”

“ The Turcoman barrier against western progress was broken completely when the Russian flag floated in triumph over the Green Hills of the Tekkes.
It is an interesting circumstance that the Turcomans, now that they are forbidden to indulge in raiding, have turned their attention to steady industry, and promise to make good citizens. Whatever may be their faults, they are not a lazy people; they gave up their raiding habits very unwillingly; but when once convinced that they must live by industry, they seem to have accepted the situation. ”

“ The Turcomans have preserved the good old customs of [Pg 239] their native country; they are the greatest plunderers in the steppes, and the only people whom there is any real cause to regard with distrust. Before the end of summer, in the latter part of August, the Turcomans begin to retire behind the Kouma, into the government of the Caucasus.
A Tatar horde called Sirtof likewise encamps on the lands of the Kalmucks, within sixty miles of Astrakhan, on the road to Kisliar. It reckons but 112 tents, and as the lands it occupies are of little importance, no one thinks of troubling it. ”

“ These people are very jealous, but rarely punish a criminal wife with death; divorce is the usual penalty.
The Turks in Syria, as well as in other parts of their empire, kill a woman as soon as they suspect her; and the fine incurred by a seducer is enormously heavy.
The Turkomans are a wandering tribe, living in tents like Bedouins. They are peculiar for giving a dowry with their daughters, instead of receiving a price for them. They are exceedingly scrupulous about the honor of their women. ”

“ The Turkoman population, or rather the commercial section of it, compares very favourably with the people of Bagdad and Mosul. A stranger meets with great consideration, nor is he swindled right and left, nor annoyed, as among the Arabs of the greater cities. ”

“ The people, who were in rags that barely held together, brought us milk in a wooden bowl, out of which we all three ate with wooden ladles. For the Turchin, being Albanian, had no scruples about feeding with unbelievers. A very aged woman, ninety years old, crouched by the fire, which was stirred up to dry my wet clothes. When I wished to pay on leaving, the master of the house flared up. He was a magnificent-looking fellow, who bore himself right kingly in spite of his rags. "I am a soldier," he said; "nothing is sold in my house." ”

“ Akim's small and somewhat dilapidated hut was almost at the end of the village; Akin walked through the whole street without meeting a soul. All the people were at church. Only one sick old woman raised a little window to look after him and a little girl who had run out with an empty pail to the well gaped at him, and she too looked after him. The first person he met was the uncle he was looking for. The old man had been sitting all the morning on the ledge under his window taking pinches of snuff and warming himself in the sun ”

“ Turcomania is inhabited by three different nations, Turcomans, Greeks, and Armenians. The Turcomans, who are Mahometans, are a rude, illiterate, and savage people, inhabiting the mountains and inaccessible places, where they can procure pasture, as they subsist only on the produce of their flocks and herds. In their country there are excellent horses, called Turkish horses, and their mules are in great estimation. The Greeks and Armenians possess the cities and towns, and employ themselves in manufactures and merchandize, making, especially, the best carpets in the world. ”

“ As a nomadic people they have great contempt for the Sarts, who represent the town dwellers of the tribe. The Kalmucks are a Buddhist and Mongolian people who originated in a confederacy of tribes dwelling in Dzungaria, migrated to Siberia, and settled on the Lower Volga. From thence they returned late in the 18th century to the reoccupation of their old ground in Kulja under the Chinese. The Turkoman is the purest form of the Turk element, and his language is the purest form of the Turkish tongue, which is represented at Constantinople by a comparatively mongrel, or mixed, dialect. ”

“ Moreover, it is not a cramped country like the Morea, but perfectly open; and after you leave the coast, which is really populous and well cultivated, it is a desert. In nine hours' journey from Akhissar to Sart, I came across only one village and a few Turcomans.
These Turcomans are a nomadic people. They live in tents, of which you find perhaps twenty together, with their herds of cattle, horses, and camels around them, and wander about following the pasture. They consider themselves just as much part of the inhabitants as the settled population, and are well [Pg 143] armed and dressed. ”

“ The population is variously estimated at from eight to twelve millions. Russia has absorbed nearly all of Western Turkestan, and the Russian officials think they have at least eight millions of people in their new possessions.
"The tribes and provinces are divided and subdivided so that they are not easy to name. Western Turkestan was formerly known as Independent Tartary, and comprises the Turcoman steppes, the khanates of Khiva, Bokhara, Samarcand, and Kokan, together with Balkh and some smaller provinces which are in dispute between Russia and Afghanistan. ”

“ With regard to the phrase spicery here and elsewhere, it should be noted that the Italian spezerie included a vast deal more than ginger and other things “hot i’ the mouth.” In one of Pegolotti’s lists of spezerie we find drugs, dye-stuffs, metals, wax, cotton, etc.
CHAPTER II.
Concerning the Province of Turcomania. In Turcomania there are three classes of people. First, there are the Turcomans; these are worshippers of Mahommet, a rude people with an uncouth language of their own.{1} They dwell among mountains and downs where they find good pasture, for their occupation is cattle-keeping. ”

“ This little den was fastened with a padlock which suggested a kalátch [27] in shape, only black; Gerásim always carried the key to this lock with him, in his belt. He was not fond of having people come into his room.
In this manner a year passed, at the end of which a small incident happened to Gerásim.
The old gentlewoman with whom he lived as yard-porter in all things followed the ancient customs, and kept a numerous train of domestics ”

“ Walking rapidly now, and with her eyes wide-open, she distinctly saw in the air before her what was not there a moment ago, a winding-sheet,—cold, white, and ghastly, waved by the likeness of four wan hands,—that rose with a long inflation and fell in rigid folds, while a voice, shaping itself from the hollowness above, spectral and melancholy, sighed,—"The Lord have mercy on the people! The Lord have mercy on the people!" ”

“ Indeed, several of the Turcoman tribes have long been at war with one another; and their animosity is quite as deadly among themselves as when directed against strangers to their race. The butt, however, of most of the Turcoman expeditions is the northern part of Persia,—Korassan in particular. It is into this province that most of their great forays are directed, either against the peaceful citizens of the Persian towns and villages, or as often against the merchant caravans that are constantly passing between Teheran and the cities of the east,—Mushed, Balkh, Bokara, Herat, and Kelat. ”

“ Coptic shepherds, lingering on the brink, drank the sweet waters, and led their flocks to drink at the shallows, when the shepherd's star cleft that deepest sky with its crest, and warned the simple people of their hour;—yet forever stood the Sphinx, passionately patient, looking for sunrise, over desert, vale, and river,—beyond man,—to her hour.—And the hour came.
Once to all things comes their hour. ”

“ Whether nature gives me a right, or whether God, the people's choice, etc., does so, all of that is the same foreign right, a right that I do not give or take to myself.
Thus the Communists say, equal labor entitles man to equal enjoyment. Formerly the question was raised whether the "virtuous" man must not be "happy" on earth. The Jews actually drew this inference: "That it may go well with thee on earth." No, equal labor does not entitle you to it, but equal enjoyment alone entitles you to equal enjoyment. Enjoy, then you are entitled to enjoyment. ”

“ The desert, then, between the Caspian Sea and the Oxus River may be regarded as the true land of the Turcomans, and is usually known as Turcomania. It 224is to remembered, however, that there are some kindred tribes not included within the boundaries of Turcomania—for the Turkistan of the geographers is a country of much larger extent; besides, an important division of the Turcoman races are settlers, or rather wanderers in Armenia. ”

“ He, at least, is possessed of courage and prowess; while the Turcoman, notwithstanding his propensities for plunder, and the bloodthirsty ferocity of his character, is as arrant a coward as ever carried lance. Even the Persian can cope with him, when fairly matched; and the merchant caravans,—which are usually made up of true Turks, and other races possessing a little “pluck,” are never attacked, unless when outnumbered in the ratio of three to one. ”

“ 'Yes,' he said, without looking at any one; 'it's a misfortune to live five years in the country like this, far from mighty intellects! You turn into a fool directly. You may try not to forget what you've been taught, but—in a snap!—they'll prove all that's rubbish, and tell you that sensible men have nothing more to do with such foolishness, and that you, if you please, are an antiquated old fogey. What's to be done? Young people, of course, are cleverer than we are!'
Pavel Petrovitch turned slowly on his heels, and slowly walked away; ”

“ "Because the Ruler is the mos' 'risticratic person in any land," explained the little girl. "Even in America ever'body bows low to our President, an' the Blueskins are so 'fraid o' their Boolooroo that they tremble whenever they go near him."
"But surely that is all wrong," said Tourmaline gravely. "The Ruler is appointed to protect and serve the people, and here in the Pink Country I have the full power to carry out the laws. I even decree death when such a punishment is merited. ”

“ The author of this romance is Giovanni Paolo Mara ́na, and he makes it the medium of an historical novel of the period (1684) .
Turkomans, a corruption of Turk-imâms (“Turks of the true faith”) . The first chief of the Turks who embraced Islam, called his people so to distinguish them from the Turks who had not embraced that faith.
Turnbull (Michael) , the Douglas’s dark huntsman.--Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.) .
Turnbull (Mr. Thomas) , also called “Tom Turnpenny,” a canting smuggler and school-master.--Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time (time, George III.) . ”

“ I learned, after my mother’s death, that she could read, and that she was the only one of all the slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the last place in the world where she would be apt to find facilities for learning. I can, therefore, fondly and proudly ascribe to her an earnest love of knowledge. That a “field hand” should learn to read, in any slave state, is remarkable; but the achievement of my mother, considering the place, was very extraordinary; ”

“ I am just coming from my visit to Japan, where I exhorted this young nation to take its stand upon the higher ideals of humanity and never to follow the West in its acceptance of the organized selfishness of Nationalism as its religion, never to gloat upon the feebleness of its neighbours, never to be unscrupulous in its behaviour to the weak, where it can be gloriously mean with impunity, while turning its right cheek of brighter humanity for the kiss of admiration to those who have the power to deal it a blow. Some of the newspapers praised my utterances for their poetical qualities while adding with a leer that it was the poetry of a defeated people. ”

“ The Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress decides at its 31st meeting to authorize the State Council to pilot real estate tax reform in certain regions, to proactively and prudently facilitate the legislation on and reform of real estate tax, to encourage reasonable housing consumption and efficient and intensive use of land resources, and to promote steady and sound development of real estate markets. ”