Vámbéry replied sedately that all believers are
brethren ; thanked the man for his friendliness,
but added that as a dervish he was very much
attached to his travelling companions. This
Afghan, joining the caravan, stuck to the false
dervish, and lost no opportunity of betraying
him ; but his own scapegrace character, and the
faithful support given by the hadjis to their
fellow-traveller, foiled him on every occasion,
when he might otherwise have brought upon
his victim, death or slavery. Mr. Vámbéry, too,
played his part so well, that he was reckoned
with Hadji Bilal and a certain Hadji Salih to be
one of the chiefs of the little company.

A bold young Turkoman offered to take all
the holy men over the water to Gomushteppe
for no other reward than their prayers. But
when alone with Mr. Vámbéry he confided to
him that he cherished unreturned affection for a
girl of his own race, and that a Jew, who was a
great magician, had promised to prepare a
charm to win her love, if he would but procure,
as one essential ingredient in it, thirty drops of
attar of roses fresh from Mecca. "We know,"
he said, "that the hadjis bring back with them
out of the holy city essence of roses and other
sweet perfumes; and, as you are the youngest
of their chiefs, I apply to you, and hope you will
listen to my entreaty." Some of the hadjis
had really brought attar of roses with them;
and so the desire of the poor Turkoman
boatman could be gratified, whereby he was made
joyous as a child.

In a boat which was but a hollow tree the
hadjis were stowed, each with his sack of flour,
for carriage over the shallow water to the skiff
lying a mile from land: a "keseboy" with a mast
and a large and a small sail, that had brought
in naphtha, pitch, and salt, and was now
homeward bound with a cargo of corn. The vessel
had no deck, and the pilgrims were packed like
herrings along its sides. So they sped before
a favouring wind by the tongue of land that
converts this corner of the Caspian into the bay
of Astrabad.

At the point of that tongue of land, is
Ashourada, the most southerly point of the
Russian possessions in Asia. Till the Russians came
there, five-and-twenty years ago, Ashourada
was a favourite station for the alaman cruisers
of the Turkoman pirates, and there is nothing
more glorious and delightful to the young
Turkoman than a share in the alaman, or
marauding expedition over the Turkish borders,
in search of cattle or other plunder, and above
all, of unhappy Persians who can be dragged
off, and whose fate it then is to suffer torment
in chains until an ample ransom is extorted, or,
failing ransom, to be carried into the interior
and sold for what they will fetch at the market-
price of slaves. The Russians endeavoured to
check with war-steamers the expeditions of
these pirates, and their steamers, doing Persia
no unfriendly service, have thus won them a
settlement at Ashourada, and at Gez, the port of
Astrabad, in the south-eastern corner of the
Caspian Sea. The piratical Turkomans render it
unsafe for any merchantman to approach their
coast without the escort of a steamer. The
Russians require that every Turkoman vessel
proceeding from its own coast to the shore of
Persia on the south, shall have a pass from them,
annually renewable, for which the owner pays
eight, ten, or fifteen, ducats a year. This pass
must be shown, and search is made for prisoners
or contraband, every time the vessel sails by
Ashourada. A Turkoman, who for thirty years
has lived in a tent in the midst of the semi-
European colony, taking forty ducats a month
as a Russian admiral, is expected to use his
influence with his clansmen in suppressing,
and the knowledge he can obtain from native
connexions in discovering and defeating, piratical
attacks upon the Persians. But this worthy
khan has transferred his allegiance to Russian
brandy; he is always drunk; and his two sons,
who were to be his successors, have come to an
understanding with the robbers, and are careful
never to betray their movements to the Russians.
About half a league from Ashourada are several
sea-marks, consisting of long painted poles, and
the Turkomans told Mr. Vámbéry that these
were set up by the "Inghiliz" to mark the
limits of the Russian waters. The other side
belonged to the Turkomans, whom the English
would always protect from attack by the
Russians. The Turkoman vessel carrying the
pilgrims came to its journey's end about a mile
and a half from the mouth of the river Görghen,
unable to get nearer on account of the shallows,
and the disembarkation was by twos and threes
in rude native boats. On the shore was, on
each side of the river, the Turkoman encampment
of Gomushteppe, of which Khandjan
the chief stood ready to greet heartily the chiefs
of the holy pilgrim band, Vámbéry the dervish,
and the Hadjis Bilal and Salih. The Turkomans
of either sex and every age hurried to touch or
embrace the hadjis, and hot dispute arose over
the question of their quarters, every one being
eager for the honour of showing them hospitality.
Hadji Bilal and Mr. Vámbéry, otherwise the
Dervish Reshid Efendi, were received by the
chief Khandjan, who set up for them a guests'
tent, whereof they took possession with the due
formality of first walking twice round it, and
peeping in at the four corners. Here they
received visitors till late at night, and supped
heartily on boiled fish and sour milk, served
by Khandjan's son, a boy of twelve, who took
the dishes from a Persian slave heavily
fettered.

Throughout Turkestan, there are no dwellers
within rooted walls. The tent of the Turkoman,
which is met with in the same form throughout
all Central Asia, and as far as the remote parts
of China, is always alike in shape and construction
—a circular hut no higher than its door,
with a dome-shaped roof open at the centre to
let smoke out and light in. It is built of felt
over a wooden framework, and the making of
the felt, with all the care of construction, putting
up, taking down, and packing on the camel in
case of removal, is the business of the Turkoman