'Report on the North-Eastern Frontier of Persia and the Tekeh Turkomans' [‎126r] (43/50)

It is, I believe, easily digested by the horse, and he is ready to start sooner than if a
feed of corn is given him, and it is supposed to give great strength.
Turkomans give their horses almost anything they may eat themselves. A Turkoman
horse belonging to a cousin of the Governor of Daragez he assured me would eat the
boiled rice of a pilaf; this is rice over which melted butter has been poured. The
Turkoman horses, though hardy in respect of food, require a good deal of care as to
clothing, their very fine coats* and fine skins, when at all well bred, predisposing
them to catch cold during the winter season.
The Russians captured a good many Turkoman horses in their various expeditions,
and some were given over to the Cossacks, but as a rule they were not found satis
factory An East India Company trading post. . Many of them died, I believe, because they had not the amount of clothing
as cavalry horses to which they were accustomed when in Turkoman hands. In h t
weather these horses do well, and when well covered stand cold well also. They are
said not to thrive in a stable, but I consider this is only a prejudice.
Wonderful stories are related by the Persians of the Turkoman alamans, but I
could not get an authentic account of any really great feat. Turkomans are un
doubtedly brave men, as they have shown in their defence of Yangi Shahr, or Geok
Tepe, and in many a hard encounter with the Russians, and they are held in great
dread by ordinary Persians, though the Turks and Kurds of Daragez, Kuchan, and
Bujnurd are always quite ready to meet Turkoman cavalry on equal terms. At pre
sent, while a party of Tekeh horsemen ride over the country and drive off cattle and
slaves, a party of Turkoman infantry is usually not far off. The infantry are brought
up either on camels or strong donkeys, and take up a position in some ravine. The
horsemen, if pressed, retire as fast as possible on the infantry, driving off the cattle
The Persian horsemen press on in hot pursuit, probably in great disorder, and are
presently met by a volley from a number of concealed infantry armed with a good
muzzle-loading rifle, or perhaps some of the men have breech-loaders captured from
the Russians. Twice while I was on the Turkoman frontier did the Persian cavalry
fall into such an ambuscade. Once it happened to the Sowars of the Begler Begi of
Daragez, and once to some sowars of the Khan of Khelat Nadiri. I hese tactics are
quite new, and have been learnt by the Turkomans in their fighting with the Russians.
The Persians of the border complain of it very much.
On the 14th January 1881, I left Mahomadabad, the capital of Daragez, taking an
escort of a few frontier sowars with me. I crossed the Allaho Akbar pass and stopped
at a village named Derbendi the first night. The next I sent back my escort except
one sowar In the East India Company army and later Indian Army, an ordinary native cavalryman or mounted cavalryman. whom the Begler Begi had asked me to take to Alash-had with me. On
the 15th January I crossed the Maidan Kuni pass. The cold was intense. 1 returned
to Mash-had by almost the same road by which I came, passing not far from Kuchan,
but not visiting that town. As 1 have previously described the road I will not go over
it again. I visited the ruins of Tus, formerly one of the chief towns in Khurasan,
the place is utterly ruined and is not worth visiting. There is, however, a large
mausoleum in good repair ; in it is a fine stone coffin broken in pieces, which I hear
was only discovered a few years ago.
Abbas Khan, the English consular agent, to whom I had sent a note in the
morning, telling him I was coming, had kindly hired a house toi me. 1 remained in
Mash-had from the 19th January to the 9th February. Abbas Khan was much
surprised to hear that I had managed to live in this part or the country without his
being aware of it for two months. He sent for one of his men who had passed through
Daragez twice while I was there, on his way from Geok Tepe, and asked him why
he had not told him of my being there. The man, when he saw me, said, “ I know
“ that man well, 1 used to* see him in Daragez, and he used to talk to me, but I never
“ thought he was anything but an Armenian, so I never mentioned him to you.”
On the 29th January we heard of the fall of Yangi Shahr on the 24th, and o( the
quick Russian pursuit to Askabad, and later of the arrival of General Skobeleff at
Lutfabad, in the Atak district, and Kahka, in the Khelat Nadiri district.