'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎26v] (57/820)

44
AST—AST
Though the times are so much changed, and their Turkoman neighbours
Eolations with Turkomans. are not ^ scour g e the J once were to the
peasantry of Astarabad, the latter still regard the
roving nomad as a deadly enemy.
The “ Charvds,” or nomadic Yamuts, are alone the object of this feeling,
for the nomad who has settled down and joined the “ Chumur,” or agricul
tural class, becomes a neighbour, with w^hoin intercourse is maintained
more or less close and friendly, as his connection with the plundering camps
is distant or otherwise.
Towards their own Government, in spite of their more prosperous condi
tions, the feelings of the people are as hostile as in other parts ; and it is
said that they are entirely open to Russian influence, and would accept
Russian rule as a deliverance. The evils of a weak and unsympathetic
government have been as keenly felt on this border as in the eastern
districts ; and the contrast between the Russian system and their own is
fully appreciated. The extension of Russian rule is regarded apparently by
all classes as inevitable and a matter of time merely. Possibly actual
contact will arouse feelings of antagonism ; but, to judge from the spirit of
the people, Russian annexation would be followed by the voluntary submis
sion of all the important classes.
Russian influence has for years been at work in the country, and the
“sense of the inevitable,” which alone must go far to crush out all idea
of opposition, is aided by a firm belief in the superior material advantages
that would be secured by Russian rule; among the first and greatest of
which is believed to be complete relief from troubles at the hands of the
Turkomans. “ May the Russians come to-morrow, if their coming will stay
the hands of these descendants of the evil one,” is a sentiment reiterated
so often, and with so much fervour, that it wmuld, without doubt, have
great effect in paving the way to a peaceful subjugation. The power that
makes light of the Turkomans cannot in their imagination have any equal
upon earth. ^
It is worthy of note that though there is an immense area of cultivable
Resources waste, both irrigated and unirrigated, capable of
bearing wheat crops, and no great scarcity of
labour, even the pressure of five years’ famine in the neighbouring highlands
failed to produce any but the most moderate extension of grain culture in
the Persian villages or the Turkoman camps. The difficulties of export across
the Elburz, and the insecurity of the roads along the border were the
chief obstacles to a remunerative export of corn ; and to these obstacles,
no doubt, the loss of many thousand lives in Khorasan may be
charged. In the Gurgan tracts, in the autumn of 1872, when the famine
was at its height, wheat was in such abundance that no market could
be found for it in the country; and it did not repay export.
The second staple food in the district, and all along the southern
Rice> shores of the Caspian, is rice. In the western
buluJcs little else is gjown, the wheat-growing
tracts^ being chiefly to the east about Fidarisk and Katul. A large
quantity is exported to Shahrud and to Russia from Gaz. The greater
portion of this would, of course, be at the disposal of a force holding the