Journal of the Society of Arts : Volume XLVIII, No. 2480 [‎683r] (15/24)

June I, 1900.]
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
563
husband does not provide for her in the way
his means allow, or that by rank she is entitled
to, she can complain to the Kazi, or judge, a
native functionary who in many places has
been allowed by the Russian conquerors to
continue in his former position. The Kazi, if
he think fit, can empower her to borrow money
on her husband’s account, or even sell'his
property to obtain what she wants. Divorce
is, however, easy for the husband, who need
give no reason, but must, if he parts with her,
return to his wife all her belongings. She can
also obtain a divorce if she can show good
reason; and there is no obstacle to her re
marriage unless her husband curses her, as he
may if she has been guilty of any heinous
crime.
The nomads naturally cannot afford the
feasts w'hich are the great indulgence and dis
sipation of the Sarts. Still, they have their
own idea of amusements, and foremost among
these are horse-racing and a game played on
horseback called Kok-bura, or “ grey wolf.”
The latter reminds one of polo, if one can
imagine polo played on a vast steppe, with
sometimes as many as a hundred players.
One man has a dead kid slung from his saddle
bow, and the object of the others is to bear
away this kid and carry it safely to the judge.
The skill of the Kirghiz in managing their
horses, and the keen zest with which they
enter into the game, make it very exciting and
interesting to watch. As for horse-racing, it
is a passion with all the nomads ; and camel
racing is also popular, the ungainly beasts
being sometimes driven by women or girls.
The number of entries for a single horse-race
got up at Orenburg not many years since was
over a thousand. Rather a difficult post must
be that of starter on a Central Asian race
course !
The Russian Government does everything
in its power to foster the breeding of horses—a
very important matter in such a vast territory,
where the maintenance of order is largely
dependent upon irregular mounted troops.
There are large studs for cavalry and artillery
remounts in the Orenburg district and
Turkistan ; but, indeed, wherever a Cossack is
found, there will be horses. These hardy
soldiers, themselves only second cousins to the
Kirghiz whom they have subdued, are, like the
nomads, born horsemen; but, unlike them,
they take an interest in the improvement of
their breed of horses.
Travelling in Central Asia is usually accom
plished either on horseback or in a cart re
sembling the Russian taratass, and is neither
comfortable nor speedy unless good animals
have been procured. The Russian post-roads
in Central Asia are not level chaussees, but
merely show the direction of the track, which
is marked out by post relays, and a few settle
ments and towns. The posting stations are
generally kept by a rich Cossack, who man
ages this in addition to farming and keeping
an inn. He has to provide by contract a
certain number of post-horses and telegas.
The postal communications are under the
control of a smoitritel, usually an old soldier,
who examines all the passports, and has also
to see to the replenishing of the inevitable
samovar, getting a few copecks for his trouble.
The station has a bare whitewashed room for
the convenience of travellers, containing little
furniture but a table, some wooden stools, and
the tea apparatus. Sometimes the posting
station is a Kirghiz tent, and in past days
not unfrequently consisted of nothing but a
water-cask and a post besmeared with Rus
sian colours. The telega, or posting car, is
a small open wooden cart, scarcely five feet
in length, resting on four small wooden wheels,
and running on two wooden axles. In the
steppes the wheels frequently have neither
metal rims nor boxes, so that the axles catch
fire in spite of being perpetually greased. A
feather and a jar of grease are an essential
part of a traveller’s equipment, and he must
personally and at short intervals superintend
the greasing if he wishes to avoid a break
down and the serious consequences. On the
front box of the telega the coachman, or
jemschtchik, is perched, and the traveller
must make a seat of a bundle of straw, or
his bag lashed to the cart. To this he must
stick as closely as he can, while the Cossack
horses gallop madly with the telega, which is
innocent of springs, across the trackless steppe,
over streams and hills and trunks of trees.
The traveller after a few days of this sort of
journey is almost deprived of feeling, indeed
of any sensation, and those unaccustomed to it
require some time to recover; yet the couriers,
who carry important despatches, travel so
night and day for several days, only waiting
at each posting-station for tea, while fresh
horses are brought. Innumerable glasses of
tea, a few biscuits and eggs, frequently form
their diet on the journey, and sometimes not
even this. The difficulty of transporting troops
and arms in such a country and for such
distances may readily be imagined, and it is
marvellous to think that Tamerlane traversed