ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE TURANIAN AND IRANIAN RACES OF CENTRAL ASIA.
THE TURKS OF EASTERN ASIA.—PHYSIOGNOMY AND CUSTOMS.
I think that there are few points upon the whole terrestrial globe, which are of greater importance for our historical researches than the oases of Central Asia. These in the primitive times were inexhaustible floodgates for those warlike hordes, who often inundated and conquered the most beautiful spots of Asia, streaming towards the west in wild torrents, and even occasioning alarm among Europeans. No people can be so interesting for us upon the subject of Ethnography as the Turko-Tartars, who, under such various names and forms, have appeared on the scene of the events of the world, and have had such powerful influence over our own circumstances. Is it not surprising that of all nations we are the least acquainted with these? Huns, Avars, Utigurs, Kutrigurs, Khazars, and so many others, float before our sight only in the mist of fable. The clash of arms which sounded through them from the Yaxartes to the heart of Gaul and Rome has long since ceased. In vain should we inquire even into their origin, did we not find in the scanty dates of the Western chronicles of that period some points of reliance. These dates show us that between the Tartar tribes of that age and the present inhabitants of Central Asia there did exist an analogy of an unmistakeable character. We detect this in descriptions of them—in the accounts of their manner of living—all evincing much resemblance to the customs and physical condition of the present inhabitants of Turkestan. A similar life to what Priscus describes in the Court of the King of the Huns is met with to-day in the tent of a nomadic chief. Attila is more original than Djingis or Taimur, but as historical personages they resemble each other. Energy and good fortune could now almost produce upon the borders of the Oxus and Yaxartes one of those heroes, whose soldiers, like an avalanche, carrying everything before them, would increase to hundreds of thousands, and would appear as a new example of God's scourge, if the powerful barriers of our civilisation, which has a great influence in the East, did not stop the way. The people of Central Asia, particularly the nomadic tribes, are, in the internal relations of their existence, the same as they were two thousand years ago. In these physiognomical signs we find already changes from a mixture of Iranian and Semitic blood (chiefly after the Arabian occupation). The features of the Mongolian-Kalmuck type here and there approach the Caucasian race. The Tartar in Central Asia is no longer what we see him represented by the Greek-Gothic writers, for even in the times of Djingis he was no longer the same. It is, therefore, of great interest to mark how this change in physiognomical type continually decreases from the east to the west—how this Deturkism, if I may so express myself, is perceptible among the various races of Central Asia, and in what degree their various gradations through social circumstances came, more or less, in contact with foreign elements. This will especially be seen by a cursory view of the Turkish nations of Central Asia from Inner China to the Caspian Sea; but those Turks who stretch hence up to the Adriatic, or to the banks of the Danube, are West Turks, and cannot be included in the unity of race so much by physiognomical type as by analogy of speech, characters, and customs.
With the former, whose masses have retained compactly together the unity of the race, in spite of all those ways in which the Central Asiatics differ remarkably from one another—in spite of our ethnographical names,—the distinction shows itself clearly in their features and common physical type. Whatever views we may entertain of the origin of the Turks, so much is certain, that they are closely related to the Mongols; the relation being much closer than those which subsist between the Indians and Persians in Iran. Much, very much indeed, is to be done before we have investigated the mutual relations of the whole Turko-Tartaric race, which stretches from the Hindu Kush to the Polar Sea, from the interior of China to the shores of the Danube. Our present sketch is only a weak attempt at a small portion—general views upon all that personal experience has presented to our observation; and it may here and there exhibit somewhat of novelty. Through the extent known to us from East to West, we divide the Turks into the following classes:—
1. Buruts, black or pure Kirghese. 2. Kirghis, properly Kazaks. 3. Karakalpaks. 4. Turkomans. 5. Œzbegs.
Buruts.
These are pure, or black (Kirghis), and dwell on the eastern boundary of Turkestan, namely, the valleys of the Thian-shan chain of mountains, and inhabit several points on the shores of the Issik Köl, close upon the frontier towns of Khokand. As I am told (I have only seen a few of them), they are thick-set, but of powerful stature, strong-boned, but remarkably agile, to which last quality their warlike renown is attributed. By their physiognomy alone are they to be distinguished from the Mongolians and Kalmucks: the face is less flat, their cheeks less fleshy, their foreheads somewhat higher, their eyes are less almond-shaped than those of the latter. With regard to their colour, they can be little distinguished from the neighbouring nomadic races; red or fair hair and white complexion (by which type our European scholars would claim relationship for this race with the Finlanders and other north Altaic races) are rarely found; at least, my Khokand friends assured me that among hundreds there were scarcely one or two.[38] In all likelihood the Kiptchaks, of whom I have made mention in my travelling journal at page 382, are no other than a division of the Buruts, who are settled down in and around Khokand, and have caught, both from Islam and from their social relationship with Turkestan, far more than the rest of the Buruts, who, through their contact with Kalmucks and Mongolians, now and then profess themselves more or less Islam. Their language also contains many more Mongolian words than the dialect of the Kiptchaks. From this most original Turkish people we pass over to the second gradation, which is—
The Kirghis.
Among the Kirghis or Kasak (as he calls himself), the character of the Mongol Kalmuck type is no longer to be met with in such a striking manner as among the Buruts, although he is hardly to be distinguished from the latter in language and manner of life. In colour, he nearly resembles the rest of the inhabitants of the deserts of Central Asia. The women and youths, in general, have a white and almost European complexion; still this becomes soon altered, through the manner of living in the open air, in heat and cold. The Kirghis are of thick-set and powerful frames, with large bones; they have mostly short necks,—a real type of the Turanian, opposed to the long-necked Iranian; not very large heads, of which the crown is round, more pointed than flat. They have eyes less almond-shaped, but awry and sparkling, prominent cheek-bones, pug noses, a broad flat forehead, and a larger chin than the Buruts. Their beards have little hair on the chin, only on both ends of the upper lip; and it is remarkable, that they lament this deficiency, and by no means find such delight in this physiognomical characteristic as in the projecting cheek-bones, small eyes, &c., which are esteemed by them as beauties.[39]
Since, as we have said, the type of the primitive race is no longer so striking among them and universal as among the Buruts and Kalmucks, so also we find their ideal of perfect beauty derived only from their neighbours, with whom they gladly intermix; and Lewschine[40] has rightly stated a fact, when he mentions the preference they allow the Kalmuck women before their own. That from their great extension through the northern desert lands of Central Asia, perceptible shades may be met with in the external traits is scarcely to be doubted;[41] but one easily comprehends that our classification into great, little, and middle hordes, is unknown to them; for, from the mutual tie of the manner of living, customs and dispositions, they remain always the same, in spite of the many subdivisions into branches, families and lines, which they, like the Turkomans, gladly consider as decided separations. Whether on the shores of the Emba or of the Sea of Aral, as well as in the environs of the Balkhash and Alatau, there is little difference to be found in the dialects spoken by them. Many tales and songs, many national dishes, and national games, are, throughout the year, to be met with in like manner; and although they may occur but seldom, still, love of travelling and warlike disturbances have often brought together the most distant races.
In their dress, the Kirghis are to be distinguished from the rest of the nomadic tribes and settlers: in Central Asia, mostly by their head-gear. The men wear, in summer, a felt hat (kalpak); in winter, a cap (tumak), with fur covered with cloth, the back-flaps of which protect the neck and ears. Besides these, they have still a little fur cap (koreysh), which, however, is employed more for in-door use. The women wear a sheokele, which is distinguished from the Turkoman head-dress in that it is more conical, and allows the veil to fall not before, but down the back to the loins. The hair, also, is dressed in a different fashion. The young Turkoman women plait the hair in two plaits; the Kirghis with eight thin ones, four on either side. They cover their heads with a letshek, in cloth, which covers head and neck. In negligé attire, the girls twist red handkerchiefs round their heads, but the women white or dark-coloured ones. The upper garments have the same tasteless form, with many folds, as everywhere in Central Asia, only more of the bright and glittering colours are liked; and in the north of Khokand it is the custom for the young Kirghis to prepare for themselves a garment from the raw hide of the fox-coloured horse, besides which they let the horse's tail hang down from the neck as an ornament. In their coverings for their feet, the only distinction is, that the western have adopted the Russian form of boot; the eastern, on the contrary, the Chinese; namely, with pointed, curved toes, and slender, high heels.
The religion is almost universally the Mohammedan; still, in a very lax condition, which is the case with nearly all the nomadic tribes in connexion with Islam.[42] Before and long after the Arabian occupation of Central Asia, the Kirghis professed Shamanism, and it is not to be wondered at, considering the little influence which the teachers of Mohammed could maintain there, that much of the early faith remains there now, and out of a whole tribe, which consists of many hundred tents, there are often only one or two persons among the chiefs who can read the Koran a little.
The greater part of them are the bad students out of the schools of the three Khanats, who for pay go into the army in the deserts. The true proselyte zeal has long become extinct, and the able seek employment in the town.[43] To keep a Mollah or an Akhond is besides more fashionable, for it points out the affluent condition of a party. To the nomadic tribes their material condition is of more consequence; they look upon religion as a secondary object. They call themselves Mohammedans, but prayers, fasts, and other religious acts are little observed by them, and it will in consequence not appear at all remarkable that superstition, that reminiscence of the infancy of all people, still plays here an important part. Chiromancy, astrology, casting out devils, breathing on the sick, and other humbugs we will not mention, since we find them in the educated Islamite countries, as Persia, Turkey, and even in enlightened Europe. Of the superstitions of the Kirghis those only are most interesting for us which relate especially to the earlier faiths of these nomadic tribes, and furnish us thereby with some ideas as to their earlier social relations. That sacrifices were offered, the still existing oracle upon the shoulder-blades and entrails proves. The first, called Keöze süyeghi, consists in placing on the fire, clean and pure, the shoulder-blade of a sheep just slaughtered, keeping it in the flames until it is quite reduced to powder. It is then carefully laid down, and the experienced person, who is generally a grey-beard, a Bakhshi, or a Quack (Kam) studies the crevices of the burnt leg with the greatest seriousness and a countenance full of importance.[44] When the cracks run parallel with the broad end of the leg it signifies good fortune, but if in the opposite direction a misfortune. The latter, naturally, is seldom detailed. Still this is no wonder, for when the civilized Greeks were cheated at Delphi and Dodona, why should not this happen among the Kirghis deserts. To prophesy from the position and twisting of the entrails is a rare knowledge, in which the Kalmucks pretend to be particularly distinguished. It is remarkable that this oracle is only consulted when they are curious to know the sex of a child that is to be born. Fire also must probably have been held in high honour, because it was not allowed to spit on it. Ceremonies and dances are held around it, a custom which exists in a wonderful manner in so many parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and is still carried on in this district as well as in Khiva and Khokand. To blow out a light is considered very ill bred by the Kirghis in the whole of Central Asia; and finally from the colour of burning oil, fat, &c., many prognostics are divined. The superstition of the women is enormous, and really deserves the trouble of a particular study. A girl, when only in her fourth year, is possessed with it as completely as an elderly nomadic matron who has passed her whole life in the lonely desert which developed all her intellectual faculties in that direction. Each individual part of the tent, each utensil, has some superstition in connexion with it, which is strictly observed in pitching a tent, in milking, cooking, spinning, and weaving, far more than the laws of Islam, which are never particularly taken to heart. But the favourite divination of these soothsayers is from fresh-spun thread. Four stones are laid down, two white and two black; in the midst is a thread, strong twisted, and the other end suddenly set free. If the thread in its fall sink down to the black stones, it signifies misfortune; to the white, the contrary. From the hand of the twister no action is descried, for the oracle must be infallible. This is called Tyik Yip, and is to be found everywhere in Central Asia.
Of food which is peculiar to the Kirghis we will name Sürü, which consists of smoke-dried flesh (horse or sheep's flesh) cut into small pieces, roasted in fat. The preference for this arises from its keeping for weeks carried about without spoiling. Ködje, ordinary wheat, is cooked in water and eaten in sour milk.
As national games of the Kirghis, we may mention tadjak-kisimo (stocks). It consists in leaping over a rope held high. The winner is applauded, the clumsy, on the contrary, are pressed between two chairs, and exposed to the jeers of the company. Further, "eshek yagiri" (wounded asses' back), in which in running they must leap over three or four squatting play-fellows.
3. Karakalpaks.
These form the third division in the race, and are essentially different from the Kirghis in physiognomical expression, although allied in language and customs. The Karakalpaks are distinguished by a tall, vigorous growth and a more powerful frame than all the tribes of Central Asia. They have a large head with flat full face, large eyes, flat nose, slightly projecting cheek-bones, a coarse and slightly pointed chin, remarkably long arms and broad hands. Taken as a whole, their coarse features are in good harmony with their not less clumsy forms, and the nickname of the neighbouring people
Karakalpak.
Yüze yalpak.
Üzi yalpak.
Karakalpak, (has a flat face, and is himself totally flat). This sobriquet has not been uttered without reason. The complexion approaches that of the Œzbegs, particularly that of the women, who long retain their white complexion, and with their large eyes, full face, and black hair, do not make an unpleasant impression. In Central Asia they are highly renowned for their beauty. The men have pretty thick, but never long beards. The Karakalpaks, who are sometimes falsely ranked with the Kirghis, are at present only to be met with in the Khanat of Khiva, to which they moved at the beginning of this century. A man of this tribe relates to me that they lived earlier on the banks of the Yaxartes, and certainly near its mouth, whilst another portion abides in the neighbourhood of the Kalmucks, probably in the government of the Semipalatinsk.
The first part of this report does not seem to me to be a mere invention, for Lewschine (in the above-cited work, p. 114), reports, speaking of the ruins of Djemkend, that even in the last century Karakalpaks had lived there. According to all probability they have separated for a long time from the Kirghis, to whom they approach nearest, and now they form, with respect to their physiognomy, the transit point from the latter to the Œzbegs. In their dress they draw nearer to the Œzbegs than the Kirghis. The men wear large telpek (fur caps) which fit low in the neck and cover ears and brow; the women have a cape like a cloak round the throat, and are delighted with red and green boots. The tent of the Karakalpaks is much larger, and of stronger construction than that of the rest of the nomadic tribes, and is guarded by a species of large dog, only to be met with among this tribe. In their dwellings in general they are distinct from the other nomadic tribes in dirt and uncleanliness; they evince also in their food and clothing a carelessness, which makes them abundantly ridiculed and disliked by their neighbours. To their national dishes belongs the torama, which consists of finely chopped meat, and is cooked with a large quantity of onions (which vegetable is much liked there) and mixed meal. Kazan djappay, meal baked in a pan in fat, which is considered a dainty. Lastly, baursak, a meal which consists of a four-cornered piece of pasty filled with meat.
A favourite game is kumalak, resembling the game in Europe. It is played with dried excrements of sheep. Many of them devote themselves to games of chance.
4. The Turkomans.
These, which I designate as the fourth gradation of the Mongolian Turkish race in their westerly extension, possess many of the peculiarities of the Kirghis as well as of the Karakalpaks. The pure Turkoman type, which is to be found among the Tekke and Tchaudor, living in the heart of the desert, is denoted by a middling stature, proportionately small head, oblong skull (which is ascribed to the circumstance, that they are not placed at an early period in a cradle, but in a swing, made of a linen cloth), cheek-bones not high, somewhat snub noses, longish chin, feet bent inwardly, probably the consequence of their continual riding on horseback, and particularly by the bright, sparkling, fiery eyes, which are remarkable in all sons of the desert, but especially in the Turkomans. As regards colour, the blond prevails, and there are even whole tribes, as, for example, the Kelte race among the Görgen Yomuts, which are generally half blond. On the borders of the desert, but particularly at the Persian frontiers we find this principal trait already quite altered by the frequent and considerable intermixture with the Iranian race, in which one sees many men with thick black beards, and often without the least trace of the Mongolian Turkish race. Indeed, the Göklens are those who, with the exception of the formation of the eyes, most resemble the majority of the Persians.
Slave-dealing, which from immemorial times has been practised in the northern provinces of Persia, has there, where the intermediate trade with Persian slaves takes place, left many traces behind. Still, only upon the borders, for those living in the interior of the desert and occupying themselves more with the peaceable occupation of keeping cattle than with alamans (foray) have, on the average, preserved the marks of the pure Turkoman type. As the nomads are generally more agile and quick than the settled tribes, which is naturally to be attributed to the endless wanderings of their adventurous existence; so the Turkomans are to be distinguished in this peculiarity from all the dwellers in tents in Central Asia. And their slender frames, hardened by a very poor food, can outdo even the Arab in privations and endurance. Taken as a whole, the Turkomans cultivate (spite of the type of a family unity) a strange mixture of customs and habits, which are found either here and there among the neighbouring nomads and Œzbegs, or only among themselves. While their language approaches to the Azerbaïdjan dialect, their customs have the pure Turko-Tartarian stamp; and in their social relations, as well as in their warlike existence and their abundant religious usages, they have more in common with the Kiptchaks than with the Kirghis, Karakalpaks, and Œzbegs, with whom they have lived in close connexion for so many centuries. That they separated themselves early, very early, from the greater part of the Turko-Tartarian nations, admits of no question. There is no doubt, according to their own assertions, that they moved first from the east to the north-west, namely, towards the southern frontier of the former main horde, and thence towards the south. This assertion is very probable, and as alleged proofs of it, we may cite the small number who have remained behind on the road as remnants, and are still now to be found. As such, are cited the Turkomans to the north of Kermineh and Samarkand, who, in the midst of kindred elements have remained true to their nationality. Their emigration from Mangishlak, unquestionably the oldest abode of the Turkomans, is indicated by the Central Asiatics themselves in the following chronological order. As the oldest in their present native country, we name the Salor and Sariks; after them come the Yomuts, who, before the period of the Sefevides, stretched from the north towards the south along the shores of the Caspian. It is said that the Tekke, at the time of Taimur, were transplanted to Akhal in small numbers, in order to paralyse the great strength of the Salor. The Ersaris, towards the end of the last century, from Mangishlak have settled upon the shores of the Oxus; whilst, finally, the Tchaudors, of the more recent period of Mohammed Emin Khan (Khiva), from the shores of the Aral and Caspian Seas, are shifted to the opposite bank of the Oxus, although many of that tribe are to be found in the old places. As the Turkoman's chief employment aims at pillage, it is natural to expect that many of their customs should harmonize with this. Their attire, although in its origin of the Khiva fashion, is made shorter and closer, that they may be able more easily to take hard exercise: the heavy fur cap is replaced by a smaller one. Their drawers, which supply the place of trousers, are very wide, and remind one of the national garb of the Hungarian peasants. The curls of hair which hang down behind the ears far over the shoulders of the young, are peculiar to this tribe. These are allowed to grow by the young; during the first year of married life, they are worn concealed in the cap, and only after its lapse cut off. This ornament gives to the young cavalier a stately appearance whilst riding, and he is not a little proud of it. The dress of the women, also, has some peculiarities, to which belong the upper garment, hanging down, long-armed, like the Hungarian jacket; the head-gear, and the masses of silver ornaments,—as bracelets, necklaces, amulets, etuis, &c. It is not unusual to meet among the women perfect beauties, not inferior to the Georgians in growth and regularity of features. Though the young girls in all nomadic tribes are tolerably practised riders, the young Turkoman women stand pre-eminent in this art. With regard to their religious zeal for Islam, their proneness to superstition is the same as that of the Kirghis; and as the readers of my "Travels" are more acquainted with them, we will pass from them to the Œzbegs.
Œzbegs.
These may be considered the established and civilized inhabitants of Central Asia, and they have retained only feeble traces of the Mongolian-Turkish race, owing to considerable intermixture with the ancient Persian elements, and also the great number of slaves, who are brought there out of the present Iran. In their broad faces, sound of voice, the sharp angle which the temples form, and especially the eyes, we recall their Tartar origin. The Œzbegs were always pointed out by the Tadjiks by the nickname of Yogunkelle (thick skull), and really this part of their body is thicker and coarser than that of the rest of their Turanian fellow races. Besides the diversity that reigns among them in the three Khanats and in Chinese Tartary, you may further observe that the dwellers in villages generally possess more signs of the national type than townsmen. For instance: Œzbegs of Khiva are to be recognised by the broad, full face, low, flat forehead, large mouth; the Œzbegs of Bokhara, by the somewhat more arched foreheads, more oval faces, and long, pointed, oblong chin, and the great majority by black hair and eyes. Also in colour there are some shades of resemblance. In the neighbourhood of Kashgar and Aksu yellowish-brown to blackish tint prevails; in Khokand, brown; in Khiva, white is the reigning colour. Indeed, the Œzbegs are bastards of the Turanian race, in the same manner as the Tadjik and Sarts (the aborigines of the ancient Transoxiana, Sogdia, and Fergana[45]). Of the origin, immigration, and settlement of the Œzbegs, we have but little information, and that highly confused. Whilst some maintain that the name of Œzbeg was the name of one of their most renowned princes, who, in the time of Djingis, ruled over the whole desert; others discover, in the etymology of the word Œzbeg (independent prince, independent head), the signification of that actual independence for which the tribe was distinguished, as it disengaged itself from any ruler, and attempted, on its own account, its march of conquest toward the west. The name becomes prominent with the family of Sheibani, viz., with Ebul Kheir Khan, as founder, in the foreground; for, although Taimur may belong to the same tribe, still the Turkish state is more prominent than the Œzbeg.
If I am not deceived, it appears to me, at least, that the Œzbegs of to-day form a tribe, which, as a colony, highly inconsiderable in numbers, only increased after it had received into its bosom contingents of the various nomadic tribes passing from the north to the south. This assertion is, perhaps, bold, still the following circumstances render it not impossible.
1st. The already indicated diversity which shows itself between the Œzbegs of Turkestan from Komul to the Sea of Aral, whereby the degree of resemblance which exists between the latter and those nomadic tribes living in the vicinity is not to be mistaken, who, induced by certain circumstances, in which riches and religion play an important part, settled in towns, and are amalgamated with Œzbegs.
2nd. Many names of branches and families of the Œzbegs are common amongst the rest of the tribes of Central Asia. Thus, for example, we find the tribes Kungrat, Kiptchak, Naiman, Taz, Kandjigale, Kanli, Djelair, by which the thirty-two chief divisions of the Œzbegs are named, figuring also among the Kirghis. The Turkomans and Karakalpaks can produce some, which, from the great importance the nomadic tribes attach to family names, certainly would not be the case if earlier mutual relations had not existed. We know little of their origin, little in regard to the time of their settlement. The opinion of Persian historians, that the Œzbeg power rose upon the ruins of the Taimur dynasty is, indeed, correct, but forms no guide to the Œzbegs themselves. The name only is apparent; but who can tell us to which tribe that Turkish population professed to belong, which at a period long anterior to Taimur, and before Djingis, in the time of the Kharezmian princes, Sahi Charezmian, and even further back in the thirteenth century, were established in the three Khanats? In Khiva I often heard of the brilliant period of ancient Ürgendj, namely, before the inroad of the Mongolians, described as Œzbeg. Was this merely national vanity, or had the Turks at that time at Khiva really called themselves Œzbegs? Turks were already settled during the Arabian occupation, as may be seen in the ancient history of Bokhara, although not directly in the centre, certainly in the neighbourhood of the old Persian towns, in the time of the Samanides; and it would be highly interesting to know to which type they really belonged. In the customs of the Œzbegs, also, much foreign admixture has been introduced chiefly through Islam, and the restless manner of existence pursued by them; but not nearly so much as with the Western Turks, who through the foreign elements that they receive are already quite denationalized. The Œzbegs are pious—one might say zealous—Musulmans. Nowhere in Islam, Kashmir excepted, does the tendency to asceticism flourish more than here: a third of the inhabitants of a town are Ishan, Khalfa, Sofi, or aspirants to those holy titles, and nevertheless the doctrine of Mohammed has little limited their customs in regard to all this. In Khiva, and in some parts of Chinese Tartary, they have remained truest to nomadic customs. They build houses, which are used as stables and granaries; but for dwelling-places, they prefer always the raised tent in the court-yard;—building durable dwellings is scoffed at by the pure Œzbeg, and ridiculed as even now usual only with the Sart (Persian aborigines). A general habit is marked out in the proverb: "Sart baïsa tam salar—as soon as the Sart becomes rich, he builds a house," in contradistinction to the Œzbeg, who procures rather a horse or arms. Also in food and clothing but few refinements have crept in, the chief towns excepted. Whilst in the towns the Harem life is in full force, one finds in the country all Œzbeg women unveiled, for, to the great anger of the Mollah, they resist that restriction, to which their nature is averse. Ceremonies at burials, weddings, births, contain much of what is not only foreign to Islam, but even criminal. This false step is a striking contrast with the otherwise enthusiastic feelings of Central Asiatics. Not less does the rigid adherence to a warlike existence, in which the Œzbegs are distinguished from the rest of the established nations of Central and Western Asia, deserve our attention. Agriculture and durable dwellings render people more peaceable; but this is not the case with the Œzbegs, because they excel so many nomadic tribes in bravery.
Character.
However great the extent over which the diverse branches of Turkish tribes may be found, however variously the influence of strange elements may have acted upon their social relations, still the features of a common type of character cannot be denied;—a picture in which more traces of analogy are to be found than in the physiognomy and other physical signs respectively. The Turk is everywhere heavy and lethargic in his mental and corporeal emotions, therefore firm and stedfast in his resolves; not, perhaps, from any principle of life philosophy, but from apathy, and sincere aversion to everything which would alter his adopted position. This lends him an earnest and solemn aspect, which is so often extolled by European travellers. As upon the shores of the Bosphorus the Osmanli, in his keïf, can gaze for hours on the clear sky, while he only makes as much movement as will blow the blue wreaths of smoke from his pipe towards the yet bluer firmament; so the Œzbeg or the Kirghis can sit for hours, motionless, in the narrow tent, or in the immeasurably wide desert; for, while the former turns his gaze upon the colours of the felt coverlet or carpet, already seen thousands of times,—the latter looks on the waving, curling quicksands, which are to amuse him. As those who go about briskly and nimbly, or even gesticulate, are only compassionated by the Osmanlis as living proofs of partial insanity and misfortune; so each quick movement of the feet and hands is considered by the Œzbegs as highly unseemly. Indeed, when I called out to one of my Tartar fellow-travellers to save himself from some falling bales of goods by a side-spring, he exclaimed, indignantly: "Am I, then, a woman, that I should disgrace myself by springing and dancing!" With this profound seriousness and marble-cold expression of countenance, we find everywhere among the Turks a great inclination to pomp and magnificence; but this does not degenerate into frivolity or fanfaronades, as is the case with the Persians. In Constantinople one often hears the proverb: "Intellect is peculiar to Europe, riches to India, and splendour to the Ottoman." The solemn processions (alay) of the sultan and of the great nobles are alike celebrated in the East and the West, and the imposing exterior which is exhibited on such occasions is nowhere to be found so faithfully reflected as among their fellow tribes in Central Asia. An Œzbeg or Turkoman, when upon his horse, or seated in his tent at the head of his family, has the same proud bearing, the same self-consciousness of greatness and power. He is quite convinced that he is born to rule, and the foreign nations which surround him to obey,—just in the same way as the Osmanli thinks with regard to Bulgarians, Armenians, Kurds, and Arabians. His love for independence is boundless, and is also the chief cause why he cannot long remain under the chieftain whom he loves in many respects; and he would rather command ten or twelve miserable highwaymen or adventurers than stand at the head of a well-equipped, elegant troop, who might, in common with himself, own a greater master. Coinciding with these traits of character, is also the predilection of the Turks for repose and inactivity; for, although diligence and activity, according to our European notions, are not to be met with anywhere in Asia, still, work is not so much abhorred, either by the Iranian or Semitic nations, as by the Turks, who consider hunting and war alone worthy of man. Upon them husbandry is only forcibly imposed, and is considered ignominious. A wondrous prosperity has never befallen Turkey. The peasant was always idle and careless; the number of craftsmen limited. Officials had only wealth when the Janitchars came back from their pillaging excursions, laden with treasures.
In Central Asia, agriculture is exclusively in the hands of the Persian slaves; commerce and business with the Tadjiks, Hindoos, and Jews; for even the Œzbegs, settled there for centuries, meditate robbery and war, and if they can procure no foreign enemy they attack each other mutually in bloody brother strife.
As concerns intellectual capacity, I have found that the Turk is everywhere far inferior to other Asiatic nations, namely, the Iranian and Semitic; and that, through narrowness of mind, he loses those prerogatives which his superiority in other respects would acquire for him. This weakness is denoted by the word Türklük (Turkdom), of which Kabalik (coarseness), and Yogunluk (thickness), are synonyms. By Türklük, one understands also rudeness and roughness in manners; and if here and there this defect is palliated by the appellation, Sadelik (simplicity), still, for the most part, they are subjoined to the Turkish name as insulting epithets. As the Osmanli is over-reached by the Armenian, Greek, and Arab; so is the Œzbeg baffled by the subtle and yielding Tadjik, and the no less crafty and avaricious Hindoo. Whether this is to be ascribed to a national defect or to an extreme nonchalance, it were hard to determine; still, it is highly remarkable that the Turk in the far east, as well as in the immediate vicinity of the civilised western country, shuns meditation, and that nowhere are his attempts at wit particularly brilliant. This disadvantage is partially the reason that among the Turks more honesty, frankness and confidence, is to be met with than among the remaining nations of Asia.
Türklük, by which strangers understand the above-named fault, is often used by the Turks themselves as a mark of plainness, simplicity, and uprightness. The lights and shades of Türklük have been at all times observable and discoursed on, whenever parallels are drawn between the character of the Turks and of other nations, especially the Persians. People praise the acuteness, the refined manners of the latter; but still, he who wants to find a faithful servant, an attached soldier, or an upright man, will always give the preference to the Turks. Therefore, we find in earliest times that foreign princes liked to use Turkish troops; they call them into their country, and invest their officers with the highest dignities; and as bravery, perseverance, and love of governing, is more innate in them than in any other Asiatic people, it is very easy to explain how they rise from simple mercenaries to governors; and how they subjugated Iranian and Semitic peoples, from their home up to the Adriatic, many of whom are still ruled by them. In my opinion, it is not only superiority of physical powers which has sustained the Turkish dynasties upon foreign thrones, and still does so: this is also greatly ascribable to their superiority of character. They are unpolished, and by nature wild, uncultivated, but seldom cruel out of malice. They enrich themselves at the cost of their subjects, but again divide generously the collected treasures. They are severe towards their subordinates, but seldom forget the duties that they have to fulfil towards the latter, as patriarchal heads. In a word, in all deeds and works of the Turks a sort of kindness is perceptible, which is, perhaps, more to be ascribed to indolence and laisser-aller, than to a fixed purpose to do good; but still it works as a virtue, whatever may be its origin.
Finally will we mention hospitality, in which the Turks are better versed than the Iranian and Semitic nations, and certainly for very simple causes. As acknowledged, hospitality is observed in proportion to the degree in which a nation advances from a nomadic condition to a settled manner of living, and as Asia is generally far more prominent in this virtue than Europe, so are the Turks, the majority of whom are incarnate nomads, to be distinguished from the rest of Asiatics, who, long settled there, rejoice in an older civilisation. This must be considered a mere sketch of the common character of the Turks. Concerning the gradation of different races, we find the Buruts wilder, more savage than the remaining nomadic fellow races.[46] They are more superstitious, but also less malicious than, for example, the Kirghis and Turkomans, because, without having wholly deserted Shamanism, they know but little of Islam; and it is well known that the weaker a nomadic people's ideas of that religion are, the fewer are its vices, and the more tractable are they with strangers. The Kirghis, on the contrary, are in the chief features of character less warlike, although they can easily make up their minds to undertake a baranta (pillaging expedition). They form the greater part of Turkish nomads, are for the most part devoted to a wandering life; and whilst the Turkomans are in many places to be met with in a half settled state, for example, along the left shore of the Oxus, from Belkh as far as Tchardjuy, and in Khiva, one can only find very few examples among the Kirghis. They are easier to subjugate than other nomads, because they, as already stated, are more peaceable and less brave, still their colonization appears almost verging upon impossibility; at least it will require a gigantic task of Russia, if such be her design. The Karakalpaks, through their remarkable simplicity, are often considered foolish and dull. They represent the idiot among Central Asiatic nations, and many droll anecdotes are composed at their cost. In bravery they are even inferior to the Kirghis; they have seldom appeared as conquerors, and are seldom employed by others even as mercenaries. As they occupy themselves chiefly in breeding cattle, and like best to sojourn in woody regions, they are called by the Œzbegs, ayik (bear). Still, activity, benevolence and faithfulness, are everywhere adjudged to them. The Turkomans are notorious among all the races of Central Asia as the most restless adventurers, and rightly; for not only there, but throughout the whole globe, hardly can a second nation be found of such a rapacious nature, of such restless spirit and untameable licentiousness as these children of the desert. To rob, to plunder, to make slaves, is in the eye of the Turkoman an honourable business, by which he has lived for centuries. He considers those who think otherwise as stupid or mad, and yields in such a manner to this passion that he often commences plundering his own tribe, indeed, often his own family, in case he is baulked in foreign forays. As a very weak apology, it may be argued that they inhabit the wildest and most savage countries, where even keeping of cattle gives only a scanty revenue: still the fruits of their detestable trade hardly ever alleviate their pressing poverty, for they are just as dirty niggards, as avaricious, and starve often in the possession of riches as much as the poorest being. The Œzbegs play the fashionable among their fellow-races in Turkestan. They are not a little proud of the education which, through Islamitish civilisation, they obtained, and, starting from this point of superiority, wish to govern their nomadic brethren. Highly praiseworthy with them is their tenacious adherence to so many good points of their national character; which, in other places, is too easily transformed and disgraced by Islam. With the Œzbeg, there is, in spite of the hypocrisy and pretended holiness, which endeavour to spread themselves by Mohamedanism, still always very much honesty, uprightness, and Turkish open-heartedness, in which qualities they are considerably to be distinguished from the reprobate and vicious Tadjiks, and are truly worthy to govern the latter. The Œzbeg is, as far as personal knowledge has shown to me, the only Turk, from China to the Danube, who represents all the best side of the national character of the Turks.