XX.
IN THE DESERT.
The road we traversed showed no traces of the feet of either men or camels, and taking for our guides the sun during the day, and the polar star during the night, we kept our course straight to the north. The Turkomans call the polar star on account of its immobility Temir Kazik (iron peg). The camels forming a long line and tied together were led by men on foot. In this way we jogged along in the sandy soil without any interruption until late after sunset. The sandy soil gradually ceased and we felt indeed the solid and smooth ground under our feet. The tramp of the camels sounded at a distance as if they beat time. The day was nearly dawning when we stopped, but we had altogether gone but twenty-four miles; the camels not being allowed to exert themselves in the beginning, and our progress having been delayed, besides, by the slowness of the buffaloes, the most distinguished members of our travelling party, who with their huge bodies were unable to keep pace with the camels. Our rest lasted from dawn till eight o'clock in the morning, and whilst the camels were feeding on thistles and brambles of the desert, we had time to look after our breakfast. We might well call our breakfast an excellent one, for we had a sufficient quantity of water wherewith to wash down our unleavened bread. SUSPICION AROUSED.As we were camping near each other I observed that the kervanbashi, whilst talking with Ilias and the chiefs of the hadji, had been looking at me pointedly several times. I could easily guess the tenor of their conversation, but pretending not to be in the least concerned, I kept on turning the leaves of the Koran with great devotion for a while; and then, closing the book, I rose and directed my steps towards the little company as if to join them. As I was approaching, both the good Ilias and Hadji Salih hastened to meet me half-way, and calling me aside informed me that the kervanbashi suspected me and was determined not to take me with him to Khiva. He was especially afraid of the wrath of the Khan, for he had brought with him, some years ago, a Frengi envoy to Khiva, who had made an exact drawing of the entire road, not omitting, owing to his infernal skill, a single well or hill. The Khan burning with rage at this, had immediately executed two of the men who had given the traveller information, and spared the life of the kervanbashi only because of some very influential protection the latter had succeeded in enlisting in his favour. "After a good deal of coaxing," my men continued, "we succeeded in prevailing upon him to take thee with him, on condition that thou shalt allow thyself to be searched, in the first place, in order to see if thou dost not carry any drawings or wood pens (lead pencils) with thee such as the Frengis usually have about them; and in the second place, that thou shalt promise not to make any secret memoranda of the roads and mountains; if thou dost not agree to this he will leave thee behind him in the middle of the desert." I listened to their speech with the utmost patience, but as soon as they were done I assumed the appearance of one angrily excited, and turning to Hadji Salih I said in a voice, loud enough to reach the ears of the kervanbashi: "Hadji, thou sawest me in Teheran and knowest who I am. Tell Amandurdi that it ill becometh an honest man like him to listen to the words of a drunken binamaz (a man who does not say his prayers) like this Afghan. It is not permitted to trifle with religion, and if he calls me once more Frengi infidel I shall show him in Khiva what manner of man I am." I spoke the last words in such a loud key as to be heard by every one in the caravan, and my dervish companions became so enraged that, if I had not kept them back, they would have fallen on the spot upon the sottish opium-eating Afghan who had been trying to excite the kervanbashi's suspicions against me. Amandurdi more than any other was startled by this scene, and I heard him replying to every person who came near him to inquire about the occurrence, "God knows!" He was by no means a bad man; on the contrary, he was of a kind disposition and very clever; but like all thoroughbred Orientals he was attracted by anything that looked mysterious, and it was this tendency that made him suppose me to be a disguised foreigner, although he never failed to apply to me in questions of religion, having heard in Gomushtepe of my reputation as a scholar. I had succeeded this time in warding off the impending danger, but I felt that the distrust of me was growing apace, and that I should find it exceedingly difficult to make the slightest memoranda even of my travels. I could not even directly inquire after the names of the several stations, and only in a roundabout way, by hook and crook, could I gain some information about one thing or other and set it down afterwards, with great secrecy in my notes. I must recall to the mind of my readers, that the Afghan who set up his mind to cause my ruin, was a runaway from Kandahar at the time when Sir Henry Rawlinson was in command of that place. Mir Mohammed, for this was his name, had an unspeakable hatred against every European, and particularly against the English; and he, supposing me to belong to that nation, was indefatigable in his efforts to penetrate my disguise and to denounce me as a spy, who would speedily be followed by an invading army.
After a short rest we continued our journey, but I observed that after we had been marching for about two hours, the caravan began to slacken pace. A couple of Turkomans had dismounted from their camels and seemed to be carefully investigating right and left the low mounds, a great number of which could be seen everywhere around us. A PIOUS BROTHER.I was informed that Eid Mehemmed, one of our fellow-travellers, was trying to discover the grave of a brother of his, who had fallen hereabouts, last year, in an attack made upon him, after having heroically defended himself. Eid Mehemmed had brought a coffin with him in order to take the remains to Khiva. It might have been two o'clock in the afternoon when the grave was found and the exhumation begun. After the customary prayers and the recital of stray verses from the Koran, ceremonies in which I too had to take part in the most devotional manner, the half-decayed dead body was wrapped in rags and placed in the coffin. When the funeral ceremonies were over Eid Mehemmed baked bread on that place and distributed it among us. We started again, going always north. We had to make up for lost time, and the order was given by the kervanbashi to march all night. The weather was fine and, cramped up in my basket, I gazed with intense delight at the starry firmament, the like of which, for transcendental beauty, can be seen nowhere but in the desert. But sleep soon asserted its rights. I had not been asleep an hour when I was roused by several people shouting at me: "Hadji, look at thy kiblenuma (compass), we seem to have lost our way." I immediately produced my flint and steel apparatus, and striking sparks with it lit the tinder, by the smouldering fire of which I perceived that we were going east instead of north. The kervanbashi was frightened, thinking we had come near the dangerous marshes, and determined not to move until daybreak. Fortunately we had left the right track only half an hour before when the sky was clouded. In spite of the delay we reached in time the station we were bound for, and turned our tired animals loose to feed upon thistles and similar pasture.
On the 15th of May our road lay through a wild country, intersected, in every direction, by ravines. The poor camels had a great deal to suffer. They are attached to each other in such a manner that one end of the rope is tied to the tail of the camel in front, and the other end is fastened at the nose, through a hole perforated for that purpose, of the camel following it. Now if the poor beast stops from any cause, but for a minute, those before him are tugging away at his nose, in such an unmerciful way, that I have often seen the rope broken. To relieve the poor animals we dismounted several times during our four hours' trudging through the deep sand.
There were three different roads by which the desert might be crossed, but we were as yet kept in ignorance as to which of these the kervanbashi would choose. Owing to the caravan's being liable to be pounced upon by marauders at any minute, it is quite necessary to keep the real route a secret. But at the present stage of our journey it was easy to foretell that we should take the middle road, for our water was giving out; and the tank of water of which we stood in great need lay along that route. This night we were favoured by good fortune on our march, the rope keeping the camels together having broken but twice. When such a thing happens a couple of men are sent after the animals to bring them back, the caravan continuing their march. One of the caravan, however, is selected to keep up a continual conversation with the men sent out, while they are receding, to prevent their missing their way in the dark night. The melancholy sound of this man's voice is their only guide in the pitchlike darkness, and woe to the poor fellows if a contrary wind hinders them from hearing it. On the 16th of May we perceived in a north-eastern direction the mountain-chain of Karendag, and reached it on the afternoon of the same day. We had been told in Etrek that we might look forward to meeting friendly Yomut-Turkomans at this place, but nevertheless there prevailed a general anxiety on that subject, the fear of the possibility of being attacked by some hostile bands being quite as great as the expectation of meeting the former. We dispatched a brave Turkoman to reconnoitre the neighbourhood. Before long we caught sight of solitary tents, and, our apprehensions being dispelled, we asked ourselves what tribe we were to meet. After all they were Yomuts, and we passed the whole day with them.
A LIGHT FOR THE COMPASS.
KARENDAG MOUNTAINS.I was agreeably surprised to find near the Karendag Mountains some old ruins; the fable attaches to them that they are the ruins of Kaaba, God having from His special love for the Turkomans placed the Kaaba here first, but that Goklen, a lame blue devil, pulled it down, whereupon God carried the Kaaba to Mecca. And this was the reason why the Turkomans lived in constant enmity with and war against the Goklens, who have descended from Goklen.