Non se urbibus tenent et ne statis quidem sedibus. Ut invitavere pabula, ut cedens et sequens hostis exigit, its res opesque secum trahens, semper castra habitant; bellatrix, libera, indomita. --Pomp. Mela, de Situ Orbis, 1. ii. c. 4.
THE TURKOMANS IN THEIR POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS.
Boundaries and Divisions.
The Turkomans or Türkmen, [Footnote 95] as they style themselves, inhabit for the most part that tract of desert land which extends on this side of the river Oxus, from the shore of the Caspian Sea to Belkh, and from the [{302}] same river to the south as far as Herat and Astrabad. Besides the partially productive soil which they possess along the Oxus, Murgab Tedjend, Görghen, and Etrek, where they actually busy themselves a little with agriculture, the country of the Turkomans comprises that immense awful desert where the traveller may wander about for weeks and weeks without finding a drop of sweet water or the shade of a single tree. In winter the extreme cold and the thick snow, in summer the scorching heat and the deep sand, present equal dangers; and storms only so far differ from each other in these different seasons, as the graves that they prepare for the karavans are dry or moist.
[Footnote 95: This word is compounded of the proper name Türk, and the suffix men (corresponding with the English suffix ship, dom); it is applied to the whole race, conveying the sense that the nomads style themselves pre-eminently Türks. The word in use with us, Turkoman, is a corruption of the Turkish original.]
To describe with more exactitude the divisions of the Turkomans, we will make use of their own expressions. According to our European ideas, we name their main divisions, stocks or tribes, because we start from the assumption of one entire nationality. But the Turkomans, who, as far as history records, never appear united in any single body, mark their principal races by the name Khalk (in Arabic people), and designate them as follows:--
I. Tchaudor.
II. Ersari.
III. Alieli.
IV. Kara.
V. Salor.
VI. Sarik.
VII. Tekke.
VIII. Göklen.
IX. Yomut.
Employing, then, the expression adopted by these nomads themselves, and annexing the corresponding words and significations, we have--
| Turkoman words. | Primitive sense. | Secondary sense. |
| Khalk. | People. | Stock or tribe. |
| Taife. | People. | Branch. |
| Tire. | Fragment. | Lines or clans. |
The Khalks are divided into Taife, and these again into Tire. We proceed to touch briefly upon all these main stocks, devoting, however, our particular attention to the Tekke, Göklen, and Yomuts, who are settled to the south, as occasion permitted me to visit and to become more acquainted with these from personal contact.