KÖKBÜRI—A RACE FOR A BRIDE.
"The girl is mounted on a swift horse, and carries the carcass of a lamb before her on the saddle. She is given a certain start in advance of the bridegroom and his friends; they follow on horseback, and unless the bridegroom can take the lamb from her hands during the race the match is 'off.' She makes a show of resistance, and generally leads the party a long distance, but the affair having been negotiated beforehand, is pretty sure to end in the surrender of the lamb. In some tribes the girl must be lifted from the saddle by the bridegroom, who carries her on his own horse back to the point of starting.
"There is this difference in the treatment of the women of Turkestan and those of most other Moslem countries," the Doctor continued, "that they are not required to cover their faces. In Turkey, Egypt, and Arabia the Moslem woman who leaves her face uncovered commits an act of great impropriety, but this is not the case in Turkestan. Many of the women are quite pretty in their youth, but their good looks do not last long. The men are of good height and figure, and their manners are grave and dignified. The hair and beard are dark, and the complexion may be set down as a light shade of brown."
Frank asked how many tribes and people were included in Turkestan or Central Asia, and how great was the population.
VIEW OF THE CITADEL OF KHIVA.
"That is a very difficult question to answer," said the Doctor, "in fact it is impossible to do so exactly. The census-taker is unknown in Central Asia, except in the cities and towns; even there he does not enumerate the whole population, but only the heads of families and the men capable of bearing arms. Turkestan includes all the country between the Caspian Sea and the 110th degree of longitude east, and from Siberia southward to Persia, Afghanistan, and Thibet. Turkestan means 'The land of the Turks.' On the maps it is generally divided into Eastern and Western Turkestan, the former lying partly in the Chinese Empire, and the latter covering the vast plain of the Caspian and Aral seas. The population is variously estimated at from eight to twelve millions. Russia has absorbed nearly all of Western Turkestan, and the Russian officials think they have at least eight millions of people in their new possessions.