CHAPTER XII
CENTRAL ASIATIC RUGS
HE land that extends eastward about fourteen hundred miles from the Caspian Sea to the western boundary of the Chinese Empire, and northward for a similar distance from the Arabian Sea through Beluchistan and Afghanistan to the steppes of Western Siberia, is one of the least civilised parts of the eastern continent. Here until within a few recent years, the people lived the same untrammelled lives that their ancestors pursued for past centuries; and the encroachments of the Russian Empire on the north and the English on the southeast, have as yet made little impression on their uncultured natures. To these circumstances it is largely due that the rugs termed Central Asiatic, which come from this district, still possess to a large degree the originality of design, virility of character, and beauty of colour that are so rapidly disappearing from the woven products of countries more subject to the influence of Western civilisation.
These rugs may conveniently be divided into three natural sub-groups, which include:
1. The Turkoman, consisting of what are known in this country as Royal and Princess Bokharas, the Tekkes, Yomuds, Khivas, and Beshires, all of which are made in Turkestan;[32] and the Afghan, of which part are made in Turkestan and part in Afghanistan.
2. The Turko-Chinese, consisting of the Samarkands, which
are made in Western Turkestan, and the Kasghars and Yarkands made in Eastern Turkestan.
3. The Beluchistans or Beluches, made principally in Beluchistan.