The Merv Oasis: Travels and Adventures
East of the Caspian During the Years 1879-80-81,
Including Five Months' Residence Among
the Tekkes of Merv
By
Edmund O'Donovan
Published by G. P. Putnam's sons, 1883 Volume II
Page 63
REFUGE TOWERS—NEED OF TRANSPORT. 63
The able-bodied men go to the field, if at any distance
from home, in parties of ten or twelve. On the first
alarm of an inroad, the oxen are hurriedly driven under
the walls of one of the fortified towers which dot the
country at every two or three hundred yards, and the
cultivators place themselves within the fort to protect
their property by the fire of their muskets. The towers
have loopholes around their tops, masked by projecting
bartizans of wicker work plastered with clay, and
somewhat like a candle extinguisher in shape. From these
a destructive fire can be poured on any assailants who
may be bold enough to approach the cattle. The robbers
have no time to stay, and the system of defense is
therefore pretty efficacious in general, though of course
the martial farmers are sometimes caught napping, and
have to pay the penalty in more or less extensive losses
of cattle. As might be expected, the villagers thus
trained to the din of arms have themselves scanty regard
for the property of others. Indeed, a solitary traveler
is sure to be robbed, if not murdered, by the settled
cultivators, even if he should never meet the nomads. The
wonder is how any cultivation at all is attempted in such
a country. Moreover, there is in the
Deregez no market for produce beyond that which is
required for the wants of the district itself. There
are no roads to the more peopled provinces beyond the
mountains; and throughout the Attock I have seen piles of
chopped straw, which would fetch a high price in Meshed,
left to rot on the ground. No wonder that the Russian
agents were received joyfully when they came to purchase
supplies. When once the East Caspian railroad reaches
this country, its productive capacity will be enormously
increased. Facilities for the transport of provisions to
market, and security against plunderers, will give an
immense stimulus to the industry of all classes —
Turks,
Chapter 30 - Chapter 31 - Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Page 55 - Page 56 - Page 57 - Page 58 - Page 59 - Page 60 - Page 61 - Page 62 - Page 63 - Page 64 - Page 65 - Page 66 - Page 67 - Page 68 - Page 69 - Page 70 - Chapter 34
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