* * * * *

Bokhara is the only large town in the kingdom.

The sea of Aral lies to the north of the kingdom: it is an immense lake,
but not nearly so large as the Caspian Sea.

The river Oxus flows into the Caspian. It is famous for its golden sands.

The great trade of Bokhara is in black woolly lamb-skins, to make caps
for the Persians: the younger the lamb the more delicate the wool. Thus
many a pretty lambkin dies to adorn a Persian noble.

The best raisins in the world come from Bokhara.[8]


THE TOORKMAN TARTARS.

You have heard a great deal of the Tartars, and you have been told that
they are a quiet and peaceable nation. But not _all_; there is a tribe of
Tartars called the Toorkmans, of a very different character. They wander
about in the country between Bokhara and Persia, and their chief
employment is to steal men from Persia, and to sell them in Bokhara as
slaves. A whole troop, mounted on horses, rush sword in hand upon a
Persian city, and return to the camp with hundreds of beasts and human
creatures as their captives.

Some English travellers once met five men chained together, walking with
sad steps in the deep sands of the desert. They were Persians just caught