by the Toorkmans, and on their way to Bokhara. When the Englishmen saw
these poor captives, they uttered a sorrowful cry, and the Persians began
to weep. One of the travellers stopped his camel to listen to their sad
tale; and he heard that a few weeks before, while working in the fields,
they had been seized and carried off. They were hungry and thirsty; for
the Toorkmans cruelly starve their slaves, in order that they may be too
weak to run away. The traveller gave them all he had, which was a melon,
to quench their thirst.

But the worst part of the Toorkmans' conduct remains yet to be told. When
they have taken many captives, they usually _kill_ the old people,
because they would not get much money for them in Bokhara; and they
choose _one_ of their captives to offer up as a thank-offering to their
god!! Who is their god? The god of Mahomed. But though they are
Mahomedans, they have no mosques, and are too ignorant to be able to read
the Koran.

Robbery is their whole business. For this purpose they learn to ride and
to fight. They understand well how to manage a horse, so as to make him
strong and swift. They do not let him eat when he pleases, but they give
him three meals a day of hay and barley, and then rein him up that he may
not nibble the grass, and grow fat; and sometimes they give him no food
at all, and yet make him gallop many miles. By this management the horses
are very thin, but very _strong_, and able to bear their masters eighty
miles in a day when required; and they are so swift that they can outrun
their pursuers.

It is not surprising that the Toorkmans do not eat these thin horses,
though other Tartars are so fond of horse-flesh. They prefer mutton. When
they invite a stranger to dinner, they boil a whole sheep in a large