Two persons eat from one bowl, dipping their
hands into it, and licking up their food like dogs. The meal is finished
by eating melons.
These coarse manners suit such fierce and wild creatures as the
Toorkmans. It is their boast that they rest neither under the shadow of a
TREE nor of a KING: meaning that they have neither trees nor kings to
protect them in the desert.
The men wear high caps of black sheep-skin, while the Women wear high
white turbans. The tents are adorned with beautiful carpets, not only the
floors, but the sides, and it is the chief employment of the women to
weave them. As for the men, they spend most of their time in sauntering
about among the tents; for the fierce dogs guard the flocks. But when
their hands are idle, their thoughts are still busy in planning new
robberies and murders.
It was by such men that the earth was inhabited when God sent the flood
to destroy it. It is written, "The earth was filled with VIOLENCE."
Is there any man brave enough to go to these men to warn them of the
judgment to come, and to tell them of pardon for the penitent, through
the blood of Jesus?[9]
[8] Taken from Sir Alexander Burnes, and from Kanikoff, the
Russian, and from Rev. Joseph Wolff.
[9] Extracted from Sir Alexander Burnes' "Bokhara."
CHINESE TARTARY.
Very little is known in Europe of this part of Tartary; and why? Because
the Emperor of China, who reigns over it, does not like travellers to go
there.
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