Not many women along the
sunny roads which seem white hot. Some of the feminine types are,
however, sufficiently remarkable, dressed out in a quasi-military
costume, wearing soft boots and a cartouche belt in the Circassian
style. You must take care of the stray dogs, hungry brutes with long
hair and disquieting fangs, of a breed reminding one of the dogs of the
Caucasus, and these animals--according to Boulangier the engineer--have
eaten a Russian general.
"Not entirely," replies the major, confirming the statement. "They left
his boots."
In the commercial quarter, in the depths of the gloomy ground floors,
inhabited by the Persians and the Jews, within the miserable shops are
sold carpets of incredible fineness, and colors artistically combined,
woven mostly by old women without any Jacquard cards.
On both banks of the Mourgab the Russians have their military
establishment. There parade the Turkoman soldiers in the service of the
czar. They wear the blue cap and the white epaulettes with their
ordinary uniform, and drill under the orders of Russian officers.
A wooden bridge, fifty yards long, crosses the river. It is practicable
not only for foot-passengers, but for trains, and telegraph wires are
stretched above its parapets.
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