Contrary To The Practice Of The
Arabs, The Turkmans Ride Males Exclusively.
The family of my host
possessed four horses, three mares, about five hundred sheep, one
hundred and fifty goats,
Six cows, and eight camels; he is looked upon as
a man in easy circumstances; there are few families whose property does
not amount to half as much, and there are many who have three or four
times as many cattle. I have heard of some who are possessed of property
in cattle and cash to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand
piastres. Such sums are gained by the trade with Aleppo and by usury
amongst themselves.
At the time of their departure for Armenia the Ryhanlu buy up buffaloes
and Arab camels, which they exchange in Armenia for a better breed of
camels and for some other cattle, for the Aleppo market. The Armenian or
Caramanian camel is taller and stronger than the Arab, its neck is more
bent, and the neck and upper part of the thighs are covered with thick
hair; the Arab camel, on the contrary, has very little hair. The common
load of the latter is about six hundred weight, or one hundred and
twenty rotolos, but the Armenian camel will carry one hundred and sixty
rotolos, or eight hundred weight. The price of an Arabian camel is about
two hundred and fifty piastres, that of an Armenian at Aleppo is twice
as much. This breed of camels is produced by a he-dromedary and a she-
Arabian camel. The people of Anatolia keep these male dromedaries as
stallions for the purpose of covering the females of the smaller Arabian
breed, which the Turkmans, yearly bring to their market. If left to
breed among themselves the Caramanian camels produce a puny race of
little value. The Arabs use exclusively their smaller breed of camels,
because they endure heat, thirst, and fatigue, infinitely better than
the others, which are well suited to hilly districts. The camels of the
Turkmans feed upon a kind of low bramble called in Turkish Kufan, which
grows in abundance upon the hills; in the evening they descend the
mountains and come trotting towards the tents, where each camel receives
a ball of paste, made of barley meal and water, weighing about one
pound. The expense of feeding these useful animals is therefore reduced
to the cost of a handful of barley per day. The Turkmans do not milk
their camels, but use them exclusively as beasts of burthen. Through
[p.638] their means they carry on a very profitable trade with Aleppo.
They provide the town with firewood, which they cut in the mountains of
the Kurds, distant about four hours to the N.W. of Mohammed Aga’s tent;
the Kurds themselves who inhabit those mountains have no camels, and are
obliged to sell their wood and their labour in cutting it at a very
trifling price. Besides wood the Turkmans carry to town the produce of
their fields, together with sheep and lambs, wool, butter and cheese in
the spring, and a variety of home made carpets. They transport the
merchandize of the Frank merchants at Aleppo from Alexandretta to the
city. The profits arising from the trade with Aleppo are almost entirely
consumed by the demands of their families for cloth, coffee, sweetmeats,
and various articles of eastern luxury; they seldom take back any cash
to their tents.
The manner of living of the Turkmans is luxurious for a nomade people.
Their tents are for the greater part clean, the floor in the men’s room
is furnished with a Divan or sophas, leaving only a space in the middle
where a large fire is continually kept up to cheer the company and to
make coffee, of which they consume a great quantity. Their coffee cups
are three times the size of those commonly used in the Levant, or as
large as an English coffee cup; whenever coffee is handed round, each
person’s cup is filled two or three times; when I was with them, I often
drank twenty or more cups in the course of the day. The servants roast
and pound the coffee immediately before it is drank. They pound it in
large wooden mortars, and handle the pestle with so much address, that
if two or three are pounding together they keep time, and made a kind of
music which seemed to be very pleasing to their masters.
The Turkmans taste flesh only upon extraordinary occasions, such as a
marriage or a circumcision, a nightly feast during the Ramazan, or the
arrival of strangers. Their usual fare is Burgoul; this dish is made of
wheat boiled, and afterwards dried in the sun in sufficient quantity for
a year’s consumption: the grain is re-boiled with butter or oil, and
affords a very palateable nourishment; it is a favourite dish all over
Syria. Besides Burgoul they eat rice, eggs, honey, dried fruit, and sour
milk, called Leben. They have none but goats milk. Their bread is a thin
unleavened cake, which the women bake immediately before dinner upon a
hot iron plate, in less than a minute. Breakfast is served at eight
o’clock in the morning, the principal meal takes place immediately after
sunset. The Turkmans, are great coxcombs at table, in comparison with
other Levantines; instead of simply using his fingers, the Turkman
twists his thin bread very adroitly into a sort of spoon, which he
swallows, together with the morsel which he has taken out of the dish
with it. I remember sitting with a dozen of them round a bason of sour
milk, which we dispatched in a few minutes without any person, except
myself, having in the least soiled his fingers.
The Turkman women do not hide themselves, even before strangers, but the
girls seldom enter the men’s room, although they are permitted freely to
talk with their father’s guests. I was much struck with the elegance of
their shapes and the regularity of their features.
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