The Ryhanlu, Like Most Of The Larger Turkman Nations, Are A Nomade
People.
They appear in their winter quarters in the plain of Antioch at
the end of September, and depart from thence towards the middle of
April, when the flies of the plain begin to torment their horses and
cattle.
They then direct their march towards Marash, and remain in the
neighbourhood of that place about one month; from thence they reach the
mountains of Gurun and Albostan. The mountains which they occupy are
called Keukduli, Sungulu, and Kara Dorouk, (upon Kara Dorouk, they say,
are some fine ruins). Here they pass the hottest summer months; in
autumn they repass the plains of Albostan, and return by the same route
towards Antioch.
The winter habitations of the Turkmans in the hilly districts are, as I
have mentioned before, erected on the declivity of the hills, so as to
be by their position somewhat sheltered from the northerly winds.
Sometimes five or six families live together on one spot in as many
tents, but for the greater part tents of single families are met with at
one or two miles distance from each other. In proportion to the arable
land, which the hilly parts contain, these districts are better peopled
than the plain, where a thousand tents are scattered over an [p.636]
extent, of the most fertile country, of at least five hundred square
miles. The structure of the habitations of these nomades is of course
extremely simple: an oblong square wall of loose stones, about four feet
high, is covered over with a black cloth made of goats hair, which is
supported by a dozen or more posts, so that in the middle of the tent
the covering is elevated about nine feet from the ground.
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