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.
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