The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-24 00:00:00

A TORNADO ON THE CASPIAN.

Under the head of "Central Asia," the Special Corre-
spondent of the Daily News, writing from Gumuche Tepe- on
March 1, gives the following description of a tornado :

On the Caspian merge at this. season it changes as
rapidly from snow and sleet to scorching sunshine,
and then back again to storm and generally severe
weather, as if a harlequin's bat were one of the
" properties " of the weather office. Four days
ago, without any great exertion of the imagina-
tion, one might have fancied himself in the Arctic
regions. The sky was dull leaden grey, and the
continuously falling snow had convertid the plain
into one vast expanse of dazzling white. Then
one night we had what is here an infallible sign of fine
weather being about to ensue. The jackals yelped
and howled continuously and were answered by the
village dogs. It is odd enough that unless the
dogs answer, the cry of the jackals has no significance.
Next morning the sun shone out with a brilliancy and
power rarely experienced in England, even in Mid-
summer. The snow rapidly disappeared from
the steppes, and the huge white mass of the
Elburz Mountains stood out against the clear
blue sky glittering- in the sun like the giant
ramparts of some enchanter's castle. The horses,
too, had begun to shed their shaggy winter coats, and
everything betokened the approach of permanent
warm weather. The Turcomans undid the storm
lashings of their kibitkas, and removed the extra felt
coverings from the roofs. So sultry was the weather
that people were forced to sit outside, in the shade of
their huts, during the midday hours. The huge wolf-
like dogs lay about in the sun panting, with their
tongues lolling out. For two days this warm sunny
weather continued without interruption, and the third
set in with equal promise.
I was sitting on a carpet, in the shade of a
kibitka which serves as a medress, or theological
seminary, where the ahoun, or professor, expounds
knotty passages of the Koran to a dozen aspirants to
the priesthood. I was trying to write, and at the
same time answer the multitudinous questions put to
me by half a dozen inquisitive, preposterously-hatted
Turcomans. It was about half-Imst two in the
afternoon. Thosun was intensely hot. All at once
I became aware of a confused clamour in the village,
and noticed the inhabitants scampering about in a
most unusual fashion, shouting and gesticulating
energetically. Men were hurriedly putting on their
houses the coverings which had been laid aside
as useless. Some women were conveying within doors
with frantic haste newly-washed articles which were
drying in the sun, while others with earthen pitchers
and vessels of every description were hurrying to the
riizier bank for water. Every one was shouting
" Tenkis, tenkis." Notwithstanding what this word
meant, and thinking that the people were crying
" Tekk4," I fancied that Noor Berdi Khan's cavalry
had made a descent on the village, and that the place
was being put in a state of defence, the water I sup-
posed being for the purpose of extinguishing incen-
diary fires. My host, an old hump - backed
Turcornan fisherman, was at the door of his
house, evidently in a state of the greatest anxiety,
and calling to me to some in without loss of a mo-
ment. Under the impression that I was liable at
any moment to be assailed by Tekk6 marauders, I
hastily got my papers together, and rushing into the
hut, _inade straight for the place where my sword and
revolver were hanging. Inside the dwelling all was
confusion. Masts of boats, boat-hooks, and miscella-
neous pieces of wood were being planted against the
roof and sides of the kibitka, and camel-hair ropes
and cables were being hurriedly carried outside and
thrown over the roof, the ends lashed to pickets
in the ground. It was only then I understood
the cause of the- sudden al4rm. A tornado was
coining on, and the people having partially dis-
mantled their houses were in the greatest trepidation
lest they should be totally wrecked and blown away
across the plain. The din throughout the village was
amazing. Dogs, their tails between their legs, ran
about howling dismally. Men and women hurried
to and fro with poles a:rid ropes shouting-and scream-
ing; and the activity of the water-carriers knew no
bounds. These latter were securing a supply before
the water of the river became undrinkable through
that of the sea being forced up the channel, a result
which follows in ten minutes after the com-
mencement of the storm. Meanwhile, to un-
initiated eyes the weather seemed not in the least
likely to undergo a change. The sun was as hot and
the sky as dear as before, Flecks of sea birds, how-
ever, flew screaming inland, and far out over the
Caspian, away on the western horizon, a narrow snow-
white streak was visible. It resembled the steam from
a railway engine. It rose rapidly, the upper edge
torn into jagged fringe known to sailors as "cats-
paws." • The wind, which had been blowing from
the east, suddenly veered about to the opposite
direction; and ere long the sea was completely
shut out from view by the drifting vapour mass.
Theit the land was invaded ; the mountains dis-
appeared behind the mist. Then
.the storm burst
over the village with a sudden violence that was
terrific. Had the inhabitants been taken unawares,
as sometimes happens at night, when the premonitory
signs cannot be observed in tiine, not one of the frail
huts would have been left standing. That in which I
was staggered and shook in such a fashion that I
feared each moment that its frail bird-cage like
framework would go to pieces. Some camels laden
with hay, which were out on the plain when the
" tenkis`" or tornado burst, had their loads scat-
tered into the air in a moment, the animals them-
selves crouching close to the earth to avoid the
violence of the tempest. All day and all night
long its fury' continued ur abated, and even
now on the morning following its commencement
the wind and rain show no sign of abatement. Under
the combined action of the westerly gale and the
natural current the river is on the point of overflowing
its banks within the yip:
_e. Before eyening we shall
hare the entire place fl;t; vd if the eterm continuo.

On such a coast as this where ships are obliged to come
into very shalow water in order to get any way reason-
ably near the shore, the danger of these sudden and
violent tempests is very great I should not be sur-
prised to hear of some shipwrecks having occurred
during the present one, which came on so unexpectedly
in the midst of fine weather. . . .