Semi-weekly herald. [volume] (Durango, Colo.) 1907-1917, 1910-08-29

customed to such journey. My
friend Vladimir Fabyan Gnesin, who
represents a MOSCOW cotton factory at
Tashkend as he formerly did in New
York, recently crossed from Merry to
Khiva in seven days in a wagon drawn
didn't see drop of water all the way
except that which he carried with him.
Khiva is thriving city. the center
of a prosperous agricultural country.
and Professor Pumpelly of Harvard,
who came here for an archaeological
investigation In behalf of the Car
negie institution at Washington, be-
lieves that cereals were cultivated
here more than eight thousand years
before the Christian era and that the
domestication of cattle, pigs and sheep
and the breeding of horses and camels
were common between seven and eight
thousand years before Christ. He be
llieves that agriculture preceded pas
toral pursuits by several centuries;
that the original settlers of this sec
ton of the globe had fixed habitations
and cultivated the soil before their no
madic habits were involuntarily &C
quired because OF the necessity ci
seeking new pastures for their ncreas-
ing herds.
Cotton was growing wild, from the
beginning of time, but was not cult
yated until many centuries later, and
American cotton dates from the Rus
sian occupation. There are today i'll
Khiva several American cotton gins
and congresses, and two factories fof
extracting the oil from cotton seed.
The machinery was brought in by way
of the Black and the Caspian seas and
carried overland from Merv on the
backs of camels.
If you will look at the map of Cen
about equi-distant from Persia on the
south, the Aral sea on the north, and
the Caspian sea on the west; and that
| it is situated on the west bank OF the
ANU Daria river, surrounded by des-
erts in every direction, except in the
valley of the Anu. 1t has always been
an important town and has always had
a large trade in cattle, horses, cam
els, sheep and goats, as well as the
products that are derived from them.
| The shipments OF wool are next in
amount to those of cotton and were
formerly much larger.
Khiva is very old, older than his
tory and at one time was celebrated
for its colleges and the scholarship OF
the library of the Mosque of st. So
phia at Constantinople showed me a
book which, he said, was written in a
dead language, older than Sanscrit
or Arabic, the original basis of The
present Turkish tongue, and ne de-
clared that nobody in Constantinople
was able to read it. 1t could only
be deciphered by some venerable
priests in Khiva, where, he said, the
most learned men in the world were
living. While Khiva does not entirely
merit that reputation today, it was al
one time the center of theological and
literary activity in Asia, and as the
capital of a khanate attracted men
OF wealth and fame and ambition.
The Russians first came into contact
with the Khivans during the early part
of the seventeenth century. In 1920
a band of cossacks plundered a cara
van of Khivan merchants and, having
found out from them about the wealth
of their city. dashed across the desert
and raided the town, which was taken
absolutely by surprise and suffered
an entirely new experience. The cos.
sacks loaded a thousand carts with
their spoils and carried off thousand
women, but soon paid the penalty of
their audacity. Their success made
them reckless, and band of Kirkniz,
starting in pursuit, drove them into
the desert, where all those who were
not cut down in their saddles perish I'd
Inv VI tHtIs tA-
plot is one of the most vivid pages in
khivan history.
1t was a long time before the cos.
sacks of the Don learned the fate Of
their comrades, and, when the knowl-
edge came to them, they sent another
expedition of 1000 warriors to punish
the Khivans, but most of them died
on the desert. A third expedition
Jared even worse, for those who sur
vived the perils of thirst and starva.
ton were captured and made slaves
by the Khivans. Several managed IL
escape and found their way back to
Russia, from whom a knowledge of
khiva came to Peter the Great.
Soon afterward that enterprlsing
sovereign received Information from
the governor of Siberia that gold was
to be found along the valley of the
Anu Daria and two expeditions were
fitted out to explore the country, orc
starting from Siberia and the other
from the Caucasus. The former vent
as far as the valley of the Syr Daria
The latter fell into the same tran in
| which tho bn.