The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-07-27
A Tekke Turkoman.

| Khiva and the Emirate of BOkhara,
after the World war, Is three times as
large as Texas. vet 1t was almost lost
in the TSar'S domains. Ii has as many
people as New York and MasSachu-
sets combined and there are as few
Russians as there are native-hOrn
Americans on Manhattan isle. Its two
largest rivers empty into sea about
the size Of Vermont, New Hampshire.
and Massachusetts, and do their best
10 keep it from drying up into salt
pile; but they are slowly losing the
battle
The first point of interest along the
railway is the Akhal oasis. which can
easily be distinguished in spring. but
resembles the desert in late fall and
winter. 1t is the largest oasis i'm TUr-
kestan, 100 miles long and 10 miles
wide. Here dwell the Tekke Turlio-
mans-huge, fine-looking men. who
wear SheepS6in hats a foot high. The
TurkOmanS owe as much of their
charm To their fantastic headgear us
does a stage beauty. When they Ie-
move them and reveal the shaved
heads and gaudy embroidered skull
caps beneath, they seem commonplace:
yet there are many of the older men
whose majesty of bearing is not
matter of costume alone. Their red
cotton khalats give them princely
statelineSs which the trOuSered and
booted Russian with his shirt Hopping
lacks.
Farther east lies the romantic mud
flower pot of BOkhara, which might
be any desert city inclosed in crum-
bling walls and composed of mud
houses which have almost no windows
on the streets. A good rain would
wash IL away, and If left to the raw
ages of time this ancient city would
soon sink to the level of the dust from
which II was constructed. But Box
hara, like many another ancient city,
does not owe its permanence TO brick,
marble, or reinforced concrete, and II
will probably survive for a few more
centuries, patching up here and re-
building there, never completely old
and never wholly new.
Architecture of Samarkand.
What costume does for BOkhara,
architecture did for Samarkand. The
Registrar, once the show-place of Cen
trail Asia, still retains much of its
former beauty, for the tinted tiles
which encase the imposing facades
of the mosque schools of Shir-Dar,
Tillah Kari, and Ulug Beg have re-
tanned as much of their Oriental brilli-
ance as is pleasing TO the western eye.
Time has touched the tiles of Samar-
kand with loving fingers, leaving all
that was beautiful and nothing that
was garish.
Baku is more cosmopolitan than
Bokhara, for BOkhara is only cos
mopOlitan in an Asiatic sense, while
Baku contains European influences
and inhabitants as well. From one
end to the other. the Caucasus is q
vast mine Of copper, iron, tin, zinc,
and other metals. In the lovely Ala
IAN Valley of Kakhetia some of the
worlds finest wine Is grown, and the
North Caucasus is granary where
American agricultural machinery has
reaped rich harvests; but at the east
end Of the Caucasus II is oil that has
made modern history and made Baku
a familiar name among business men
the world over.
Baku Is well built In spots and Is
tremendously wealthy; but it lacks
the distinction Of city that has
grown gracefully. 1t savors Of the
nOuveaux riches and the boom town
still, at time when 1t is already
declining as an Oil-production center.
with GrOzny and Maikop rising TO
wrest its laurels from the oil port
on the Caspian.