Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-01
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
ABOUT TURKESTAN

ABOUT IUhhESIAN
Turkestan, grown restive under
Bolshevist rule, is reported to be
Cultivating a healthy nationalist
movement.
'It may cause a shock even to
the seasoned student of geography
to learn that America has exerted
d profound effect upon Turkestan,"
says bulletin from the National
Geographic Society.
yet it was American love for
Oriental rugs that changed marriage
customs of nomadic people, that
brought forth on this globe a COM
paratively homely race OF human
beings. that built up a complex sys-
tenn of morals in Turkestan."
In a communication to the society,
Maynard Owen Williams explains
how these changes were wrought.
The "Queen of Rugs"
''The Tekkintzi rug, more COM
monty known by the less distinctive
name Of Bokhara, is the loveliest
of the desert loom, he writes. Its
charm lies not in intricacy of design,
manifold detail, or symbolic mean
ing. 1t is not picture in wool.
Briliiapcy of color it does not have.
But in richness of tone the TekkintZi
wins it's rightful place as queen Of
rugs.
''Then came the Russian migra-
ton, creeping down toward India,
and the fearless nomad was cruelty
beaten in his own field by the we'll
armed fighters of an agricultural
race. The locomotive came to
lshriek derision at his train of stalk
ing camels, and a band of shining
steel cut its burning way across his
trackless desert.
Then the trade in rugs, which
| had begun as a matter of art and
| individual choice, became q COM
mercial transaction. AS the pas
lures became smaller, irrigated plots
made it possible for the nomad to
become agriculturalist, and the
dweller of the yurtch began to buy
with the product Of his wife's labor
| the frames of his felt hut, instead
OF making them himself from the
reeds of the marshes. The old
roaming life was gone and mud
huts, plain and square, began to
grow up from the desert plain,
| usually centering about a homely
station building. Not flocks, but
rugs became the source of income.
Maids Skill Her Dowry
For centuries, possibly extending
back to the Iranian peoples whom
Alexander found mere on his way
| to India, the Tekke maiden had been
| taught to dye and weave. When she
was married to her Mohammedan
| husband, the young bride took with
| her to her masters hut the rugs her
patient toll had formed, and he in
turn paid a corresponding price to
| her parents. Her dowry was her
| skill and it's product.
sdcYa 51Ial1v fhasa mast ernjAcH9 in
mahogany, deep chocolate, terra
Gotta, old rose, burnt orange and
black found their way to America,
where their appeal was irresistible.
Buyers raced one another across
Europe into the Transcaspian home
of history to secure the priceless
treasures of a conquered race. The
skill of the Tekke woman began to
win it's reward. Her genius had
caused the art world to wear q path
to her hut and hsr open-air loom.
But there was the unhappy side.
Caught in Own Mesh
''Only the rich young Turkomans
could afford to buy a wife at the
exorbitant price her skill made pos
sible. Parents raised the price of
their daughters. consoling them
selves with the fact that if they
could not produce offspring they
could at least produce valuable rugs.
The age of marriage became higher.
Caught in the trap which skillful
women had woven, the young men
revolted from the exaggerated de-
mands of the avaricious and unro-
mantle parents and sought cheaper
wives elsewhere, while Tekke wo-
men, robbed of live and enmeshed
in their own skeins of fine wool,
dragged out busy lives of hated spin
sterhood.
1.-THE Turkoman was a fine, erect
man, whose real height was ac-
cenuated by massive, shaggy
sheepskin shake till he seemed a
veritable giant. With American
methods he could have won the
hand of any wife he chose. But he
was forced by custom to follow the
method of barter and his purse was
as thin as his lips.
Among the Persians, Kirghizes
and Sarts, this militant Romeo
bought wives for a tenth of what
u Turkoman woman would cost.
But he had to pay the price in the
irregular features and smaller bod
les of his offspring. Commerce
robbed him of his proper mate and
put in her place an inferior woman
who bore LONELINESS instead of
beauty"