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 Rh sions the best men of the Tekes have been worsted by a small band of regular Persian troops or armed villagers. Against the Russians they have, with one exception, been uniformly unsuccessful. In 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, and 1877, the Akhals have been assailed by Russian troops advancing into their territory, and on each occasion they appear to have had much the worst of it, except in the last-mentioned year, when General Lomakine, after occupying Kizil Arvat, was forced to beat a retreat, either through want of supplies or some other cause. But that was a solitary instance, and this has been more than redeemed by the successful operations of the same general in 1878.

With regard to the Akhal Tekes, it may be here useful to state that they are divided into two sections, the Tokhtamish and the Utamish, which are bitterly hostile to each other. The former are the more numerous, and generally have been supreme; but the Utamish have not rendered a very willing obedience. After a vain attempt in 1875 to reconcile these rival sections by the election of a common head, the Akhal clan broke up into several fragments; and when Lomakine advanced upon their line of forts, it was with a disunited clan that he had to deal. It is more than probable that the Russian general succeeded in establishing some kind of relationship with the Utamish branch of the Tekes, and that the resistance of the Akhals— of which the Russian press makes no mention — collapsed early in the last campaign. The main body of the Tekes must be discouraged by the disasters incurred