Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/69

 and plundering hamlets and villages, and had returned within their own borders, carrying with them their human and agricultural spoil. The security which these Persian frontier villages now enjoy may be looked upon as some compensation for the severe pressure brought to bear upon the Persian Empire by the close proximity of the ever-advancing dominions of the Czar; whilst the Turcomans, now prevented by an iron hand from indulging in their predatory instincts, are gradually being formed by Russian officers into an irregular cavalry of no mean efficiency, who will, perchance, some day ravage the fertile districts of the Khorassan, not following, as of yore, their own wild fancies, but in more or less strict accordance with the rules of modern warfare.

On Tuesday, April 1st, we started for our final day's march to Dushak; our kind host resolved to accompany us as far as the frontier, but not to go further, in order to avoid arousing the extraordinary susceptibilities of the Russians, who, conscious probably of their present local military weakness, and of their own habit of spying and intriguing