Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/442

436 Kokan, they took sides with those who would pay the most for their services.

"Down to very recently the whole of Northern Persia was subject to Turcoman raids, and agriculture was carried on under great difficulties.

The raids were sometimes carried up to within a hundred miles of Teheran, or about five hundred miles inside the Persian boundary. They were organized months beforehand, and sometimes as many as five or six