Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/474

468 When you are considering Sarakhs,' he continued, 'remember that there are two places of that name. Old Sarakhs is a mass of ruins; only a single building remains, and that is a tomb in which the body of Abel is said to rest. Another tomb a few miles away is known as the tomb of Cain, and there is a tradition that the Garden of Eden was in the neighborhood of Sarakhs. The Russians have occupied Old Sarakhs, and will establish a military post there of considerable importance as soon as the railway is completed.

Old Sarakhs is near the Heri-Rud River, which here forms a dividing line between Persia and the Turcoman country. The Persians have built

a town called New Sarakhs on their side of the river, and protected it by a fort; they keep a small garrison there, and as we have no quarrel with Persia, and are not likely to have, it is quite sufficient for all purposes of peace.

I wish you could go with me through that country and see the effect of the Turcoman raiding system which was continued through generations, and has only recently come to an end. Centuries ago the valleys of the Murghab and Heri-Rud contained a large population, and the same was the case over a wide extent of country.

Ride where you will, you find the traces of irrigating canals in great number. In the third century this region was said to contain a thousand cities, probably an exaggeration, but indicative of the dense population it sustained, and might still sustain. In many places the valleys of the Murghab and Heri-Rud are several miles in width and perfectly flat. There are ruined canals all over these wide places, showing that they were once cultivated; they might be cultivated again and rendered fertile as of old by the same system that was once in vogue. The country is a desert because it is not tilled, and it is not tilled because it has no inhabitants.