Journal of Eurasian Studies

April-June 2012 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume IV., Issue 2.
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beloved West, which I despaired of ever seeing again. Being perfectly conscious I looked forward to the
hour of prayer with its sounds of devotion, or rather to the dawn of day. Meanwhile gentle sleep stole
over me, sealing my burning eyelids, but I was soon roused from my beneficent slumbers by the
monotonous: "La Illah, il Allah !"
When I awoke and began to arrange my ideas I thought I felt a slight cessation of the pain. The burning
and stinging sensation grew less and less violent, and about the time that the sun had risen to the height
of a lance, I could attempt to stand on my foot, although very feebly and clumsily yet. My companions
assured me that the morning prayer had the effect of exorcising the devil which had crept into my body
by means of the bite of the scorpion. Of course I dared not suggest any doubts as to this pious version of
my cure, but was too well pleased under any circumstances to have got over this dreadful night, the
horrors of which will be ever present in my memory.
After having waited for many weary days for the arrival of the caravan from Herat we were at length
informed that the looked-for event was near at hand. I immediately hastened to Kerki, in the hope of
starting at once. But my hopes in this direction were doomed to disappointment. There were about forty
freed slaves from Persia and Herat in the caravan of Mollah Zeman, who were now on their way home
under his dearly-paid protection. In journeying alone these poor freed-men run the risk of being pounced
upon and sold into slavery again. These former slaves returning home must pay toll here, and this gave
occasion to a great deal of noisy demonstration, the kervanbashi having stated the number of slaves at a
lower figure than was warranted by the actual facts, whilst the officer of customs claimed toll for others
not slaves, setting down every person who was not known to him to be free as a slave, and demanding
toll for him. And as neither of them would yield, but stood up in defence of their respective allegations,
the hubbub and anger seemed to be in a fair way of never subsiding. It took the entire day to examine the
goods, the men, the camels, and the asses. We left at last, not, however, without the escort of the officer of
the customs, who kept a vigilant eye upon the caravan lest some straggling travellers might join it at some
by-path. He did not leave us until we had crossed the frontiers of Bokhara, and had proceeded on our
journey through the desert.
At the first station I gathered that there were a great number of people, besides myself, in the caravan
who were longing to set their eyes on the southernmost border of Central Asia. The freedmen appeared to
seek our company by preference, that is, the company of the hadjis, and by their joining us I had occasion
to hear of truly affecting instances of the misery of some. Near me was sitting a grayheaded old man who
had just ransomed his son, aged thirty, in Bokhara, and was taking him back to the arms of a young wife
and infants. He had to purchase his son's freedom by sacrificing all he had, the ransom amounting to fifty
gold pieces. "I shall rather bear poverty," he said, "than see my son in chains." His home was in Khaf, in
Eastern Persia. Not far from me there was lying a muscular man, whose hair had turned gray with mental
agony. A few years ago the Turkomans had carried away into slavery his wife, his sister, and six children.
For a whole year he had wearily to drag his steps through Khiva and Bokhara before he could find a trace
of them. When he had succeeded in tracking them a heavy blow was in store for him. His wife and the
two smallest of the children as well as his sister had perished from the hardships of slavery, and of the
four remaining children he could purchase the freedom of only the two younger ones; the two elder ones,
girls, who had blossomed into beautiful lasses, being rated too high and above the amount of ransom he
could afford to pay. There was a group of an aged woman and a young man that attracted our attention.
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