whom I have spoken, and whose potent influence was so diplomatically enlisted by Russia prior to the annexation of Merv, was also in Baku, waiting to receive the compliments, to which she was unquestionably entitled, from the lips of the Emperor. There were also present the Khans of the Sarik and Salor Turkomans of Yuletan, Sarakhs, and Penjdeh, and some imposing Kirghiz notabilities with gorgeous accoutrements and prodigiously high steeple-crowned hats. The delegation brought with them rich carpets and a collection of wild animals as presents to the Emperor, who in return loaded them with European gifts and arms, and said in the course of his speech that he hoped to repay their visit at Merv in 1889 or 1890.

I do not think that any sight could have impressed me more profoundly with the completeness of Russia's conquest, or with her remarkable talents of fraternisation with the conquered, than the spectacle of these men (and among their thirty odd companions who were assembled with them, there were doubtless other cases as remarkable), only eight years ago the bitter and determined enemies of Russia on the battlefield, but now wearing her uniform, standing high in her service, and crossing to Europe in order to salute as their sovereign the Great White Czar. Skobeleff's policy of 'Hands all round,' when the fight is over, seems to have been not one whit less successful than was the ferocious severity of the preliminary blow.

If other evidence were needed of Russia's triumph, it might be found in the walls of the great earthen

H

St The Tea that which the SILLAely siter leaving the DMENN1 by forced labour, Lily and upon the enterled ramparts are not

y than was the shattered

ge. Sy fet at their base, the summit, and from thirty to

fony for high and originally enclosing a space one and the quarters of a mile long by three-quarters of a mile broad, these huge clay structures, which were intended finally and utterly to repel the Muscovite advance, have never either sheltered besieged or withstood besiegers. Like a great railway embankment they overtop the plain, and in their premature decay are imposing monuments of a bloodless victory.

The military and political questions arising out of

of Merv

the mention of Merv have almost tempted me to for- old cities get my undertaking to make some allusion to the old cities that at different times have borne the name. When the train, however, after traversing the oasis for ten miles from the modern town, pulls up at the station of Bairam Ali, in the midst of an absolute wilderness of crumbling brick and clay, the spectacle of walls, towers, ramparts, and domes, stretching in

bewildering confusion to the horizon, reminds us that we are in the centre of bygone greatness. Here, within a short distance of each other, and covering an area of several square miles, in which there is scarcely a yard without some remains of the past, or with a single perfect relic, are to be seen the ruins of at least three cities that have been born, and flourished, and have died. The eldest and easternmost of these is the city now called Giaour Kala, and variously

attributed by the natives, according to the quality of their erudition, to Zoroaster, or to Iskander, the local name for Alexander the Great. In these parts anything old, and misty, and uncertain is set down with unfaltering confidence to the Macedonian conqueror.1 I was told by a long resident in the country that the general knowledge of past history is limited to three names--Alexander, Tamerlane, and Kaufmann; the Russian Governor-General, as the most recent, being popularly regarded as the biggest personage of the three. Giaour Kala, if it be the city of Alexander, is the fort said to have been built by him in B.C. 328, on his return from the campaign in Sogdiana. It was destroyed by the Arabs 1,200 years ago. In its present state it consists of a great rectangular walled enclosure with the ruins of a citadel in its north-east

Next in age and size comes the city of the Sobaks, of Up Arslan, the Great Lion, and of Sultan Sass, so celebrated in chronicles and legends, who mte met century ruled as lieutenant of the Aalst the most independent kingdom of KhoPad and destroyed with true Mongol

son of Jenghis Khan about 1220, it powaarvan g`a heap of shapeless ruins, above which 4. dome and crumbling walls of the