Travels and Adventures East of the Caspian during the Years 1879–81, including Five Months' Residence among the Tekkés of Merv Wanderings in Baluchistan

Abstract

MR O'DONOVAN'S venturesome excursion to the Merv Oasis stands out conspicuously as perhaps the most romantic episode in the recent annals of Central Asiatic travel. Yet in proceeding eastwards his original goal was not the Mervli Turkomans, but their western kindred, the Akhal Tekkés of the Daman-i-Koh. Sent out as the Special Correspondent of the Daily News with the Russian expedition against those nomads in 1879, he was at first well received, and spent some profitable time during the progress of military operations on the Caspian seaboard. But after the death of General Lazareff, having been suddenly banished from Chikislar, his ramblings lay henceforth mainly within the North Persian frontier. Here he again went over the ground, with which we have been made tolerably familiar by V. Baker, Macgregor, Stewart, and other recent explorers. Nevertheless even of this region Mr. O'Donovan has much to tell us, which is both new and interesting. There is a freshness and a fulness of detail in his account of Meshed, Tehrán, Kuchan, Resht, Shahrúd, as well as of the people and scenery of Khorasán and Mazandarán, which lend a peculiar charm to the first of these brilliantly written volumes.

Travels and Adventures East of the Caspian during the Years 1879–81, including Five Months' Residence among the Tekkés of Merv.

By Edmond O'Donovan. Two Vols. (London: Smith Elder, 1882.)

Wanderings in Baluchistan.

By Major-General Sir C. M. MacGregor. (London: Allen and Co., 1882.)