3. _Hasankuli_, on the shore of the gulf of this sea, having the same name. This place is densely peopled in summer, and produces tolerably good melons.
4. _Etrek_ lies to the left of Hasankuli, on the banks of the river of like appellation, which, at a distance of six miles from this place, precipitates itself into the sea.
5. _Tchekishlar_, also a Yaylak (summer abode), near to the hill on the sea-shore, named Ak Tepe.
6. _Tcheleken_, [Footnote 97] an island only distant a few miles from the continent. The inhabitants are peaceful traders.
[Footnote 97: Better written Tchereken from the Persian Tchar-ken, the four mines, so called on account of the four principal productions of the island.]
The Yomuts are divided into the following branches and clans:--
1. Atabay-- Sehene, Düngirtchi, Tana Kisarka, Kesze, Temek. 2. Djafer bay, having again two divisions,
a. Yarali-- Iri Tomatch, Kizil Sakalli, Arigköseli, Tchokkan borkan, Onuk Tomatch.
b. Nurali-- Kelte, Karindjik, Gazili Kör, Hasankululu kör Pankötek.
3. Sheref Djuni, of whom one part dwells in Görghen, and the other in Khiva,
a. Görghen-- Karabölke, Tevedji, Telgay Djafer.
b. Khiva-- Oküz, Salak, Ushak, Kodjuk, Meshrik, Imreli.
4. Ogurdjali-- Semedin, Ghiray Terekme, Nedin.
The Ogurdjali, hardly ever busying themselves with marauding and robbery, refuse to recognise the Yomuts as of their tribe, and dealing themselves peaceably with Persia, with which they have great activity of commerce, they have become subjects of { 309} the Shah, to whom they pay a yearly tribute of 1000 ducats. The Persians, however, do not interfere in their internal government.
The Yomuts themselves are accustomed to count the number of their tents in the aggregate at from forty to fifty thousand. Their calculations are as little to be guaranteed as the statements of the other tribes, for the greatness of their numbers always constitutes, with these nomads, a question of national pride.
Let us now add together the different tribes:--
Reckoning to each tent five persons, we have a sum-total of 982,500 souls; and as I have myself diminished the Turkoman statements by at least a third, we may regard this as the lowest possible estimate of the whole population.