. A visit to the Russians in central Asia. I felt 98 A Visit to the Russians sorry when the women were ordered to comeout and arrange themselves in front of thekibitka to be photographed. Two of themprobably ranked as beauties on the strengthof their having very rosy cheeks and smallsparkling eyes. They were certainly the onlywomen with an approach to good looks thatI saw during the time that I was in CentralAsia. Alexander the Greats admiration forhis beautiful Roxana (if indeed she was reallyof Turkoman origin) must have been an ac-quired taste ; perhaps he was tired of theloveliness and del
. A visit to the Russians in central Asia. I felt 98 A Visit to the Russians sorry when the women were ordered to comeout and arrange themselves in front of thekibitka to be photographed. Two of themprobably ranked as beauties on the strengthof their having very rosy cheeks and smallsparkling eyes. They were certainly the onlywomen with an approach to good looks thatI saw during the time that I was in CentralAsia. Alexander the Greats admiration forhis beautiful Roxana (if indeed she was reallyof Turkoman origin) must have been an ac-quired taste ; perhaps he was tired of theloveliness and delicate features of Greek andPersian beauties. The roads leading to these villages and tothe o-round where the review was held wereexceedingly rough, especially in the neighbour-hood of some works for irrigation. I was in acarriao-e with a pair of splendid black Russianhorses, only half broken. The lady sittingbeside me did not appear to be aware of thedanger, but the officer who accompanied us wasevidently uneasy. The driver could scarcely. in Central Asia loi keep his control over the excited animals, andat the moment of starting from Merv thereseemed to be a probability of our taking aplunge over the bridge into the Murghab. This interesting day was brought to a closeby a ball at the officers club. I had heardthat the dancing of the Russians was inferioronly to that of the Austrians, but this opinionmust have been the exaggeration of a Russo-phile! As to their hospitality there could bebut one opinion. It was a pleasure to watch the mazurkadanced in a fashion very different from anythingto be seen in England. The ladies take verysmall steps and fly the length of the room ledby one hand ; their partners, on the contrary,take very long strides backwards ; they occasion-ally turn, as in a round dance, but apparentlynot according to any rule. It must be veryfatiguing, but it is the custom in every dancefor the gentlemen to change their partnersseveral times. Literally a tour cie v
Size: 1240px × 2015px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherlondonkpaultrencht
