At the present day the occupation of stealing men is followed by the Œzbegs and Turkomans alone. Of the first race the inhabitants of Khiva are to be especially noticed, but they only follow it when in the course of their hostilities with the Turkomans they are driven towards the frontiers of Iran. The Bokhariots have not approached those frontiers since the commencement of this century, and the inhabitants of Khokand may be said to have never come in contact with them. Of the Turkomans, the Tekkes and the Yomuts are most addicted to this traffic; the first seeking their victims in Khorassan, Herat, and Seistan, and even along the western frontier of Afghanistan; the latter along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. After these the Salors and the Sariks are to be mentioned, who, broken in power and diminished in numbers, seldom, but then with so much the greater fury, make their incursions. The Alielis and Karas can only now and then get hold of a caravan of Hindus, Tadjiks, or even Afghans, and these only on the road to Bokhara. The Tchaudors, who dwell between the lower part of the course of the Oxus and the Caspian Sea, since the Russians are no more marketable, nor indeed easy to catch, have scarcely any field left them for exercising their man-stealing propensities. The majority of the slaves in Central Asia are Shiite Persians, more especially from the provinces mentioned above, though many from the remaining provinces are also captured, either in war or during their pilgrimage to Meshed. Besides them there are Sunnite Persians from Khaf and Herat; the last are generally caught while cultivating their fields, or while gathering the pistachio nuts. Djemshidis and Hezares, who fall victims to their mutual feuds, are less often to be met with, and still smaller is the number of Afghans and Hindus. Nay, Osmanlis and Arabs, in spite of the high esteem in which they are held, are sold as slaves, but, as far as I know, there are not more than four or six of them. Jews alone, who have the reputation of being sorcerers, are regarded with too much horror by the inhabitants of Turkestan to be a marketable commodity.