It is the ordinary practice of the men-stealers to keep their booty by them not longer than two or three days. They are by that time transferred to the slave broker, who by way of advance has already furnished the robbers with money or provisions. These conscienceless usurers derive the largest profit from the abominable traffic, for the robbers are for the most part dissolute characters, who, contrary to the usual practice of the nomads, gamble away, or squander in vicious enjoyments, their money as soon as they get it. Slave brokers are of two kinds. (1) Turkomans, who carry on the commerce which exists between the inhabitants of the steppes and the Khanats. They wait until they have got together thirty, forty, or fifty slaves, and then travel in a caravan to Khiva or Bokhara. In the meantime their human merchandise are let out for hire as day labourers, in order to lighten the expense of their maintenance. (2) Sunnite inhabitants of the Persian frontier. These men play a very curious and ambiguous _rôle_, and are the most detestable of all engaged in the whole business. On the one side they serve the Persians as go-betweens, employed to find out such persons as are kept in slavery in the steppes or in the Khanats; on the other they are the most useful spies of the nomads, whom they furnish with the best intelligence about a village or a caravan. Many, especially such as live on the eastern frontier of Persia, have buildings for the reception of slaves in Herat, Maymene, and Bokhara, and just as once in the year they lead to the market a string of miserable slaves of both sexes, so on their return they bring back with them a number of captives redeemed through their mediation. From the family of one of these unfortunate creatures, they take regularly three times the ordinary amount of the ransom, and talk largely about the difficulty of finding him, and of persuading his captor to accept of the money, while all along they know the very place where he is, and have probably already spoken about the price. It is amusing to observe how these scamps change their sentiments, their religion, and political opinions, according to circumstances. On their way to Bokhara, while playing the part of slave holders, they act the zealous Bokhariot, abuse the heretical Shiites, and exult in the just measure dealt out to the Persian slaves. On their return to Iran, when playing the part of slave ransomers, they are loud in their abuse of the brutality and cruelty of the Bokhariots, shed bitter tears over the misfortunes of the poor Persians, and are, in one word, the softest-hearted creatures in the world.