The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-11-02
KIRGHIZ CUSTOMS.
A Queer Asiatfc Tribe How They Live
How They Amuse Themselves, Etc.

WE make the following extracts
| from advance sheets of Mr.. Eugene
Schuyler's Turkistan" because of the
interest which every reader will feel in
tie curious glimpses they give us of
men and manners on the Steppes of
Asiatic Russia.
The kirghiz, who engage Mr.. Schuy-
ler's attention in the first chapter, fur
nish many interesting peeularities for
study. OF their mode of life, he says ::
In winter the KirghiZ sometimes
live in underground huts, entered by
crooked passages, where children,
calves and colts all sleep and play to-
gether; but usually their habitatiOn,
both i'll winter and summer, is a
hjJitE0, circular tent made of felt
spread over light wooden frame.
This frame is easily taken apart and
put together, and is so light as to form
load for a single camel only. The
broad pieces of felt are easily stretched
over it, so that the whole can be put
up in about ten minutes. On one side
is door covered by flap of felt, and
the fire is built in the middle, the
smoke escaping through an opening in
the roof. The interior of the tent is
decorated with pieces of ribbon of va
riOus kinds, used to fasten down the
felt, and around the sides the Kirghiz
place and hang all their valuable goods,
and clothes, and, sometimes, in cases
of the richer men, of even silver arti-
cles, with the trappings of horses and
household utensils. The kibitkn forms
a most comfortable abode, being cool
in summer and warm in winter.
"Being Mussulmans, the men all
shave their heads and allow their
boards to grow, although usually
their boards are very ingigniticant-a
straggly tuft of hair scarcely covering
the chin. They wear immense baggy
leather breeches, and coarse shirt
with wide tapping collars. Their
outer garment is dressne-gow and
they usually wear two or three, ac-
cording to the weather. The rich and
distinguished have magnificent velvet
robes, richly embroidered with gold
and silver. a red velvet robe is given
by the Government as a mark of dis
tinction, and there is nothing the
kirghiZ are more proud of unless it be
a medal or cross
These people are nomads, but their
wanderings are confined within certain
laW-impOSed limits. They are stock
breeders chiefly.
Along the Syr Darya the Kirghiz
have to some extent begun to cultivate
the ground, but in general person
who engages in agricultural pursuits
is looked down upon by the rest.
1t is perhaps one characteristic of
nomad life to be utterly imprOvident,
and the kirghiz are particularly so.
They are able to go without drink for
a whole day and food for several days,
and will then gorge themselves to re-
pletion. Their food consists princi-
pally of mutton, although sometimes,
especially at great feasts, they will in
dulge in horse flesh. They, Of course,
have no bread, but they make a sort of
porridge of millet or other easily culti-
waited grain, although many of them
never use this from one years end to
the other. AS a drink tea is now
greatly used in the Steppe, the Kirghiz
buying the cheapest kind Of what is
CdlItu UIIUk tea -Uea winch is hard
pressed into molds so that it resembles
bricks-otherwis they always have
hat71yS a liquor made of fermented
mares milk. Kumys is sourish to the
taste, but not unpleasant, and possesses
agreeable exhilarating although not in
toxicating qualities. 1t is rapidly COM
ing into use in Russia, especially in the
neighborhood of Samara, as q cure for
many diseases. One of their favorite
drinks, especially in Central Asia, is
boz0, kind of beer made of grain, the
effect of which is Immediately to
stupefy and deaden the senses rather
than to inebriate.'
One of the most curious things about
the Kirghiz is their religious state and
history. They have been made Mo-
hammedans, it appears, without their
own consent and without exactly
knowing it, md that too by the inter-
vention of ihe most Mohammedan-
hating of Christian nation. Mr.. Schuy-
Ter says:
"In religion the Khirgiz are regard
ed as Moiammedans, although few
have any fled religious principles, as
they have 10 settled priests, and but
few can real or write. They
rarely pray and their faith is mingled
with many superstitious notions de.
rived from oaganism and Shamanism.
1t is only externally that they are
Mussulmars. On being asked what
religion thty have, unaccustomed to
such d form of the question, they will
| say they dc not know, but at the same
ltlme they would rerel with yigor any