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Regarding the nomads who inhabit the Western Steppe, and who are popularly known as Kirghiz, although they are very different from the true Kirghiz or Buruts, who live about the Lake Issyk Kul and in the mountain ranges of Khokand, we have some interesting particulars. They number in all about a million and a half. Although of Turkish origin, they are as much of a Mongol as of a Turkish type. One reason of this is said to be that, until recent times, they preferred, whenever possible, to marry Kalmuk women, carrying them off from the confines of China, or the Astrakhan Steppe. Their language is one of the purest dialects of Tartar. In general they are short in stature, with round swarthy faces, insignificant noses and small sharp black eyes with the tightly drawn eyelid which is seen in all Mongol tribes.
In winter, they sometimes live in underground huts, entered by crooked passages, where children, calves, and colts all sleep and play together; but usually their habitation, both in winter and summer, is a kibitka, -- a circular tent made of felt spread over a light wooden frame. This frame is easily taken apart and put together, and is so light as to form a 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 a door covered by a 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 various kinds, used to fasten down the felt; and around the sides, the Kirghiz place and hang all their valuable goods, consisting of carpets, silk mattresses, and clothes, and sometimes, in cases of the richer men, of even silver articles, with the trappings of horses and household utensils.
Being Mussulmans, the men all shave their heads and allow their beards to grow, although usually their beards are very in-significant -- a straggly tuft of hair scarcely covering the chin. They wear immense baggy leather breeches, and a coarse shirt with wide flapping collars. Their outer garment is a dressing-gown, and they usually wear two or three, according 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 distinction, and there is nothing the Kirghiz are more proud of, unless it be a medal or a cross. They wear on their heads embroidered skull-caps, and over those, oddly-shaped hoods of sheepskin, with the wool inside, or conical felt hats cut with two slits for convenience of turning up the brims, and not, as has been said, that it might not be like a Christian hat, of which they know nothing. On grand occasions, the wealthy don tall steeple-crowned hats, with the brim turning up in two immense horns, made of felt, or usually of velvet, embroidered often with gold.
But their greatest adornments are their belts, saddles, and bridles, which are often so covered with silver, gold, and precious stones as to be almost solid. The women are dressed the same as the men, but have their heads and necks swathed in loose folds of white cotton cloth, so as to make a sort of bib and turban at the same time. In religion, the Kirghiz are regarded as Mohammedans, although few of them have any fixed religious principles. They take advantage of the religion they are supposed to possess by putting in practice one of its principles, -- to have as many wives as they please.
The women have to do all the work, while the men lead a lazy, shiftless life, devoting themselves almost entirely to the care of their horses. As a mark of respect to their husbands and male relatives, the women are not allowed to mention their real names in the presence of others, but must either call them by some term adopted for the purpose, or use a circumlocution. An incident is related of a Kirghiz woman who wanted to say that a wolf had stolen a sheep and taken it to the reedy shore of the lake. Unfortunately the men of the family bore names corresponding to most of these words, and she was obliged to gasp out ¨C "In the rustling beyond the wet a growler gnaws one of our woolies."
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