IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
C. G. MANNERHEIM
was called Turgun tau, now it is called Ushköptertung tau, higher up Qaragai su tau, opposite the Taya su Keng su tau and still higher Djambenyng tau opposite the Narat.
The mountains seemed to approach each other by degrees and the valley narrowed before us in a striking manner. On either side of the road, both at the foot of the slopes and further down the river, you see many Kirghiz yurts. Most of them are congregated on the small water-channels that flow from the mountain clefts down to the river Zanma or the Kunges. In this valley and the gorges on either side there are two akalaktche districts on either bank with about i 70o yurts on the left bank of the Kunges and about i 500 on the right bank up to the junction of the Tekes with the Kunges.
In the Tekes valley and the gorges on the sides there are three akalaktche districts with about 2500 yurts in all. Rifles seem to be a rarity among the Kirghiz. The few that exist are either antediluvian muzzle-loaders or Berdan rifles which cost some dozens of roubles here. Cartridges, which are sold in Qulja at 20 roubles a hundred, cost as much as 5o cop. each here. 7 or 8 miles E of the Zanma the road takes us up to a row of hills projecting from the mountains. The ground goes for some time in large waves.
In the distance we caught sight of a yurt with a little white flag over the roof. This is the conventional signal that is flown for three months in the case of the death of a prominent Kirghiz. Later we met a wedding procession. The bride,preceded by two old camels and two young ones carrying her yurt, is decked out in her best and sits on a saddle with rich silver fittings, with a couple of women by her side and followed by a Kirghiz leading one or two packhorses laden with her dowry. Everything is absolutely new and furnished with embroidered, coloured covers. Both the cases and the carefully tied, red painted yurt poles look neat. The bride's hair is done in small plaits that fall all round her face. She looks stern and determined and her expression is unattractive. Further on we met long lines of Kirghiz women, all on the way to the wedding and sitting on expensive silver-mounted saddles.
We encamped on the rolling ground by a small stream, Tell qara su, close to three Kirghiz yurts inhabited by the elder of r oo yurts and his family. The grass during to-day's journey was very luscious.
The road still follows the left bank of the Kunges. The horses simply waded through the tall grass. We rode close to the slopes in the S, at times over a tongue projecting some distance from them. The road crosses many small streams, along which there are rows of Kirghiz yurts. The beds of the streams are not deep and there is no sign of marshiness. We passed a couple of mazars with some pretensions to decorative effect. Following the advice of a couple of Zangis, who had come to meet me, we made an attempt to cross the Kunges, because the north bank is said to be level, whereas the south bank rises very much and is very hilly with incessant ascents and descents to small streams that have cut deep beds in the ground, or rather, flow at the bottom of deep ravines. We reached the Kunges at a spot where the bank is marshy for a quarter of a mile and there are no trees in the bed of the river. The river flows in a large arm here, i A. of a mile in width, which soon seems to divide into two main arms with many branches. The bottom is stony, the current 20/7 m per second. This latter was difficult to measure, for most of the floats dis-
)z66(
lune 13th. Camp at Tai-asu.
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