( 60 ) .
They consist of two main divisions called Taghay and Adigina, and are also called Kara-Kirghiz. The Taghay are nearly all Russian subjects. Their principal divisions are Sultan on the Chû and Talas rivers, Bûghû on the south of Isigh Kol, Sarighbaghish on the east of Isighkol, Chirik in Kakshal and Aksay, Chongbaghish on Atbashi and Aktigh to Tirik Dawan, Sayak on Karatagh and on the Main and Jumghal rivers, Kochi in Kakshal and Artosh and Main. All these are Russian subjects, but some of each, except the two first, are Kashghar subjects ; as are all the Nyman and Kart Khitay, who extend with some Sayak and Kochi from Aktagh all round to Karakash and the Khutan frontier.
The Adigina comprise the camps of Barga, Bakal, Munak, &away, Joni, Josh, Kokchila, &c., and are partly ' Khokand and partly Russian subjects. They are in Osh, Andijan, Marghilan and the Farghana mountains, and in summer roam Ally and Kizil Art with the Sayak, Kart Khitay, and Nayman of Kashghar. Amongst the Adigina are many Kapchak and Kazzak camps who have separated from their own Chiefs. The wealth of the Kirghiz consists in their horses and cattle. They have numbers of camels and oxen, and sheep innumerable. They sow wheat, barley, and maize here and there on the lower valleys, but they have no regular fields or gardens. They make excellent felts and carpets, and a soft woollen cloth, as well as tapes, and caps, and a variety of domestic clothing and tent gear ; all from the wool of their flocks and herds. They bring their felts and carpets, and cattle and skins of butter, &c., to market for sale, and take back cotton cloth, boots, snuff, tea, tobacco, needles, cauldrons of iron, cotton prints, and such like, as silks, furs, &c.
The Kirghiz profess Islam and are Sunni Musalmans, but they are very ignorant of the doctrines of the faith, and very careless in the observance of its ordinances. In fact many of them are yet pagans, though different from the Kalmak. They are said to be much given to drunkenness by a strong spirit they distil from mare's milk. It is called pasha and is distilled from c:cmis which is fermented butter milk of the mare. What we tasted at Kashghar was a slightly vinous, subacid drink of very agreeable flavour and mildly exhilarating effect in the dose of a pint. It is the national drink of the Kirghiz, and reputed to possess all sorts of wonderful virtues and properties. It is a tonic and aid to digestion, prevents fever, cures dysentery, retards old age, restores virility, and makes the barren fertile, besides many other benefits it confers on its consumers. The spirit distilled from it is a colourless fluid apparently the same as alcohol, for very little suffices to produce senseless intoxication. The Kirghiz of Karakochûn in Lob are noted for the superiority of this spirit turned oùt of their stills. It is usually made from mare's milk, but any other or a mixture of milks is also used for the purpose.
The Kirghiz have many customs peculiar to themselves, and treat their women with the
/ greatest confidence and deference. They are very fond of hunting and are robbers by nature. Until the establishment of the AtAlik's rule they systematically levied black mail on all caravans passing through their lands, and habitually plundered unprotected travellers. Their camps are under the government of a Chief or B% who settles disputes in consultation with the cicsaccil or " grey beards"=" elders." The chief of a whole tribe is called Sultân, and he is the referee in cases of appeal against the decision of the Bi, but as a rule the people are very much their own masters and keep the law in their own hands. They are described as extremely impulsive and impatient of control, and in cases where an aggrieved party considers himself unjustly treated by his judges it is not an uncommon thing for him to kill himself, or to tear open his shirt and gash his chest and stomach with a knife, or to snatch up his own child and dash out its brains on the ground, thereby throwing the responsibility of his ruin upon his unjust judges.
Their marriage customs and ceremonies are very similar to those of the people of Sarigh Kûl, though they don't intermarry with them at all; but their observance of the marriage ties is from all accounts very lax, and adultery and elopement are a fruitful source of discord. The bride is always purchased from the father at a price varying according to the rank of the parties, but whatever the sum agreè'd to, it is paid in cattle or clothing and always in nine of each kind. Thus nine horses, and nine sheep, and nine camels, &c., &c. A rich man may give more, but it must be in the same ratio—a multiple of nine, and no fractional quantity—and the reckoning is made by that figure all the way through, as four nines of horses, and four nines
IIIF Color HighRes
