National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

They consist of two main divisions called Tagháy and Adigina, and are also called Ká rá-
Kirghiz. The Tagháy are nearly all Russian subjects. Their principal divisions are Sultán
on the Chú and Talas rivers, Búgbú on the south of Isigh Kol, Sárighbaghish on the east of
Isighkol, Chirik in Kákshál and Aksáy, Chongbaghish on Atbáshi and Aktágh to Tirik Dawán,
Sáyak on Karátagh and on the Nárin and Jumghál rivers, Kochí in Kákshal and Artosh and
Nárin. All these are Russian subjects, but some of each, except the two first, are Káshghar
subjects; as are all the Náyman and Ká rá Khitay, who extend with some Sáyak and Kochí
from Aktágh all round to Karákásh and the Khutan frontier.

The Adigina comprise the camps of Bárga, Bakal, Munák, Sawáy, Jorú, Josh, Kokchíla,
&c., and are partly Khokand and partly Russian subjects. They are in Osh, Andijan,
Marghilán and the Farghana mountains, and in summer roam Aláy and Kizil Art with the
Sáyak, Ká rá Khitay, and Náymán of Káshghar. Amongst the Adigina are many Kapchák
and Kazzák 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 Islám and are Sunnî Musalmáns, 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 Kalmák. They are said to be much given to
drunkenness by a strong spirit they distil from mare's milk. It is called nasha and is distilled
from cumis which is fermented butter milk of the mare. What we tasted at Káshghar 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
Karákochún in Lob are noted for the superiority of this spirit turned out 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 Atálik'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 Bí, who settles disputes in consultation with the
ácsacál or "grey beards"—"elders." The chief of a whole tribe is called Sultán, and he is the
referee in cases of appeal against the decision of the Bí, 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 impul-
sive 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 Sárigh
Kúl, 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 agreed 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