Across the Roof of the World. 



meet with another tribe, the Kazaks, in the Tzanma Valley, and 

 on debouching from the ravine below the pass I encountered 

 several auls occupied by Kazaks. The ground was here covered 

 with long grass and fairly well wooded, whilst through the centre 

 of the valley flowed a river whose waters joined those of the 

 Jirgalan and Tekkes further west. 



I camped near the Kazak auls in an open grassy clearing, 

 and sent for the headmen with a view to securing fresh ponies, as 

 the Kalmuks from the Yulduz now informed me they knew 

 nothing of the country beyond, and that it belonged to the 

 Kazaks, who were a lawless people and would inevitably steal 

 their horses on the return journey. 



Judging from the appearance of the Kazaks there certainly 

 seemed to be a good deal in what the Kalmuks said, so I agreed 

 to let them return to the Yulduz, provided I could secure a change 

 of ponies. The head-man in charge of the Kazak auls here 

 arrived shortly after, and on producing my Chinese passports 

 and other documents said he could arrange transport and guides 

 to the Tekkes Valley, adding it was only three days' march 

 to the west. This petty chieftain, or Zung as he is called in 

 the vernacular, was quite a young man, wearing a large 

 white flowing robe fastened at the waist with an embroidered 

 girdle, and carrying on his shaven pate a fox-skin cap. High- 

 heeled boots reaching to the knees completed the dress of this 

 Central Asian cavalier, and imparted to him a decidedly swash- 

 buckler air. 



As already indicated, the Thian Shan is inhabited by three 

 races of nomads — Kalmuk, Kazak and Kirghiz. Of these the 

 first is the dominant race and the one with which travellers to 

 these mountains come mostly in contact. 



The origin of the Kazaks rests to a considerable extent in 

 obscurity, ^lany theories have been advanced as to their rise, the 

 leading ethnographical authorities inclining to the opinion that they 

 are descended from Turkish tribes who in days gone by marched 

 through Asia conquering the territory they traversed and forming 



