xvi Introdttdion. 



portion of their national life, and exercised no small influence on 

 their moral and intellectual development — on their religion, manners, 

 and customs ; this influence even extending itself to the language, the 

 poetry, and the arts of these primitive shepherds. 



The immense Steppes of Central Asia still furnish us vs^ith examples 

 of this condition of the unsettled races who wander over them with 

 their countless herds and flocks 5 and a recent traveller^ in that region 

 of the world pleasantly describes some of the scenes he witnessed among 

 them. ' Just as the day dawned I turned out to examine our position, 

 when I discovered the snowy peaks of the Syan-Shan. They appeared 

 cold and ghost-like against the deep blue sky 5 presently they were 

 tipped with the sun's rays, and shone forth like rubies. I sat on the 

 crround watching the changes with much interest, till the whole land- 

 scape was lighted up. Immediately near me was a busy scene — on 

 one side the men were milking the mares, to the number of more than 

 one hundred, and carrying the leathern pails of milk to the " Koumis " 

 bag in the " yourt 5 " the young foals being secured in two long lines to 

 pegs driven into the ground. In front, and on the opposite side, the 

 women were milking cows, sheep, and goats, and at a little distance 

 beyond these the camels were suckling their young. Around the 

 " aoul " (camp) the Steppe was filled with animal life. The sultan told 

 me that there were more than two thousand horses, half the number 

 of cows and oxen, two hundred and eighty camels, and more than six 

 thousand sheep and goats. The screams of the camels, the bellowing 

 of the bulls, the neighing of horses, and the bleating of sheep and goats, 

 formed a pastoral chorus such as I had never heard in Europe.' On 

 another occasion he writes : "^ All were out with the dawn, and then 

 commenced a scene in pastoral life highly interesting to me. I had 

 left the " yourt " (tent), and looked around in every direction, but be- 

 held only a mass of living animals. The whole of the herds are 

 brought to the aoul at night, where they are most carefully guarded 

 by watchmen and dogs placed in every direction, rendering it almost 

 impossible to enter any aoul without detection. In my childhood I 

 lived in localities where there were many horses and cattle, and used to 

 think a flock of five or six hundred sheep a large one 5 but was now 

 astonished by the numbers before and around me. The noise at first 

 was almost intolerable — there was the sharp cry of the camels, the 

 neighing of the horses, the bellowing of the bulls, the bleating of the 

 sheep and goats, the barking of the dogs, and the shouting of the men, 



^ Atkinson. Oriental and Western Siberia, p. 497. 



