452 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



ing and disappearing, is the lot of all the children of the steppe, 

 men and animals alike. Certain portions submit to the labours of 

 the husbandman; in others, towns and villages may be established, 

 but the steppe as a whole must for ever remain the possession of 

 the nomadic herdsman, who knows how to adapt himself to all its 

 conditions of life. 



Among these nomadic herdsmen the Kirghiz take the first rank, 

 by virtue both of numbers and of civilization. Their domain ex- 

 tends from the Don and the Volga to the mountains of Thian- 

 shan, and from the middle Irtish to south of the Balkhash Lake, 

 indeed, almost to Khiva and Bokhara; they are divided into tribes 

 and hordes, into steppe and mountain herdsmen, but they are one 

 in descent, in language and religion, in manners and customs, 

 however much the various tribes may appear to differ. The smallest 

 or youngest horde wanders throughout the steppe of Orenburg; a 

 branch of the same, calling itself the Buka tribe, traverses the 

 steppe between the Volga and Ural rivers, especially in the govern- 

 ments of Turgai and Ural; the middle or elder horde inhabits the 

 steppes and mountains of the Irtish and Balkhash regions; and 

 finally, extending from beyond the river Hi towards Khiva and 

 Bokhara are to be found the ever-changing dwelling-places of the 

 mountain Kirghiz, who describe themselves as the great, or eldest 

 horde. No branch of these people applies the name Kirgis or Kirghiz 

 to itself, for that is a term of infamy equivalent to "freebooters". 

 The proper designation of our people is Kaisak, Kasak, or, as we 

 should read it, Cossack, although even the Russians apply the name 

 Cossack to a people quite distinct from the inhabitants of the 

 steppe. 



The Kirghiz, as I shall call them nevertheless, are a Turkish 

 people, about whose racial affinities different opinions are held. 

 Many, if not most, travellers look upon them as true Mongolians, 

 while others regard them, probably more correctly, as a mixed race, 

 suggestive of the Mongolians in some particulars, but, on the whole, 

 exhibiting the characteristics of Indo- Germans, and especially 

 resembling the Turkomans. All the Kirghiz I saw belonged to the 

 middle horde, and were well-built people, small, or of medium 



