474 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



poplars on the river-bank. Other localities are only selected when 

 it is a question of taking advantage of some place, such as the salt 

 steppe, which has to be avoided in summer because it lacks water, 

 that being supplied in sufficient abundance for man and beast as 

 soon as snow has fallen. Though the winter dwelling may be a 

 fixed one, it is always truly miserable, a musty, damp, dark hut, so 

 lightly built that the inmates depend on the snow for thickening 

 the walls and roof, and protecting them from storms. These walls 

 are occasionally made of piled -up tree -trunks, oftener of rough 

 stones, but most frequently of plaited willows or bundles of reeds. 

 The roof and thatch are always of reeds. Close beside the dwelling- 

 house is a similarly-constructed stable for the young animals, and 

 at some distance there is a shelter for the rest of the herds. 



In the beginning of winter the Kirghiz moves into such a winter 

 dwelling, unless, as is perhaps usually the case, he prefers the much 

 more comfortable yurt. The fuel for either has been long ago 

 prepared, for in the preceding spring he, or rather his wife, upon 

 whom falls all the heavier and more disagreeable work, mixed the 

 dung of the herd animals with straw, and worked it into square 

 cakes, which were then piled in heaps and dried in the sun. All the 

 grass in the immediate neighbourhood has been carefully spared, so 

 that the herds may graze as near the dwelling as possible; here, too, 

 the hay which has been mown at a distance has been collected. If 

 the winter be a good one, that is, if not much snow falls, the herds 

 find food enough, but if it be severe, it often renders all precautions 

 futile, and levies a toll on his herds heavier than is counterbalanced 

 by the spring increase. Thus, in a good winter, cheerfulness pre- 

 vails even in the dark hut of the wandering herdsman, but in a 

 severe one, which reduces his beasts to walking skeletons, black 

 care and grief visit even the pleasant yurt. In hut and yurt alike 

 there is either comfort and plenty or bitter want during that 

 much-dreaded season of the year. 



It is not till towards the end of April, in many years not before 

 the end of May, that the herdsman leaves his winter camp and 

 begins to travel. The horses, tended by special herdsmen, move on 

 in advance, so as not to annoy the smaller animals. It is not the 



