FAMILY AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE KIRGHIZ. 491 



between them, one horseman after another showed up clearly 

 against the clouds, and was lost to view again between masses of 

 rock, to appear shortly afterwards upon the stony slopes. None 

 dismounted, none hesitated an instant to choose his path. It was 

 easier for them to ride among the mountains than to walk. 



The sportsman's endurance is on a par with his boldness. Not 

 only on horseback, but while stalking and lying in wait for his 

 game, he shows marvellous perseverance. That he follows a trail 

 for several days is not remarkable, when we take his love of 

 riding into account; but with the matchlock, which he still uses 

 as often as the flintlock, in his hand, he will creep for five or six 

 hundred yards along the ground like a stealthy cat, or lie in wait 

 for hours in storm and rain until the game comes within range of 

 his gun. He never shoots at long range, and never without resting 

 the barrel of his gun on the fork attached to it, but he aims with 

 certainty, and knows exactly where to send his bullet. 



Though the Kirghiz is thus persistent and untiring as horseman, 

 sportsman, and herdsman, he is very unwilling to do any other kind 

 of work. He tills the fields, but in the most careless manner, and 

 never more than is absolutely imperative. Tilling the soil appears 

 to him as inglorious as every other employment not connected with 

 his flocks and herds. He is remarkably skilful in turning water 

 aside for purposes of irrigation, has a highly-developed sense of 

 locality, and can mark out his drains without using a surveyor's 

 table or water-level. But it is only in his boyhood that he takes 

 up such work with any willingness; after he has attained to pos- 

 sessions of his own he never touches pick or shovel again. Still less 

 does he like to work at any trade. He knows how to prepare 

 leather, to fashion it into all kinds of straps and saddlery, and to 

 decorate these very tastefully with iron or silver work, and he can 

 even make knives and weapons, but when he does such work, it is 

 always unwillingly and without taking any pleasure in it. Yet he 

 is by no means a lazy or careless workman, but is diligent and con- 

 scientious, and whoever has succeeded in gaining his skilful hand 

 has seldom reason to be dissatisfied with it. 



He rates mental work much more highly than physical. His 



