FAMILY AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE KIRGHIZ. 493 



all alike, rich and poor, high and low, educated and uneducated. 

 Their rich, sonorous, but rather hard language, though only a 

 dialect of the Tartar, is remarkably expressive. Even a foreigner 

 who is unacquainted with it can feel that every word is distinctly 

 pronounced, every syllable correctly accented, so that one can 

 almost make out the sense from the sound. Their way of speaking 

 is very sprightly, the cadence of each phrase corresponding to its 

 meaning, and the pauses correctly observed, so that a conversation 

 sounds somewhat broken, though the flow of speech is never arrested 

 for a moment. An expression of face which speaks for itself, and 

 very lively gestures, add to the effect of their speech. If the subject 

 be particularly interesting, their vivacity is apt to increase to such 

 a pitch of excitement that one begins to fear that from words they 

 will go on to blows. But even the most heated wordy strife invari- 

 ably ends in quietness and peace. 



It will be readily understood that the bard holds a prominent 

 place among such a people. Everyone who distinguishes himself 

 above his fellows by his fluency of speech gains respect and honour. 

 The presence of a singer who can improvise is indispensable to 

 every festival. His creative power need not be of a very high 

 order; but his words must flow without interruption and in a 

 definite and familiar metre to gain him the reputation of a poet. 

 But every Kirghiz bard has at his command a store of poetic ideas 

 which is by no means scanty, and to clothe these ideas in words is 

 easy enough to him. The nomadic pastoral life, though on the 

 whole monotonous, has its charms, and certain chords only require 

 to be struck to give keen pleasure to every hearer. Numerous 

 sagas and legends, which live in the minds of all, yield abundant 

 material for filling up blanks; and thus the bard's narrative flows 

 on like a calm stream whose springs never dry up: it is only neces- 

 sary to keep it in the proper metre to make him a poet for ever. 

 Even this is made easy to him; for every bard accompanies his 

 recitative on the three-stringed Kirghiz zither, and as he links 

 on each measure to the next by playing on this, he can make 

 the interlude last until the next verse has taken shape in his mind. 

 The speed and skill with which this is done determines his rank 



