FAMILY AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE KIRGHIZ. 495 



a very favourable one, and it increases the more intimately one 

 becomes acquainted with him. So it was in my case, and it is also 

 the opinion of Russians who have associated with Kirghiz for years, 

 in particular, of the government officials, and of other travellers who 

 have lived among them. It is scarcely too much to say that the 

 Kirghiz possesses very many good qualities and very few bad ones, 

 or reveals very few to strangers. Mentally wide-awake, shrewd, 

 vivacious, intelligent where things known to him are concerned, 

 good-humoured, obliging, courteous, kindly, hospitable and com- 

 passionate, he is, of his kind, a most excellent man, whose bad 

 qualities one can easily overlook if one studies him without preju- 

 dice. He is polite without being servile, treats those above him 

 respectfully but without cringing, those beneath him affably but not 

 contemptuously. He usually hesitates a little before replying to a 

 question, but his answer is quiet and clear, and his sharply-accented 

 way of speaking gives it an expression of definiteness. He is 

 obliging towards everyone, but does more from ambition than from 

 hope of gain, more to earn praise and approval than money or 

 money's worth. The District Governor, Tamar Bey Metikoff, who 

 gave us his escort for almost a month, was the most obliging, polite, 

 kindly man under the sun, always ready to fulfil a wish of ours, 

 untiring in our service or for our benefit, and all this solely in the 

 hope of gaining our approval and that of the Governor-general. He 

 told us so in the clearest language when we tried to force presents 

 upon him. 



In harmony with such ambition is the pride of the higher-class 

 Kirghiz in his descent and family. He boasts of distant ancestors, 

 and occasionally traces back his pedigree to Chingis-Khan, only 

 marries with those of equally good birth, suffers no spot on his 

 honour, and forgives no insult to it. But in addition, he exhibits 

 a personal vanity which one would scarcely expect of him. Not 

 only authority and wealth, dignity and rank, but youth and beauty 

 are, in his eyes, gifts to be highly esteemed. But he differs from 

 many handsome young men among us in that he never descends to 

 coxcombry. He boasts openly and without reserve of the gifts 

 bestowed on him by nature or acquired by his own skill, but such 



