506 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



and brothers-in-law, and for a year before every stranger. Later, 

 she veils herself in the presence of her husband's eldest brother, but 

 of no one else, for she must marry the brother if her husband dies, 

 and she must not rouse or foster evil desires in his heart. 



In the case of a second marriage, the Kirghiz woos for himself 

 and without special formalities. If he marries a second wife 

 during the life of his first, and lets her live in the same yurt, as 

 usually happens where the man is not very well-to-do, her lot is a 

 pitiable one. The first wife insists upon her rights, condemns the 

 second to a certain part of the yurt, and only allows her lord 

 himself to exercise his conjugal rights within strict limits. The 

 wife is held in high esteem among the Kirghiz: "We value our 

 wives as we do our ambling nags, both are priceless," my Kirghiz 

 friend Altibei said to me. The men seldom leave their wives, the 

 women still more rarely run away from their husbands; but even 

 in the steppe, love does sometimes break all the bonds of tradition 

 and custom. Abductions also occur, and are not considered dis- 

 graceful. To carry off a maiden whose father's claims are exorbitant 

 is considered by many as praiseworthy rather than blameworthy 

 on the part of both the abductor and abducted. 



Among the Kirghiz, a new-born infant is washed in very salt 

 water as soon as it opens its eyes on the world. The washing is 

 repeated for forty days in succession, and then given up entirely. 

 The suckling is laid at first in a cradle filled with warm, soft, down- 

 like camel wool, so that it is completely covered, and does not 

 suffer from cold in the severest winter; later, it is dressed in a little 

 woollen shirt, which the mother holds over the fire about once in 

 three days, to free it from the parasites abundant in every yurt, 

 but she never changes it for another as long as it holds together. 

 In winter, the careful mother adds a pair of stockings, and, as soon 

 as the child can walk, it is dressed like a grown-up person. 



Both parents are exceedingly fond of their children, treat them 

 always with the greatest tenderness, and never beat them, but they 

 take a pleasure in teaching them all kinds of ugly and unseemly 

 words as soon as they begin to speak, and when these are repeated 

 by the child's innocent lips, they never fail to cause general 



