508 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



them long before the end comes, though the words sounding in their 

 ear may be quite unintelligible. According to the custom among 

 true believers, the friends of a dying man gather round his bed and 

 repeat to him the first phrase of the confession of faith of all the 

 Prophet's followers, " There is but one God ", until he responds with 

 the second, "And Mohammed is his prophet". As soon as these 

 words have passed his lips the angel Munkir opens the gates of 

 Paradise, and therefore all who have heard the words exclaim, " El 

 hamdu lillahi ", Praise be to God! 



As soon as the master of a yurt has closed his eyes in death, 

 messengers are sent in all directions to bear the tidings to his 

 relatives and friends, and, according to the rank and standing of 

 the dead man, these messengers may ride from ten to fifty or sixty 

 miles across the steppe from aul to aul. A relative in one aul may 

 also carry on the news to those in another. While the messengers 

 are on their way, the corpse is washed and enveloped in its "lailach", 

 which last every Kirghiz procures during his lifetime, and stores up 

 with his valuables. When this duty has been fulfilled, the corpse 

 is carried out of the yurt and laid upon a bier formed by a half- 

 extended yurt-trellis. The mollah, who has been sent for, pronounces 

 a blessing over the dead; then the trellis with its burden is lifted 

 up and fastened to the saddle of a camel, and the train of assembled 

 friends and kinsmen sets out on its way to the burial-place, which 

 is often far distant. 



Whenever the dying man has breathed his last, the women begin 

 the lament for the dead. The one most nearly related to him begins 

 the song and gives vent to her heart's grief in more or less deeply- 

 felt words; the others join in simultaneously at the end of every 

 phrase or verse, and one after another does her best to clothe her 

 ideas in fit words. The dirge becomes more and more mournful up 

 till the moment when the camel rises with his burden, and not 

 by sounds and words only, but by their whole conduct the women 

 testify to their increasing grief. At length they tear their hair and 

 scratch their faces till blood flows. Not till the funeral procession, 

 in which the women take no part, has disappeared from sight, do 

 the cries and tears gradually cease. 



