88 INTERIOR OF A YOURT. 



wanders over the grassy plains bounded by the Yamba and the 

 Ural, Turkistan (now a Russian province), and the country of the 

 Middle Horde (or Siberian Kirghizes). Altogether, the Kirghizes 

 number upwards of one and a quarter million of souls. They 

 are of Turco-Tartaric origin, and Southern Siberia is their mother 

 country.* 



Though owing a nominal allegiance to the Russian Czar and the 

 Chinese Emperor, they are virtually independent, and obey only their 

 sultans or chiefs. They are frequently at war. Many live wholly 

 by brigandage ; suddenly descending, under cover of night, upon 

 the richest aouls, or villages, slaying all who resist, and carrying off 

 horses, cattle, and all objects of value, and men, women and children, 

 whom they sell as slaves. These nocturnal razzias are designated, in 

 the Kirghiz language, barantas. 



The yourt, or tent of these nomades, resembles the kibitka of the 

 Kalmiiks. We borrow a description of one belonging to a Kirghiz 

 chief from Mr. Atkinson's entertaining pages. 



" It was formed," he says,* " of willow trellis-work, put together 

 with untanned strips of skin, made into compartments which fold up. 

 It was a circle of thirty-four feet in diameter, five feet high to the 

 springing of the dome, and twelve feet in the centre. This dome is 

 formed of bent rods of willow, one and a quarter inch diameter, put 

 into the mortice-hole of a ring about four feet across, which secures 

 the top of the dome, admits light, and lets out the smoke. The 

 lower ends of the willow-rods are tied with leathern thongs to the 

 top of the trellis-work at the sides, which renders it quite strong 

 and secure. The whole is then covered with large sheets of voilock, 

 made of wool and camel's hair, fitting close, making it water-tight 

 and warm. A small aperture in the trellis-work forms a door- 

 way, over which a piece of voilock hangs down and closes it ; 

 but in the daytime this is rolled up and secured on the top of 

 the yourt. 



* Max Miiller, " On the Origin of Language," 2nd series, p. 317. 

 t T. W. Atkinson, " Oriental and Western Siberia," pp. 284-286. 



