THE NOMAD HERDSMEN AND HERDS OF THE STEPPES. 479 



to be milked, and again in the evening the mothers are brought in 

 before the young for the same purpose. With the help of the dogs, 

 which render no other service, the whole flock is gathered into a 

 limited space, and the work begins. The mistress and servants of a 

 yurt, or those who live together as neighbours in an aul, appear with 

 their milk vessels, and dexterously seizing one sheep after another, 

 drag it to a rope stretched between poles, pass a sling formed by the 

 rope itself round the neck of each, and thus force the animals to 

 remain standing in rows with the heads turned inwards, the udders 

 outwards. In this manner thirty or forty head of sheep and goats 

 are fastened together in a few minutes, and the so-called " kogon " 

 is formed. Taught by experience, the animals stand perfectly still 

 as soon as they feel the string, and submit passively to all that 

 follows. The women, sitting opposite each other, begin at one end, 

 or if there are many sheep, at both ends of the double row, seize 

 the short teats between forefinger and thumb, and exhaust the milk 

 with rapid pulls. If it does not flow freely they shake the udder 

 with a blow from the left hand, exactly as the sucking young ones 

 do, and only when even by this means nothing more can be obtained 

 do they proceed to the next sheep. The men of the yurt or aul, who 

 may perhaps have helped to catch and fasten the sheep and goats, 

 sit about in all sorts of positions, impossible and almost inconceiv- 

 able to us, and allow their " red tongue " the fullest freedom. Some 

 of the little boys make their first venture at riding on the sheep, 

 unless they prefer the shoulders of their mothers for that purpose. 

 The latter are as little distracted by these doings of their ofispring 

 as by any other little incidents. Whether they sit on the dry 

 ground or in fresh sheep's dung, whether some of that falls into 

 their poplar- wood vessels, affects them little, for the vessel is in any 

 case as dirty as the hand which milks; and though sheep's dung may 

 be unclean in our eyes it is not so in those of the Kirghiz, who 

 believe in the Koran. At length the milking is at an end and the 

 animals, which have been tethered all this time and have been 

 ruminating for want of better employment, can be released ; a quick 

 pull at one end of the cord, all the slings are undone, and the sheep 

 and goats are free. 



