492 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Hugh A. 



PEASANTS IN THE REGION OF FORMER 

 COLONIES IN THE EAKE BAIKAL 

 DISTRICT, SIBERIA 



meet the eye to show that man has cared 

 to dwell, or will ever care to dwell, in 

 this wilderness, save to fell the woods 

 and hunt the wild creatures that shelter 

 therein. It is a land not to be thought of 

 in terms of time and space, for in it 

 nothing has ever happened to measure 

 time by, and in space it exists only as the 

 gathering place of the waters that h-vd 

 the great rivers, as yet receiving nothing 

 from without and as yet producing hardly 

 anything to send elsewhere. 



THE KALMUKS DWELL IN CONICAL II UTS 

 MADE OF BARK 



From a station on the route into Mon- 

 golia we were forced to turn back, for 

 the tarantass, which had been frequently 



repaired, was pronounced unfit 

 to carry us any farther along a 

 track described as worse than 

 that we had traveled; so it was 

 evidently impossible to reach the 

 central snows of Belukha. 



Taking a more westerly track 

 on the return journey, we passed 

 between bare, bold mountains 

 over several high table-lands, in 

 some of which we met nomad 

 Kirghiz, with their herds; in 

 others Kalmuks, dwelling in 

 round conical huts of bark, not 

 unlike the Indian wigwams. The 

 former were Mussulmans of 

 Turkic stock, the latter Buddhist 

 Mongols, but in both there re- 

 mains much of the old Shamanist 

 spirit worship, which prevailed 

 over all northern and central Asia 

 before the spread from Arabia 

 and from India of the two great 

 religions aforesaid. 



The people are wild and un- 

 kempt, many of them wearing 

 sheepskins or bearskins, but they 

 are peaceable in aspect and with 

 good, simple faces, not wanting 

 in intelligence. Round the Kal- 

 muk huts birch poles are fixed, 

 from which flutter strips of white 

 linen, apparently meant to ward 

 off evil spirits. 



Both races live off their sheep, 



cattle, and horses, drinking the 



milk of all three, but loving best 



the koumiss, made of mare's 



milk, which, when fermented, becomes 



intoxicating. Sometimes they cultivate a 



little patch of ground. 



KALMUKS AND KIRGHIZ NEVER WALK 



A Kalmuk or a Kirghiz never walks ; 

 like an Icelander, he jumps on his wiry 

 little horse to go a hundred yards. 



On these high plains we saw swarms 

 of little burrowing creatures called tar- 

 baghans, resembling the marmot of the 

 Alps, scurrying to their holes as our ve- 

 hicle approached, and at a spot where the 

 ground was covered with the Alpine edel- 

 weiss (Gnaphalium le onto podium) for 

 fully a square mile, we saw a long train 

 of camels stalking over the pasture, a 

 strange juxtaposition of the plant that in 



Mo ran 

 PENAL 



