AMONG THE KIRGHIZ 
287 
with the imperturbable majesty of a god. The old man 
had formerly been Chong Beg {principal chieftain) over 
the Sarik-kol Kirghiz, a dignity which had passed from 
father to son in his family through seven generations 
before him, partly as independent chiefs, partly under 
foreign domination. 
When not absorbed in his own meditations, the old 
man was very talkative, and plainly enjoyed telling what 
he could remember of past times and his own family 
circumstances. 
A KIRGHIZ BAIGA 
H e had seven sons and five daughters, forty-three 
grandchildren, and sixteen great-grandchildren. Nearly 
all of them lived together in one community, a large 
aul (tent -village) which in summer was pitched beside 
Lake Kara-kul, and in winter near Bassyk-kul. His 
eldest son, Oshur Beg, an unusually facetious old man, 
who gradually attached himself to me, told me, that his 
father Khoat Beg in the course of his long life had had 
four Kirghiz wives, two of whom still lived, old women 
of ninety, besides one hundred Sart wives, whom he 
bought at different times in Kashgar, and whom he 
successively discarded when he grew tired of them. 
