CHAPTER XXXIII. 
LIFE AMONG THE KIRGHIZ 
B efore we leave the highlands of the Pamirs, and 
return to Kashgar, I should like to say a few words 
about the Kirghiz, the people among whom I had now 
so long sojourned. I have already described their baigas 
or mounted games, and the important part they play 
in their otherwise monotonous life. The predominant 
interests of the Kirghiz are the care of their flocks, and 
the periodic migrations which depend upon them. They 
spend the summers on the yeylaus (summer pasture- 
grounds), on the higher slopes of the Mus-tagh-ata and 
the Pamir mountains ; and in winter, when the cold 
and snow drive them down from the mountains, they 
seek the pastures (kishlaks) in the valleys. The members 
of the same aul are, as a rule, kinsmen, and always graze 
the same yeylaus and the same kishlaks. No other aul 
is permitted to encroach upon pastures thus appropriated 
without previous agreement. 
When a child is born, the kinsmen come the day 
afterwards to offer their congratulations. A sheep is 
slaughtered and a feast held, and prayers are said. On 
the third day the child receives its name, which the mollah 
looks up in a book, every day having its own name, and 
by that the child is known. To this is added the word 
Ogli (son), together with the father's name ; for example, 
Kencheh Sattovaldi Ogli. 
When a young Kirghiz wishes to marry, his parents 
choose him a suitable wife, whom he is obliged to take ; 
if, on the other hand, the bride-elect is not willing, the 
marriage may be abandoned, though the girl too is in 
419 
