THROUGH ASIA 
424 
and even that is cracked in order to extract the marrow, 
which is considered a great dainty. Both before and after 
the meal the hands are washed, and when it is finished, 
they are carried to the beard, whilst all cry together 
‘'Allahtt akhbar ! (God is great!).” The five daily prayers 
of Islam are said punctually by the oldest man of each 
aul. 
In daily life the women drag the heavier load. They 
pitch and strike the tents, weave carpets and ribbons, 
wind ropes and yarn, milk the yak-cows and the goats, 
tend the sheep, the children, and the household. Their 
Hocks are guarded by a number of savag'e sheep-dogs, 
which live on what is left over at meal-time.s. 
The men may be said to do nothing. As a rule, they 
sit round the fire all day long, or at most drive the yaks 
to and from the higher pastures. But they often visit 
their neighbours to buy or sell, or barter their stock. In 
the winter they generally spend the whole day inside the 
yurt, sitting round the fire (which is fed with tesek or yak’s 
dung) talking, while the storm howls outside and the snow- 
swirls in dense clouds round the yurt. 
Thus the Kirghiz passes his life, peacefully and mono- 
tonously, one year being exactly like another, with the 
same occupations, the same recurring migrations. As 
time passes, he grows older. He sees his children 
leave him and make new homes for themselves. His 
beard grows white ; and finally he is carried to the nearest 
saint’s grave, at the foot of the snow-covered mountains, 
among which he and his forefathers have strugeled 
through an existence which, though scant of joys, has yet 
been free from serious cares. 
For this reason, then, they looked upon my long sojourn 
among them as an interesting episode. They had never 
before had an opportunity to see a Ferenghi (European) 
at close quarters, or to observe him going about all his 
mysterious occupations. They could never understand, 
why I insisted upon visiting every single glacier, why 
I sketched everything, and actually went the length of 
hacking pieces of stone off the rocks and filling my boxes 
