THE KIRGHIZ OF THE MOUNTAINS. 
67 
strictly nomadic. Tlie chief men were certainly well-to-do, and seemed to want 
for nothing. One of these, Kuve Gen Shigai-ef (fig. 38), had been a judge among 
his people (fig. 39). He invited ns to lunch in his yurt at Akh Tash (White Stone) 
on the Son Kul plain. The yurt was one of the finest we had seen, with a hundred 
sticks supporting the clean felts of the roof His two wives, wearing heavv, white 
turban - like head - dresses, were 
seated by him, embroidering. His 
eldest son wrote the names of the 
family in my notebook in Turkish 
characters with a ready hand. The 
judge told us — through two trans- 
lators, as usual — some of his expe- 
riences in settling disputes, chiefly 
about pasture land, and gave us 
much information about our route, 
directing one of his sons to accom- 
pany us to his winter village, not 
far from Lssik Kul, a three days' 
journey. In another village, where 
the local chief was absent, his 
elderly father entertained us most 
genially. He was particularly 
interested in our maps, and asked 
many questions as to the names 
of mountains and streams, their 
distance and direction from his 
camp, and found much pleasure 
in confirming our readings by 
reference to his men. At the end 
of the evening's talk our host 
.said: "You have traveled far aud have seen much of the world; )ou must know 
many things. We are simple, ignorant people, who know only our own mountains 
and vallevs." 
Fig. 38,- 
Kuve-Gen-Shigai-ef, his Younger Wife and Children, and 
our Head Man, Ma'raim. 
ROUTE OVER THE MOUNTAINS. 
Our route, briefly indicated at the beginning of this report, may here be given 
in more detail in so far as the journey beyond Andizhan is concerned ; and it may 
be noted at the outset that there are wagon roads in the larger \'alleys, with bridges 
over some of the streams, while trails cross the mountains in all directions. In the 
prevailing absence of forests, movement is ea.sy, except in certain narrow and rock- 
walled gorges which some of the rivers have worn in their passage through the 
After leaving Andizhan on June 27, we went northeastward up the terraced 
valley (fig. 63) of the (western) Kugart River, a branch of the Kara Dan-a, following 
