instruments for tapping him, so that directions only
could be given that he should be brought into Kuldja.
The Sibos are said to be excellent gardeners, and when
we repaired again to the town house to drink tea, they
not only crowded round to see us eat and to partake
of what we offered, but they brought us melons, after
which we returned to Kuldja.
There remains one more tribe to be noticed in the
present chapter, who are, in some respects, the most
interesting in the Ili valley, because they are the least
known. The Russians have long had the Turanian
nomads under their rule, but not so in an equal degree
the nomad Kalmuks. I have alluded in early chapters
to the migration of one of their tribes, called Torgouts,
to the Volga towards the close of the seventeenth century,
and how, after the annihilation of the Sungarian
Kalmuks, the Torgouts were invited by the Chinese
to return. They did so in 1771, and were allowed to
pasture the rich lands on the Kungess and Tekess
rivers, considerably to the east of Kuldja, where they
still wander under the name of Torgouts. In 1876 they
numbered 9,600 males and 6,400 females.
I met with some of these people in Kuldja, from
whom it was easy to see that they represent the
Mongol type in comparative purity, reminding me of
the Buriats, another Mongol tribe, I saw in 1879.
They are anything but good-looking.* It should be
added that they are good-tempered and generous, but
exceedingly indolent. They are credulous, and dearly
* The Mongol has a flat face, cheek-bones prominent, hut not so wide
apart, I think, as with the Buriats, retreating chin and forehead, small
eyes like narrow slits, and obliquely placed. Their lips are colourless,
set in a strange, almost idiotic, and at the same time inexpressively sad,
smile. The teeth of the men are large and white, whilst those of the
women are stained with black. The hair is straight, coarse, and
love anecdotes and stories. Artificially produced gaiety,
however, is followed by deep melancholy. Usually
timid, they become very angry if irritated, and though
not remarkable for severe morals, they excel the morally
corrupt Chinese, than whom they are more generous,
frank, and hospitable. They use no flour food unless
it be g ru e l; and their brick tea they boil with milk, fat,
salt, flour, and millet. I remember being treated to a
cup of this mixture in a Mongol dwelling in Siberia,
and my “ accident done for the purpose ” in upsetting
the cup and declining with thanks to have it refilled.
The cares of domestic management all fall upon the
women, who, according to M. Ostroumoff,* are not
noted for conjugal fidelity, in connection with which it
should be mentioned that a very large proportion of
the males are lamas, and therefore celibates so-called,
so that, the proportion of males to females being
increased, polygamy is encouraged.
For administrative purposes before the Russian
rule, and now again I suppose under the Chinese,
the Kalmuks are divided into squadrons (sumuns, or
sumuls), each of 200 tents. They constitute the
Chinese irregular cavalry. Each sumul is under the
direction of a cleric called a gelun, and a laic called a
sang. The gelun has the right to promote the lower
lamas of his squadron to the rank of getsul, representing
invariably black, the beard scanty and bristle-like, and the skin
rough and sunburnt. They are below the middle height, with broad
shoulders, and long arms that hang idly by the side. The legs are
bowed, and the voice harsh, sharp, and strongly aspirate. The coarse
hair that is left unshaven at the ba ck of the head is twisted by the men
into a long queue.
* “ Chinese Emigrants in the Semirechia Oblast,” etc., by N. P.
Ostroumoff, to whose able paper I am indebted for information concerning
the Kalmuks, that I have seen nowhere else.