Semirechia and were baptized was that of Buddhistic-
Shamanism, which the lamas diligently propagated
among the Solons, Sibos, and Manchus, very similar,
I presume, to what I found among the Buriats, where
old Shaman customs still lingered, though the people
had accepted Buddhism. The lamas are teachers,
medical sorcerers, and priests. Hence their services
are continually called into requisition : at a birth to
read prayers over the mother, who for a month is
considered unclean, and to name the child ; later to
instruct the boy, to marry him when grown up, to
treat him when sick with prayers and drugs, and after
death to decide whether the corpse shall be buried,
exposed on the Steppe,-— to be eaten, I presume, by dogs
as at Urga,— or burned. The lama, in fact, appears as
chief counsellor and teacher in all the important events
of life, and supplies his parishioners besides with
amulets and burkhans.
The Kalmuks had special oratories in Kuldja, and a
monastery on the Tekess. In their tents they have
movable burkhans, or idols,* and round their necks
they carry amulets made of short prayers sewn on
pieces of cloth. When journeying they wear, besides
the ordinary amulets, a burkhan in a leather purse.f
Family life among the Kalmuks possesses greater
freedom than among the Solons. A Kalmuk girl is
a shepherdess. She is married early, without much
attention to her predilections, even without her consent,
* Reminding one of L aban, Gen. xxxi. 19, 34.
f Some of the burkhans are painted in oil colours on cloth, some are
carved on copper, or cut on wood and stone, baked in clay, or sometimes
printed on paper. The printed burkhans on cloth are often rolled
on a wooden cylinder, and tied, but unrolled and hung in the tent during
prayer. On fête days the Kalmuks place before the burkhans small
copper cups, filled with Kunjut oil, and ignited. They have also various
perfumes, one being prepared from a finely-broken brushwood. Besides
but she is at liberty to leave her husband and return
to her relations. Whether she likes a suitor is known
by her leaving the tent as soon as the marriage
negotiations commence, or the reverse, by her staying
during the whole conference. The parents, however,
seldom regard her taste, and the aspirant, with their
consent, watches for an opportunity of seizing the girl
and carrying her off by force, the parents considering
A KALMUK BEAUTY.
their duty towards their daughter fulfilled if only the
man carry her off without their seeing it. A Kalmuk
widow may marry three months after her husband’s
death, or even after one month’s mourning.
The Kalmuks, who lead a nomad life, cordially hate
the settled Taranchis, Dungans, and especially the
the burkhans, religious respect is shown to little black pyramids, the
size of a pigeon’ s egg, with Tibetan letters in relief. These are said to
come from Tibet, prepared from a mixture of clay with the ashes of
pious Buddhists whose corpses have been burned. The pyramids are
carried by Kalmuks in copper or silver cases on their bosom as sacred
amulets.