The derivation of the word “ Kirghese,” spelt also
Kirgiz, Kirgeze, Kirghiz, and pronounced by themselves
K yrgyz, has not been very satisfactorily explained.
Radloff, whose knowledge of their language
has been praised by M. Ujfalvy, derives the word
from K y rk , forty, and is, a hundred, there being two
tribes so called; but a commoner etymology is that
of Kyrk, forty, and K yz, maiden, in allusion to a legend
about forty girls and a dog, that is told also by the
surrounding tribes, and by a Chinese writer as far
back as the time of the Mongol supremacy.* They
belong to the Turco-Tatar or Altai race, and their two
principal divisions coincide with the surface of their
territory, the Kara-Kirghese, or Kirghese proper, as
they are sometimes called, inhabiting the mountains,
and the Kazaks the plains.
The Kara (Black) or Dikokamenni (Wild Mountain)
Kirghese, called also by Chinese and Kalmuks
probably within reach of my readers, so that I have used them but
little. I have preferred rather to seek information from Russian
authors, who, to a large extent, have drawn their inspiration from
personal observation, as in the cases of Valikhanoff, at once a Russian
officer and the son of a sultan, who travelled as a native among' the
K a ra -K irgh e se ; Rollo, who lectured in the half Kirghese town of
Orenburg, with Kostenko and Mayeff, all of whom wrote on the spot
for readers who could test the accuracy of their statements by what
they saw. M. Ujfalvy’ s work I have found useful for its anthropology,
whilst through the kindness of Mrs. Telfer, in translating for me Kozloff
and Gotobitzky, on the laws of the Kirghese and the characteristics
of their songs, I have become acquainted with information hitherto
unpublished in English.
* It is curious to note in connection with this, as Dr. Schuyler points
out, the.story given by K in g Hethum, the mediaeval traveller, of the
people living beyond Khatai— that is, east of the region inhabited by
the Kirghese. “ There is ,” he said, “ beyond the Khatai, a country
where the women have the shape of human beings, and are gifted with
speech ; while the men have that of dogs, and are dumb, large, and
hairy, and of whose progeny,” he adds, “ the males are bom in the
shape of dogs, and the females like women.
Buruts (a Mongolian form of the plural, as ' seen in
the Yakut, Torgut, Tangut), are sub-divided into two
wings, “ On" and “ Sol,"— that is, right and left—
among the latter of whom are certain tribes whose
names we met with in conflict with the Russians, such
as the Sarybaguish and Bogu. These wild Kirghese
roam in Semirechia, Ferghana, and Kashgaria— that
is, in the valleys of the Thian Shan, the Alai, and
the Pamir, almost to Tibet and Hindustan.
The Kirghese of the plains call themselves (as my
friend Mr. Howorth would have me always call them)
“ Kazaks,” or horsemen (some say fugitive, vagabond,
robber}, whence is derived the Russian word “ Cossack.”
They are divided into the Little, Middle, and
Great Hordes, each of which is sub-divided into races,
the races into tribes, the tribes into clans, and these into
auls, or groups of tents, each living in independence.*
The number of the Kirghese can be estimated only
by calculating 5 persons to each Kibitka that pays
taxes, f I compute them at two and a quarter millions.
* These sub-divisions of the Little and Middle Hordes are given in
some detail by Levshine ; but he says little of the Great Horde, which
in his day (from 1820-30) was not much known to the Russians, though
Valikhanoff gives a short account thereof. The Little Horde occupies
the Orenburg steppe, or parts of the provinces of Orenburg, Ural, and
Turgai, and consists o f three races broken up into 23 tribes. The Middle
Horde inhabits the provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, and
consists of 4 races or 3-7 tribes, whilst the Great Horde nomadizes
in Semirechia, south of Lake Balkhash and Turkistan, and consists of
5 races, or 19 tribes. Besides these, M. Ujfalvy mentions two modem
and less-known hordes— that of Boukei, or the Inner Horde, near the
Caspian, dating from 1801, and the Kazaks of Chinese Turkistan. The
Inner Hordfrwas formed by about 7,000 of the Little Horde, led by
Bukeief, grandson of Abul-Khair, who crossed the Urals to occupy the
land left vacant on the flight of the Torgout Kalmuks.
j Thus reckoned, says Dr. Schuyler, “ there are in all about a million
and a half. In the Great Horde there are about 100,000 of both sexes,
in the Middle Horde 406,000, in the Lesser Horde 800,000, and the