year, and for seed, the surplus being sold, usually very
cheaply, on the threshing-floor. They cannot retain
any important reserves of corn near their winter
habitations, because, for two-thirds of the year, the
buildings are uninhabited and unguarded. As a precaution,
therefore, against wholesale starvation in case
of failure of crops, public corn stores are erected, such
as those in several volosts in the Zaisan and Ust-
Kamenogorsk districts. In the provinces of Akmolinsk
and Semipolatinsk, in 1880, there were 91 and 69
stores respectively, one containing 27,897, and the
other 6,366, quarters of corn. The poorer Kirghese
are held down by the Russian shopkeepers, who lend on
interest, and their example is only too closely followed
by the rich Kirghese, whose usury is enormous; not
less, according to M. Ujfalvy, than cent, per cent, per
annum, and that at compound interest; so that the
loan of one sheep has to be repaid next year by two,
or the next year four, or the next eight, and so on.
Cattle-breeding, however, as I have said, is the
normal occupation of the Kirghese, some of whom are
said to possess hundreds of camels, thousands of horses,
and tens of thousands of sheep and goats. They
■own, likewise, horned cattle, but not in such large
numbers. The Kara-Kirghese are not so rich as their
confreres of the Great and Middle Hordes. Very few
o f the Dikokamenni, for instance, possess as many
as 2,000 horses, or 3,000 sheep. They keep fewer
camels, but, on the other hand, have an excellent
breed of oxen, employed for traversing the mountains.
Their cows are large, but yield little milk, and then
only just after calving. Yaks, which they call Kudos,
are kept by them instead, since they yield more milk.
Speaking generally of the horned cattle of the steppe,
which are said not to have been introduced among the
Kirghese before the middle of the eighteenth century,
Dr. Finsch considers that they contrast favourably
with those raised in Siberia, since they are stronger,
and more imposing in appearance, and are recognized
among others by short, tolerably erect horns, with
small development of the belly. In their colour, as
also is the case with the horses, there is no peculiarity.
One meets with specimens of sheep black,
white, and also variegated, whilst a fourth class-
varies from a bright to a dark shade of cinnamon.
The sheep of the steppe belong to the fat-tailed,
or rather fat-rumped, race, for the very short tail
proper is hidden in the cushion of fat, formed below
the tail, spreading like a bag over the upper half
of the hind legs. Seen from the rear, this lump of
fat is pear-shaped, and acquires, when the animal runs,
a trembling, “ wobbling” motion that presents a comical
appearance. A s in time of famine the hunch of the
camel almost disappears, so it is with the fat tails of
the Kirghese sheep.*
More stately than the sheep is the Kirghese goat,
which occasionally presents quite a grand appearance..
The goats are large, well-built animals, with short
heads, long beards, and a strong development of chiefly
* It is quite an error, Dr. Finsch says, to suppose that this peculiarity
of race disappears by transplantation, for instance, to Russia,
for it does so only by cross-breeding with ordinary sheep. The
Kirghese sheep are of large size, powerfully built, rather long legged,,
with a roundly bent nose, and pendent ears. They attain a weight of
from 150 to 180 lbs., of which the fat “ t a i l ” alone does not exceed
40 lbs. The fleece is coarse, and the hairy wool is therefore less-
employed for spinning than for making felt. The horns of the wether
are moderately developed with a bend downwards and inwards, but
sometimes they assume a spiral form. The ewes generally give birth
to twin lambs in spring, by which season the snow is off the ground.