Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus Part 24

After all, the civilisation of these tribes is a difficult problem.

Looking to the arid land in which they dwell, we must confess that it would be fatal to them were they subjected to our rules of life. I resided a considerable time among them, and inured myself in a great degree to their habits; and when on returning to our civilised towns, I was again a witness of the struggles, pa.s.sions, vices, and evils that torment most of the nations of Europe, I could not but wish from my heart that the Kalmucks may long retain their native habits, and very long remain safe from that ambitious civilisation that gnaws the souls of the various cla.s.ses of our populations.

Oubacha's emigration left the plains of the Ural unoccupied for many years, and it was not until the beginning of this century that some Khirghis tribes of the Little Horde entered on possession of them with the consent of the Russian government. Few at first, their numbers rapidly increased by new emigrations, and at last Russia conferred upon the Khirghis colony the entire and authenticated possession of about 7,075,700 hectares of land. More fortunate than the Kalmucks, this people still enjoys a certain degree of independence, in appearance at least if not in reality. They have their sovereign khan, pay no tax, and the only obligation imposed on them is to furnish a corps of cavalry in time of war.

It is hard to know exactly the number of these Khirghis. The Russian government is always solicitous to persuade the world of the prosperity of its subject peoples, and to this end it publishes very fallacious doc.u.ments. Thus in a supplement to the journal of the ministry of the interior, August 30, 1841, the population of the horde is set down at 16,550 tents, whereas the real number is but 8000, as appears from an extract taken in my presence at Astrakhan from the official doc.u.ments of the military governor. But as the editor of the St. Petersburg journal judiciously remarks, the tribe cannot but have augmented rapidly under the wise administration of Russia, and it is from his admiration for his government he deduces the best proof in support of his statistical statements. Such arguments have not much weight with us, and we even suspect that the number 8000 is an exaggeration, and that the Khirghis have remained faithful to Russia only because they cannot do otherwise, since the government has taken the precaution of imprisoning them between two lines of Cossacks, those of the Ural and the Volga. Besides, if I may judge from the facts communicated to me at Astrakhan, the immigration of the Khirghis was not so free as the government is pleased to proclaim it to have been. Both force and fraud were employed to make them settle in regions from which Russia derived no profit since the flight of the Kalmucks.

The Khirghis are nomades, living in felt tents, and employed in cattle rearing, like the Kalmucks. But they profess the Mahometan religion, belong evidently to the Turkish race, and have been from all time implacable foes to the Mongol hordes. Latterly, however, they appear to have lived in harmony with the Kalmucks of the Volga. Their khan often visits Prince Tumene, and in 1836 more than 2000 Khirghis encamped on the banks of the Volga, and took part in the grand entertainments given by the Kalmuck chief to the government authorities. But this state of peace is only the result of imperious necessity; if the hordes were independent, their old animosities would soon break out again.

The present khan of the Khirghis is Giangour Boukevitch, who is reputed to be an able man, and desirous of introducing European civilisation among his people. The Emperor Nicholas had a handsome wooden house erected for him at the foot of the sand-hills called Ryn Peski, but he seldom resides in it. A few paltry buildings have been subsequently erected, through the strenuous intervention of the Russian _employes_, but it would be extravagant to behold in a score of cabins the elements of a future capital, as a certain St. Petersburg journal is pleased to do. The Khirghis will not so readily forsake their nomade ways. Their territory is hardly better than that of the Kalmucks; and their khan himself, obliged to camp out during the greater part of the year, in order to find fodder for his cattle, only returns to his pretended capital when the inclemency of winter drives him from his felt kibitka.

It is necessary to exercise extreme caution and rigid criticism respecting all things pertaining to Russia, if we would arrive at the truth; for otherwise we shall be every moment in danger of mistaking for an indication of improvement and increased prosperity what is but the result of arbitrary power. We have repeatedly noticed instances of such mistakes on the part of travellers who have recently visited the southern portions of the empire. Never was any power more prodigal of outward decorations than the Muscovite; Russia is of all countries that which most lavishly expends its money to please the eye. To Potemkin belongs the honour of having been the first to play off these mystifications, when he got up extemporaneous villages and herds of cattle all along the road travelled by Catherine II. in her journey to the Crimea. He has had no lack of successors ever since. Alleys of acacias spring up by enchantment in the new towns; churches and houses with columns and porticoes; magnificent double eagles bearing the crown and the sceptre; numerous bureaucratic sign-boards with gilded inscriptions, &c., are seen on all hands. This mania of wis.h.i.+ng to appear what one is not, which has always characterised the Russians, seems to us one of their greatest obstacles to all real improvement, and to be one of the most dangerous maladies of the empire. Certainly it is a defect not easy to be avoided by a backward people who aspire to put themselves on a level with their more advanced neighbours; but in Russia, unhappily, artificial ostentation has been systematised; not only does it exist among individuals, but it forms the basis of all the acts of the government; from one end of the empire to the other, in the towns and in the steppes of the Caspian, its costly stage scenery is everywhere to be found; it has become the aim and the fixed idea of every man, from the ministers of state down to the lowest _employe_; and whilst millions are uselessly expended to adorn the drapery of the theatre, the framework of the social edifice is allowed to go to ruin.

The future welfare and the real progress of the country are deemed of little moment, provided the vanity of the day be satisfied, and the comedy be well played before his majesty and the strangers whom curiosity induces to visit Russia.

After the Khirghis, we have also on the left bank of the Volga, near its mouths, a small Tatar horde, called Koundrof, an offshoot of the great tribe of the Kouban. These Tatars, who number about 1100 tents, were formerly bestowed by Russia as va.s.sals upon the khans of the Kalmucks, but they were adroit enough to escape from taking part in Oubacha's famous emigration. Unavailing attempts have been subsequently made to colonise them. The governor of Astrakhan made them build two villages thirty years ago; but they soon abandoned those fixed dwellings, and resumed their old roving habits.

Lastly, there are the black Nogais, who occupy the banks of the Terek, to the number of 8432 tents. We shall speak of them in detail in the next chapter.

_Table of the Nomade Population of the Governments of Astrakhan and the Caucasus._

Families.

Kalmucks 15,500 Khirghis 8,000 Koundrof Tatars 11,000 Sertof Tatars 112 Black Nogas 8,432 Turcomans 3,838 ------ Total 36,982

FOOTNOTES:

[48] After the curious researches of M. Ferdinand Denis, respecting the cosmography and the fantastic histories of the middle ages, we can no longer wonder at the singular conceptions of the Kalmucks. The world of Cosmas has likewise its four great sacred rivers, and he, too, like the followers of the Dalai Lama, makes the sun and the stars revolve round a mystic column. We might point out many other a.n.a.logies between the Mongol myths and those of the medieval writers; but we will rather refer the reader to the enchanted world of M. Denis, to those elegant and poetic pages in which the learned librarian of Sainte Genevieve has so ably demonstrated the historical importance of all those fabulous legends, which at first appear to be only the idle ravings of an extravagant imagination.

[49] The priests, however, have endeavoured to persuade the people that there are five sins which inevitably draw down everlasting punishment: these are irreverence towards the G.o.ds, thefts committed in the temples, disrespect to parents, murder, and, of course, offences against the clergy. These ideas are for all that in contradiction to the sacred books; but it is not surprising that the ministers of the Grand Lama have sought to give them vogue amongst the mult.i.tude.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE TATARS AND MONGOLS--THE KAPTSHAK--HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF THE NOGAIS.

Perhaps no people has given occasion to more discussions than the Tatars and Mongols, nor is the problem of their origin completely solved in our day, notwithstanding the most learned investigations. Some admit that the Tatars and Mongols formed but one nation, others allege that they are two essentially different races. According to Lesveque d'Herbelot and Lesur[50] the Tatars are but Turks. Klaproth,[51] while he a.s.serts that the Tatars and Mongols spring from the same stock, nevertheless regards the white Tatars, whom Genghis Khan conquered, as Turks. Lastly, D'Ohson in his remarkable history of the Mongols, treats the Mongols and Tatars as distinct races, but does not admit the theory of the Turkish origin. The same uncertainty that hangs over the Mongol and Tatar hordes of the fourteenth century, prevails with regard to the people who, under the name of Tatars, now dwell in the southern part of the Russian empire; and they have been considered sometimes as descendants of the Turkish tribes that occupied those regions previously to the twelfth century, sometimes as remnants of the conquering Mongol Tatars. Let us try to unravel this tangled web of opinions, and see what may be the least problematical origin of these various nations.

The Chinese writers for the first time make mention of the Tatar people in the eighth century of our era, under the name of Tata, and consider them as a branch of the Mongols. The general and historian, Meng Koung,[52] who died in 1246, and who commanded a Chinese force sent to aid the Mongols against the Kin, informs us in his memoirs that a part of the Tatar horde, formerly dispersed or subdued by the Khitans,[53]

quitted the In Chan mountains,[54] where they had taken refuge, and joined their countrymen, who dwelt north-east of the Khitans. The white Tatars and the savage or black Tatars then formed the most important tribes of those regions.

According to D'Ohson, the Chinese comprehended under the name of Tatars all the nomade hordes that occupied the regions north of the desert of Sha No, either because the Tatars were the nearest, or because they were the most powerful of all those tribes. The intercourse of the Chinese with the west of Asia, would have afterwards served to give currency to the general denomination by which they designated their nomade va.s.sals; and thus from the commencement of the power of the Genghis Khan, those tribes would have been already known by the name of Tatars,[55] which was propagated from nation to nation until it reached Europe, although it was repudiated with contempt by the conquerors themselves, as that of a nation they had exterminated. It is a fact established by the statements of many writers, and by D'Ohson himself, that Genghis Khan annihilated the white Tatars, and thus it has come to pa.s.s by a most curious freak of accident, that this extinguished people became celebrated all over the East by the conquests of its very destroyers.

Jean du Plan de Carpin expresses himself still more positively: "The country of the Tatars," he says, "bears the name of Mongal,[56] and is inhabited by four different peoples, the Jeka Mongals, that is to say, the Great Mongals; the Sou Mongals, or the Fluviatile Mongals, who call themselves Tatars from the name of the river that flows through their territory; the Merkit and the Mecrit. All these peoples have the same personal characteristics and the same language, though belonging to different provinces, and ruled by divers princes."[57] He then goes on to speak of the birth of Genghis Khan among the Jeka Mongals, and of his conflicts with the Sou Mongals and the other _Tatar_ tribes.

On comparing this author with the Chinese writers mentioned and commented on in the works of de Guignes, Abel Remusat and D'Ohson, it will appear beyond all question that the Jeka Mongals are none other than the black Tatars, and that the Sou Mongals are the representatives of the white Tatars. As for the Merkit and the Mecrit, we confess, with M. d'Avezac, that our knowledge of them amounts only to conjecture; but, whatever was their origin, they are of but little importance with regard to the question we are now discussing.

The old Mohammedan authors, such as Ma.s.soudi and Ebn Haoucal, who treat of the nations of Asia, appear not to have known the Tatars, for they never speak of them. Their name figures, however, in a Persian abridgment of universal history, ent.i.tled "Modjmel ut Tevarikh el Coussas;" and Reschyd el Dyn calls the Tatars a people famous throughout the world; but it would be difficult to extract from these authorities any precise argument for the solution of our problem. After all, as previously to the days of Genghis Khan, the most important tribe of Mongols bore the name of Tatars, it is not surprising that the Mussulman writers included the whole of that people under this denomination. The Chinese, on the contrary, being in close intercourse with the Tatars, their va.s.sals, must of course have known their generic name, and transmitted it to us.

Now let us recapitulate. If we reflect that Genghis Khan, though born in the tribe especially designated as black Tatars, yet adopted the denomination of Mongols for his people; that historians have been unanimous in calling Genghis Khan's soldiers Mongols; that the Chinese chroniclers, De Guignes, and many others, have considered the Tatars as only a branch of the Mongols; that Du Plan de Carpin himself begins his history with these words: "_Incipit historia Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus_," it will not be easy to deny, that previously to the twelfth century, previously to the great Asiatic invasions, the Tatars and Mongols were parts of one nation, belonging to one race. If subsequently the hordes of Genghis renounced their special name, this circ.u.mstance must be ascribed to the sanguinary contest which Jessoukai and his son, Genghis Khan, had to sustain against their oppressors, the white Tatars, then the princ.i.p.al tribe in those regions. But the term Tatar still prevailed in Europe, though it continued to be regarded as synonymous with Mongol by all the Chinese writers, and by most of those of other nations.

The religious and political const.i.tution of the various Mongol or Tatar branches before Genghis Khan, is very imperfectly known to us, and affords us no manner of ground for presuming a positive separation into two races. According to the Mongol work, "The Source of the Heart,"

written in the beginning of the thirteenth century it appears that Lamism was first adopted by Genghis Khan, and that it became under his successors the prevailing religion of the Mongols proper. Marco Polo's narrative seems nevertheless to prove, that at the end of the thirteenth century the Mongols had not yet entirely adopted the creed and rites of Lamism; we now find it professed by all the Kalmucks of Russia.

In later times, after the invasions by Genghis Khan and his sons, the Europeans, through ignorance or heedlessness, gave the name of Tatars not only to the tribes who had figured in those Asiatic irruptions, but also to the Mahometans, who had once been masters of the regions adjacent to the Caspian and the Black Sea, and had been subjugated by those conquerors; hence have arisen in a great measure all the mistakes and discussions respecting the origin of the Tatars. After the Mongol torrent had subsided, Europeans persisted in giving the appellation of Tatars to all those Mussulman nations originally of Turkish origin, that to this day occupy the territory of Kasan and Astrakhan, the Crimea and the region called Turcomania, situated between the Belur Mountains, Lake Aral, and the Caspian Sea; and as all these nations exhibited a religious, political, and moral character peculiar to themselves, people were naturally led to distinguish them from the Mongols, and to attribute to them a special origin. Thus Pallas and many other travellers, after visiting the Mahometans of Southern Russia, and comparing them with the Kalmucks, have made of the Tatars and Mongols two distinct races; and Malte Brun, in his geography, has given the name of Tatar to all the tribes established in our day in Turkistan, applying that of Mongol exclusively to the nations inhabiting the central tableland of Asia, from Lake Palcati and the Belur Mountains to the great wall of China, and to the Siolky Mountains which separate them from the Manchous, a tribe of the great race of the Tongouses. All these writers have failed to observe, that the appellation Tatar lost all signification in Asia under the destroying power of Genghis Khan, and has ever since existed only in the European vocabulary.

Doubtless, Genghis Khan and his successors did not achieve all their conquests by the arms of the Mongols alone; and after having subjugated all the Mahometan nations occupying the vast regions of Turcomania and a part of Western Asia, they of course incorporated them with their hordes, and employed them in their European invasions.

What, then, are we to suppose is the origin of all those tribes who, under the name of Tatars, now inhabit the south of Russia? We agree entirely with the opinion put forth in Courtin's "Encyclopedie Moderne,"

that these Tatars are nothing but Turks, Comans, or Petshenegues, who having been at the commencement of the thirteenth century masters of all the countries north and west of the Caspian Sea as far the Dniepr, were afterwards subdued by the sons of Genghis Khan, and contributed towards the foundation of a new empire comprised between the Dniepr and the Emba, to which was given the name of Kaptshak, or Kiptshak, a designation which appears to have been originally that of the territory.

The princes of this empire were Mongols or Tatars, but the majority of their subjects were Turks. It appears even that the latter formed a large portion of the armies of Genghis Khan in his late expeditions. The Turkish language thus remained predominant throughout the Kaptshak, Little and Great Bokhara, and among the Bashkirs and Tchouvaches. A few Mongol words are still found in the Turkish dialect of the Russian Mahometans, but they are extremely rare, and this may be easily explained. The soldiers of the Mongol army were of course bachelors, and when they married Kaptshak women, their children adopted the language of their mothers. The sovereigns themselves of this new empire soon embraced Mahometanism. Bereke, the brother and successor of Batou, set the first example; Usbeck Khan, who reigned in 1305, followed in his steps, and declared himself the protector of Islam, which thenceforth became the creed of the conquerors as well as of the conquered.

It must not be inferred from the preceding statement that the Turks and Mongols may not, in more remote times, have belonged to one and the same race; we are not quite of that opinion; we have considered the Turkish race only under the conditions in which it appeared in Europe and Asia about the twelfth century, that is to say, modified by long contact with the Caucasian nations, and we have left altogether out of view what it may previously have been. Moreover, if De Guignes is rightly informed, the inhabitants of the Kaptshak are really of Mongol origin, and the soldiers of Genghis Khan took pains to prove to them that they were their countrymen.

Towards the close of the fifteenth century, the empire of the Kaptshak was divided into several khanats--Kasan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea, the rulers of which, descended from Genghis, were all Mongols; but then they had no longer armies drawn from the interior of Asia, and the Turkish element finally prevailed throughout the whole population. Still, it cannot be denied that the Mahometan hordes of Russia present some resemblance to the Mongols, and this tends to confirm the ideas we have expressed above. But then it is obvious that two nations that served so long under the same banners, and lived under the same government, must have intermarried with each other, and that their blood must have been frequently mingled. Moreover, it is a most remarkable fact, with what pertinacity the Mongol type maintains its ident.i.ty in spite of the mixture of many generations; a few marriages are sufficient to spread traces of it in the course of a certain time, over a whole nation. I have seen one example of this in the Cossacks, who have been living amidst the Kalmucks for about two hundred years.

The Tatars in the mountains of the Crimea more rarely exhibit Mongol features; the Greek profile is frequently found among them. This difference is owing to their mixture with the Goths, the Greeks, and the remnants of other nations that have successively overrun the peninsula.

The Nogais, who inhabit the plains of the Crimea, and the steppes of the Sea of Azof, are unquestionably the nearest in appearance to the Mongols of all the Tatars, and generally their physiognomy is such as cannot be attributed to any other origin. Moreover, according to their own traditions, they never made part of the Kaptshak, nor did they arrive in Europe until subsequently to the death of Genghis Khan, after having dwelt from time immemorial, if not with the Mongols, at least in their vicinity.

According to Lesveque, the horde of the Nogais, long the most celebrated of the west after that of the Kaptshak, was const.i.tuted in the thirteenth century by Nogai, a Tatar general, who, after conquering the countries north of the Black Sea, succeeded in forming a state independent of the Kaptshak. The traditions I collected among the Nogais themselves, make no mention whatever of a general of that name; their chronicles allege that the name of the nation is derived from _neogai_ (which may be translated by the phrase, _mayst thou never know happiness_), and that it was bestowed on them in their old country, on account of their precarious and vagabond life.[58] I am inclined to adopt this opinion; for considering the importance which the Nogais attach to n.o.bility and to antiquity of race, it would be very extraordinary that they should not have preserved the name of the founder of their power. The same traditions relate that after the death of Genghis Khan, the horde whence the Nogais of the Crimea are descended, arrived under the command of Djanibek Khan on the Volga, the left bank of which it kept possession of for many years. Part of this horde afterwards crossed the river, and advancing to the foot of the Caucasus, settled on the Kouma and the Terek. The princ.i.p.al tribe of these Tatars, and the same of which we are about to speak, soon forsook those regions, and after crossing the Don, the Dniepr, and the Dniestr, finally settled in Bessarabia, in the country called Boudjiak. There it remained more than half a century; but being continually hara.s.sed by the Turks and Moldavians, it abandoned its new country, retraced its steps, and under the command of Jannat Bey, traversed the Crimea and the Straits of Kertch. After reaching the banks of the Kouban, the horde was broken up, by internal dissensions, into three branches, the largest of which remained on the Kouban, and the others recrossed the straits. One of these tribes fixed itself on the plains of the Crimea, and the other returned to Bessarabia, partly by land, partly by sea.

The Nogais of the Kouban again divided into several tribes, some of which connected themselves with the Kalmuck hordes, others with the mountaineers of the Caucasus. During all these emigrations, they were successively commanded by Jam Adie, Kani Osman, and Kalil Effendi, the Tatar of the Crimea. The latter, at the head of one of the princ.i.p.al tribes the Kouban, marched along the eastern coast of the Sea of Azof, crossed the Don, and encamped on the banks of the Moloshnia Vodi, where he died; his tomb still exists near the Nogai village of Keneges, on the Berda. He was succeeded by Asit Bey, who ruled for seventeen years, and was the last Tatar chief; he died in 1824. But long before his death, in the time of Catherine II., these Nogai hordes were completely subjected to the laws of the empire, and were under the management of Russian officials. Count Maison, a French emigrant, was appointed their governor in 1808, and he it was, who by dint of perseverance, made them renounce their nomade ways, and settle in villages.

The Nogais now occupy the whole region between the Sea of Azof and the Moloshnia Vodi. They are about 52,000 souls, residing in seventy-six villages. As long as they were vagrants they remained very poor, cultivating no grain but millet, which was their usual food, and of this they could hardly procure a sufficient supply. Turbulent, fickle, and thievish, they had an insurmountable aversion for all steady toil, and particularly for agricultural labour; their occupations were tending cattle, hunting, riding, music, and dancing. They were fond of a.s.sembling and sitting in a ring, smoking and hearing the traditions of their forefathers. All the cares of the household fell upon the women.

Their clothes, cooking utensils, bread, &c., they procured in exchange for cattle. They seldom remained many months in one spot; an hour was enough for them to pack up wife, children, and goods in their araba,[59]

and then moving at random towards some other point of the horizon, they carried with them all they possessed. "Such is the order established by G.o.d himself," cried the Nogai, "to us he has given wheels, to other nations fixed dwellings and the plough." There was little wealth among them in those times, though there was a certain overbearing aristocracy that monopolised all the gifts of fortune and power to the detriment of the other members of the community, many of whom, either through ignorance or sloth, became even slaves of the shrewder and braver. Such was the origin of the authority of the Mourzas, or n.o.ble chiefs of the _aouls_ (villages, encampments).

The Nogais had for their emigrations, like the Kalmucks, circular tents of felt, three or four yards in diameter, and conical at top. In winter, they constructed earthen huts beside their kibitkas. Such cold and damp dwellings were very prejudicial to health, as was proved by the mult.i.tude of children that died every year.

Under Count Maison's wise and disinterested administration, all these old habits disappeared by degrees, and the Nogais began to improve their condition. By dint of patience and zeal they were prevailed on to build commodious dwellings, and having once established themselves in villages, their prosperity went on regularly increasing, and every man had the means of procuring subsistence for his family by his own labour. Count Maison is still remembered by the Nogais with the most lively grat.i.tude, but his honesty did not protect him from malevolence and intrigues; it provoked against him all the subordinate functionaries whose peculations he prevented; and after enduring disgusts and annoyances without number, he sent in his resignation to St. Petersburg in 1821. Since that time the Nogais have had no special governor, but are under the control of functionaries attached to the ministry of the interior, who reside in their villages. They have, however, preserved the judicial authority of their cadis, and the Russian tribunals only take cognizance of those criminal and civil cases which the cadis cannot decide. The Nogais are exempt from military service, but they pay money contributions to the crown, at the rate of thirty rubles for each family.

For about fifteen years past a Mennonite of the German colonies has of his own accord continued the work so judiciously begun by Count Maison.

M. Cornies, one of the most remarkable men in New Russia, deservedly exercises the greatest influence over the Nogais, among whom his advice and exertions have already produced some excellent results. The miserable villages of former days have been gradually superseded by pretty houses in the German style, surrounded with gardens, and agriculture has made such progress, that a large number of farmers are now able to export corn.

The Nogais are rather strict observers of the precepts of Islam. Their country contains eleven mosques, and each village has several houses for prayer. Their clergy are subject to the mufti of the Crimea and of his representative, who resides in the aoul of Emmaout; they consist of effendi mollahs, mollas, and cadis. The mollahs take t.i.the of all grain, and a fortieth of the cattle. Their functions are to call the people to prayer, to pray for the sick, write talismans, preside at sacrifices, marriages, and funerals, and perform all the rites of public wors.h.i.+p.

The effendi mollahs draw up articles of marriage and divorce; and, in concert with the village elders, they decide all quarrels and suits between husband and wife, and all questions relative to the sale of the latter. They also fulfil along with the cadis the duties of interpreters of the law, and preceptors of the Koran. Circ.u.mcision, which boys undergo at ten or twelve years of age, is performed by the bab (father), whose office is hereditary. Hadjis, or pilgrims, who have visited the kaaba of Mecca, though they have no official duties, still possess great authority, and are consulted on almost all occasions; they are distinguished by a green or white shawl rolled round their woollen caps.

The pilgrimage to Mecca, is not quite obligatory on the Nogais, who generally exempt themselves from it by means of offerings and sacrifices. The new measures adopted by the Russians render this journey very difficult, and the Tatars must soon renounce it altogether. Every individual is bound before he sets out to prove that he takes with him at least 120_l._; his pa.s.sport costs him nearly 8_l._, and if he does not return, the whole village where he was born is bound to pay his quota of taxation until a new census of the population is made.

Expiatory sacrifices are very common among the Nogais: they take place during the Kourban Bairam, on the occasion of a death, for the commemoration of deceased persons, on the celebration of a marriage, on return from a journey, and as an atonement for the omission of any religious duty. Those who offer them up invite to their houses their friends and relations, and the poor of the village, to whom they give a good portion of the victim, which is either a sheep or a cow, according to the wealth of the individual, or the importance of the occasion.

The great forty days fast of Ramazan is strictly observed only by aged persons of either s.e.x. Curiously enough the obligation of prayer is imposed only on persons aged forty or fifty; the seventh day of the Mussulman week, which corresponds to our Friday, is celebrated only by the priests and some devout old men. The prohibition against wine is not at all regarded by the young, especially in travelling. In general the rising generation of Nogais pay very little heed to the commandments of Mahomet, and by no means share this religious fanaticism of the Asiatic Mussulmans. Long and handsome beards are held in great veneration among them. Old men shave the whole head, but the young leave a small tuft growing on the top of the crown. This custom obliges them to wear woollen caps in all seasons.

The Nogais have generally two wives, and some even three, but this is a very rare case. The plurality and sale of wives frequently occasion quarrels, brawls, and acts of b.l.o.o.d.y vengeance.