Note 30 — Chapter III · PASTORAL TRIBES.

Levchine, speaking of the Kazak Kirghiz, tells us: “Once I asked a Kirghiz, owner of 8000 horses, why he did not sell every year a part of his stud. He answered: “Why should I sell that which is my pleasure? I want no money; if I had any, I should be obliged to shut it up in a box, where nobody would see it; but when my steeds run over the steppe everybody looks at them; everybody knows that they are mine; and people always remember that I am rich.” In this manner is the reputation of being a rich man acquired throughout the hordes; such is the wealth that procures them the regard of their countrymen and the title of baï (rich man), which sometimes gives them an ascendency over the offspring of the khans and the most deserving old men.” On the other hand the number of beggars is very considerable. Levchine makes no mention of servants; but Radloff, who about thirty years later visited the Kazak Kirghiz, says: “There exists here a class of servants, whom I found in every well-to-do family. The herds are generally tended by hired herdsmen, who are subjected to a kind of supervision.” The rich also engage poor families to till their lands. A man who loses all his cattle has no resource left but to offer himself as a labourer30.