Note 3 — Chapter XIV · BARNAUL.

Dr. Finsch, who travelled with an exploring party up the Irtish in 1876, has put on record much information of a scientific character about this part of Siberia. Mr. Atkinson, an English artist, with his wife, also spent seven years in Central Asia and the Kirghese steppes. He gives fuller information than I have met elsewhere of the Kirghese, who number nearly 1,500,000 souls. They live either in tents or in caverns resembling rabbit burrows, both of which are filthy beyond measure. The appearance of the Kirghese, judging by those I saw in the prisons, is anything but prepossessing—the nose sinks into the face, and the cheeks are large and bloated. They eat chiefly mutton and horse-flesh, and drink tea and mare’s milk. The last, when fermented, is called koumis, and is kept in the tent in a large leathern sack, said to be never washed out. The Kirghese are splendid horsemen; and their usual occupation is tending sheep, goats, horses, and camels, of which they possess immense herds. Indeed, I was told that, in the aoul or encampment of a rich Kirghese chief, one can see in the present day the principal objects that were witnessed 4,000 years ago, when the patriarch Abraham was a dweller in tents, and pastured cattle.