From North Pole to Equator: Studies of Wild Life and Scenes in Many Lands

by Alfred Edmund Brehm

Both parents are exceedingly fond of their children, treat them always with the greatest tenderness, and never beat them, but they take a pleasure in teaching them all kinds of ugly and unseemly words as soon as they begin to speak, and when these are repeated by the child’s innocent lips, they never fail to cause general amusement. The different ages of the child are described by the name of some animal; thus it may be “as old as a mouse, a marmot, a sheep, or a horse”. When a boy reaches the age of four years, he is placed for the first time on the back of a horse about the same age, richly adorned and saddled with one of the children’s saddles which are usually heirlooms in a family. The happy parents promise all sorts of pretty things to the independent little rider, who has, for the first time, escaped from the protecting arms of his mother. Then they call a servant or some willing friend, and give horse and rider into his charge to be led from one yurt to another, to announce the joyful event to all their relatives and friends. Wherever the little boy goes, he is warmly welcomed and overwhelmed with praises and dainties. A festival in the father’s yurt celebrates the important day.

The child’s instruction in all that he requires to know begins about his seventh year. The boy, who in the interval has become an accomplished rider, learns to tend the grazing herds, the girl learns to milk them, and to perform all the other work of a housewife; the son of rich parents is taught to read and write by a mollah or anyone able to impart such knowledge, and later he is instructed in the laws of his religion. Before he has completed his twelfth year his instruction is at an end, and he himself is ripe for life.

The Kirghiz honours his dead and their memory even more than he does the living. Every family is ready to make the greatest sacrifices to celebrate the funeral and memorial feast of a deceased member of the family with as much pomp as possible; everyone, even the poorest, strives to decorate as well as he can the grave of his departed loved ones; everyone would consider it a disgrace to fail in paying full respect to any dead person, whether relative or not. All this they have in common with other Mohammedans; but the ceremonies observed at the death and burial of a Kirghiz differ materially from those customary among others of the same faith, and they are, therefore, worthy of detailed description.

When a Kirghiz feels his last hour approaching, he summons all his friends, that they may make sure that his soul gets into Paradise. Pious Kirghiz, who are expecting death, have the Koran read to them long before the end comes, though the words sounding in their ear may be quite unintelligible. According to the custom among true believers, the friends of a dying man gather round his bed and repeat to him the first phrase of the confession of faith of all the Prophet’s followers, “There is but one God”, until he responds with the second, “And Mohammed is his prophet”. As soon as these words have passed his lips the angel Munkir opens the gates of Paradise, and therefore all who have heard the words exclaim, “El hamdu lillahi”,—Praise be to God!

As soon as the master of a yurt has closed his eyes in death, messengers are sent in all directions to bear the tidings to his relatives and friends, and, according to the rank and standing of the dead man, these messengers may ride from ten to fifty or sixty miles across the steppe from aul to aul. A relative in one aul may also carry on the news to those in another. While the messengers are on their way, the corpse is washed and enveloped in its “lailach”, which last every Kirghiz procures during his lifetime, and stores up with his valuables. When this duty has been fulfilled, the corpse is carried out of the yurt and laid upon a bier formed by a half-extended yurt-trellis. The mollah, who has been sent for, pronounces a blessing over the dead; then the trellis with its burden is lifted up and fastened to the saddle of a camel, and the train of assembled friends and kinsmen sets out on its way to the burial-place, which is often far distant.

Whenever the dying man has breathed his last, the women begin the lament for the dead. The one most nearly related to him begins the song and gives vent to her heart’s grief in more or less deeply-felt words; the others join in simultaneously at the end of every phrase or verse, and one after another does her best to clothe her ideas in fit words. The dirge becomes more and more mournful up till the moment when the camel rises with his burden, and not by sounds and words only, but by their whole conduct the women testify to their increasing grief. At length they tear their hair and scratch their faces till blood flows. Not till the funeral procession, in which the women take no part, has disappeared from sight, do the cries and tears gradually cease.

Some men on swift horses have been sent in advance of the funeral train to prepare the grave. This is an excavation, at most reaching only to a man’s breast; at the end which points towards Mecca, it is vaulted to receive the head and upper part of the body. When the corpse has been laid to rest, the grave is covered with logs, planks, bundles of reeds, or stones. It is not filled with earth, but a mound is heaped up on the top of the covering and decorated with flags or the like, unless when a dome-like structure of wood or bricks is built over the grave. When a child dies its cradle is laid upon its grave. After the burial the mollah pronounces a blessing over the corpse for the last time, and all take part in heaping up the mound of earth. But the ceremonies do not end here.

Whenever the head of a family dies, a white flag is planted beside the yurt and left for a whole year in the same place. Every day during the year the women assemble beside it to renew their lamentations. At the time the flag is planted the dead man’s favourite horse is led up, and half of its long tail is cut off. From that time forward no one mounts it; it is “widowed”. Seven days after the death, all the friends and relatives, even those from a distance, assemble in the yurt, hold a funeral banquet together, distribute some of the dead man’s clothing among the poor, and consult as to the future of those he has left behind and the guardianship of the property. Then the bereaved family is left alone with its sorrow.

When a woman dies almost the same ceremonies are observed, except that, of course, the body is washed and dressed by women. But even in this case the women remain within the aul to sing the mourning song. The departed woman’s riding-horse has its tail cut, but no flag is planted.

When the aul is taken down, a youth selected for the honourable service leads up the “widowed” riding-horse, puts the saddle of its former master reversed on its back, loads it with his clothing, and leads it by the bridle to its destination, carrying in his right hand the lance which bears the mourning-flag.