[35] Khatun means in Turkish, woman, of which word we wish to avail ourselves instead of a name, as this is the practice in the MS. before us.
[36] Rigistan means in old Persian, an open space, which is strewn with sand (rig) and kept vacant.
[37] Report says, that Said ben Osman and Khatun, who was a celebrated beauty, loved each other; and even in later years the popular ballads were extant which sung of this adventure.
[38] Klaproth, and Abel Remusat, in his "Researches on the Tartar Languages," counts this stock with the Hindu-Gothic race, which assertion is now considered by every one an error. Castren may, without doubt, be right, if he in his investigations in south Siberia finds relationship in a light-coloured Turkish stock; but these are not Buruts. I believe that even the learned Mr. Schott is deceived, when, following Chinese sources, he favours this opinion, in his treatise, "Upon the Pure Kirghese." Berlin: 1863. It appears that the Buruts are confounded with the Uisuns, who dwell further north, are light-coloured, and probably are the remnant of a Finnish stock. See "The Russians in Central Asia," by Mitchell, p. 64.
[39] That many nomads censured this deficiency in projecting cheek-bones in myself, as a disfigurement, I have already mentioned. This need not astonish us; and it appears to me truly remarkable, that Dr. Livingstone, in his book, "The Zambesi and its Inhabitants," can assert that he has seen African women, from the Makololo race, who, standing before the mirror, strove to lessen the broad mouth, which is common among them, with the intention to make themselves more beautiful.
[40] "Description of Kirghese Kazaks," by Alexis de Lewschine. Paris: 1840; page 317.
[41] See the former work, page 300, chapter II.
[42] The Islam of faith was established, according to Fischer ("History of Siberia," pages 86, &c., and elsewhere) towards the middle of the sixteenth century, by one Kutshum. This date is admitted by those in the north, as well as by the dwellers in South Siberia, still in Turkestan that conversion is reported to have taken place much earlier.
[43] Lewschine says the same in his above-named work upon the Kirghis, page 358.
[44] Dr. A. Bastian has found the oracle of the shoulder bone even among the Buruts who profess Shamanism, and it is considered by the Kirghis as a remnant of the same religion. See Ausland, No. 23, 1869.