There is little in the way of “furniture” in these dwellings save picturesquely shaped copper jugs in which water is boiled, a few copper pots and basins used for cooking and as receptacles for milk, and some rough wooden buckets. On one occasion we were ushered into an akhoi to eat our lunch out of the glare of the sun, and had ensconced ourselves on a rug, at one end of which was a bundle of cotton-padded quilts. Jafar Bai warned us that a small boy was sleeping under them, and it was just as well that he did so, as we might easily have sat upon him. The child moaned and coughed, and then, hearing strange voices, began to cry with terror and made violent efforts to get free of his coverings, under which he could hardly have breathed. We sent for his mother, but she was too shy to make her appearance, so her eldest son, attired in a long green coat, ventured in and carried off his frightened little brother.
We were now and onwards camping at a height of eleven to fourteen thousand feet, and when there was no sunshine it was disagreeably cold and raw, despite the season of the year. We were held up for a couple of days by snow soon after we left Kuntigmas, and as a Kirghiz woman had washed our underclothing just before the weather broke, I had a fire lit in my akhoi both to keep myself warm and to dry the wet garments. Nadir was an expert in lighting these fires, and brought in an armful of wild lavender and a basket of cakes of argon, the dried dung of the yak, the only fuel obtainable in this part of the world, where trees are conspicuous by their absence. He squatted on the ground, set light to the brushwood, and piled the fuel in a bank round it, manipulating it with a pair of tongs and coaxing the fire to burn with the aid of an ingenious pair of bellows made from a whole goatskin. At first the result was a cloud of acrid smoke that made my eyes smart and shed floods of involuntary tears; the only way to avoid this ordeal being to sit on the ground à la nomade. After a while the smoke ceased and left a clear red fire that gave out considerable heat, but turned to ashes so soon that I wondered whether it was worth all the trouble it took to make. Certainly it was of practically no use in drying our extensive wash, which had to be carried along in its wet condition until the sun appeared again.
Whenever we stopped at these Kirghiz encampments, the principal women would come to visit me, bringing usually an offering of a kind of puff pastry the size of a plate, made with cream, very crisp and rich, layer above layer, and about three inches thick: my gifts in return were gaily coloured handkerchiefs and strings of coral beads, both of which gave great satisfaction. As my guests entered the akhoi they would kick off the low shoes that men and women alike wear over their long leather boots, and would seat themselves on the floor, looking picturesque in their flowered chintz coats padded with cotton and their curious turban-like headgear that is formed by winding muslin on a wooden frame and is laid aside in the privacy of their own homes. All wore roughly made, but effective-looking, necklaces of coral and silver with long pendants, and had silver clasps and buttons on their coats. Some of them had beautifully embroidered caps bordered with silver buttons and ending in bossed chains which hung over their ears, this headgear being worn under the turbans.
KIRGHIZ WOMEN IN GALA DRESS.
Page 118.
The elder women were hard-featured and weather-beaten, a natural consequence of their exposure to all sorts of climatic conditions, but some of the young girls were rosy-cheeked and attractive-looking, despite their flat faces and rather snub noses. Old Jafar Bai and Nadir were very useful in helping to entertain my guests, translating my Persian remarks into Turki, and the ladies enjoyed drinking tea sweetened with many lumps of sugar instead of the customary salt, and eating European biscuits and sweetmeats. Before leaving they would gather up any sugar and eatables that were left, packing them away in the cloth wound round their waists or in a breast-pocket of their thick outer coats. They struck me as being very pleasant and easy-tempered with one another, and when they took their leave with profuse salaams they would thank me most politely for the entertainment.
I believe that the Kirghiz women have a better position than their Mohamedan sisters in other parts of the world; yet their lives are strenuous and filled with unceasing work. As women are in a decided minority in the Pamirs they are valuable, and a man possessed of several daughters counts himself rich indeed. A suitor for the hand of one of them induces three of the chief men of the tribe to bargain with the fortunate father, and I was told that a hundred sheep or five Chinese yambus (£35) is a moderate price to pay for a bride. At one of our camps, for example, the headman was pointed out to me as having produced money and stock to the value of £500 for his unprepossessing-looking wife. On the other hand, the girl brings with her a dowry of camels, horses, yaks, clothes and jewellery that is supposed to equal in value what her father has received from the bridegroom.
A wedding entails but slight expense as compared with a funeral, the father merely giving a big feast to the whole tribe, and this does not seriously embarrass him as it is customary for the guests to present gifts in kind to the bridegroom, who is expected to hand them over to his future father-in-law.
Miss Czaplicka writes that as a rule a man pays for his bride by instalments and does not visit the residence of her parents until the first lot of live-stock has been delivered to her father. On this occasion the future husband is not allowed to see his inamorata, and neither bridegroom nor bride makes an appearance at the wedding-feast. Late at night the jinai, or female matchmakers, conduct the young couple separately to the akhoi of the bride’s parents, the girl making a feint of resisting and the jinai pretending to hinder the husband by barking like dogs. The bridegroom goes off early the next morning and avoids his parents-in-law for the whole day, and when he has paid the full price for his wife he carries her off with a show of force, which she plays up to by pretending to resist the attempt to take her to a new home.