File:Oriental and western Siberia- a narrative of seven years' explorations and adventures in Siberia, Mongolia the Kirghis steppes, Chinese Tartary, and part of Central Asia (1858) (14578560969).jpg

Identifier: orientalwesterns00atki (find matches)
Title: Oriental and western Siberia: a narrative of seven years' explorations and adventures in Siberia, Mongolia the Kirghis steppes, Chinese Tartary, and part of Central Asia
Year: 1858 (1850s)
Authors: Atkinson, Thomas Witlam, 1799-1861
Subjects: Kyrgyz
Publisher: London : Hurst and Blackett
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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and gave me amost splendid view of the Actou, which runs up towardsthe Ilia — the snowy peaks shining like rubies in thesetting sun, while all below them was blue and purple,Avith the vshades of evening creeping over the lower range.In the foreground was my yourf^ with tlie Kirghis cook-ing the sheep in a large caldron, while the camels andhorses were lying and standing around. Tired as I was,I could not resist sketching the scene, which will everbe impressed upon my memory, as well as the splendidsunset over the Steppe. To the south of this high plateau,the Alatou rises into lofty and picturesque peaks, manyof them robed in eternal snow; while the plateau itself iscovered ^vith fine grass, which affords good pastures forthe flocks of the Kirghis, who will soon take up theirquarters here for two or three weeks. Here I foundmany tumuli; one was two hundred feet in diameter andforty feet high, with a trench all round it twelve feetwide and six feet deep. There is a circular hollow on
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i;.;t&£la<ik3etL FALLS OK THE RIVER KOPAL .Ghiaese Tartary. WARM SPRING. 575 the top ten feet deep ; after examining this great moundI came to the conclusion that it has been a fort as wellas a tomb. On the west side close to the trench, thereare four masses of large stones standing in circles ; theseI suppose to have been the altars on which the victimshave been sacrificed to the manes of the dead. But towhom they belonged, or when they were deposited, noone can state. The Kirghis have a tradition that theybelonged to a nation who (for some cause they cannotexplain) determined to put each other to death, and thatthe mounds ^» :re raised to receive the bodies before thework of destruction began. They say that the fatherkilled his wife and all his children, excepting the eldestson, whose lot it was to kill his father and then himself.The name the Kirghis give to this people, means self-killino;. After leaving this scene, which called up many me-lancholy reflections, we continu

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