File:Siberia and the exile system (1891) (14780493904).jpg

Identifier: siberiaexilesyst01kenn (find matches)
Title: Siberia and the exile system
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Kennan, George, 1845-1924
Subjects: Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel Siberia (Russia) -- Exiles
Publisher: New York : Century Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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in time to see the unloadingof a caravan of camels which had arrived from Tashkendwdth silks, rugs, and other Central Asiatic goods for theSemipalatinsk market. Late in the afternoon I retraced my steps to the hotel,where I found Mr. Frost, who had been sketching all day inthe Tatar or eastern end of the town. The evening was hotand sultry, and we sat until eleven oclock without coats orwaistcoats, beside windows thrown wide open to catch everybreath of air, listening to the unfamiliar noises of the Tatarcity. It was the last night of the great Mohammedan fastof Ramazan, and the whole population seemed to be astiruntil long after midnight. From every part of the towncame to us on the still night air the quick staccato throbbingof watchmens rattles, which sounded like the rapid beating THE GREAT KIKGHIS STEPPE 163 of wooden drums, and suggested some pagan ceremony incentral Africa or the Fiji Islands. Now and then the rattlesbecame quiet, and then the stillness was broken by the long-
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\ JilKUUlS HORSEMAN i:S GALA DitliSS. drawn, wailing cries of the muezzins from the minarets ofthe Tatar mosques. Tuesday morning when we awoke we found the streetsfull of Tatars and Kirghis in gala dress, celebrating the first 1(54 SIBERIA of the three holidays that follow the Mohammedan Lent.About noon the eliief of poliee came to our hotel, by diree-tion of the governor, to make our aequaintance and to showus about the city, and under his guidance we spent two orthree hours in examining the great Tatar mosque andmaking ceremonious calls upon mullas and Tatar officials.He then asked us if we would not like to see a Tatar andKirghis wrestling match. We replied, of course, in theaffirmative, and were driven at once in his (hyjslik)/ to anopen sandy common at the eastern end of the city, wherewe found a great crowd assembled and where the wrestlinghad already begun. The dense throng of spectators—mostlyKirghis and Tatars — was arranged in concentric circlesaround an open space twen

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