Siberia and the exile system . d. Just before sunset we passed at a distance of two orthree hundred yards a lonely Kirghis cemetery, and, as wehad never before seen a burial-place of this nomadic tribe,we stopped to examine it. It consisted of a few low, baremounds of various shapes and dimensions, and three orfour large, rectangular, fort-like structuies of sun-driedbricks. The high walls of the latter had raised corners, THE GREAT KIRGHIS STEPPE 151 and were pierced with square portholes through which, Ipresume, the bodies of the dead were carried into the in-closure for burial. Inside of ea
Siberia and the exile system . d. Just before sunset we passed at a distance of two orthree hundred yards a lonely Kirghis cemetery, and, as wehad never before seen a burial-place of this nomadic tribe,we stopped to examine it. It consisted of a few low, baremounds of various shapes and dimensions, and three orfour large, rectangular, fort-like structuies of sun-driedbricks. The high walls of the latter had raised corners, THE GREAT KIRGHIS STEPPE 151 and were pierced with square portholes through which, Ipresume, the bodies of the dead were carried into the in-closure for burial. Inside of each of these adobe forts weretwo or more grave-shaped hillocks, and at the head of everyhillock stood a stick or pole with a small quantity of sheepswool wrapped around it. There were no inscriptions orpictographs in or about these mortuary inclosures, and,apart from the wrappings of wool, I could discover nothingthat seemed likely to have significance. The sun was justsetting as we finished our inspection and resumed our jour-. - ?-??at -? =Si*«-v. ;->xc^ A KfRGHIS CEMETERY. ^^^; ney, and twenty minutes later, when I looked back at thelonely, abandoned cemetery, its orange-tinted walls madethe only break in the vast, curving horizon Hue of the Seaof Grass. The road everywhere between Omsk and Semipalatinskwas hard and dry, and so smooth that we were scarcelyconscious of being jolted. We slept every night in ourtdrantds while going at the rate of eight miles an hour,and if it had not been necessary to get out at the stationsin order to show our padarozhnaya and see to the harnessingof fresh horses, we might have slept all night withoutwaking. Very soon after we began to travel at night in WesternSiberia, our attention was attracted and our curiosity ex-cited by the peculiar throbbing beat of an instrument that 152 SIBERIA we took to be a watch mans rattle, and that we heard inevery viUage through which we passed between sunset anddawn. It was not exactly like any sound that
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