Steppe cemeteries of stone and clay: pyramids, towers, a khan's domed tomb
Editorial contextLevshin calls a Kazakh cemetery one of the most curious sights for a traveller: after the empty steppe the eye rests on pyramids, towers and high enclosures built of stone and clay, spears hung with horsehair and ribbons, yurt lattices, stone or wooden turbans, a saddle, bow and arrows on a famous rider's grave. Over the grave of Abulkhair Khan stood a square vaulted building. The Kazakhs, a nomadic people, built lasting monuments for their dead.
the eyes come to rest either in the shade of a tree, or on pyramids, towers and high enclosures built of stones and clay. In one place he sees spears with horse manes, ribbons and kerchiefs fluttering from them; in another, the lattices that served as the walls of a kibitka … Over the grave of Abulkhair Khan on the Olkeyek stream … a square vaulted building was built
Working translation
Original wording
глаза останавливаются или подъ тѣнью дерева, или на складенныхъ изъ камней и глины пирамидахъ, башняхъ и высокихъ оградахъ. Въ одномъ мѣстѣ видитъ онъ копья съ развѣвающимися на нихъ конскими гривами, лентами и платками; въ другомъ рѣшетки, служившія стѣнами кибиткѣ … Надъ гробомъ Хана Абуль-хайра на рѣчкѣ Улкіакѣ … было построено квадратное зданіе со сводомъ
About Kazakhs
Winter dead hung in trees until spring
Editorial contextLevshin reports that in some clans of the Middle and Great Hordes, rich people who died in winter were not buried at once but hung in trees wrapped in felt or linen, and in spring carried to Turkestan to be buried near the shrine of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, the Kazakhs' revered saint. He then explains how graves were dug with a side niche so the earth would not press on the body.
Rich people who die in winter, in some clans of the Middle and Great Horde, instead of being buried are hung in trees, wrapped in felt or linen; and in spring they are carried to Turkestan
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Original wording
Богатыхъ людей, умирающихъ зимою, въ нѣкоторыхъ поколѣніяхъ Средней и Большой Орды, вмѣсто погребенія, вѣшаютъ на деревьяхъ, обвернувъ въ войлокъ или въ полотно; весною-же отвозятъ ихъ въ Туркестанъ
About Kazakhs of the Middle and Great Hordes
Muslims without mosques or mullahs
Editorial contextLevshin describes Kazakh Islam as loose: they count themselves Sunnis alongside Turks, Tatars, Bukharans and Khivans and practise polygamy, but do not keep the fasts or ablutions, find praying five times a day too hard, and have no mosques and no mullahs chosen from among themselves. Sometimes elders read prayers with others kneeling around them.
Fasts and ablution, a very sensible institution of Muhammad, the Kirghiz do not observe; they find praying five times a day hard for themselves; they have no mosques and no mullahs chosen from among themselves. Sometimes prayers are read by old men in the presence of many people kneeling around them
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Original wording
Постовъ и омовенія, весьма благоразумнаго постановленія Магометова, Киргизы не соблюдаютъ; молиться по пяти разъ на день, находятъ они для себя труднымъ; мечетей и избранныхъ изъ среди себя муллъ не имѣютъ. Иногда молитвы читаются стариками въ присутствіи многихъ стоящихъ около нихъ на колѣнямъ
About Kazakhs
Keep in mind
An outsider's judgment of religious practice; Kazakh Islam had its own shrines and holy men that Levshin mentions elsewhere.
Seven wolves chasing two horses: the end of the world in the stars
Editorial contextIn a chapter on Kazakh knowledge of the sky, Levshin says herdsmen navigated the trackless steppe by the stars and told time by them 'as a European looks at his pocket watch'. They saw the Great Bear as seven wolves chasing two horses, a white and a grey gelding; when the wolves catch and eat the horses, the world will end.
Not separating the stars that make up the Great Bear … the Kirghiz say that they consist of 7 wolves chasing two horses fleeing from them, Ak-buzat (the white gelding) and Kuk-buzat (the grey gelding), and that when the former catch the latter and eat them, the end of the world will come.
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Original wording
Не раздѣляя звѣздъ, составляющихъ Большую медвѣдицу … Киргизы говорятъ, что онѣ состоятъ изъ 7 волковъ, которые гонятся за бѣгущими отъ нихъ двумя лошадьми, Акъ-бузатъ (бѣлый меринъ) и Кукъ-бузатъ (сѣрый меринъ), и что, когда первые, догнавъ сихъ послѣднихъ, съѣдятъ ихъ, то сдѣлается преставленіе свѣта.
About Kazakhs
'Kirghiz-Kaisak' is a foreign name: they call themselves Kazak
Editorial contextLevshin opens his history by saying that Europe gives the Kazakhs a name neither they nor their neighbours use. They call themselves Kazak, and Persians, Bukharans and Khivans know them by that name; the Chinese say Hasak. Russia too called them the Kazakh horde until the 18th century, when the prefix 'Kirghiz' was added, partly to tell them apart from Russia's own Cossacks.
and that to this day they call themselves nothing but Kazakhs (Kazak). Under this same name they are known to the Persians, Bukharans, Khivans and other peoples of Asia. The Chinese, softening the initial K, say Hasak. Until the 18th century Russia too did not know 'Kirghiz-Kaisaks', but called them Kazakhs, the Kazakh horde.
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Original wording
и что онѣ себя до нынѣ иначе не называютъ, какъ Казаками (Казакъ). Подъ симъ же именемъ извѣстны они Персіянамъ, Бухарцамъ, Хивинцамъ и прочимъ народамъ Азіи. Китайцы, смягчая начальную букву К, говорятъ Хасаки. До XVIII столѣтія и въ Россіи не знали Киргизъ-Кайсаковъ, но именовали ихъ Казаками, Казачьею ордою.
About Kazakhs
Russia's Tatars are 'Nogais' to the Kazakhs; 'Tatar' is a cursed name
Editorial contextIn a footnote to his chapter on ruins Levshin notes that Kazakhs call the Tatars living in Russia only 'Nogais'. The word 'Tatar' itself they did not use; in their view it belonged to some base people cursed by a Muslim prophet. Bukharans and Khivans thought the same. The same story was reported by Rychkov seventy years earlier (W175).
The Kirghiz-Kazakhs call the Tatars living in Russia nothing but Nogais. The (word) Tatar itself is not used by them at all, and in their opinion belongs to some base people cursed by a certain Muslim prophet. The Bukharans and Khivans think the same, and also call the Russian Tatars Nogais.
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Original wording
Киргизъ-Казаки иначе не называютъ Татаръ въ Россіи живущихъ, какъ Ногаями. Само Татары совсѣмъ у нихъ не употребительно, и принадлежитъ по ихъ мнѣнію какому то подлому народу, проклятому однимъ Магометанскимъ пророкомъ. Бухарцы и Хивинцы тоже думаютъ, и также называютъ Татаръ Россійскихъ Ногаями.
About Tatars of Russia (as seen by Kazakhs, Bukharans and Khivans)
Keep in mind
'Само' is as printed in the OCR; the word 'слово' (word) seems to be implied or garbled.
Forty outlaw horsemen: a Kazakh origin legend
Editorial contextAmong several Kazakh origin stories Levshin gives one from the journal of Captain Rychkov (1771): seven sons of a Crimean khan, cheated of their inheritance, went into the steppe, joined other exiles to make a band of forty, lived by raiding, stole wives and multiplied. Forty is kyrk in Turkic, so they were called Kyrk-Kazak, 'forty Cossacks' or riders. Levshin himself calls most such traditions absurd but prints them as he found them.
This band, forty men strong, for a long time lived by plundering the lands around them; at last it stole wives for itself and multiplied. Forty is expressed in Turkic by the word kyrk, and so this crowd was called Kyrk-Kazak, that is, forty Kazakhs, or riders. Their descendants kept the name of their ancestors.
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Original wording
Шайка сія, въ числѣ 40 человѣкъ, долго занимаясь грабежами сосѣдственныхъ съ ними земель; наконецъ, похитила себѣ женъ и размножилась. Сорокъ означается по-Турецки словомъ Кыркъ, а потому и толпа сія названа Кыркъ-Казакъ, то есть, сорокъ Казаковъ, или наѣздниковъ. Потомки ихъ сохранили названіе предковъ.
About Kazakhs (in legend, descendants of Crimean exiles)
Keep in mind
A folk etymology linking 'Kirghiz' to kyrk (forty); Levshin presents it as one tradition among several.
Stone statues of legendary lovers that received offerings
Editorial contextOn the Ayagoz river, Levshin writes, stood a pointed building carefully built of smooth stone slabs, containing three stone statues. The Kazakhs said two of them showed the lovers famous in their tales (Bayan and Kozy-Korpesh, heroes of a Kazakh epic) and the third their servant, and believers brought them offerings. A building credited not to vanished giants but to a local love story.
In it are three stone statues, of which two, according to the Kirghiz-Kazakhs, depict the lovers celebrated in their tales … and the third their servant. Those who believe in the authenticity of these images bring them offerings.
Working translation
Original wording
Въ немъ три каменныя статуи, изъ коихъ двѣ, по словамъ Киргизъ Казаковъ, изображаютъ прославляемыхъ въ сказкахъ любовниковъ … а третья ихъ служанку. Вѣрующіе въ подлинность сихъ изображеній приносятъ имъ жертвы.
About Kazakhs
Keep in mind
The description of the building itself (pointed, of smooth stone slabs) is at the foot of the previous page, n212. The lovers' names are omitted here because the OCR garbles them.