Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/185

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THE GREAT KÍRGHIS STEPPE
163

of wooden drums, and suggested some pagan ceremony in central Africa or the Fiji Islands. Now and then the rattles became quiet, and then the stillness was broken by the long-

A KÍRGHIS HORSEMAN IN GALA DRESS.

drawn, wailing cries of the muezzins from the minarets of the Tatár mosques.

Tuesday morning when we awoke we found the streets full of Tatárs and Kírghis in gala dress, celebrating the first