The Heart of a Woman Never Grows Old

The Eternal Bride

In the times when the Kyrgyz still lived along the banks of the Yenisei River, there was a custom among them. They never referred to any of their women as "old woman." All married women were necessarily called daughters-in-law. One foreign guest asked a Kyrgyz elder why they did this.

- You always say girl (kız) or daughter-in-law (kelin). Why do you call even those women who are already of advanced age daughters-in-law?

- Any girl under 18 years old we simply call "daughter" ("kızım"). If a woman is between 20 and 40 years old, she is called "young daughter-in-law" ("jash kelin"). A woman from 40 to 60 is referred to as "daughter-in-law at the table" ("ash kelin"), and after 60 years, we call them "honorable daughter-in-law" ("bash kelin"). We do not call our women "old women" ("kempir") because they are all like daughters-in-law. They also carry themselves like daughters-in-law. And they take care of themselves like daughters-in-law. Moreover, they, like daughters-in-law, have lovers. We believe that a woman's heart never ages.

The Living and the Dead

One curious person began to question a man who worked as a janitor in a morgue.

- Listen, friend. You work with corpses every day. Aren't you afraid?

- I'm not afraid of the dead. The dead cannot do harm, for only the living create evil.
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Two Riders

In ancient times, there lived two riders who participated in races. At one of the feasts, a noble manap, the head of a large clan, spoke to one of them.

- People know that you, like your opponent, are a very skilled rider. But he has several horses in his stable, while you only have one steed. Why is that?

- My father taught me that a true jigit has one homeland, one wife, and one steed.