Legends and Traditions of the Kyrgyz in the Early 20th Century
Legends and Myths
Sagimbai Orosbekov
Ablai Khan boasts that he can "negotiate" with anyone. The Kyrgyz sent a yellow Chuvash against him114. The Khan said he was going to Tashkent (and the yellow Chuvash lived in Talas near Auliye-ata), so let the yellow Chuvash prepare to meet him.
Ablai Khan arrived and greeted the yellow Chuvash: "As-sigom-aleykum, yellow Chuvash turkum" (Hello, yellow Chuvash, uneducated one). "O aleikum-assalom, aykharlu kara burugum" (Hello, chubat, black uncircumcised one). Ablai Khan said he would kill himself if he found a person who could negotiate with him. That same year, he killed himself.
Chala-mergen (half-hunter)115 — while hunting, found many animals, but when he was about to shoot, he suddenly saw a boy riding a wild goat among them, managing his herd as if scolding them with various foul words ("stinky head" and others). While he stood and watched, the wind blew from his direction, and the animals sensed him. Then the boy hurriedly drove his herd away. This hunter was nicknamed chala-mergen for this incident, as he only partially fulfilled his task.
One hunter from the Isyangulovskaya volost of the asyk clan went hunting, saw a goat, and shot it in the leg. The goat ran on three legs, and he chased after it. He approached a steep ravine, where there were small kids tied up, and some old woman was bandaging the goat's leg. He approached, and the old woman offered him ayran in a cow's hoof. He drank and drank, but couldn't finish it. The old woman asked him what he needed: the head or another part. He said he didn't need anything, only that as a hunter he wanted to shoot animals. She pointed out a place where a bull-elk grazed. He killed it and dragged it home, but they didn't even have time to cook it before the whole family perished116.
In 1915, Sagimbai saw for himself: a wolf injured a foal. Sagimbai went to it and saw many animals in the distance. He stayed with the foal and sent his two hunters to shoot them. Two went, but he saw that three were coming. Sagimbai didn't wait for their return and went home. The hunters returned only late at night when he had already gone to bed, torn clothes, legs covered in blood, tired and without any game. In the morning, Sagimbai asked them how many they had shot.
They said they shot nothing — the bullets just flew out of the barrels and fell immediately. And who was the third person with them?
There was no third person; they didn't see anyone.
Comments:
114 Yellow — refers to a person who is informed about what is happening around, a connoisseur of social events (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 637).
115 Chala-mergen — more accurately: "bad, imperfect hunter".
116 The male elk — buгу — is considered the progenitor of the Kyrgyz clan bugу, its totem. Therefore, killing it was punished so severely.
Culture and Customs
