Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1876 — The Superstitious Beliefs of the Kirghiz. [ARTICLE]

The Superstitious Beliefs of the Kirghiz.

M. D. Conway writes to the Cincinnati Commercial that Dr. Eugene Schuyler, Secretary of the United States Legation at St. Petersburg, was recently in London, having come there to correct the proofsheets of his work on Turkistan before proceeding to his duties at Constantinople. From advance sheets left iu his possession, Mr. Conway sends the following extracts giving an account of the curious superstitous notions and customs of the people of Turklataar —— “ During the few days I passed in tills garden I learned many proprieties as well as many superstitions of Mussulman life. For instance I was shown how to eat a melon. According to the Koran, when an animal is killed for food, its throat must be cut in order that the blood may all run out. By transfer of ideas the melon is treated in the same way. First, its throat is cut—a small incision is made in the end farthest from the stem; then its head is cut oil" by slicing off a small piece; after that it is cut up lengthways, and with one or two dexterous turns of the knife the flesh is removed from the rind and cut into thin, small slices, which are pushed out alternately by the knife. When a man drinks water, he should first take enerswaJfowslowiyvrepeating

to himself the name of Allah, and then take two swallows, after which he can gulp down as much as he pleases. When a person hiccoughs it is common to say, 4 You stole something from me.’ This is supposed to bring good luck. If you sneeze when 1 speak to you, it shows that I am right. If a person sneeze three times it is very unlucky. Yawning is a most sinful and dangerous practice, and arises from an evil place in your heart, Lazzi shaitan, which is getting ready for the reception of an. evil spirit. Mohammed never yawned, for when he was four years old he was one day seized in the desert by the angel Gabriel, who pounced upon him like a bird and cut out the evil place from his heart. If, therefore, you yawn, you should always put up the hand with the palm outward, so as to ward off the evil spirits that will at once eome to you. Among the more puritanical folk laughter is also bad, ana it is said that Hanify, one of the famous Mussulman doctors, lost half of Asia for Islam by laughing. Whistling also is bad. If a husband -whistle, something will happen to his •Wife; and if children whistle, their father or mother will die. Whistling, too, is supposed to bring wind, and the Kirghiz frequently whistles for that purpose. A buzzing in one’s ears shows that a man is dead, and a prayer is always repeated. There is a beautiful legend connected with this. In heaven there is a tree, on each leaf of which is written the name of some soul, and what men call a buzzing in their ears is a rustling of one of these leaves as it falls from the tree. If the noise in your ears be a ringing as of bells, then it is a Christian soul whose leaf has fallen, and who is to die; and so fur each faith the noise is different. There also exist many similar superstitions with re gard to the twitchings of different parte of the body, called tenta&nak. There is a little bird named karlagatch, the forked tail of which is always trembling. This tail, if you keep it about you, will always ward off ill luck. It is, therefore, a very common part of a woman’s head-dress. There is another belief, too, about the karlagatch. If when you first see this bird in the spring you dig a deep hole in the ground under the big toe of your right foot, you will find a coal. With this coal in your hand go and stand in front of a mosque, having also a slim rod. You then watch everyone who passes, and at last there will be a girl wearing a large hat. You touch her with the rod, and, make her stop and go into the mosque with you, and you can then obtain her hat, which will make you invisible, and allow you to wander unseen where you please. A “ Among the Kirghizzhe magpie (aka) is a very ominous bird, and they carefully watch its comings and goings. If a Kirghiz hears one of these cry, he goes out to look. If the magpie be on the east, it means guests; if on the west, a journey ; if on the north, bad luck; if on the south, some remarkable event. With regard to the crow there are similar superstitions, and, among others, it is said that the karga, or ordinary crow, and the kokkarga, or green crow of the steppes, never met until the Russians came. Before that the black crow flew away before the green one came; now both birds are seen together. Either the stumbling or the snorting of a horse while on a journey is considered a sign of good luck. In Bukhara, if, in crossing a stream, a horse should stumble and let the rider get wet, it is thought to be the greatest good luck. To meet a woman unmounted, or with nothing in her hands, is to have bad luck; but if you meet any one on horseback, especially a young man, with something in his hands, you will have good luck. If a hare run across a man’s path while he is on a journey, it foreshows ill luck, and he usually goes back.

“It is, however, the sheep which constitutes his chief wealth, that furnishes the Kirghiz with the - best material for' forecasting the future. The shin bone of a sheep is always placed above the door of a kibitka to keep out robbers, and men sometimes take one as a charm on a journey. In order to prove to me the efficacy of this charm, one of the jigits told me the story of a Kirghiz, who, when he was going on a long journey, was besought by his wife to carry with him a small bag which she gave him, and which he was always to keep fastened to the saddle of his horse, and never to untie. After he had accomplished the fortieth day of his journey, his horse being weary, his eye happened to rest upon this bundle, and he began to wonder what he had been carrying so long; on cutting it open he saw forty bones, which, thinking them to be a useless harden, he threw away. That very night he was attacked by robbers, who had been watehing Mm for forty days, and lost his hone and everything which he had. “The most common method of divining the coarse of human events* is to place on the coals the Bhoulder-Ms.de ot a sheep which has been carefully cleaned of the flesh. This is gfidually calcined, and (he cracks, the color, ana the small partides which fall away from it, denote good or bad lock, or the various accidents which may happen on an expedition. When a Kirghiz is about to .start on a plundering expedition, or indeed on anything which requires luck as well as skill, he always first tries this process, and sometimes will stop in the middle of his way, light a fire, and consult this oracle. Among (he more settled population, especially among the upper classes, late is

usually consulted by more refined methods, practiced by individuals who devote themselves to that as a profession, and in all the large towns there are regular astrologers. A falbin foretells the future by opening the koran at hazard, and endeavoring to explain tho first verse which meets his eye in regard to the event about whieh the Question Is asked. Another book is the alal'tddin-rumiot Masnavi. This method is in every way analogous to the tiortes Vergiliana, or to the bible lots practiced among some Christian sects. Great regard is paid to dreams, and their explanation is always a matter of anxiety. There is, for instance, the process called ietnkhari, praying for a fateful dream. The usual method is to consult a holy man, or saint, and ask fer the decision of heaven as to the course about which you wish to lie informed. The saint, on retiring tor the night, makes certain fixed prayers which are considered necessary, and hasa dream appropriate to the occasion,, which he explains on the following day. The test of a dream is nearly always resorted to in cases where a person wishes to join a religious community. Such a person presents himself to the pir, or leader, and asks to be a member. He that night recites the ietokhari prayers, and in the morning relates to the pir his dream, in accordance with the character of which he will be received into the community, or rejected.”