KIRGHIZ, la•r•gee, or KIRGIIIZ-KAZAKS. The chief part of the Central Asiatic group of Turko Tataric (Mongolian) peoples. They number, altogether, some 3,000,000, ranging over the great steppe and marshy area from the borders of Euro pean Russia to those of Western China, north ward beyond tile Sir-Darya. The ancient division of the Kirghiz into 'hordes' is still retained. The 'Great Horde' has its habitat partly in Russian and partly ill Chinese territory in the Yarkand Tashkkint-Alatan region; the 'Middle Horde,' or Siberian Kirghiz, chiefly in the Balkash-Irtish Tobol region; the 'Little Horde,' in the steppes north of the Aral and Caspian seas, to the west of the `Middle Ho•de.' To the 'Little Horde' belong the Kirghiz of the Volga-Ural steppes in European Russia, who for the last century have wandered over that country. The Kirghiz are, for the most part, characteristically a nomadic, tent-dwelling people, living by their flocks and herds, though recently some of them (e.g. a part of the 'Little Horde') have taken somewhat to agriculture. By language tho Kirghiz belong to the Turkish stock, and the folk-literature of the various 'hordes' evidences no little poetical spirit and a marked sense of humor. They preserve sonic of the old characters of the Turko-Tataric race. and beneath the creed of Islam, which so many of them have accepted. the more ancient Sha manism is often scarcely hidden. Some few of the Western Kirghiz are Buddhists. The Kara Kirghiz ('black Kirghiz') of the Tinian Shan region between the lake of Issik Kul and the Kuen-lun Mountains, who number some 350,000, are known to the Russians as Diko-kamenije Kirgisi, or 'wild mountain Kirghiz.' and have
a less favorable reputation than some of the other sections of this widely distributed people. Their language is thought to be more archaic, their folk-poetry more sui generis, while they have also retained more perfectly some of the ancient customs and beliefs of the stock. The name Kirghiz has often been loosely employed in the sense of 'nomad,' and not all of the tribes and fractions of tribes thus denominated are of Turko-Tataric ancestry. The Kirghiz also pos sess, in all probability, not a little Aryan and other non-Mongolian blood. The Kara-Kirghiz are, perhaps. the most Mongolian of all, repre senting best the Turko-Tatarie type of the milieu of Tu•kestan—brachyeephalie, medium statured (or a little taller), and of somewhat darker com plexion. Besides the Russian studies of Grode kow (ISSN. Kharuzin (1889-95), etc., reference may be made to Seel and, "Les Kirghis." in the Revue d'Anthropologie (Paris) for ISSf), which summarizes a good deal of the Russian literature on the subject. Consult. also: Hellwald, Central asien (Leipzig. 1880) : Vfinile•wy, Die primitive Kultur des turko-taturisehrn Folkes 1879) ; id.. Des Tiirkenrolk 1885) ; Shaw, Visits to High, Tartary, ete. (London. 1871).