Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Kirghiz
KIRGHIZ (ker'gez), a nomadic Mongol-Tartar race, numbering in its various branches about 3,000,000, and inhabiting the steppes that extend from the lower Volga and the Caspian Sea in the W. to the Altai and Thian-Shan Mountains in the E., and from the Sea of Aral and the Syr Daria in the S. to the Tobol and Irtish on the N. The Kirghiz are a slow, sullen people, small in stature, bad walkers, but born riders. Their food is chiefly mutton and horseflesh, and their drink the nourishing fermented mare's milk called koumiss. They dwell in a yurt or semi-circular tent, the wooden framework of which is covered with cloth or felt. Agriculture is almost unknown; their possessions are in sheep, horses, and camels, and their manufactures consist of cloth, felt, carpets, leather, etc. They profess Mohammedanism. Most of the varied Kirghiz tribes are, at least nominally, under Russian government.