Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/30

22 drank water, and with this water the khan's daughter had become pregnant and was ashamed. The khan said : "Lay stones on your bosoms and ye shall thus perhaps become pregnant, and say to her, 'We also are pregnant' ; then shall she come (home)." Thus it was. The khan only said to them all, "Ye are all pregnant," and drove them away. The maidens went away to a place where a birch-tree grew. They had no food with them. The khan's daughter gave birth to a boy child ; but the famished mother had no milk. At that time there came to them an old man tending cows. "Why do you live here ?" asked he. The khan's daughter told him her history. Then the old man plucked the birch and gave the end of it to the baby to suck. The baby was then all right. Afterwards the old man went to the khan, and said, "There is a child, Uēl shēbo êpēgtai urgo modon êkhetai (having for mother the bird Uēl, and for his father the tree Urgo). The khan sent him with some nobles to fetch the child. The old man brought the child in his arms and threw him inside the tent. The child fell right on the khan's seat with folded legs as though he were going to sit ; from that they understood that he was destined to be khan. And he was made khan. The mother of the child threw herself in the water. Therefore, the men of the Koton tribe, on the approach of a flood, kill a black ram and throw it into the water; besides this, they also throw into the water hairs from their beard, and believe that the waters marry them. Of the forty maidens who served the khan's daughter were born forty sons, who became chiefs of the Buruts. From them multiplied the tribes (êl) of Sarabash. The son of the khan's daughter was Gelgentē.— (Khodja Gul, of Koton tribe south of Ubs Lake). The father of the Russians, Kirghis, and Chinese, was Au ata, and their mother, Au ênê. They had forty daughters and forty sons. From the youngest son and youngest daughter sprung the Kirghis nation ; from the eldest children, the Chinese ; from the middle, the Russians. — (Têngis hai, a Kirghis of the Chubaraigir race of Tarbagatai).