The origin of the north-eastern bashkorts
The Bashkorts who live by this side of the Ural Ridge came from the west of the Ridge, and nobody knows if any other people used to live in these parts before they came and settled down to live there.
There is lake Kithagas there, and by its two sides there are two hills, and by those hills there are cemeteries that look like threshing - floors. The hill to the north is called The Young Tsar Hill and the hill to the the south - the Tsarina Maiden Hill, and both ruled in those places. The Tsar was not a married man, and he wanted the Tsarina to marry him, but the Tsarina told him so, "I will not marry you on your word. Show me how brave and daring you are. Let us stand on the hills, you on your hill to the north, and me on my hill to the south, and let us try ourselves at shooting - you shoot at mc, and I shall shoot at you. If you win and I remain alive, you will get me with all my people and my army; if I win - youselfand your people will be my slaves." And so they did, and they started shooting arrows at each other. The young Tsar's arrow hit the girl in the leg, and the girl's arrow got him in his heart, and he died. And when the old people of the Young Tsar saw that great misfortune, they said, "We would rather die fighting than become her slaves, " and the fight began, and many were killed, and those who survived decided to become slaves rather than to die, and slaves they did become. The dead were buried on those two hills, with all their clothes on, and all their armour. As for the Tsarina, she went then to many lands, and fought many kings, and made them all her slaves and at last she met one young Tsar, and the Tsar said to her, You have wrecked many people's lives, and now let us have a fight". And they had a fight. They rushed their horses forward, axes of bone in their hands, but the moment the horses collided they fell down dead; and after that the young Tsar hit the girl, and did not let her rise, and sat on her bosom, and said, "What is your choice — to die or to become my wife? If you don't want to die, be my wife, if you want to die, so be it - you'll dic". And the girl made her choice- she became his wife, and her men became his slaves. From those times there remained those hills, tubalar, or ubalar as they were called sometimes, and people went there to have their shooting contests.
Of those people some died, and some moved to other places, and after some time there came the Bashkorts from the other side of the Ural Ridge.
They say there lived an old Bashkort Biksantai by the Ie River, and his cattle got lost once, and the old man sent his son to look for the cattle, and that son of his, in his search for the cattle, went to the other side of the Ural Ridge. He found the cattle there and, on coming back to his father, he said, "There is no army there and no people, and the land is good - let us move there, Father!". And before the young man crossed the Ridge the Bashkorts believed there was no other land out there across the Ridge; and when they knew there was, the old man moved there together with his twelve sons, and he had his sons married and let them settle separately. Biksantai was very rich: he had lots of cattle, and with his herds of cattle, he used to roam all about the Ural Ridge and near the Aman-Karagai Forest. It was near the forest that Biksantai met some Kazakhs who asked him to give them his two daughters in marriage. Two of his sons did not agree to that, and so they were made slaves and had to stay there. But those two young men were batyrs* and when, after a while, there happened to be a popular festivity, they were made to take part in the contest and had to fight the bull, and one of the young men took the bull by his horns and pulled them out, and as he wouldn't let the horns go, his elder brother started rubbing and stroking his brother's hands so that at last the young man let go of the horns.
When the Kazakhs saw all that they decided to let them go lest they should not, batyrs as they were, conquer the Kazakhs and be their masters.Of Biksantai's twelve sons there remained families that were called the Ailyn families; Matale, Ulandc, Olo Karagaikul, Subrash, Subkhangol, Kesekai Karagaikul, Moral. Komsul, Olo Oltorak and Kesekai Oltorak, Botok and Kuzha.
But before the Ailyns came there was one more kith, or family there, called Tabyn. The Ailyns and the Tabyns had many lands there, but the gold, and the silver, and the iron, and the lakes all belonged to the Tabyns. No one knew when and whence they came.
As for the Buryan and the Katai people, those are very special families, or kiths, their language and their customs being different from ours. Whence they came, we don't know.
