The seven tribes
Further to the south there lived in old times the Turkmen and the Naimans, the Tajiks and the Nougaimen. They were always at war with each other because of the land. Once the Nougaimen left their place of abode and went to the north. They came across a pack of wolves on their way, and the head of the Nougaimen said " Where the wolves will slop, we will stop, too, and settled down to live. The wolves went separately to settle in the Ural forest and the Aghithel valleys".
The Nougaimen went also to live in seven different places. The Tamyan and the Katai tribes settled down near the upper reaches of the Aghithel River. Down along the river there settled down to live the Buryan tribe, and further down - the Tangaurs, and by the source of the river there settled down the white tribe of the Bashkorts. The Kypsaks occupied the valleys of the Ik River, and the Uthargan tribe lived in our parts. But some time passed, and those tribes began quarrelling and fighting with Kazakh tribes and making raids on each other. In those times there lived batyrs* of distinction among the Bashkorts: Sura Batyr in the Kese Suram valley, Kouk-Kashka Batyr in the place of Yuldash, and Kutur Batyr - in Muinak. After many a fight Kutur Batyr was forced to leave his native parts. He settled down by the upper reaches of the Sathaly River, in the place which was then called Muinak yort. Some years later Muinak, Kutur's son, settled separately his four sons on the land their grandfather used to live on, and thus the four settlements - Upper Muinak, Mid-Muinak, Lower Muinak and Small Muinak - were formed. The road by which Kutur Batyr left is called Kyus Yuly, the Caravan Road, and it goes through the mountains. It is some six kilometres away from the village of Sathaly, Yeansura region.
