to view full paper

have a daughter would not be served fermented mare’s milk at the toi. Let that one not show up
at the toi!
The bey’s camp of yurts—aal—emptied out. Everyone left for the toi. The bey’s wife
said, “Let’s go to the toi!” “The khan told us not to show up at the toi,” answered the bey. “It’s
God’s will that we have neither a son nor a daughter.”
The wife kept after him for a long time. Finally, he gave up and agreed. They loaded a
whole horse-hide bag full of fermented mare’s milk on a camel, the bey’s wife took the reins,
and they took off.
They arrived at the toi. There were uncountable crowds of people. Nobody came to meet
them. They stood in front of the yurt’s entrance for a long time, but still nobody came out. The
bey got really angry. He pulled out a knife, slashed the entire horse-hide bagup, and spilled all of
the milk on the ground.
He turned back. On the way home he kept scolding his wife, “I told you that we should
not have gone to the toi, but you didn’t listen to me!” When they got back to their aal, he took a
stallion from among his horses, a bull from among his cattle, a ram from among his sheep, and a
he-goat from among his goats. He took the stallion, the bull, the ram, and the he-goat into the
open steppe. There, on the shore of the Lake, he slaughtered them, and started praying to Allah
to send him a child. The bey and his wife lit a light and went to sleep on the shore repeating their
prayer.
And the bey had a dream. Someone appeared and said, “If you sacrifice your grey
stallion, you will have a daughter.”
24