In their dress, the Kirghis are to be distinguished from the rest of the nomadic tribes and settlers: in Central Asia, mostly by their head-gear. The men wear, in summer, a felt hat (_kalpak_); in winter, a cap (_tumak_), with fur covered with cloth, the back-flaps of which protect the neck and ears. Besides these, they have still a little fur cap (_koreysh_), which, however, is employed more for in-door use. The women wear a _sheokele_, which is distinguished from the Turkoman head-dress in that it is more conical, and allows the veil to fall not before, but down the back to the loins. The hair, also, is dressed in a different fashion. The young Turkoman women plait the hair in two plaits; the Kirghis with eight thin ones, four on either side. They cover their heads with a _letshek_, in cloth, which covers head and neck. In negligé attire, the girls twist red handkerchiefs round their heads, but the women white or dark-coloured ones. The upper garments have the same tasteless form, with many folds, as everywhere in Central Asia, only more of the bright and glittering colours are liked; and in the north of Khokand it is the custom for the young Kirghis to prepare for themselves a garment from the raw hide of the fox-coloured horse, besides which they let the horse's tail hang down from the neck as an ornament. In their coverings for their feet, the only distinction is, that the western have adopted the Russian form of boot; the eastern, on the contrary, the Chinese; namely, with pointed, curved toes, and slender, high heels. The religion is almost universally the Mohammedan; still, in a very lax condition, which is the case with nearly all the nomadic tribes in connexion with Islam.[42] Before and long after the Arabian occupation of Central Asia, the Kirghis professed Shamanism, and it is not to be wondered at, considering the little influence which the teachers of Mohammed could maintain there, that much of the early faith remains there now, and out of a whole tribe, which consists of many hundred tents, there are often only one or two persons among the chiefs who can read the Koran a little. [42] The Islam of faith was established, according to Fischer ("History of Siberia," pages 86, &c., and elsewhere) towards the middle of the sixteenth century, by one Kutshum. This date is admitted by those in the north, as well as by the dwellers in South Siberia, still in Turkestan that conversion is reported to have taken place much earlier.