Pavel relays a legend about the origin of his clan, and talks about the composition and some unique characteristics of his clan. This is his story: In the past, when two Kalmyks would meet in the steppe they would ask each other the following set of questions: ‘Who are you? What place are you from? Which clan do you belong to?’ If someone asked me these questions, I would have said: ‘I am from malyi derbet, from the clan of Batrgud of Khashkhnr aimak, from a place called Mantsin Kets. I am the youngest son of Sandzhi Antonov’. Today we do not follow this tradition any more. Khashkhnr aimak lives in the village of Verkhniy Yashkul’ in Tselinnyi rayon. Each aimak has legends. Ours is as follows. Once upon a time on a hill there lived a boy named Khashkh who was protected by a god called Och Cheedzhi. One day Khashkh descended from the hill, got married and had seven sons who were the founders of the seven clans, namely the Batrgud, Baazhdud, Choludikhn, Chavgud, Kitdud, Syadud and Momngud. I am from the clan of Batrgud. Och Cheedzhi is still the protector of the Khashkhnr aimak. We worship this god. Since he is a furious god, we do not include vodka in our offerings to him. We have a custom to make offerings on a hill in which only men are allowed to participate. Women from our aimak cannot go to the top of hills. We do not utter the word tolga (Kalm. ‘the top of hill’), but use another word instead – e.g. ora. For us it is forbidden to dig hills. Each clan in our aimak has its tradition. When we go to weddings to other places, we say beforehand that we do not use a sheep’s head as an offering (to gods, which is widespread among other Kalmyk clans).