Aitmatov draws in his book heavily on the tradition of the mankurts. According to Kyrgyz legend mankurts were prisoners-of-war who were turned into brain-damaged slaves by exposing them under a hot sun, their heads were wrapped in camel skin. These skins dried tight, like a steel band, thus enslaving them forever. The author likens this to a ring of rockets around the earth to keep out a higher civilization. A mankurt did not recognize his name, family or tribe — "a mankurt did not recognize himself as a human being", he writes.