Mengen Shigshirge, the 'Silver' Shigshirge, is the aged herdsman of the Jangar epic who, hunting on the steppe, comes upon the orphaned infant Jangar, gives him his name and raises him as his own. He is the father of the great warrior Hongor, and in fostering Jangar he binds the two boys together as foster-brothers, though the tradition recalls his early fear that the found child might one day dispossess his own son. He embodies the epic's ideal of the wise, generous elder whose household becomes the cradle of the heroes of Bumba.