At the end of the 19th century, a certain amount of work was done to record, collect and popularize Uzbek folklore, including scholars studying oriental studies, local history, geography, archeology and other areas in Turkestan, as well as educational work. They translated folk legends, legends, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, the songs they heard or wrote, often translated them into Russian and published them in periodicals, including them in their studies, literary and journalistic works, and travel notes. One of the specialists who contributed to the collection of folk art, in particular fairy tales, proverbs and songs, is the famous orientalist, ethnographer Nikolai Petrovich Ostroumov. The article analyzes the folkloristic activities of the orientalist N.P. Ostroumov based on the recordings of Uzbek folk ritual songs stored in the Central State Archives of the Republic of Uzbekistan.