Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/431

 The Killing of the Khazar Kings. 397

ten thousand Mussulmans. The king's habitation is at a distance from the shore : it is constructed of burnt bricks ; and this is the only building of such materials in all the country : they will not allow any body but the king to erect such a dwelling. The city of Atel has four gates. One of those gates faces the river ; another looks towards Iran, in the direction of the desert. The king of this country is a Jew : he has in his train four thousand Mussul- mans and Khozrians (Christians), and idolaters ; but his principal people are Jews : and this king has twelve thousand soldiers in his service, of whom when one dies, another person is immediately chosen into his place ; and they have no other commander but him. And this king has under him nine magistrates or judges : these are Mussulmans, Jews, Christians, and Idolaters. The smallest in number of the inhabitants of this country are the Jews ; the greatest in number are the Mussulmans and Christians : but the king and his chief officers are Jews. There are magistrates of each religion ; and when they sit in the tribunal of justice, they are obliged to report to the king all that passes, and to bring back his answer and opinion, and to put his sentence into execution.

" This city has not any suburbs ; but the cultivated fields and grounds extend for nearly twenty farsang. Agriculture is much practised, and the husbandmen ■carry the produce of their labour in boats and carriages to the city. The chief diet of this people is fish and rice : they bring honey and wax from the borders of Rous. The principal persons of Atel are Mussulmans and merchants : their language is like that of the Turks (or Tartars), and is not understood by any other nation. . ..

" The people of Khorz are near the Turks, whom they resemble. They are of two classes ; one of blackish com- plexions, and such dark hair that you would suppose them to be descended from the Hindoos : the other race fair complexioned ; these sell their children ; but it is not