Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/432

 2,gS The Killing of the Kkazar Kings.

allowed among the Jews and the Christians to sell, or make one another slaves.

" They bring from other countries those commodities which Khozr does not produce, such as tapestry or curtains, honey, candles, and similar articles. The people of Khozr have not materials for making garments or clothes : they therefore import them from Gurkan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Roum. Their king is styled the Khacan of Khozr.

" When a prince is to be raised to the Khacanship, they bring him forth, and tie a piece of silk about his throat, so tight that he can scarcely draw his breath. At that moment they ask him, how long he will hold the sovereignty } He answers, ' so many years.' He then is set at liberty, and becomes Khacan of Khozr. But if he should not die before the expiration of the time he mentioned, when that space is fulfilled, they put him to death.

" The Khacan must always be of the Imperial race. No one is allowed to approach him but on business of impor- tance : then they prostrate themselves before him, and rub their faces on the ground, until he gives orders for their approaching him, and speaking. When a Khacan of Khozr dies, whoever passes near his tomb goes on foot, and pay his respects at the grave ; and when he is departing, must not mount on horseback, as long as the tomb is within view.

" So absolute is the authority of this sovereign, and so implicitly are his commands obeyed, that if it seemed expedient to him that one of his nobles should die, and if he said to him, ' Go and kill yourself,' the man would immediately go to his house, and kill himself accordingly. The succession to the Khacanship being thus established in the same family, when the turn of the inheritance arrives to any individual of it, he is confirmed in the dignity, though he possesses not a single dirhem. And I have heard from persons worthy of belief, that a certain young man used to sit in a little shop at the public market-place^