Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/433

 The Killing of tJie Khazar Kings. 399

selling petty articles ; and that the people used to say, ' When the present Khacan shall have departed, this man will succeed to the throne.' But the young man was a Mussulman, and they give the Khacanship only to Jews.

" The Khacan has a throne and pavilion of gold : these are not allowed to any other person. The palace of the Khacan is loftier than the other edifices. . . . The language of Bulgar and of Khozr is the same." ^

In the original of Ibn Haukal's work the account of the installation of the Khozar king appears to be slightly fuller than in the Persian version. The following translation of the passage is made from Frachn's Latin version of the Arabic original :

" When the king is dead and another is to be appointed in his room, the khakan has him brought and admonishes and exhorts him ; he declares to him both what he owes to others and what others owe to him, (that is to say,) his royal rights and duties ; he sets before him the burdens of monarchy, and the reproach of sin and crime which he will incur if, in the discharge of his office, he should fall short of his duty in the administration which he is about to under- take, or should act rashly, or show himself corrupt and unjust in the seat of judgment. Now when he is brought to be invested with the kingdom and to receive the saluta- tions of his subjects, the khakan puts a silken cord about his neck and begins to strangle him, and when he is almost choked, they ask him how many years he desires to reign, to which he answers, ' Such and such a number of years.' Afterwards, if he dies before the expiry of the term, it is well, but if not, whenever he attains to the appointed year, he is put to death." ^

1 Elm Haukal, Oriental Geography, translated by Sir William Ouseley (London, iSoo), pp. 185-190.

- C. M. Fraehn, " Veteres Memoriae Chasarorum," Ah'nioiies de CAcaddmie Jmpdria/e de St. Peter sboiirg, viii. (1822), p. 610.