CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CALMUCKS. ^1 



Eight, was composed of the noliyons, under the presidency of the 

 Khan. In this supreme tribunal were judged all criminal affairs of 

 every nature. Murder was considered as the gravest of crimes. In 

 the eyes of the Calmucks it was a frightful sin, and absolutely un- 

 pardonable. For murder committed for the first time, the offender 

 paid a fine, judicially decreed to the parents of the person killed, in 

 the manner of a retribution. Besides which, he was obliged to re- 

 nounce every kind of enjoyment during a certain time, to carry a red 

 scarf round his shoulders, and to do penance during some time near a 

 temple. For a second murder, the fine and the penitence were heavier, 

 and, further, the criminal was marked on the face. Lastly, he who had 

 committed a homicide for the third time was marked on both sides of 

 the face, and expelled forever from the midst of the people. In case 

 the condemned had not the means of paying the fine, he was surren- 

 dered in person to the disposal of the relations of his victim, who had 

 the full power to employ him in any kind of labor, as well as to sell 

 him, or to exchange him for a flock of sheep. 



In the case in which there was no confession on the part of the ac- 

 cused, or of failure of sufficient proof to establish the crime, the tri- 

 bunal had recourse to the oath of justification. To accomplish this 

 appeal, the accused might choose an adversary, who was generally 

 reckoned an honest man. For the accomplishment of this act, they 

 prepared a tent, in which, upon an elevation, an idol was exposed, be- 

 fore which they lit a perfumed taper. On the two sides of the idol 

 they raised the images of punishing beings, under which were ar- 

 ranged the priests with their musical instruments, employed in divine 

 service. Upon the floor of the tent they spread the skin of a cow, 

 quite black, recently skinned, and moistened with the blood of the im- 

 molated beast. Above, and to the right of the door, inside the tent, 

 they suspended the head of the same cow. Its eyes were opened wide, 

 the tongcue drawn out and turned to one side. On the left of the door 

 they suspended a human skull, and below this last they placed a 

 loaded gun with its lock tied up. Outside the tent, on the two sides 

 of the door, were placed the judges, the accusers, and the accused. 



All these preparations being made, the person chosen by the ac- 

 cused for an adversary was first obliged to persuade the parties to be 

 reconciled, in order to avoid the necessity of so great and solemn an 

 oath. If this exhortation had no success, then they proceeded to ac- 

 complish the shakhan, which took place in the following manner: 

 The accused who has to swear, being undressed to his shirt, placing 

 himself upon the bloody skin of the cow, after making three profound 

 bows, ought to jump over the threshold of the tent. Scarcely has he 

 made the first movement to advance, than the priests begin to sound 

 their trumpets, little bells, and metallic plates, to blow into shells, etc. 

 These solemn sounds accompany the oath at the table upon which the 

 idol rests, and this music is only interrupted by the slow recitation of 



