_ 106 India in the Fifteenth Century, being a Collection of Voyages to India in the century preceding the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope_, edited by R. H. Major (Hakluyt Society, London, 1857), “The Travels of Nicolo Conti in the East,” pp. 27 _sq._ An instrument of the sort described in the text (a crescent-shaped knife with chains and stirrups attached to it for the convenience of the suicide) used to be preserved at Kshira, a village of Bengal near Nadiya: it was called a _karavat_. See _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, newly translated and edited by Colonel Henry Yule, Second Edition (London, 1875), ii. 334. 107 Major P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_ (London, 1907), pp. 102 _sq._, quoting Mr. Gait in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ for 1898. M40 Pretence of putting the king’s proxy to death. Man killed at the installation of a king of Cassange. 108 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p. 146. 109 F. T. Valdez, _Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa_ (London, 1861), ii. 158-160. I have translated the title _Maquita_ by “chief”; the writer does not explain it. M41 Sacrifice of the king’s sons in Sweden: evidence of a nine years’ tenure of the throne. _ 110 Ynglinga Saga_, 29 (_The Heimskringla_, translated by S. Laing, i. 239 sq.). Compare H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of Othin_ (London, 1899), p. 4. According to Messrs. Laing and Chadwick the sacrifice took place every _tenth_ year. But I follow Prof. K. Weinhold who translates “_hit tiunda hvert ár_” by “_alle neun Jahre_” (“Die mystische Neunzahl bei den Deutschen,” _Abhandlungen der könig. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1897, p. 6). So in Latin _decimo quoque anno_ should be translated “every ninth year.” 111 Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, iii. pp. 129-131, ed. P. E. Müller (pp. 98 _sq._ of Oliver Elton’s English translation). 112 Adam of Bremen, _Descriptio insularum Aquilonis_, 27 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, cxlvi. col. 644). See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, vol. ii. pp. 364 _sq._ M42 Limited tenure of the kingship in ancient Greece. The Spartan kings appear formerly to have held office for periods of eight years only. The dread of meteors shared by savages.