NOTE 5.—I have nowhere met with a _precise_ parallel to this remarkable superstition, but the following piece of Folk-Lore has a considerable analogy to it. This extraordinary custom is ascribed by Ibn Fozlan to the Bulgarians of the Volga: “If they find a man endowed with special intelligence then they say: ‘This man should serve our Lord God;’ and so they take him, run a noose round his neck and hang him on a tree, where they leave him till the corpse falls to pieces.” This is precisely what Sir Charles Wood did with the Indian Corps of Engineers;—doubtless on the same principle. Archbishop Trench, in a fine figure, alludes to a belief prevalent among the Polynesian Islanders, “that the strength and valour of the warriors whom they have slain in battle passes into themselves, as their rightful inheritance.” (_Fraehn, Wolga-Bulgaren_, p. 50; _Studies in the Gospels_, p. 22; see also _Lubbock_, 457.) [Illustration: The Sangmiau Tribe of Kweichau, with the Crossbow. (From a Chinese Drawing.) “=Ont armes corasés de cuir de bufal, et ont lances et scuz et ont balestres.=”] There is some analogy also to the story Polo tells, in the curious Sindhi tradition, related by Burton, of Bahá-ul-haḳḳ, the famous saint of Multán. When he visited his disciples at Tatta they plotted his death, in order to secure the blessings of his perpetual presence. The people of Multán are said to have murdered two celebrated saints with the same view, and the Hazáras to “make a point of killing and burying in their own country any stranger indiscreet enough to commit a miracle or show any particular sign of sanctity.” The like practice is ascribed to the rude Moslem of Gilghit; and such allegations must have been current in Europe, for they are the motive of _Southey’s St. Romuald_: “‘But,’ quoth the Traveller, ‘wherefore did he leave A flock that knew his saintly worth so well?’ • • • • • “‘Why, Sir,’ the Host replied, ‘We thought perhaps that he might one day leave us; And then, should strangers have The good man’s grave, A loss like that would naturally grieve us; For he’ll be made a saint of, to be sure. Therefore we thought it prudent to secure His relics while we might; And so we meant to strangle him one night.’” (See _Sindh_, pp. 86, 388; _Ind. Antiq._ I. 13; _Southey’s Ballads_, etc., ed. Routledge, p. 330.)