(M118) In some places the modified form of the old custom of regicide
which appears to have prevailed at Babylon(406) has been further softened
down. The king still abdicates annually for a short time and his place is
filled by a more or less nominal sovereign; but at the close of his short
reign the latter is no longer killed, though sometimes a mock execution
still survives as a memorial of the time when he was actually put to
death. To take examples. In the month of Méac (February) the king of
Cambodia annually abdicated for three days. During this time he performed
no act of authority, he did not touch the seals, he did not even receive
the revenues which fell due. In his stead there reigned a temporary king
called Sdach Méac, that is, King February. The office of temporary king
was hereditary in a family distantly connected with the royal house, the
sons succeeding the fathers and the younger brothers the elder brothers,
just as in the succession to the real sovereignty. On a favourable day
fixed by the astrologers the temporary king was conducted by the mandarins
in triumphal procession. He rode one of the royal elephants, seated in the
royal palanquin, and escorted by soldiers who, dressed in appropriate
costumes, represented the neighbouring peoples of Siam, Annam, Laos, and
so on. In place of the golden crown he wore a peaked white cap, and his
regalia, instead of being of gold encrusted with diamonds, were of rough
wood. After paying homage to the real king, from whom he received the
sovereignty for three days, together with all the revenues accruing during
that time (though this last custom has been omitted for some time), he
moved in procession round the palace and through the streets of the
capital. On the third day, after the usual procession, the temporary king
gave orders that the elephants should trample under foot the “mountain of
rice,” which was a scaffold of bamboo surrounded by sheaves of rice. The
people gathered up the rice, each man taking home a little with him to
secure a good harvest. Some of it was also taken to the king, who had it
cooked and presented to the monks.(407)
(M119) In Siam on the sixth day of the moon in the sixth month (the end of
April) a temporary king is appointed, who for three days enjoys the royal
prerogatives, the real king remaining shut up in his palace. This
temporary king sends his numerous satellites in all directions to seize
and confiscate whatever they can find in the bazaar and open shops; even
the ships and junks which arrive in harbour during the three days are
forfeited to him and must be redeemed. He goes to a field in the middle of
the city, whither they bring a gilded plough drawn by gaily-decked oxen.
After the plough has been anointed and the oxen rubbed with incense, the
mock king traces nine furrows with the plough, followed by aged dames of
the palace scattering the first seed of the season. As soon as the nine
furrows are drawn, the crowd of spectators rushes in and scrambles for the
seed which has just been sown, believing that, mixed with the seed-rice,
it will ensure a plentiful crop. Then the oxen are unyoked, and rice,
maize, sesame, sago, bananas, sugar-cane, melons, and so on, are set
before them; whatever they eat first will, it is thought, be dear in the
year following, though some people interpret the omen in the opposite
sense. During this time the temporary king stands leaning against a tree
with his right foot resting on his left knee. From standing thus on one
foot he is popularly known as King Hop; but his official title is Phaya
Phollathep, “Lord of the Heavenly Hosts.”(408) He is a sort of Minister of
Agriculture; all disputes about fields, rice, and so forth, are referred
to him. There is moreover another ceremony in which he personates the
king. It takes place in the second month (which falls in the cold season)
and lasts three days. He is conducted in procession to an open place
opposite the Temple of the Brahmans, where there are a number of poles
dressed like May-poles, upon which the Brahmans swing. All the while that
they swing and dance, the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts has to stand on one
foot upon a seat which is made of bricks plastered over, covered with a
white cloth, and hung with tapestry. He is supported by a wooden frame
with a gilt canopy, and two Brahmans stand one on each side of him. The
dancing Brahmans carry buffalo horns with which they draw water from a
large copper caldron and sprinkle it on the spectators; this is supposed
to bring good luck, causing the people to dwell in peace and quiet, health
and prosperity. The time during which the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts has
to stand on one foot is about three hours. This is thought “to prove the
dispositions of the Devattas and spirits.” If he lets his foot down “he is
liable to forfeit his property and have his family enslaved by the king;
as it is believed to be a bad omen, portending destruction to the state,
and instability to the throne. But if he stand firm he is believed to have
gained a victory over evil spirits, and he has moreover the privilege,
ostensibly at least, of seizing any ship which may enter the harbour
during these three days, and taking its contents, and also of entering any
open shop in the town and carrying away what he chooses.”(409)
(M120) Such were the duties and privileges of the Siamese King Hop down to
about the middle of the nineteenth century or later. Under the reign of
the late enlightened monarch this quaint personage was to some extent both
shorn of the glories and relieved of the burden of his office. He still
watches, as of old, the Brahmans rushing through the air in a swing
suspended between two tall masts, each some ninety feet high; but he is
allowed to sit instead of stand, and, although public opinion still
expects him to keep his right foot on his left knee during the whole of
the ceremony, he would incur no legal penalty were he, to the great
chagrin of the people, to put his weary foot to the ground. Other signs,
too, tell of the invasion of the East by the ideas and civilisation of the
West. The thoroughfares that lead to the scene of the performance are
blocked with carriages: lamp-posts and telegraph posts, to which eager
spectators cling like monkeys, rise above the dense crowd; and, while a
tatterdemalion band of the old style, in gaudy garb of vermilion and
yellow, bangs and tootles away on drums and trumpets of an antique
pattern, the procession of barefooted soldiers in brilliant uniforms steps
briskly along to the lively strains of a modern military band playing
“Marching through Georgia.”(410)
(M121) On the first day of the sixth month, which was regarded as the
beginning of the year, the king and people of Samaracand used to put on
new clothes and cut their hair and beards. Then they repaired to a forest
near the capital where they shot arrows on horseback for seven days. On
the last day the target was a gold coin, and he who hit it had the right
to be king for one day.(411) In Upper Egypt on the first day of the solar
year by Coptic reckoning, that is, on the tenth of September, when the
Nile has generally reached its highest point, the regular government is
suspended for three days and every town chooses its own ruler. This
temporary lord wears a sort of tall fool’s cap and a long flaxen beard,
and is enveloped in a strange mantle. With a wand of office in his hand
and attended by men disguised as scribes, executioners, and so forth, he
proceeds to the Governor’s house. The latter allows himself to be deposed;
and the mock king, mounting the throne, holds a tribunal, to the decisions
of which even the governor and his officials must bow. After three days
the mock king is condemned to death; the envelope or shell in which he was
encased is committed to the flames, and from its ashes the Fellah creeps
forth.(412) The custom perhaps points to an old practice of burning a real
king in grim earnest. In Uganda the brothers of the king used to be
burned, because it was not lawful to shed the royal blood.(413)
(M122) The Mohammedan students of Fez, in Morocco, are allowed to appoint
a sultan of their own, who reigns for a few weeks, and is known as _Sultan
t-tulba_, “the Sultan of the Scribes.” This brief authority is put up for
auction and knocked down to the highest bidder. It brings some substantial
privileges with it, for the holder is freed from taxes thenceforward, and
he has the right of asking a favour from the real sultan. That favour is
seldom refused; it usually consists in the release of a prisoner.
Moreover, the agents of the student-sultan levy fines on the shopkeepers
and householders, against whom they trump up various humorous charges. The
temporary sultan is surrounded with the pomp of a real court, and parades
the streets in state with music and shouting, while a royal umbrella is
held over his head. With the so-called fines and free-will offerings, to
which the real sultan adds a liberal supply of provisions, the students
have enough to furnish forth a magnificent banquet; and altogether they
enjoy themselves thoroughly, indulging in all kinds of games and
amusements. For the first seven days the mock sultan remains in the
college; then he goes about a mile out of the town and encamps on the bank
of the river, attended by the students and not a few of the citizens. On
the seventh day of his stay outside the town he is visited by the real
sultan, who grants him his request and gives him seven more days to reign,
so that the reign of “the Sultan of the Scribes” nominally lasts three
weeks. But when six days of the last week have passed the mock sultan runs
back to the town by night. This temporary sultanship always falls in
spring, about the beginning of April. Its origin is said to have been as
follows. When Mulai Rasheed II. was fighting for the throne in 1664 or
1665, a certain Jew usurped the royal authority at Taza. But the rebellion
was soon suppressed through the loyalty and devotion of the students. To
effect their purpose they resorted to an ingenious stratagem. Forty of
them caused themselves to be packed in chests which were sent as a present
to the usurper. In the dead of night, while the unsuspecting Jew was
slumbering peacefully among the packing-cases, the lids were stealthily
raised, the brave forty crept forth, slew the usurper, and took possession
of the city in the name of the real sultan, who, to mark his gratitude for
the help thus rendered him in time of need, conferred on the students the
right of annually appointing a sultan of their own.(414) The narrative has
all the air of a fiction devised to explain an old custom, of which the
real meaning and origin had been forgotten.
(M123) A custom of annually appointing a mock king for a single day was
observed at Lostwithiel in Cornwall down to the sixteenth century. On
“little Easter Sunday” the freeholders of the town and manor assembled
together, either in person or by their deputies, and one among them, as it
fell to his lot by turn, gaily attired and gallantly mounted, with a crown
on his head, a sceptre in his hand, and a sword borne before him, rode
through the principal street to the church, dutifully attended by all the
rest on horseback. The clergyman in his best robes received him at the
churchyard stile and conducted him to hear divine service. On leaving the
church he repaired, with the same pomp, to a house provided for his
reception. Here a feast awaited him and his suite, and being set at the
head of the table he was served on bended knees, with all the rites due to
the estate of a prince. The ceremony ended with the dinner, and every man
returned home.(415)
(M124) Sometimes the temporary king occupies the throne, not annually, but
once for all at the beginning of each reign. Thus in the kingdom of Jambi,
in Sumatra, it is the custom that at the beginning of a new reign a man of
the people should occupy the throne and exercise the royal prerogatives
for a single day. The origin of the custom is explained by a tradition
that there were once five royal brothers, the four elder of whom all
declined the throne on the ground of various bodily defects, leaving it to
their youngest brother. But the eldest occupied the throne for one day,
and reserved for his descendants a similar privilege at the beginning of
every reign. Thus the office of temporary king is hereditary in a family
akin to the royal house.(416) In Bilaspur it seems to be the custom, after
the death of a Rajah, for a Brahman to eat rice out of the dead Rajah’s
hand, and then to occupy the throne for a year. At the end of the year the
Brahman receives presents and is dismissed from the territory, being
forbidden apparently to return. “The idea seems to be that the spirit of
the Rájá enters into the Bráhman who eats the _khír_ (rice and milk) out
of his hand when he is dead, as the Brahman is apparently carefully
watched during the whole year, and not allowed to go away.” The same or a
similar custom is believed to obtain among the hill states about
Kangra.(417) The custom of banishing the Brahman who represents the king
may be a substitute for putting him to death. At the installation of a
prince of Carinthia a peasant, in whose family the office was hereditary,
ascended a marble stone which stood surrounded by meadows in a spacious
valley; on his right stood a black mother-cow, on his left a lean ugly
mare. A rustic crowd gathered about him. Then the future prince, dressed
as a peasant and carrying a shepherd’s staff, drew near, attended by
courtiers and magistrates. On perceiving him the peasant called out, “Who
is this whom I see coming so proudly along?” The people answered, “The
prince of the land.” The peasant was then prevailed on to surrender the
marble seat to the prince on condition of receiving sixty pence, the cow
and mare, and exemption from taxes. But before yielding his place he gave
the prince a light blow on the cheek.(418)
(M125) Some points about these temporary kings deserve to be specially
noticed before we pass to the next branch of the evidence. In the first
place, the Cambodian and Siamese examples shew clearly that it is
especially the divine or magical functions of the king which are
transferred to his temporary substitute. This appears from the belief that
by keeping up his foot the temporary king of Siam gained a victory over
the evil spirits, whereas by letting it down he imperilled the existence
of the state. Again, the Cambodian ceremony of trampling down the
“mountain of rice,” and the Siamese ceremony of opening the ploughing and
sowing, are charms to produce a plentiful harvest, as appears from the
belief that those who carry home some of the trampled rice, or of the seed
sown, will thereby secure a good crop. Moreover, when the Siamese
representative of the king is guiding the plough, the people watch him
anxiously, not to see whether he drives a straight furrow, but to mark the
exact point on his leg to which the skirt of his silken robe reaches; for
on that is supposed to hang the state of the weather and the crops during
the ensuing season. If the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts hitches up his
garment above his knee, the weather will be wet and heavy rains will spoil
the harvest. If he lets it trail to his ankle, a drought will be the
consequence. But fine weather and heavy crops will follow if the hem of
his robe hangs exactly half-way down the calf of his leg.(419) So closely
is the course of nature, and with it the weal or woe of the people,
dependent on the minutest act or gesture of the king’s representative. But
the task of making the crops grow, thus deputed to the temporary kings, is
one of the magical functions regularly supposed to be discharged by kings
in primitive society. The rule that the mock king must stand on one foot
upon a raised seat in the rice-field was perhaps originally meant as a
charm to make the crop grow high; at least this was the object of a
similar ceremony observed by the old Prussians. The tallest girl, standing
on one foot upon a seat, with her lap full of cakes, a cup of brandy in
her right hand and a piece of elm-bark or linden-bark in her left, prayed
to the god Waizganthos that the flax might grow as high as she was
standing. Then, after draining the cup, she had it refilled, and poured
the brandy on the ground as an offering to Waizganthos, and threw down the
cakes for his attendant sprites. If she remained steady on one foot
throughout the ceremony, it was an omen that the flax crop would be good;
but if she let her foot down, it was feared that the crop might fail.(420)
The same significance perhaps attaches to the swinging of the Brahmans,
which the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts had formerly to witness standing on
one foot. On the principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic it might be
thought that the higher the priests swing the higher will grow the rice.
For the ceremony is described as a harvest festival,(421) and swinging is
practised by the Letts of Russia with the avowed intention of influencing
the growth of the crops. In the spring and early summer, between Easter
and St. John’s Day (the summer solstice), every Lettish peasant is said to
devote his leisure hours to swinging diligently; for the higher he rises
in the air the higher will his flax grow that season.(422) The gilded
plough with which the Siamese mock king opens the ploughing may be
compared with the bronze ploughs which the Etruscans employed at the
ceremony of founding cities;(423) in both cases the use of bare iron was
probably forbidden on superstitious grounds.(424)
(M126) In the foregoing cases the temporary king is appointed annually in
accordance with a regular custom. But in other cases the appointment is
made only to meet a special emergency, such as to relieve the real king
from some actual or threatened evil by diverting it to a substitute, who
takes his place on the throne for a short time. The history of Persia
furnishes instances of such occasional substitutes for the Shah. Thus Shah
Abbas the Great, the most eminent of all the kings of Persia, who reigned
from 1586 to 1628 A.D., being warned by his astrologers in the year 1591
that a serious danger impended over him, attempted to avert the omen by
abdicating the throne and appointing a certain unbeliever named Yusoofee,
probably a Christian, to reign in his stead. The substitute was
accordingly crowned, and for three days, if we may trust the Persian
historians, he enjoyed not only the name and the state but the power of
the king. At the end of his brief reign he was put to death: the decree of
the stars was fulfilled by this sacrifice; and Abbas, who reascended his
throne in a most propitious hour, was promised by his astrologers a long
and glorious reign.(425) Again, Shah Sufi II., who reigned from 1668 to
1694 A.D., was crowned a second time and changed his name to Sulaiman or
Soliman under the following circumstances: “The King, a few days after,
was out of danger, but the matter was to restore him to perfect health.
Having been always in a languishing condition, and his physicians never
able to discover the cause of his distemper, he suspected that their
ignorance retarded his recovery, and two or three of them were therefore
ill treated. At length the other physicians, fearing it might be their own
turn next, bethought themselves, that Persia being at the same time
afflicted with a scarcity of provisions and the King’s sickness, the fault
must be in the astrologers, who had not chosen a favourable hour when the
King was set upon the throne, and therefore persuaded him that the
ceremony must be perform’d again, and he change his name in a more lucky
minute. The King and his council approving of their notion, the physicians
and astrologers together expected the first unfortunate day, which,
according to their superstition, was to be followed in the evening by a
propitious hour. Among the Gavres, or original Persians, Worshippers of
Fire, there are some who boast their descent from the Rustans, who
formerly reigned over Persia and Parthia. On the morning of the aforesaid
unlucky day, they took one of these Gavres of that Blood-royal, and having
plac’d him on the throne, with his back against a figure that represented
him to the life, all the great men of the court came to attend him, as if
he had been their king, performing all that he commanded. This scene
lasted till the favourable hour, which was a little before sun-setting,
and then an officer of the court came behind and cut off the head of the
wooden statue with his cymiter, the Gaure then starting up and running
away. That very moment the King came into the hall, and the Sofy’s cap
being set on his head, and his sword girt to his side, he sat down on the
throne, changing his name for that of Soliman, which was perform’d with
the usual ceremonies, the drums beating and trumpets sounding as before.
It was requisite to act this farce, in order to satisfy the law, which
requires that in order to change his name and take possession of the
throne again he must expel a prince that had usurped it upon some
pretensions; and therefore they made choice of a Gaure, who pretended to
be descended from the ancient kings of Persia, and was besides of a
different religion from that of the government.”(426)