[Footnote *: This rite is so curious, that I have subjoined
the description of it: -
When these (the exorcisers, the Shamans) approached
Zemarchus, they took all our baggage and placed it in the
centre. Then, kindling a fire with branches of frankincense,
lowly murmuring certain barbarous words in the Scythian
language, beating on a kind of bell (a gong) and a drum,
they passed over the baggage the leaves of the frankincense,
crackling with the fire, and at the same time themselves
becoming frantic, and violently leaping about, seemed to
exorcise the evil spirits. Having thus as they thought,
averted all evil, they led Zemarchus himself through the
fire. Menander, in Niebuhr's Bryant. Hist. p. 381. Compare
Carpini's Travels. The princes of the race of Zingis Khan
condescended to receive the ambassadors of the king of
France, at the end of the 13th century without their
submitting to this humiliating rite. See Correspondence
published by Abel Remusat, Nouv. Mem. de l'Acad des Inscrip.
vol. vii. On the embassy of Zemarchus, compare Klaproth,
Tableaux de l'Asie p. 116. - M.]
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