Note 1299 — Chapter VI · MAGICIANS AS KINGS

Snorro Starleson, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway (trans. by S. Laing), saga i. chs. 18, 47. Compare F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde (Heilbronn, 1879), p. 7; J. Scheffer, Upsalia (Upsala, 1666), p. 137. In 1814 a pestilence broke out among the Chukchees of north-eastern Siberia, which carried off many of the people and spread its ravages among the herds of reindeer. The shamans declared that the spirits were angry and would not stay the plague till the virtuous Kotchène, one of the most venerated chiefs, had been offered to them in sacrifice. No one was found hardy enough to raise a sacrilegious hand against him, and the shamans had to force the chief’s own son to cut his father’s throat. See De Wrangell, Le Nord de la Sibérie (Paris, 1843), i. 265–267.