Khat

“ The Khata, or Scarf of Blessings, is so prominent a feature in Thibetian manners, that we may as well give an account of it. The Khata, then, is a piece of silk, nearly as fine as gauze, and of so very pale a blue as to be almost white. Its length about triples its breadth, and the two extremities are generally fringed. There are Khatas of all sizes and all prices, for a Khata is an object with which neither poor nor rich can dispense. No one ever moves unless provided with a supply. ”

“ When two friends, who have not seen each other for a long time, meet, their first proceeding is to interchange a Khata; it is as much a matter of course as shaking hands in Europe. When you write, it is usual to enclose a Khata in the letter. We cannot exaggerate the importance which the Thibetians, the Si-Fan, the Houng-Mao-Eul, and all the people who dwell towards the western shores of the Blue Sea, attach to the ceremony of the Khata. ”

“ N. on the Philippopolis-Adrianople section of the Belgrade-Constantinople railway. Carpets and woollen goods are manufactured, and in the surrounding country tobacco and silk are produced.
KHATTAK, an important Pathan tribe in the North-West Frontier Province of India, inhabiting the south-eastern portion of the Peshawar district and the south-eastern and eastern portions of Kohat. They number 24,000, and have always been quiet and loyal subjects of the British government. They furnish many recruits to the Indian army, and make most excellent soldiers. ”

“ So Khatoun rose and arraying herself in her richest clothes, donned all her jewellery and said to her maid, ‘Keep thou an eye on the house.’ And she said, ‘I hear and obey, O my lady.’ Then she went down and the porter met her and said to her, ‘Whither away, O my lady?’ ‘I go to visit the Sheikh Aboulhemlat,’ answered she; and he said, ‘Be a year’s fast incumbent on me! Verily yon old woman is of the saints of God and full of holiness! ”

“ Khattusil replies that the king of Egypt and he had formed a friendship and had concluded an alliance: "We are brothers, and against a foe will we fight together, and with a friend will we together maintain friendship." [39] And his next remark enables us to identify his Kassite correspondent; for he adds, "and when the king of Egypt [formerly] attacked [Khatti] , then did I write to inform thy father Kadashman-turgu." Khattusil was thus the contemporary of two Kassite kings, Kadashman-turgu and Kadashman-Enlil II., the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth rulers of the dynasty. ”

“ Khata-sir, the great king of the Hittites, is in covenant with Ramessu Mi-Amun, the great prince of Egypt, from this very day forward, that there may subsist a good friendship and a good understanding between them for evermore.
He shall be my ally; he shall be my friend. I will be his ally; I will be his friend, for ever. ”

“ Khatin raised his head, with a chuckle.
“Now by all the host of heaven!” professed he, “I think the gods must get on excellently well, even if a few less shekels are wasted on such worthy servants as you, my dear Binit and Gudea. They do say that even if the gods grow furious, when one really longs to be rid of a sickness, it is safer to trust the Egyptian doctors than the most noted wizard in all Babylon.” ”

“ Some deal in human hair, which is used by native females as a chignon. By reason of their connection with the silk industry, the Khatris are called Patnūlkāran by other castes. The true Patnūlkārans are called Kōshta by the Khatris. The Khatris give Bhuja Rāja Kshatriya as their caste name, and some say that they are the descendants of one Karta Virya Arjuna of the human race. Their tribal deity is Renukāmba, the mother of Parasu Rāma, to whom pongal (boiled rice) is offered, and a goat sacrificed in the month of Thai (January- February) . ”

“ In the evening the funeral feast and what is known as a khatma is held at the deceased’s house, when one or more fikis—holy men of a humble kind, frequently the village schoolmasters—chant from the Koran the sixty-seventh chapter known as the Surat el Mulk (the chapter of the kingdom) which deals largely with the punishments that await unbelievers when they get to hell. ”

“ Replied Daulat Khatun, “O my sister how sad is severance and how gladsome is reunion; ask me not what hath befallen me! Oh, what hardships mortals suffer!” cried she, “How so?” and the other said to her, “O my sister, I was inmured in the High-builded Castle of Japhet son of Noah, whither the son of the Blue King carried me off till Sayf al-Muluk slew the Jinni and brought me back to my sire;” and she told her to boot all that the Prince had undergone of hardships and horrors before he came to the Castle. ”

“ Among all the early peoples of N. Syria and Asia Minor known to us from Egyptian and Assyrian records, the Kheta-Khatti alone appear frequently as leading to war peoples from far beyond Taurus. (4) The Kheta certainly had a system of writing and a glyptic art in the time of Rameses II., or else the Egyptian account of their copy of the treaty would be baseless. (5) The physiognomy given to Kheta warriors by Egyptian artists is fairly representative of the prevailing type shown in the Hittite sculptures. ”

“ When Badi’a al-Jamal heard this, she blushed rosy red and was confounded at Daulat Khatun and said, “Verily this may never, never be; for man accordeth not with the Jann.” Then Daulat Khatun went on to praise Sayf al-Muluk and extol his comeliness and courage and cavalarice, and ceased not repeating her memories of his prowess and his excellent qualities till she ended with saying, “For the sake of Almighty Allah and of me, O sister mine, come and speak with 365him, though but one word!” ”

“ I do not know the exact limits of Khatri occupation to the West, but certainly in all Eastern Afghānistān they seem to be just as much a part of the established community as they are in the Punjab. They find their way far into Central Asia, but the further they get the more depressed and humiliating is their position. ”

“ Quite apart from its name, and from the traditions attaching to it, there can be no question but that from this time forward Khatti was the centre of Hittite power and civilization; for it is by far the most extensive Hittite site in existence. It covers the high ground, including the hill-top, above Boghaz Keui, which lies in the valley below; and it is fortunate that the greater part of the modern village was built clear of the outer boundaries of the ancient city, as the ruins have in consequence run far less risk of destruction. ”

“ So he arose and going in to Shah Khatun, said to her, "O my daughter, the king of the Roum hath sent to me to seek thee in marriage. What sayst thou?" She wept and replied, "O king, how canst thou find it in thy heart to address me thus? As for me, abideth there husband for me, after the son of my uncle?" Rejoined the king, "O my daughter, 'tis indeed as thou sayest; but here let us look to the issues of affairs. I must now take compt of death, for that I am a man shot in years and fear not save for thee and for thy little son ”

“ In some localities they are considered impure, and high-caste Hindus who do not eat meat will wash themselves if forced to touch a Khatīk. Elsewhere they rank just above the impure castes, but do not enter Hindu temples. These Khatīks slaughter sheep and goats and sell the flesh, but they do not cure the skins, which are generally exported to Madras. The Hindu Khatīks often refuse to slaughter animals themselves and employ a Muhammadan to do so by the rite of halāl. The blood is sometimes sold to Gonds, who cook and eat it mixed with grain. ”

“ Quoth she, ‘My name is Dauleh Khatoun and I am the daughter of the King of Hind. My father dwells in the city of Serendib and has a great and goodly garden, there is no goodlier in all the land of Hind; and in this garden is a great tank. One day, I went out into the garden with my waiting-women and we stripped and entering the tank, fell to sporting and taking our pleasure therein. ”

“ The swarm of frenzied palace folk was growing denser. They sprang upon the dais, threatening Atossa, in their witless fear, but gave back at sight of Khatin’s bared sword-blade. Then forth rushed a single man, Avil-Marduk, his face blanched, his teeth a-chatter, and cast himself at Daniel’s feet.
“Save, generous lord! Save me from death! For you are merciful, and the Persians will hear you! Beseech your Jehovah that He may not let me die!”
Before the Jew could answer Khatin dragged the suppliant from his knees. “Peace, babbler; if Marduk is a great god, let him save; if not, die like a man. ”

“ Even if a girl be seduced by an outsider, except a Hindu of the impure castes or a Muhammadan, she may be taken back into the community and her child will be recognised as a member of it. But they say that if a Khatīk keeps a woman of another caste he will be excommunicated until he has put her away, and his children will be known as Akre or bastard Khatīks, these being numerous in Berār. The caste burn or bury the dead as their means permit, and on the third day they place on the pyre some sugar, cakes, liquor, sweets and fruit for the use of the dead man’s soul. ”

“ The other crops are inconsiderable. The other part of the country, south and east from the capital, is called Khasant. One half of its inhabitants are Brahmans, mostly of the bastard (Jausis) race, who plough and carry burthens; one-fourth consists of Khasiyas, who call themselves Khatris; and one-fourth consists of other Hindus of a lower birth, but called also Khasiyas. Very few of even these spurious Hindus have settled among the Gurungs, and very few of the latter have remained in the Khasant. ”

“ For more than a century the Khâti had been the dominant power in North-western Asia, and had successfully withstood the power of Thebes; crushed by the Peoples of the Sea, hemmed in and encroached upon by the rising wave of Aramæan invasion, they had yet disputed their territory step by step with the Assyrian generals, and the area over which they spread can be traced by the monuments and inscriptions scattered over Cilicia, Lycaonia, Cappadocia, and Northern Syria as far as the basins of the Orontes and the Litâny. ”

“ When the king returned to his palace, he went in to his wife Shah Khatun and said to her, "I give thee the glad tidings of thine Eunuch's return;" and he told her what had betided and of the youth whom he had brought with him. When she heard this, her wits fled and she would have screamed, but her reason restrained her, and the king said to her, "What is this? Art thou overcome with grief for the loss of the monies or for that which hath befallen the Eunuch?" Said she, "Nay, as thy head liveth, O king, but women are weaklings." ”

“ The eunuchs who serve him every morning vow a goat to Sin if they are kept safely through the day.”
Khatin was just beginning some impious remark to the effect that “the worthy god was being over-fed with goats’ flesh,” when Igas-Ramman the captain burst in upon them on the run, and flew up to the sentry guarding the council-chamber door, almost before the two others knew his presence.
“Hold, friend!” shouted Khatin, a ponderous hand clapping on Igas’s shoulders; “your business? The headsman is better than the king. ”

“ The name Khatu recalls that of the Khoith tribe which the Armenian historians mention as in this locality. Khaturu is perhaps Hâtera in the caza of Lidjô, in the sandjak of Diarbekîr, and Arzania the ancient Arzan, Arzn, the ruins of which may be seen near Sheikh-Yunus. Tila-Tela is not the same town as the Tela in Mesopotamia, which we shall have occasion to speak of later, but is probably to be identified with Til or Tilleh, at the confluence of the Tigris and the Bohtan-tcha. ”

“ Altogether, there can be no doubt that these Khatris are one of the most acute, energetic and remarkable races in India, though in fact, except locally in the Punjab, they are not much known to Europeans. The Khatris are staunch Hindus, and it is somewhat singular that, while giving a religion and priests to the Sikhs, they themselves are comparatively seldom Sikhs. The Khatris are a very fine, fair, handsome race, and, as may be gathered from what I have already said, they are very generally educated. ”

“ We left him a little one and he grew up; so I brought him, that he might be servant to the king.'" Cried she, "Thou didst well;" and she charged him to serve the Prince with faithful service. As for the king, he redoubled in kindness to the Castrato and appointed the youth a liberal allowance and he abode going in to and coming out of the king's house and standing in his service, and every day he waxed better with him. As for Shah Khatun, she used to station herself at watch for him at the windows and in the balconies and gaze upon him, and she frying on coals of fire on his account ”

“ Crooke states that, “their women have a reputation for their beauty and fair complexion. The proverb runs, ‘A Khatri woman would be fair without fine clothes or ornaments,’ and, ‘Only an albino is fairer than a Khatri woman.’”2 Their legend of origin is as follows: “When Parasurāma the Brāhman was slaying the Kshatriyas in revenge for the theft of the sacred cow Kāmdhenu and for the murder of his father, a pregnant Kshatriya woman took refuge in the hut of a Sāraswat Brāhman. ”

“ The Khattak could do no more than lift his friend into the shelter of a cliff, stanch the bleeding with a piece torn from his pagari, and make off in hot haste for his village to sound a chigah and bring a bed on which the wounded man might be carried home. The chigah, of course, came too late to track the Wazirs, but they bore the wounded man home, and next morning brought him to the mission hospital. He lay there for three months, carefully tended by his father and a brother, and there all three were attentive listeners to the daily exposition of the Gospel by the doctor or catechist ”