EurasianStudies_0110..

January-March 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 1.
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time they rode horses around a forest and performed other sacrifice.” 28 Although, the Chinese historian
emphasized the religious deeds, maybe he was able to see only that part of the event. We have
knowledge from historical and ethnographical analogies, when leaders discussed important affairs there.
We also know from later analogy that the country leaders discussed state affairs at the beginning of the
year, in autumn when they gathered the duties, and counted livestock. 29 The Chinese chronicles
recorded that Huns in this assembly decided about peace and war, and they discussed with whom to
conclude alliance. It is obvious from these sources that already in the Hun period the assembly had the
right to elect the emperor, so this was the only legal way for a danhu or shanyu to become king of the
whole empire. As I mentioned above, the decision of the assembly was compulsory for everybody, and
the happenings there were secret to the outside world. The individual, who told about the events at a
kurultay to an external person, lost the right to enter there again. 30 After the meeting was completed, the
participants drank together, in that way they pledged their word and consecrated the decisions. 31 This
kind of consecration appeared in the Chinese sources. Section 94 b of Han shu recorded that after the
death of the Hunnic Hulugu danhu the decision-making Hun nobles elected Hun Yan Di 32 as a new
emperor, they drank an “oath-cup” 33 together, this way they consecrated the election. The Hungarian
legal tradition also preserved this ancient custom. Anonymus’ Gesta Hungarorum recorded several
times a similar kind of this pledge, when Hungarians lived under Árpád’s leadership. The survival of
this custom is proved, moreover by the decree of Torda in 1545, which prohibited the application of the
above mentioned “pagan” tradition in the private treaties. The decree declares that the
Hungarian-Székely (Siculus) leaders kept themselves to this Scythian custom. 34
Chinese chronicles recorded counsellors of the shanyu/danhu, they created the organisation of the
Wisemen Council. According to Shi Ji, their number reached 24, and called them da chen, or ministers.
Omeljan Pritsak called them “majesty”. According to him they were the main counsellors of the
emperor, who helped him in administration and gave advices before the session began in the
parliament. 35
It is likely that logades in Priscos’s record had the similar role in Attila’s court, because those people
had high ranks in the Hunnic state. The above mentioned title is unknown to the scientists. In the Greek
28 Sima Qian, 1997. 39. The tradition of ritual riding around the mountain can be found in a Hungarian record, in Tarcal’s story.
In: Anonymus: Gesta Ungarorum 16. In: Györffy, 1986. 149.
29 Shi Ji 110.
30 MNT 154. Belgütej conveyed the decision of the kurultay to foreigners that they were not allowed any more to participate at it.
31 MNT 154. The word pledge in the Mongolian source is “ötök”, which is unknown for linguistist. According to Inner-
Mongolian Uchiraltu, the root “etü/ötü” connects with the ancient Earth Goddess of the steppe. (Uchiraltu, 2008. 89) As he
pointed out, that word is related to cults of ancestors in the Mongolian age, but today it is unknown. The Mongolians preserved
the ancient custom of pledge at the blessing the obo (sacred mound), and everybody drinks brandy for the sake of ancestors.
32 De Groot, 2006. 245. The source is the following: “When the danhu died, Wei Lü and the shanyu’s chief-wife intended to
conceal his death, they issued a false degree, and the nobles drank a glass of oath in honour of throne accession of the righthanded
yuli king, Hu Yan-Di.”
33 yin meng
34 More about the Hungarian pledge: Ipolyi, 1853. 528-532.
35 The council of wise men was an important institution both in Europe and Asia. Pritsak, 1954. 239-254.
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