due to pagan beliefs of the forest dwellers of Finnic origin, who lived in their vicinity, with some elements borrowed from Islam. Paganism was closely connected with the old clan system, and the remains of totemism and shamanism were preserved even after the crossing of Danube. The Shumen plate in the archaeological literature is often associated with shamanism. In the 9th century, it was recorded that before a battle the Bulgars "used to practice enchantments and jests and charms and certain auguries". Liutprand of Cremona reported that Baian, son of Simeon I (893–927), could through magicam transform into a wolf. Clement of Ohrid reported the worship of fire and water by the Bulgars, while in the 11th century Theophylact of Ohrid remembered that before the Christianization the Bulgars respected the Sun, Moon and the stars, and sacrificed dogs to them. Allegedly, the Dulo clan had the dog as its sacred animal. To this today Bulgarians still use the expression "he kills the dog" to mean "he gives the orders", a relic of the time when the Dulo Khan sacrificed a dog to the deity Tangra. Remains of dog and deer have been found in Bulgars graves, and it seems the wolf also had a special mythological significance. The Bulgars were bi-ritual, either cremating or burying their dead, and often interred them with personal objects (pottery, rarely weapons or dress), food, and sacred animals. Because of the cult of the Sun, the Bulgars had a preference for the south. Their main buildings and shrines faced south, as well their yurts, which were usually entered from the south, although less often from the east. Excavations showed that Bulgars buried their dead on a north–south axis, with their heads to the north so that the deceased "faced" south. The Slavs practiced only cremation, the remains were placed in urns, and like the Bulgars, with the conversion to Christianity inhumed the dead on west–east axis. The only example of a mixed Bulgar-Slavic cemetery is in Istria near ancient Histria, on the coast of the Black Sea. D. Dimitrov has argued that the Kuban Bulgars also adopted elements of Iranian religious beliefs. He noticed Iranian influences on the cult of the former Caucasian Huns capital Varachan (Balanjar), making a religious syncretism between the principal Turkic deity Tengri and the Iranian sun god Hvare. Dimitrov cited the work by V.A. Kuznetsov, who considered the resemblance between