Khochbar is the hero of the most celebrated of Avar heroic songs, a free peasant (uzden) of the Gidatl confederation who upheld its independence against the nutsal of Khunzakh by raiding the lord's herds. Unwilling to see Gidatl free, the nutsal lured Khochbar to a wedding feast meaning to burn him; knowing he went to his death, the hero came bearing gifts and his own shroud, that none might call him a coward. Cast toward the flames, he seized the nutsal's two young sons and sprang into the fire with them, dying unbroken and taking his enemy's line with him. Recorded in the highlands and printed in the 'Collection of Information on the Caucasian Highlanders', the song was admired by Leo Tolstoy as 'remarkable' and later reworked by the Avar poet Rasul Gamzatov. Sources differ on whether a historical outlaw underlies the figure, but as a folk hero Khochbar embodies the mountain ethic of liberty and honour before death.