Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/159

Rh described; and in one a door to some subterranean apartment, which we were not allowed to enter. The tombs are surmounted on the roof by three cones as in the annexed sketch.

A door in the eastern extremity of the temple leads into another apartment of equal dimensions, but this we found quite empty, if we except a raised platform, on the left of the entrance. The accompanying ground plan will illustrate the above description.

In the vicinity of the temple, are scattered a number of covered walks, built without any apparent design, and from forty to fifty Shaks, the name given by the Yezeedees to the tombs which they profess to raise over their great Sheikhs. Almost every Yezeedee village has one or more of these monuments, which, however, are mere cenotaphs, made on the model of the different tombs at Sheikh Adi, where they tell you the reputed saints are buried. Thus, for instance, the Nâzir pointed out to us the Shaks corresponding to those at Ba-Sheaka, Ba-Hazani, Ain Sifni, and other places. The subjoined is the most common form of these monuments.